103). Hegel's phases of history overlapped with the gradual westward expansion of human civilization, but each phase was invariably defined by the rise and decline of spiritual life. The westward movement followed the pattern symbolized by the sun (Hegel 1991b, 103). Hegel's commentary on India and China is largely based on his fundamental theme that history follows the pattern of the sun (Hegel 1991b, 103). For Hegel, each step that a European traveler takes while moving east gradually leads him or her to a less advanced time and place in history where people act and look less European (Hegel 1991b, 173). Hegel was certainly forced to rely on the accounts of European historians known as "Orientalists," but it is also important to consider that reports of westward expansionand exploration in the Americas were still a fresh topic in the time of Hegel. Like any instructor, Hegel also wanted to present his lectures in a systematic fashion in order to express general lessons and overarching themes. For Hegel, during the first stage of history, the people of Asia played a central role in the development of our political and cultural institutions while the people in Europe played a minimal role in history with no significant contributions. However, this role was gradually reversed as history reached its latter stages in the West. The Chinese, Indian, and Iranian people, along with the people of Asia in general, were relegated to "historical peoples" or 137 "stationary" actors who did not play an active role in the latter stages of


history even though they still exist today (Hegel 1991b, 139 and 173). Hegel thus began his outline of history with a section called the "Oriental World." He initially discussed the history of China and India but argued that the most important part of the "Oriental" phase of history was the discovery of the Universal Spirit in Iran (Hegel 1991b, 173). "With China and the Mongols-the realm of theocratic despotism- History begins" (Hegel 1991b, 112). History has to begin with the Empire of China, "for it is the oldest, as far as history gives us any information; and its principle has such substantiality, that for the empire in question it is at once the oldest and the newest" (Hegel 1991b, 116). The natural instinct among humans to secure theirlife and property facilitated political organization and record keeping, which also produced a certain level of spiritual development. As the "Supreme Power," the Emperor is essentially in charge of the well-being of individuals and provinces, as well as the elements (Hegel 1991b, 132). "These have each an appropriate Genius (Chen), which is subject to the Emperor, who pays adoration only to the general Power of Heaven, while the several Spirits of the natural world follow his laws" (Hegel 1991b, 132). Each of these enjoys a form of worship peculiar to itself and has a certain sculpture assigned to it, but "these are disgusting idols, which have not yet attained the dignity of art, because nothing spiritual is represented in them" (Hegel 1991b, 132-133). "They are therefore only terrific,


unconscious instinct; and the whole process of History (as already observed), is directed to rendering this unconscious impulse a conscious one" (Hegel 1991b, 25). 139 The style of political organization in India was not as centralized as the system in China. According to Hegel, "India, like China, is a phenomenon antique as well as modern; one which has remained stationary and fixed, and has received a most perfect home-sprung development" (Hegel 1991b, 139). "In contrast with the Chinese State, which presents only the most prosaic Understanding, India is the region of fantasy and sensibility" (Hegel 1991b, 139). India established the "Idealism of Existence (Being)," but the Idealism found in India is merely an "Idealism of imagination, without distinct conceptions; one which does indeed free existence from Beginning andintrinsically divine" (Hegel 1991b, 141). Unlike China, the organization of the State in India is not determined and arranged by a single person, and therefore there is a greater level of freedom in regard to religious thought. In the second phase of the "Oriental World," known as the "Indian realm-we see the unity of political organization-a perfect civil machinery, such as exists in China-in the first instance, broken up" (Hegel 1991b, 113). However, the 75 "Hegel's assessment of Indian thought was continued and further solidified by Schopenhauer, albeit under radically different auspices. While for Hegel preconceptual indeterminacy was a mark of insufficiency and non-development, Schopenhauer extolled the same feature as a sign of profundity and as exit route from the realm of willing and representational thinking. Despite its


