Hitler's monsters
Subtitle: a supernatural history of the Third Reich
By: Eric Kurlander
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 422
ISBN-13: 9780300189452
Subjects: Politics and government; Occultism; HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century; Popular culture; Political culture; Superstition; Religion and politics; BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Occultism; National socialism and occultism; Social conditions; Supernatural; Paganism; HISTORY / Military / World War II; HISTORY / Europe / Germany; History
Description: "The definitive history of the supernatural in Nazi Germany, exploring the occult ideas, esoteric sciences, and pagan religions touted by the Third Reich in the service of power. The Nazi fascination with the occult is legendary, yet today it is often dismissed as Himmler's personal obsession or wildly overstated for its novelty. Preposterous though it was, however, supernatural thinking was inextricable from the Nazi project. The regime enlisted astrology and the paranormal, paganism, Indo-Aryan mythology, witchcraft, miracle weapons, and the lost kingdom of Atlantis in reimagining German politics and society and recasting German science and religion. In this eye-opening history, Eric Kurlander reveals how the Third Reich's relationship to the supernatural was far from straightforward. Even as popular occultism and superstition were intermittently rooted out, suppressed, and outlawed, the Nazis drew upon a wide variety of occult practices and esoteric sciences to gain power, shape propaganda and policy, and pursue their dreams of racial utopia and empire"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 387-406) and index.
Table of contents: title: The Supernatural Roots of Nazism : Ario-Germanic Religion, Border Science, and the Austro-German Occult Revival, 1889-1914; title: From the Thule Society to the NSDAP : Fashioning the Nazi Supernatural Imaginary, 1912-24; title: Exploiting Hitler's Magic : From Weimar's Horrors to Visions of the Third Reich; title: The Third Reich's War on the Occult : Anti-Occultism, Hitler's Magicians' Controversy, and the Hess Action; title: The Stars Come Down to Frozen Earth : Border Science in the Third Reich; title: Lucifer's Court : Ario-Germanic Paganism, Indo-Aryan Spirituality, and the Nazi Search for Alternative Religions; title: The Supernatural and the Second World War : Folklore and Border Science in Foreign Policy, Propaganda, and Military Operations; title: Monstrous Science : Racial Resettlement, Human Experiments, and the Holocaust; title: Nazi Twilight : Miracle Weapons, Supernatural Partisans, and the Collapse of the Third Reich.