Editorial Board Ednan Aslan, University of Vienna Karl Baier, University of Vienna Martin Baumann, University of Lucerne Alexandra Grieser, Trinity College Dublin Birgit Heller, University of Vienna Klaus Hock, University of Rostock Andreas Kowatsch, University of Vienna Dominika Motak, Jagiellonian University, Cracow Richard Potz, University of Vienna Almut-Barbara Renger, University of Basel Sieglinde Rosenberger, University of Vienna Robert Segal, University of Aberdeen Hubert Seiwert, Leipzig University Levent Tezcan, University of Münster David Václavík, Masaryk University, Brno Zdeněk Vojtíšek, Charles University, Prague Franz Winter, University of Graz Religion in Austria is peer-reviewed Hans Gerald Hödl, Astrid Mattes, and Lukas Pokorny (editors) Religion in Austria Volume 6 PRAESENS VERLAG Published with support from the Research Center “Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society” The emblems on the previous page and the front cover show various logos/symbols representing the religious traditions and contexts discussed in this volume. Permission to reproduce the KPÖ logo has been granted by the KPÖ. The emblems signify (from left to right) Chinese Popular Religion (the symbol used is the Chinese character for “filiality” or xiào 孝, which is a crucial aspect of Chinese popular religion); Chinese New Year or Spring Festival ancestral commemoration (the symbol used is the Chinese character for “a blessing that brings good fortune” or fú 福, which is a paradigmatic icon of this event); Chinese Buddhism (the symbol used is the dharmacakra or fǎlún 法輪/法轮, that is, the “dharma wheel” representing Buddhism in general); Naikan (the symbol used is a calligraphy of the kanji for Naikan by its founder Yoshimoto Ishin); and the Austrian Communist Party. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de ISBN 978-3-7069-1143-6 Copyright © by Praesens Verlag http://www.praesens.at Vienna 2021 All rights reserved. Right holders, who could not be determined, are requested to contact the publisher. Contents Hans Gerald Hödl, Astrid Mattes, and Lukas Pokorny Preface ix Joseph Chadwin “Because I am Chinese, I do not believe in religion”: An Ethnographic Study of the Lived Religious Experience of Chinese Immigrant Children in Vienna 1 Joseph Chadwin An Ethnographic Study of How Chinese University Students in Vienna Observed Spring Festival during Covid-19 33 Joseph Chadwin Parental Popular Religion and Filiality: An Ethnographic Study of the Religiosity of Chinese Parents in Vienna 67 Joseph Chadwin and Lukas Pokorny Chinese Buddhism in Austria 113 Lukas Pokorny Naikan in Austria: Background and Early Years, 1980–1986 161 Dirk Schuster Discussions about Atheism and Religion in the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ) between 1918 and 1933 219 Lukas Pokorny 245 Religion in Austria: An Annotated Bibliography of 2020 Scholarship Lukas Pokorny Religion in Austria: Master’s and Doctoral Theses Submitted at Austrian Universities 2020 311 vi Book Reviews Lukas Pokorny Buddhismus im Westen (Werner Höbsch and Hugo Klingler) 325 Gabriella Voss 331 Das geheiligte Leben. Körper und Identität bei den Siebenten-TagsAdventisten (Christian Feichtinger) Lukas Pokorny 337 Die Geburt der Moderne aus dem Geist der Religion? Religion, Weltanschauung und Moderne in Wien um 1900 (Rudolf Leeb and Astrid Schweighofer) Astrid Mattes 347 Die Kirche und die “Kärntner Seele”. Habitus, kulturelles Gedächtnis und katholische Kirche in Kärnten, insbesondere vor 1938 (Johannes Thonhauser) Andreas Kowatsch Die staatliche Anerkennung von Religionsgemeinschaften. Die historische und aktuelle Umsetzung der religiösen Vereinigungsfreiheit in Österreich unter Berücksichtigung des deutschen Religionsrechts (Lukas Wallner) 353 Lukas Pokorny 371 Die Suche nach einem sozialen Buddhismus. Friedrich Fenzl und Jôdo Shinshû. Als Festgabe für Friedrich Fenzl zum 75. Geburtstag 2007 (Volker Zotz) Marleen Thaler Feindbild Islam. Über die Salonfähigkeit von Rassismus (Farid Hafez) 377 vii Manfred Hutter Forced Migration and Displacement of Iraqi Minorities in Austria (S. Behnaz Hosseini) 389 Dirk Schuster 395 Bischof Alois Hudal. Hitlers Mann im Vatikan. Ein dunkles Kapitel in der Geschichte der Kirche (Johannes Sachslehner) Robert Wurzrainer Im Namen der Emanzipation. Antimuslimischer Rassismus in Österreich (Benjamin Opratko) 413 Karl Baier 423 Im Wahn des Auserwähltseins. Die Rassereligion des Lanz von Liebenfels, der Neutemplerorden und das Erzpriorat Staufen in Dietfurt – Eine österreichisch-deutsche Geschichte (Walther Paape) Lukas Pokorny 443 Interkulturelles Zusammenleben afghanischer und österreichischer Familien. “Es war genial, aber es war ein Wahnsinn” (Katharina Kaineder) Franz Winter Islamophobie in Österreich (John Bunzl and Farid Hafez) 449 Lukas Pokorny Iuris sacri pervestigatio. Festschrift für Johann Hirnsperger (Wilhelm Rees and Stephan Haering) 455 Dirk Schuster Jahrbuch für die Geschichte des Protestantismus in Österreich 132/133 (2016/2017). Reformationszeit und Protestantismus im österreichischen Gedächtnis (Vorstand der Gesellschaft für die Geschichte des Protestantismus in Österreich) 465 viii Marta Dominguez Diaz 475 Muslimische Diversität. Ein Kompass zur religiösen Alltagspraxis in Österreich (Ednan Aslan, Jonas Kolb, and Erol Yildiz) Dominic Zoehrer Religions- und Ethikunterricht im bekenntnisneutralen Staat. Ein Rechtsvergleich zwischen Österreich und Deutschland (Matthias Scharfe) 483 Lukas Pokorny Staatlich eingetragene religiöse Bekenntnisgemeinschaften in Österreich (Johann Bair and Wilhelm Rees) 491 Katharina Limacher Umgang mit religiöser Differenz im Kindergarten. Eine ethnographische Studie an Einrichtungen in katholischer und islamischer Trägerschaft (Helena Stockinger) 497 Dirk Schuster Zwischen Partei und Kirche. Nationalsozialistische Priester in Österreich und Deutschland (1938–1945) (Lucia Scherzberg) 505 Contributors 511 423 Im Wahn des Auserwähltseins. Die Rassereligion des Lanz von Liebenfels, der Neutemplerorden und das Erzpriorat Staufen in Dietfurt – Eine österreichisch-deutsche Geschichte. By Walther Paape. Meßkirch: Gmeiner Verlag, 2018 (Third Expanded Edition). Pp. 368. ISBN: 978-3-8392-2220-1. Hardback, €22.70. The Study of Ariosophy: An Introduction to the Research History of Austria’s Early Twentieth Century Racist Religions and Walther Paape’s Contribution. Karl Baier The term “Ariosophy” (literally, Aryan wisdom) was coined in 1915 by Adolf Josef Lanz (alias Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels) (1874–1954), a former Catholic priest and Cistercian monk. Since the 1920s, Lanz used it to name the religion he had founded. Before World War I, he called it “Theozoology” (Theozoologie) or “Ario-Christianity” (Ario-Christentum). Lanz was influenced by the racist religious worldview of his older Austrian contemporary Guido List (1848–1919), a journalist, playwright, and novelist popular in Austrian nationalist circles, who founded a modern neo-Pagan religious movement. List invented the term “Wotanism” (Wotanismus) for the exoteric polytheistic version of his Aryan religion, while he called its elitist form, reserved for the initiates of the so-called Arman priesthood, “Armanism” (Armanentum). Since the seminal study of Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (1953–2012),1 “Ariosophy” is often used as a generic term for the religions of both men, their followers, and connected organisations active in Austria, Hungary, and Germany—like the Guido-von-List-Gesellschaft, the Hohe Armanen Orden 1 Goodrick-Clarke 1985 (2nd ed.: 1992; 3rd ed.: 2003). 