and compliant expression of the spiritual; but [the sensuous object itself] is expanded into the immeasurable and undefined, and the Divine is thereby made bizarre, confused, and ridiculous" (Hegel 1991b, 141). "Everything, including the Sun, Moon, Stars, the Ganges, the Indus, Beasts, Flowers – everything is a God in the Indian view" (Hegel 1991b, 141). "In the universal deification of all finite existence, and the consequent degradation of the Divine, the idea of Theanthropy, incarnation of God, is not a particularly important conception" (Hegel 1991b, 141). "The parrot, the cow, the ape, and such, are likewise incarnations of God, yet are not therefore elevated above nature" (Hegel 1991b, 141). "The Divine is not individualized to a subject, to concrete Spirit, but degraded to vulgarity and senselessness" (Hegel 1991b,141). Hegel noted that "externally, India sustains manifold relations to the History of the World" (Hegel 1991b, 142). "In recent times the discovery has been made that the Sanskrit lies at the foundation of all those further developments which form the languages of Europe; e.g. the Greek, Latin, [and] German (Hegel 1991b, 141-142). "India, moreover, was the center of emigration for all of the western world;; but this 142 external historical relation is to be regarded rather as a merely physical diffusion of peoples from this point" (Hegel 1991b, 142). "Although in India the elements of further development might be discovered, and although we would find traces of their being transmitted to the West, this transmission has been nevertheless so abstract [so superficial], that that which among later


peoples attracts our interest, is not anything to be derived from India, but rather something concrete, which they themselves formed" (Hegel 1991b, 142).76 "The spread of Indian culture is prehistoric, for History is limited to that which makes an essential epoch in the development of Spirit" (Hegel 1991b, 142). Hegel described life in Iran as the antithesis to life in India and China. "The third important form-presenting a contrast to the immovable unity of China and to the wild and turbulent unrest of India-is the Persian Realm" (Hegel 1991b, 113).77 "In Persia namely, the Theocratic power appears as a Monarchy. Now Monarchy is that kind of constitution which does indeed unite the members of the body politic in the head of the government as in a point; butregards that head neither as absolute director nor arbitrary ruler, but as a power whose will is regulated by the same principle of law as the obedience of the subject" (Hegel 1991b, 113-114). In other words, the early Persian 76 "With regard to the political life of the Indians, we must first consider the advance it presents in contrast with China. An advance is made in India in which independent members ramify from the unity of despotic power. Yet the distinctions (Castes) which these imply are referred to Nature. In India we have only a division of the masses-a division, however, that influences the whole political life and the religious consciousness. The distinctions of class, like that [rigid] Unity in China, remain consequently on the same original grade


united some of the most diverse nations, it was unable to completely eradicate force and hostility, a contradiction that still needed reconciliation. "The Persian Unity is not that abstract one of the of the Chinese Empire; it is adapted to rule over many and various nationalities, which it unites under the mild power of Universality as a beneficial Sun shining overall-walking them into life and cherishing their growth. This Universal principle-occupying the position of a root only-allows the several members a free growth for unrestrained expansion and ramification" (Hegel 1991b, 114).78 Against this background, Hegel claimed that "continuous history" began in the region known as Iran. The onset of continuous history was marked by the conception of a Universal Spirit among humans (Hegel 1991b, 116 and 173). Fromup within itself, abstract and calm, as are China and India-makes a real transition in the History of the World" (Hegel 1991b, 114). 144 Universal Spirit is assigned a central role in the story of history. Hegel stated that "with the Persian Empire we first enter on continuous history" (Hegel 1991b, 173). The "Persians are the first historical people;; Persia was the first Empire that passed away" (Hegel 1991b, 173). 79 In other words, although the Persian Empire no longer exists, its time (and place) in history had a continuous impact on the development of World Spirit. However, our entrance into the realm of "continuous history" was not attributed to the political or scientific achievements of the Persian Empire. Rather, it was attributed to the enlightened mode of


thought driven by the legacy of Zoroastrianism. "While India and China have remained to the present day, of the empire of the Tigris and Euphrates on the contrary nothing remains, except, at most a heap of bricks; for the Persian Kingdom, as that of Transition, is by nature, perishable, and the Kingdoms of the Caspian Sea are given up to the ancient struggle for Iran and Turan. The Empire of the solitary Nile is only present beneath the ground, in its speechless Dead, ever and anon stolen away to all quarters of the globe, and in their majestic habitations;-for what remains above ground is nothing else but such splendid tombs" (Hegel 1991b, 115). Hegel stated that "in Persia first arises that light which shines itself, and illuminates whatLight, which only manifests what bodies are in themselves;-a Unity which governs individuals only to excite them to become powerful for themselves-to develop and assert their individuality" (Hegel 1991b, 174). Hegel elaborated on his belief that political life in Iran was synonymous with spiritual affairs. "Light makes no distinctions: the Sun shines on the righteous and the unrighteous, on high and low, and confers on all the same benefit and prosperity" (Hegel 1991b, 174). "Light is vitalizing only in so far as it is brought to bear on something distinct from itself, operating upon and developing that. It holds a position of antithesis to Darkness, and this antithetical relation opens out to us the principle activity and life. The principle of development begins with the history of Persia"


(Hegel 1991b, 174). The history of Iran (Persia) is a vital component of Hegel's Philosophy of History as "it constitutes strictly the beginning of World-History; for the grand interest of Spirit in History, is to attain an unlimited immanence of subjectivity-by an absolute antithesis to attain complete harmony" (Hegel 1991b, 174).80 "In becoming objective, this Universal Essence acquires a positive nature: man becomes free, and thus occupies a position face to face as it were with the Highest Being, the latter being made objective for him. This form of Universality we see first exhibited in Persia, involving a separation of man from 80 "In earlier stages of progress, the mandates of Spirit (social and political law), are given as by a power alien to itself-as by some compulsionof mere Nature. Gradually it sees the untruth of this alien form of validity-recognizes these mandates as its own, and adopts them freely as a law of liberty. It then stands in clear opposition to its logical contrary-Nature" (Hegel 1991b, 174). 146 the Universal essence; while at the same time the individual recognizes himself as identical with [a partaker in], that essence" (Hegel 1991b, 174). "In the Persian principle, the Unity of nature and the will of the mind is manifested as Light, which in this case is not simply light as such, the most universal physical element, but the at the same time also spiritual purity-the Good" (Hegel 1991b, 175). The chief point of this section is an explication of "the doctrine of Zoroaster" (Hegel 1991b, 177).


natural objects, but the Universal itself (Hegel 1991b, 178). "Light admits, moreover, the signification of the Spiritual; it is the form of the Good and True-the substantiality of knowledge and volition as well as of all natural things. Light puts man 81 As far as Hegel was concerned, prior to the doctrine of Zoroaster, Nature was characterized by a state in which "Spirit has not yet an independent existence in contraposition to its object [consciousness]. Among the Hindus, this objectivity is only the natural one of the Brahmins, and is recognized as pure Universality only in the destruction of consciousness" (Hegel 1991b, 177-178). 147 in a position to be able to exercise choice; and he can only choose when he has emerged from that which has absorbed him,but Light directly involves an Opposite, namely, Darkness;; just as Evil is the antithesis of the Good" (Hegel 1991b, 178). Hegel stated that "the chief end of every man's existence is to keep himself pure, and to spread this purity around him. The precepts that have this in view are very diffuse; the moral requirements are however characterized by mildness. It is said: if a man loads you with revilings, and insults, but subsequently humbles himself, call him your friend. We read in the Vendidad, that sacrifices consist chiefly of the flesh of clean animals, flowers, and fruits, milk, and perfumes. It is said there, 'As man was created pure and worthy of Heaven, he becomes pure again through the law of servants of Ormuzd, which is the


purity itself; if he purifies himself by sanctity of thought, word, and deed. What is 'Pure Thought'? The word of Ormuzd (the Word is thus personified and imports the living Spirit of the whole revelation of Ormuzd). What is 'Pure Deed?' The humble adoration of the Heavenly Hosts, created at the beginning of things.' It is implied in this that man should be virtuous: his own will, his subjective freedom is presupposed" (Hegel 1991b, 179-180 and Fargard 8.3; Darmesteter (Tr.) 1879, 94). Hegel believed the Universal Spirit played a central role in the success of the Persian Empire. Nevertheless, the Spirit described by Hegel undergoes a rebirth in the second phase which he refers to as the "Greek World." "If Persia forms the external transition to Greek life,individuality" (Hegel 1991b, 223). The Greeks essentially established a communitarian unity by recognizing that it benefited individual interests. Hegel viewed the third phase as a period of regression but expected a return to glory in the fourth and final phase. The decline associated with the third phase occurs in the "Roman World" and is characterized by universal misfortune and the demise of ethical life (Hegel 1991b, 379). He attributed this decline to the extremes of personal or private self-consciousness and abstract universality. "This element of subjectivity is afterwards realized as Personality of Individuals, and with such an Ego or personality, I am infinite to myself, and my phenomenal existence consists in the property recognized as mine, and the recognition of my personality" (Hegel 1991b, 320). In other words,