424 BOOK REVIEWS (HAO; High Order of the Armans), and Lanz’s Ordo Novi Templi (ONT; Order of the New Temple, also known as Neutemplerorden or Order of the New Templars) (cf. Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 227, note 1 to “Introduction”). The term “Ariosophy” fits well with the self-image of both religious movements in that they wanted to reawaken the original culture and religion of the Aryan race, which they thought to be the source of deepest wisdom. The study of Ariosophy is a niche subject in the Austrian, Hungarian, and German historiography of religion, which only a limited number of researchers has investigated to date. This may be due to the often inhuman, trivial, or abstruse ideas of the Ariosophists, and to the fact that expertise in such outlandish and minor religions is not particularly career-enhancing compared to other topics in the field of Religious Studies. Nevertheless, one should not underestimate the importance of Ariosophy and the research done on it. A brew of Pan-German nationalism, the ideology of an Aryan master race, Christian as well as pre-Christian elements and occultist concepts, Ariosophy became an inglorious model of racist religion within the alternative religious field of the twentieth century. Repercussions can be detected even in today’s growing, internationally connected, and extreme right-wing milieus. Before I discuss the most important publication on this topic in recent years, namely the study of Walther Paape (b. 1945), I would like to look at the history of the study of Ariosophy in order to better appreciate his contribution. Ariosophy research can be divided into a few major steps associated with the publication of crucial works. Its origins go back to the Viennese left wing Catholicism of the 1950s and relate to August Maria Knoll (1900–1963), an Austrian sociologist and Catholic social theorist. Knoll was appointed to the University of Vienna as associate professor of the sociology of religion after World War II, and subsequently became the first Austrian full professor of sociology in Vienna. In 1963, the year of his death, he co-founded the important Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes (DÖW; Documentation Centre of the Austrian Resistance) that until today investigates resistance, persecution, and exile during the Nazi regime, as well as the post-war biographies of opponents and persecutees and the history of rightwing extremism in Austria and Germany after 1945. Knoll did not himself publish on Ariosophy, but he was a close friend and mentor of the social psychologist and psychotherapist Wilfried Daim (1923– 2016), who as a youth had been a member of the Catholic resistance and after the War became interested in the “psychopathology of the totalitarian state” (Daim 1958: 13; for Daim’s life and work and his relationship with Knoll, see Diem 2011). Knoll had read several issues of Lanz von Liebenfels’ journal “Ostara.” He assumed that they had exerted a significant influence on IM WAHN DES AUSERWÄHLTSEINS 425 Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) and therefore would be outstanding historical documents. This strengthened Daim’s interest to investigate Lanz and his relationship with the dictator. Moreover, both interviewed the old Lanz in his Vienna flat in 1951. The result of Daim’s research was a widely read book entitled Der Mann, der Hitler die Ideen gab. Von den religiösen Verirrungen eines Sektierers zum Rassenwahn des Diktators (The Man Who Gave Hitler His Ideas: From the Religious Aberrations of a Sectarian to the Dictator’s Racial Fanaticism).2 Following a chapter that argues for a decisive influence of Lanz on Hitler, the main part of the book consists of the first detailed biography of Lanz. It includes his relationship to various personalities from culture and politics— for example, List, August Strindberg (1849–1912), Vladimir Lenin (1870– 1924), and Karl Kraus (1874–1936)—and provides a detailed content analysis of Lanz’s Ostara. Summary chapters then deal with the ideologies of Lanz and Hitler and various related issues such as the psychoanalytical interpretation of the two, the concept of race, and the consequences of Daim’s study for intellectual history. Daim demonstrates that the basic structure of Adolf Lanz’s ideology consists of a secularised racist reinterpretation of Christian salvation history (Daim 1958: 174–190). Lanz would not see himself as the founder of a new religion, but only as a reformer who restored the true Christian doctrine. “This is perverted Christianity, because the primordial schema is Christian. However, beginning and end—in Christianity anchored in transcendence, beyond the world—are shifted by Lanz into the world” (ibid.: 190).3 For Daim, Ariosophy should be classified as a modern variant of late antique Gnosticism. The latter he defines as a heretic form of Christianity that was based upon the existence of the two battling realms of light and darkness, good and evil, spirit and matter, the belief in the fall of the spirit into the captivity of matter, and the promise of salvation through a higher knowledge (“gnosis”) by which the spirit returns to its realm of light. According to Daim, in Lanz the spirit becomes the divine blue-eyed Aryan, and the lower animal-shaped human races fulfil the function of evil matter. The interpretation of Ariosophy as a kind of Gnosticism was taken up by Goodrick-Clarke and is also found in many other works. The initial phase of Ariosophy research also included the now almost forgotten doctoral thesis by the Swiss Inge Kunz on Guido von List (Kunz 2 Daim 1958 (2nd ed.: 1985; 3rd ed.: 1994). 3 “Es handelt sich hier um ein pervertiertes Christentum, denn das Urschema ist christlich. Allerdings wird Anfang und Ende – im Christentum in Transzendenz, jenseits der Welt verankert – von Lanz in die Welt verlegt.” 