this contradiction was the misery of the Roman World (Hegel 1991b, 320). Fortunately, a return to glory is expected in the "German World." In this stage, Spirit is able to unify all the perspectives and stages of human history.82 Hegel asserted that "the Mind now grasps the infinite positivity of its own inwardness, the principle of the unity of divine and human nature and the reconciliation of the objective truth and freedom which have appeared within self-consciousness and subjectivity" (Hegel 1991b, 379). In other words, Hegel's philosophy of history outlines a four-step process which ends when all humans recognize the power of the Universal Mind. By design, history ends with the articulation of Hegel's philosophy. Hegel's ideas may have been influenced by the Zoroastrian conception of Spirit. Heargued that the German people have a unique place in the final stage of history due to their linguistic and philosophical connection to the ancient Iranians (Hegel 1991, 379). The difficulty in translating the term "Geist" for English speakers demonstrates how the German conception of spirit is connected to the ancient Aryan philosophy of religion. As 82 Hegel briefly described Mohametanism (Islam) in a small subsection of his focus on the "German World" (Hegel 1991b, 355-36). 150 mentioned, spirit is based on the Farsi term for "man's ability to think" and is strongly associated with the mind. In German, the term "Geist" literally translates as ghost but it is a term that can be associated with both mind and spirit. The title of Hegel's book Phänomenologie des Geistes


other words, the distribution of property was the main determinant of the structure of political relations, cultural philosophies, and religious institutions. Marx's perspective on history may be described as a "materialist philosophy of history" as well as "humanist history" since it emphasizes the importance of productive labor rather than Spirit. The "humanist" label either overlooks and/or intentionally undermines the Hegelian Spirit of humanity. Nevertheless, although Marx believed humans were naturally collective and communitarian, he acknowledged that they had to initially struggle against their natural environment which produced distinct phases throughout history. Marx believed there were five stages to history that began with a period of primitive communism. He presented his philosophy of history in Capital (1867) with the intention "to turn Hegel right-side up" (Stanley 1997, 449 andMarx 1999, 25). For Marx, the first stage of history is analogous to a state of nature characterized by communitarian instinct. He believed this phase was followed by a period of primitive accumulation which laid the groundwork for feudal rule (Marx 1999, 784-786). Primitive accumulation is a timeless concept which refers to any acquisition of wealth or labor through non-market means. Slavery and robbery are the primary examples of the primitive accumulation which defined the second stage of history. The third stage was defined by feudal rule. The fourth stage is the age of capitalism. Capitalism has two substages. The first form of capitalism was agrarian capitalism attributed to surpluses in 152 crop production and major advances in farm technology. Marx believed one of the benefits of capitalists


and competitive markets was their ability to accelerate technological progress (Marx 1999, 663). In turn, agrarian capitalism quickly transitioned toward industrial capitalism which completely changed the essence of capitalism itself. While the market in an agrarian society was somewhat bound by the limits of land and food spoilage, there are no physical boundaries to industrial capitalism. As long as the working class survives the level of inequality is unlimited. Thus, the competitive spirit that was believed to improve the conditions of all individuals was also the biggest flaw of industrial capitalism (Marx 1999, 445). As Ibn Khaldun ominously suggested, every triumph contains the seeds of its own destruction (Ibn Khaldun 1989, 137). Marx argued that industrial capitalism survived through coercive competition and the harsh conditions endured by theproletariat (Marx 1999, 649). The proletariat is the term for the working class who must sell their labor to the class that owns the means of production. The class that owns the means of production is known as the bourgeoisie. In turn, market capitalism creates vicious competition among the bourgeoisie who rely on efficient production in order to maintain their position. Efficiency usually means tougher working conditions for the proletariat leading to greater surplus value and rapid technological innovation. This ultimately translates to job losses leading to overproduction and under-consumption. This is also Marx's explanation of the volatility of market cycles. In A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, (1859) Marx 153 stated that, "at a certain stage of their development, the material forces of production in