426 BOOK REVIEWS 1961). Kunz studied sociology under Knoll in Vienna. Daim encouraged her to choose this doctoral research topic, which complemented his own study on Lanz, and thoroughly supervised her thesis. Daim’s book and Kunz’s doctoral thesis already provide a remarkable amount of information on the biographies of List and Lanz and their teachings. Being very much interested in a critical elucidation of the recent totalitarian past of Austria and Germany was typical of their approach. Both framed their historical analyses with psychoanalytical theory—especially the scheme of the Oedipus complex and the defence mechanism of psychological projection (see Daim 1958: 211–231; Kunz 1961: 219–225)—to explain the emotional dynamics of Ariosophical racism and the attraction it exerted on Hitler and Nazism in general. However, these social psychological considerations remain on a quite speculative level and lack in-depth theoretical and empirical substantiation. Similar to Daim’s interpretation of Lanz, Kunz uses the concept of gnosis as a tool for her analysis of List’s religion. In doing so, she argues in a more differentiated way than Daim and refers extensively to Hans Leisegang’s (1890–1951) understanding of gnosis in his famous study Die Gnosis from 1924 (Kunz 1961: 208–214). Daim concluded his book with a forward-looking reflection on the significance of studying trivial and at first sight bizarre forms of religion. “The religion of Lanz occupies a similar position in the field of the great religions, such as Christianity, Islam or Buddhism, as a trashy novel does among the novels of important poets. One could justifiably call it a pulp religion. And this is where a serious problem begins” (Daim 1958: 239).4 He saw that the academic research of his time tended to ignore the pulp dimension of intellectual history. For this reason, one would have ignored the fact that Lanz, as the founder of a trashy religion, was behind a momentous political movement like the Nazi regime. In order to avoid such shortcomings in the future, intellectual historiography must broaden its scope and the selection of its materials must be made according to new points of view. Daim hoped that psychoanalysis could provide decisive impulses in this process, as the Freudian theory of slips (Fehlleistungen) had already showed the significance of what looks like mere waste of the human psyche for the psychopathology of daily life. Finally, it should be added that Daim clarified and expanded some of his thoughts on Lanz in his major work on social psychology, published in 1960 (Daim 1960). Significant here is his concept of secondary feudalism, with 4 “Lanz’ Religion nimmt im Bereich der großen Religionen, wie des Christentums, des Islam oder des Buddhismus, eine ähnliche Stellung ein, wie ein Schundroman unter den Romanen bedeutender Dichter. Man könnte sie mit gutem Recht eine Schundreligion nennen. Und hier beginnt eine schwerwiegende Problematik.” IM WAHN DES AUSERWÄHLTSEINS 427 which he described new conceptions of feudalism after its demise. Daim argued that Lanz and Hitler replaced the old nobility with a racial one, and backed this up with convincing examples. Kunz confirmed this hypothesis by demonstrating a concept of racial nobility in List’s writings (Kunz 1961: 217–220). More recent studies on the völkisch movement have confirmed this view. From the end of the nineteenth century onwards, not only Ariosophy but many groups transferred traditional ideas of nobility to a new aristocracy of blood, which must be defended against everything foreign that contaminates the racial pure Volk (Gerstner 2008). Daim’s Der Mann, der Hitler die Ideen gab received a great deal of public attention in Austria and Germany. The publication of the book was one of the reasons why the ONT was unable to gain a foothold after the War (see the statement by the leading ONT member Arthur Lorber quoted in the book under review, p. 284). Most of his critics accused Daim of overestimating Lanz’s influence on the Third Reich. In the preface to the second edition, he responded to this objection by stating that he had never excluded other sources of Nazi ideology. Rather, his aim was to present Ariosophy as an ideal-typical formulated racial ideology from which he could shed light on Nazism. This retrospective self-interpretation, however, finds little support in his book, where he explicitly argues that the reading of the Ostara booklets had a crucial impact on the development of Hitler’s racist ideology (e.g., Daim 1958: 192). Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke’s classical study—which raised Ariosophy research to a new level in 1985—had to contend with the same accusation as Daim. But in his case, the blame obviously goes to the publisher, who gave Goodrick-Clarke’s study the lurid title The Occult Roots of Nazism, although he, unlike Daim and Kunz, was not convinced that a profound influence had taken place. The title of his 1982 doctoral thesis at the University of Oxford on which the book is based, “The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany 1890–1935: Reactionary Political Fantasy in Relation to Social Anxiety,” does not include references to Nazism, occultism, or Western esotericism. Compared with Daim, the trained historian, an expert on German history and well versed in fin de siècle occultism, examines Ariosophy in more detail and on an impressively broad basis, often utilising very rare primary sources. His interpretation is based on a reconstruction of the historical roots of Ariosophy. “The background against which Ariosophy arose was that of the contemporary nineteenth century ideas of nationalism, anti-liberalism, cultural pessimism, and racism. Our point of departure will be the völkisch movement which combined these concepts into a coherent ideological system” (Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 2). According to the British historian, Ariosophy’s 428 BOOK REVIEWS second crucial historical background was the “Modern German occult revival” that took place in the decades around 1900. In his opinion, this movement was rooted in the popularity of Theosophy in the German-speaking world at that time (ibid.: 18). He justifies its success with the Lebensreform (Life Reform) movement then widespread in Germany and Austria. “Theosophy was appropriate to the mood of Lebensreform and provided a philosophical rationale for some of its groups” (ibid.: 25; original emphasis). However, Lebensreform remains a marginal topic and its connections with the völkisch movement and Ariosophy are not sufficiently illuminated.5 In fact, Goodrick-Clarke constructed Ariosophy as a confluence of the völkisch movement and Theosophical thought. This works quite well in relation to the religion of Guido List, which Goodrick-Clarke pointedly calls “Germanic Theosophy” (1985: 49, 56). It is therefore only logical that he (obviously unaware of Kunz’s dissertation) focuses on his life and work and especially on a systematic reconstruction of his worldview unsurpassed to this day (ibid.: 33–90). He was able to show that List with his Ariosophy adopted several ideas from Theosophy and based its organisational structures on Freemasonry, as was the case with Theosophy. Lanz’s version of Ariosophy is different. There is no evidence of a masonic influence and borrowings from Theosophy. If anything, they are superficial. As Goodrick-Clarke noted in a later article, Lanz accurately referred to his doctrine as Theozoology in the title of his major work Theozoologie oder die Kunde von den Sodoms-Äfflingen und dem Götter-Elektron (Theozoology or the Tale of the Sodom Ape-men and the Electron of the Gods; 1904): it is a deviant form of Christian theology based on biblical texts and other ancient writings interpreting them in a racist way in the light of modern life sciences (“zoology”) and ethnology (Goodrick-Clarke 2006: 92; see also Goodrick-Clarke 2009, where he goes into detail about social darwinism, racial anthropology, and biblical studies as sources of Lanz’s Theozoology but does not even mention Theosophy). Goodricke-Clarke cannot therefore assume a theosophical tendency in Lanz’s main work and claims an influence only in the Ostara volumes from 1906 onwards. To this end, he cites two theosophically oriented contributions by Harald Paul Graevell (1856–1932), which he juxtaposes with an essay of Lanz on Theosophy (Lanz-Liebenfels n.d.) published elsewhere (Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 100–101). As far as I can see, Graevell’s contributions did not cause any further reception of Theosophy, nor did they point the way for the future development of Ariosophy. 5 For an in-depth analysis of the interconnections between Lebensreform and Theosophy using Leipzig as an example, see Bigalke 2016. IM WAHN DES AUSERWÄHLTSEINS 429 While praising Blavatsky as a brilliant visionary, Lanz’s essay is only interested in a few passages from her racial theory which he then uses as confirmation of his own doctrine. He leaves no doubt that his Theozoology is superior to Theosophy because it scientifically substantiates and extends Blavatsky’s intuitive insights. Furthermore, Goodrick-Clarke noted that the ONT religious practices were modelled after orthodox Catholic rites and Cistercian religious life (ibid.: 110–111). All this does not quite fit with his assumption of a key function of Theosophy in the emergence of Ariosophy—not only of List but also of Lanz. Maybe this was one of the reasons why, compared with List, Lanz is treated very briefly, although Goodrick-Clarke comes up with some valuable new data on him as well. He bases his account on the work already done by Daim and the Viennese Rudolf Mund (1921–1985), who, arguing from the perspective of a leading member of the New Templars and defender of the Ariosophical worldview against Daim’s accusation of proximity to Nazi ideology, had published new material on Lanz and the ONT in 1976.6 The protagonists and organisations of Ariosophy in Germany—Karl Maria Wiligut (1866–1946), Rudolf von Sebottendorf (1875–1945), Germanenorden, Thule Gesellschaft etc.—that Daim and Kunz neglected are treated in a detailed and insightful manner. Following James Webb’s (1946–1980) The Occult Establishment (1976), Goodrick-Clarke uses the example of the Ariosophists to show how occultism contributed to the legitimisation of a radical rejection of the social and cultural life within modern societies and to an associated irrational political extremism. “The role and importance of occultism in their doctrines is principally explicable as a sacred form of legitimation for their profound reaction to the present and their extreme political attitudes” (Goodrick-Clarke 2006: 2). The interpretation of Ariosophy from a psychopathological point of view, which was so important in the first phase of Ariosophy research, recedes into the background, but is not entirely absent. In this respect, Goodrick-Clarke interprets the Ariosophical ideas of a stratification of society according to racial purity and occult initiation, as well as the aim of a subjugation and ultimate extinction of non-Aryan inferior races as expression of a terrifying insecurity. “Only extreme insecurity and anxiety among the German nationalists of Austria can account for these narcissistic, paranoid, and grandiose 6 The former SS member Mund became a member of the ONT in 1958. He belonged to a small Viennese circle that was the nucleus of esoteric neo-Nazism (Strube 2012). In 1979, he took over the leadership of the ONT for the last years of its existence (cf. Lorenz 2010: 473; also the book under review here, pp. 266–267). 430 BOOK REVIEWS phantasies” (Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 202–203). Like the authors of the first phase, he emphasises that historiography should take the insane phantasmagorias of movements like Ariosophy seriously. He follows a similar ideologycritical approach. Like Daim and Kunz, he does not trace those ideologies back to economy and class struggles like traditional Marxist theory, but to widespread emotional tensions caused by socio-cultural circumstances—tensions that are expressed and coped with through socially shared imaginations. As already mentioned above, as Daim and Kunz before him, GoodrickClarke conceptualises Ariosophy and Lanz’s Ario-Christianity in particular as a form of neo-gnostic religion (see, e.g., Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 94, 101). Along with the Hermetica, Neo-Platonism, and Kabbalah, for him Gnosticism is one of the principal ingredients of what he calls “the Western Esoteric Tradition” that according to him originated during the first centuries CE in the Mediterranean area and survived through the ages in different forms until it finally became the basis of modern occultism (ibid.: 17). This construction of a continuous Western esoteric tradition has since then been contested by many authors. The complex discussion on this topic cannot be dealt with here (see Baier 2021). For the history of Ariosophy research it is important to note that Goodrick-Clarke looks at List and Lanz from this perspective without being fixated on it. He is aware that Ariosophy is a multifaceted phenomenon to which both various strands from so-called Western esotericism and several other factors have contributed, which are also covered in his study. He constructs Ariosophy not exclusively as part of a history of Western esotericism, but even more as belonging to the völkisch movement, in which the Theosophical understanding of religion and other issues then related to occultism had some influence. Goodrick-Clarke argues that, among the esoteric currents, Gnosticism is a way of thought that usually gains importance in times of socio-cultural crises (Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 17–18). This would also apply to Ariosophical Gnosticism, which particularly responds to the crisis of modernity. “Like the Gnostics of antiquity, the Ariosophists could only claim to carry a spark of divinity in the midst of chaos” (ibid.: 213). As for the controversial issue of the influence on Hitler and Nazism, Goodrick-Clarke questions the validity of some of Daim’s sources and conclusions. He is sceptical about the adoption of concrete ideas but assumes that influence took place with regard to basic attitudes that the dictator incorporated into his violent political movement. “Hitler was surely influenced by the millenarian and Manichean motifs of Ariosophy, but its description of a prehistoric golden age, a gnostic priesthood, and a secret heritage in cultural relics and orders had no part in his political or cultural imagination. […] Ariosophy is a symptom rather than an influence in the way it anticipated Nazism” (Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 202). Most contemporary experts agree with IM WAHN DES AUSERWÄHLTSEINS 431 this view and conceive Ariosophy as an extreme articulation of a broader stream of völkisch and racist ideologies which the Nazis made use of (Staudenmaier 2013; Strube 2014; Black and Kurlander 2015). It was confirmed during the recent decades through much research on the völkisch milieu (cf. Schmitz and Vollnhals 2005; Puschner and Vollnhals 2012). By investigating the numerous protagonists who were active in several völkisch or Lebensreform organisations at the same time and, for example, through the analysis of relevant journals in which representatives of different groups published, the interconnectedness of the different currents within this scene can be well traced (e.g., Hufenreuter 2011). The constant exchange of its members led to a reservoir of shared views more or less detached from specific groups or individuals. The Nazi regime drew on this pool of ideas, to which the Ariosophists added ingredients that Hitler had known since his early years. In this way, they undoubtedly influenced National Socialist ideology, although their contribution cannot be precisely determined. In his The Black Sun published in 2002, Goodrick-Clarke examines the revival of right-wing extremist religiosity in the second half of the twentieth century. He not only points out the historical links between Ariosophy and occult neo-Nazism but diagnoses a socio-cultural situation similar to the beginning of the twentieth century that would lead to comparable emotional tensions which are expressed and coped with in related narratives and phantasies. “Just as the original völkisch movement arose as a defensive ideology of German identity against modernity in the late nineteenth century, this neovölkisch revival acts as a defensive ideology of white identity against multiculturalism, affirmative action and mass Third World immigration” (Goodrick-Clarke 2002: 6). Very much like the Ariosophists, the new whitepride movements would express only the most radical response to fundamental challenges of cultural identity that Euro-American societies must face. This time he supplements his social psychological explanation with a reference to psychological projection: The risks of racist religiosity are great. By projecting grievances, fears and anxieties onto ‘shadow’ figures of other races, religious transcendence is stunted and perverted into the dynamics of exclusion and hatred. […] My hope is that an understanding of the substitute faiths documented in these pages, together with their causes, can help us avoid the recurrence of the past (ibid.: 6). Comparable to Daim, Goodrick-Clarke draws on a concept of religion as reference to a transcendent reality, and from this point of view he criticises racist religion as dangerous distortion. 432 BOOK REVIEWS The latest major step of Ariosophy research puts Lanz at the centre again. In 2015, the German independent scholar Walter Paape published the first historiographical monograph on Lanz and the ONT from an etic view since Daim. The following review is based on the third extended edition from 2018. Paape, who worked as a school principal and school supervisor, studies the biography of Lanz and the history his ONT order since the 1980s. He came into contact with these issues as a member of the mountain rescue service Sigmaringen, responsible for climbing areas in the Danube Valley whose outpost in Dietfurt is housed in the former German headquarters of the ONT, which also owned the close by Dietfurt castle ruins. Although not a trained historian, he works highly professionally in tracking down new sources and critically examining the body of Ariosophical documents. Paape knows the works of Daim and Goodrick-Clarke and refers to them. He follows the common criticism of Daim’s thesis on the influence of Lanz on Hitler and other members of political elite of the Nazi state (pp. 252–264). A small chapter dealing with the ONT’s lack of political activity is interesting in this regard (pp. 190–192). There Paape shows that although Lanz drafted utopian concepts for the establishment of a racial pure Aryan state, he did not work on their direct implementation. The ONT bought plots of land and castle ruins in the countryside to found settlements and create places of worship that were to be the nuclei of the Aryan society of the future. Similar, though ideologically different, projects existed in the Lebensreform. According to Paape, the religious millenarianism of the order is probably responsible for the lack of political commitment and the project of establishing small communities that anticipated the hoped-for new age. The New Templars believed Frauja [i.e., Jesus Christ] would finally lead them to political rule and in the meantime the establishment of a small counter-world seemed enough “to create the spiritual and material conditions for surviving the expected apocalyptic collapse of the old systems” (p. 191). This may explain why they were not interested to gain political influence. Since the publication of Goodrick-Clarke’s book, the Lutheran pastor Ekkehard Hieronimus (1926–1998) published an annotated Lanz bibliography, the best of its kind so far and an indispensable reference work for every Ariosophy researcher (Hieronimus 1991). Additionally, in 2010, another apology of Ariosophy written by Horst Lorenz (pseudonym of Manfred Lenz) came out, which contains a lot of information about Lanz’s biography, the heyday of his order, and its history during the Nazi regime, but also about post-war ONT (Lorenz 2010). Paape also draws on these studies, and—in the case of Lorenz—corrects mistakes. In addition, he was able to base his book on many documents that his own research had brought to light. IM WAHN DES AUSERWÄHLTSEINS 433 Information from descendants of former New Templars, individual documents from various archives and offices, as well as two larger collections of files have considerably expanded our knowledge about Lanz and especially his Order of the New Templars in recent years. Particularly important are a collection of letters and documents from German New Templars from the years 1923 to 1930 (Laurent fundus) as well as the extensive estate of the last prior of the German New Templars section (Lorber estate), which contains mainly letters from the 1950s to the 1970s (p. 15).7 The Laurent fundus is the subject of a separate chapter (pp. 192–199), whereas the treatment of the sources from the Lorber estate takes up most of the chapter on the years after World War II, as they are particularly informative for this period (pp. 268–286). Both collections of material allow fascinating insights into the internal communication of the ONT. In addition to the analysis of all these data, Paape’s study contains rare visual material and photocopies of significant documents. If the book has a weakness, it is that Paape had difficulties in putting the abundance of material into a well-arranged order. The structure of the content is somewhat confusing, so that the reader easily loses the thread. The multitude of topics taken up by Paape cannot be dealt with in detail here, only a few main points relevant in the light of the history of research may be highlighted. Paape treats the well-known formative socio-political circumstances of Ariosophy like industrialisation, nationalism, militarism, secularisation, occultism, etc. without providing particularly new perspectives (pp. 17–26). Similar to Goodrick-Clarke, he interprets the various new religious movements, the attractiveness of secret orders, men’s societies, and alternative worldviews around the turn of the century as an expression of the search for stability in a time of disorder and uncertainty and as protest against the threats emanating from the modernisation of society. The part on Lanz’s biography discloses important former unknown facts. Paape succeeds in demonstrating that Lanz’s maternal grandfather was of Jewish origin. He argues that Lanz’s often false biographical statements served to conceal this fact. Paape considers a psychological interpretation to be appropriate in this case, but emphasises its hypothetical character: 7 “Informationen von Nachkommen früherer Neutempler, Einzeldokumente aus verschiedenen Archiven und Dienststellen sowie zwei größere Aktenbestände erweiterten das Wissen über Lanz und vor allem seinen Neutemplerorden in den letzten Jahren beträchtlich. Hervorzuheben sind ein Fundus von Briefen und Dokumenten deutscher Neutempler aus den Jahren 1923 bis 1930 (Laurent-Fundus) sowie der umfangreiche Nachlass des letzten Priors der deutschen Neutempler-Sektion (Lorber-Nachlass), der vor allem Briefe aus den 1950er bis 1970er Jahren enthält.” 434 BOOK REVIEWS Only an analysis of Lanz’s writings from a psychological point of view could provide clues as to what effect the knowledge of his own Jewish ancestors may have had on Lanz, and how he was able to develop into a radical antiSemite over the years under the impression of this knowledge. However, even the most thorough investigation would not go beyond conjecture. It is highly probable that the inner conflict led to compensations and hide-and-seek games, even to character deformations (p. 44).8 He further points out that Lanz was probably much influenced from an early age by the widespread prejudices against Jews in Vienna. Nevertheless, he initially collaborated with Jews in his studies on the history of religions and even in the publication of Ostara. In early editions of his journal one can find relatively different views about the Jews. His anti-Semitism was intensified in the years before World War I and again in the 1920s, whereby his dissatisfaction with the outcome of the War and his stay in Hungary, where he moved in the milieu of right-wing extremists and counterrevolutionaries, played a role (p. 38, 107–110). Paape also found out that Lanz married the rich widow Friederike Helene Conried four months after he left the Heiligenkreuz monastery in 1899. She financed the purchase of a villa in Vienna and in 1907 the acquisition of the Werfenstein Castle, which became the centre of the ONT (p. 33). According to Paape, Conried left Lanz shortly before or immediately after World War I. During his stay in Hungary in the 1920s, Lanz very likely married a second time, this time to a Hungarian aristocrat, Kesselöck Maithenyi Sarolta (p. 39). Regarding Lanz’s lifelong fixation on sexual issues, Paape again argues from a psychological perspective. He thinks that his intense but problematic mother relationship and his matching first marriage to a woman who was twenty-two years older than him could be a starting point for the explanation of this obsession. Various passages in the texts would give the impression that Lanz suffered from hidden fears related to sexuality. “In any case, Lanz’s recurring gaze at sexual issues demonstrated the kind of fixation which he 8 “Nur eine Analyse der Lanz’schen Schriften unter psychologischen Aspekten könnte Anhaltspunkte dafür erbringen, welche Wirkung bei Lanz möglicherweise die Erkenntnis eigener jüdischer Vorfahren hatte, ferner, wie er sich unter dem Eindruck dieser Erkenntnis im Lauf der Jahre zum radikalen Antisemiten entwickeln konnte. Allerdings käme auch eine noch so gründliche Untersuchung über Mutmaßungen nicht hinaus, mit erheblicher Wahrscheinlichkeit dürfte der innerliche Konflikt zu Kompensationen und Versteckspielereien bis hin zu charakterlichen Deformationen geführt haben.” IM WAHN DES AUSERWÄHLTSEINS 435 reproached the men, and especially the women, of what he called the ‘low races’” (p. 118).9 Particularly noteworthy is the extensive portrait of Lanz’s journal Ostara (pp. 67–130), an excellent example of a journal analysis from a cultural historical perspective. A comparable chapter already exists in Daim, but Paape proceeds much more carefully and with the precision of an academically trained historian. The focus is on establishing the core themes of the journal, but the complicated editorial history, the visual design, its readership, and its function within the ONT are also investigated. Compared with the older monographs, Paape also goes into more detail about the history and practices of the ONT. A separate chapter is devoted to the most important protagonists of the order and to clarifying whether celebrities, who were repeatedly associated with the order, actually participated in the ONT (pp. 165–190). In addition, the thoroughly researched chapter on the Order’s settlements comes up with new information (pp. 199–252). Paape pays special attention to the Archpriory of Staufen in Dietfurt near Sigmaringen, which was founded in the late 1920s and served as the Order’s headquarters in Germany until the beginning of World War II. The Archpriory is particularly interesting because it is the only completely preserved ONT site. It is discussed in the chapter on the Order’s settlements and then again in greater detail in an extended section of the book’s appendices (pp. 237–241, pp. 294–319). Paape’s explorations concerning the members of the ONT also bring up new insights. He states that in total there were around 300 to 400 New Templars from Austria and Germany (p. 165). The professions of eighty-seven of them are verifiable. Most of them were required to have higher education. From this it can be concluded that most of the members of the Order had an upper middle-class background. Additionally, he deduced from the name affixes of the members that 14.3 per cent were of noble origin, which is a disproportionately high percentage. “It can be assumed that Lanz made a conscious effort to get as many aristocrats as possible into his ranks, in addition to well-known people” (p. 18; see also pp. 165–166). 10 Most of the men joined the Order between the ages of thirty and fifty. Although the ONT was intended to be a men’s order and ideologically insisted on the inferiority of women, several women were admitted at least to the lowest rank of the order (the so-called Familiarissen). Most of them were wives of New Templars. 9 “Lanz demonstrierte jedenfalls mit seinem wiederkehrenden Blick auf Geschlechtliches jene Sexualfixierung, die er den Männern, vor allem aber auch den Frauen der von ihm so benannten ‘Niederrassen’ vorwarf.” 10 “Es ist davon auszugehen, dass Lanz sich bewusst darum bemüht hat, neben bekannten Personen auch möglichst viele Adelige in seine Reihen zu bekommen.” 436 BOOK REVIEWS There were considerations to establish a female branch of the order, but they did not materialise (pp. 166–167). According to Paape’s surveys, the ONT was most attractive between 1914 and 1923, that is, during World War I and in the post-war period. A look at the New Templars whose biographies are better known shows that the war destroyed the life plans of several Ariosophists, whereas others had problems with mental illnesses like depression. For one reason or another they looked for a secure asylum within a milieu of like-minded and “equal-raced” people that gave them back their self-confidence through the membership in an elitist community of the “superior race.” In 1938, the Order was banned by the Nazis and during World War II no activities of the ONT are reported (p. 264). With regard to the historical roots of Lanz’s religion, Paape’s study of the rules and practices of the ONT brings much hitherto unknown evidence of the extent to which the ONT’s social structure, its rituals, religious garb, ritual objects, and spiritual practice were modelled on Catholic models, and reinterpreted in terms of Lanz’s scientistic racism. For example, the Christian commandment of love was described in the Order’s rule as the foundation of the order but was reformulated as: “Love God in your neighbour, that is in your fellow heroic Aryan!” (p. 136).11 The same was done with the so-called evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, which traditionally form the core of monastic vows. Lanz reinterprets them for his part-time monks, most of whom were married and practiced middle-class professions as follows: “Poverty, chastity and obedience are the three steps of the narrow, steep path that leads to the perfection of our species and back into the arms of our divine progenitor. Poverty, i.e., a frugal life in harmony with nature; chastity, i.e., a species-appropriate love life; obedience, i.e., a god-pleasing life according to the rules” (p. 136).12 The biblical texts used in the rituals were also reformulated without restraint. Paape agrees with Goodrick-Clarke’s above-discussed view that the impact of Theosophy on Lanz’s Ario-Christianity was remarkable (pp. 55–56). Without providing quotations for this and differing from Goodrick-Clarke, Paape assumes that already Lanz’s main work, Theozoology, was influenced by Theosophy. In contrast, there are also statements in his book which indicate that Lanz only used Theosophy as a confirmation of his views. 11 “Liebe Gott in deinem Nächsten, das ist in deinem Artgenossen, dem heldischen Arier!” 12 “Armut, Keuschheit und Gehorsam, sind die drei Stufen des engen, steilen Pfades, der zur Vollendung unserer Artung und uns wieder in die Arme unseres göttlichen Ahnherrn führt. Armut, d.h. ein genügsames, naturgemäßes Leben, Keuschheit, d. h. artgemäßes Liebesleben, Gehorsam, d. h. ein gottgemäßes, regelgerechtes Leben.” IM WAHN DES AUSERWÄHLTSEINS 437 More important for future research than the vague and outdated assessment of the influence of Theosophy is the fact that Paape underlines the importance of Lebensreform (pp. 50–53) and Mazdaznan, a new religious movement shaped by the Lebensreform, which was founded by the German Erich Otto Haenisch (alias Otoman Zar-Adusht Ha’nish) (1856–1936) and saw itself as a renewal of Zoroastrianism. In Mazdaznan dietetic concepts concerning proper nutrition, healthy lifestyle, body- and breathing exercises played an important role. Influenced by Theosophical racial doctrines, Mazdaznan postulated a racial hierarchy with the white Aryans as the superior ruling race. It is evident that this variety of Lebensreform corresponded to the völkisch milieu and also appealed to the more radical Ariosophists. “Detlef Schmude, first German Prior of the ONT, was not the only New Templar to be a Mazdaznan follower. Lanz recommended Hanisch’s writings to his New Templars” (p. 25).13 Based on the issues of Ostara and other documents, Paape shows that Lanz and his followers were interested in all sorts of occult phenomena: the use of pendulums and dowsing rods to detect hidden energy currents, precognition, telepathy, spiritualistic contact with the deceased, and astrological prophecies of historical developments and future events (pp. 85–87). According to Lanz, the electric Aryan god-man, who will be resurrected by ArioChristianity and the eugenic programme it stood for, possesses all kinds of paranormal powers. Thus the order became more attractive to all who shared the interest in occultism and at the same time identified with ideas of human breeding, the superiority of the Aryan race, and anti-Semitism. The occultist Ernst Issberner-Haldane (1886–1966), who earned a reputation as astrologer and palm reader and advocated an Aryan yoga, became a member of the ONT, as did the astrologer Carl Vigelius (alias Friedberg Arboga) (pp. 178– 179, 182–183). Theodor Czepl (1893–1978), the secretary of the ONT who tried to reorganise the movement after World War II was a dowser (pp. 189– 190). Occult practices were part of the religious life and the way the Order conducted its affairs. The appearance of spirits and the use of pendulums played a role in the selection of the places where the order settled (p. 213, 216). A certain ONT ritual called “Colloquium spirituale” was a kind of spiritualist séance (p. 150). Difficult disputes within the Order were decided by ordeals. As showed above, Paape cautiously uses psychological explanations of Lanz’s doctrines, interpreting them as expressions of internal psychic con- 13 “Detlef Schmude, erster deutscher Prior des ONT, war nicht als einziger Neutempler Mazdaznan-Anhänger, Lanz empfahl seinen Neutemplern die Schriften Hanischs.” 438 BOOK REVIEWS flicts and related emotional dynamics that are rooted in individual biographies but also nourished by the socio-cultural and economic circumstances. Additionally, he applies a second method of ideology critique, dismantling the claim to be scientific, and exposing the rhetorical tricks and false conclusions of Lanzian scientism. To this end, he draws on medical statements by Lanz from various editions of Ostara (pp. 91–94). He shows that Lanz often starts from a correct proposition, such as that the blood supply to the skin increases in hot weather and is reduced in cold weather. From this, however, he then draws a conclusion that supports his racial ideology but is untenable: for the superior races living in cool areas, there is more blood available in the brain than for the inferior races living in hot zones. Or, to quote another example, he first accurately describes Mendel’s laws, only to claim that Gregor Mendel (1822–1884) had not recognised the most important rule of heredity, namely that in bastardisation the more primitive and inferior race dominates. Here, Mendel’s recessive traits are falsely reinterpreted as inferior ones. In this way Lanz simulated logic, consistency, and scientific competence for a non-expert audience. Last but not least, Paape’s book is the hitherto best study on the decline and end of the ONT after 1945. Under the leadership of Theodor Czepl and Rudolf Mund, the post-war ONT tried to reactivate religious life and recruit new members. The attractiveness of the Order was to be enhanced by a new rule written in 1947 and signed by Lanz, which continued the old racist ideals under the guise of an effort to achieve world peace (p. 265). Nevertheless, the Order’s activities were burdened by internal disputes and gradually came to a halt either with the death of its protagonists or with their withdrawal from the ONT. There was also a lack of places of worship (p. 285). Since the mid1980s, there has been no evidence of the ONT’s continued existence in Austria or Germany (ibid.). For the past decade or so, there have been attempts to re-establish branches of the ONT and followers of Ariosophy have been using the internet to promote their groups (pp. 286–289). A Concluding Remark The Viennese contemporary of Ariosophy, Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), once said that “the voice of the intellect is a soft one” (die Stimme des Intellekts ist leise).14 It is part of the profession of the Religious Studies scholar to help it be heard. We are rightly very busy deconstructing our scientific terms 14 “Die Zukunft einer Illusion”, Gesammelte Werke, XIV, Werke aus den Jahren 19251931, p. 377. English translation by James Strachey (Freud 1961, p. 53). IM WAHN DES AUSERWÄHLTSEINS 439 and exposing the claims to power etc. hidden in them. But in relation to the religious teachings and practices we investigate, scientific objectivity often degenerates into uncritical stating of facts, which hurts no one, but ultimately makes itself an unwilling accomplice to the problematic worldviews under investigation. In retrospect, the history of research into Ariosophy is characterised by the fact that the good old discipline of ideology critique has played a role from the beginning to the present day. On the one hand, the researchers work as best as they can, fact-oriented, and without personal judgement in view of their delicate material. The unbiased disclosure of what has happened, and its acceptance, are fundamental for them. On the other hand, they do not shy away from calling madness, contempt for humanity, injustice, and potential violence by name when they encounter them, which is more than evident in Ariosophy. This does not mean self-righteously condemning it or simply shaking one’s head without further reflection. Rather, an attempt is made to seek explanations for the persuasiveness of these dangerous delusions in people’s religious lives on the basis of solid source findings. Engaging in this interdisciplinary search is part of the social responsibility of Religious Studies. List of Abbreviations DÖW Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes (Documentation Centre of the Austrian Resistance) HAO Hohe Armanen Orden (High Order of the Armans) ONT Ordo Novi Templi (Order of the New Temple) References Baier, Karl. 2021. “Esotericism.” In Robert A. Segal and Nickolas P. Roubekas, eds., The Wiley Blackwell Companion to the Study of Religion. Second edition. Hoboken and Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, pp. 229–240. Bigalke, Bernadett. 2016. Lebensreform und Esoterik um 1900. Die Leipziger alternativ-religiöse Szene am Beispiel der Internationalen Theosophischen Verbrüderung. Würzburg: Ergon. Black, Monica and Eric Kurlander, eds. 2015. Revisiting the “Nazi Occult”: Histories, Realities, Legacies. Boydell and Brewer: Rochester. Daim, Wilfried. 1958. Der Mann der Hitler die Ideen gab: Von den religiösen Verirrungen eines Sektierers zum Rassenwahn des Diktators. München: Isar Verlag. Daim, Wilfried. 1960. Die kastenlose Gesellschaft. München: Manz. 440 BOOK REVIEWS Diem, Peter. 2011. Wilfried Daim. Querdenker zwischen Rot und Schwarz. Wien: Edition Steinbauer. Freud, Sigmund. 1961. The Future of an Illusion. Newly translated from the German and edited by James Strachey. New York: W.W. Norton and Company Inc. Gerstner, Alexandra. 2008. Neuer Adel. Aristokratische Elitekonzeptionen zwischen Jahrhundertwende und Nationalsozialismus. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. 1985. The Occult Roots of Nazism: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany, 1890–1935. Wellingborough: The Aquarian Press. Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. 2002. Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity. New York and London: New York University Press. Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. 2006. “Ariosophy.” In Wouter J. Hanegraaff, ed., Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism. Leiden and Boston: Brill, pp. 91–97. Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. 2009. “The Aryan Christ: The Electrochristology of Ariosophy.” In Olav Hammer, ed., Alternative Christs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 212–240 Hieronimus, Ekkehard. 1991. Lanz von Liebenfels. Eine Bibliographie. Toppenstedt: Uwe Berg Verlag. Hufenreuter, Gregor. 2011. Philipp Stauff. Ideologe, Agitator und Organisator im völkischen Netzwerk des Wilhelminischen Reiches; Geschichte des Deutschvölkischen Schriftstellerverbandes, des Germanen-Ordens, und der Guido-von-ListGesellschaft. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Kunz, Inge. 1961. “Herrenmenschentum, Neugermanen und Okkultismus: Eine soziologische Bearbeitung der Schriften von Guido List.” Ph.D. thesis, University of Vienna, Austria. Lanz-Liebenfels, Jörg n.d. (around 1907). Die Theosophie und die assyrischen Menschentiere in ihrem Verhältnis zu den neuesten Resultaten der anthropologischen Forschung. Lanz-Liebenfels Bibeldokumente. I. Folge, Heft 2. Gross-Lichterfelde: Paul Zillmann. Lorenz, Horst. 2010. Lanz von Liebenfels. Theozoologie und Ariosophie. Die Neutempler und die assyrischen Menschentiere. Salenstein: Unitall. Puschner, Uwe and Clemens Vollnhals. 2012. “Die völkisch-religiöse Bewegung im Nationalsozialismus. Forschungs- und problemgeschichtliche Perspektiven.” In Uwe Puschner and Clemens Vollnhals, eds., Die völkisch-religiöse Bewegung im Nationalsozalismus. Eine Beziehungs- und Konfliktgeschichte. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, pp. 13–29. Schmitz, Walter and Clemens Vollnhals, eds. 2005. Völkische Bewegung – Konservative Revolution – Nationalsozialismus. Aspekte einer politisierten Kultur. Dresden: Thelem. Staudenmaier, Peter. 2013. “Nazi Perceptions of Esotericism: The Occult as Fascination and Menace.” In Ashwin Manthripragada, Emina Mušanović, and Dagmar Theison, eds., The Threat and Allure of the Magical. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 25–59. Strube, Julian. 2012. “Die Erfindung des esoterischen Nationalsozialismus im Zeichen der Schwarzen Sonne.” Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft, 20 (2), pp. 223–268. IM WAHN DES AUSERWÄHLTSEINS Strube, Julian. 2014. “Nazism and the Occult.” In Christopher Partridge, ed., The Occult World. 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