society come into conflict with the existing relations of production, –or what is the legal expression for the same thing-with the property relations within which they had been at work before" (Marx 1911, 12). Consequently, he believed the proletariat would eventually rebel after they realize they are supporting a flawed system that exploits them (Marx and Engels 1848, 4). However, he believed the technological advances produced by the stage of capitalism will inevitably allow humans to reconcile the various phases of history and free themselves from the constraints of material life (Marx 1998, 50). The final phase combines the utopian ideals of primitive communism and the technological support of the competitive era. Marx's response to Hegel epitomizes the enduring struggle between spirit and matter.84 They both believed thatone of these entities was the protagonist of the story of history. A true Hegelian may agree with Marx's description of history and his critique of capitalism but he or she would attribute these events to the demise of ethical life. Thus, they might say that Marx provided a clear outline of economic development but an overly simplified philosophy of history. Another philosopher who used the rhetoric of stages, phases, and realms to organize history was Arnold Toynbee. In A Study of History (1934-1961), Toynbee seeks 84 According to John L. Stanley, Marx criticized Hegel's replacement of natural history with a philosophy of nature derived from logical categories. His critique affirms Engels's later view that natural history should be restored by discovering dialectics in nature rather than imposing


dialectics on it (Stanley 1997, 449). 154 to examine "the history of Mankind as a whole" (Toynbee 1972, 10). He suggests that history is essentially the story of the rise and decline of various civilizations which share common characteristics. For Toynbee, the proper unit of analysis for historical study is the civilization rather than the nation-state (Toynbee 1972, 15). He claimed all major civilizations endured five distinct stages which began with genesis, followed by growth, struggle, disintegration, and universality. For Toynbee, universality was the culmination of disintegration, when the spiritual remnants of the civilization survive and spread long after the fall of the state. Toynbee created a list of thirty four "full blown civilizations" (Toynbee 1972, 72), which included the civilizations discussed by Herder and Hegel. Based onHegel's description of the early stages of human history, German philosopher and psychiatrist Karl Jaspers claimed that the time period between 800 BCE and 200 BCE represented an "Axial Age" (Jaspers 1953, 1).85 It was defined by "the most extraordinary events" which led to a pivotal turning point in humanity's mode of thought throughout various parts of the world, which changed the course of history (Jaspers 1953, 2). Jaspers included the doctrine of Zoroaster in his list of pivotal events, but his book, The Origin and Goal of History (1949), was published long before Mary Boyce provided evidence for an earlier date concerning the time of Zoroaster (Boyce 85 According to Jaspers, in the Western World, the philosophy of history was founded on the Christian faith in a


grandiose sequence of works from St. Augustine to Hegel that visualized the movement of God throughout history. However, the Christian faith is only one faith, not the faith of mankind. In the West, many Christians separated their faith from their empirical insight into the real course of history (Jaspers 1953, 1). 155 1982, 1-3). According to Jaspers, during the Axial Age, "Confucius and Lao-tse were living in China, all the schools of Chinese philosophy came into being, including those of Mo-ti, Chuang-tse, Lieh-tsu and a host of others; India produced the Upanishads and Buddha and, like China, ran the whole gamut of philosophical possibilities down to skepticism, materialism, sophism and nihilism; in Iran Zarathustra taught a challenging view of the world as a struggle between good and evil;inspired by the Christian perception of God rather than Zoroastrianism. In addition, the "Spirit" discussed by Hegel could also be used to describe a physical force that relates to the nature of light and energy that is yet to be fully understood. Meanwhile, the belief that history is the culmination of distinct phases may not be attributable to the discovery of the Universal Spirit. It is possible that it began with a new calendar based on the "Age of Alexander," or the calendar reforms initiated under Roman Emperor Julius Caesar which culminated in the "common era." However, both Herder and Hegel were well aware of Zoroastrianism and explicitly acknowledged its special place in history. Hegel included references to Anquetil's acquisition of the Avesta in his lectures and read


Johann Kleuker's German translation of Anquetil's French translation as a young child even though he never explicitly stated that Zoroastrianism was the inspiration for his prose or lecture style (Hegel 1991b, 176).86 Kleuker's German translation (Kleuker 2009) of Anquetil's French translation (Anquetil 2011) of the Avesta 86 Although Hegel read the Avesta in Kleuker's translation it is uncertain whether he read the French translation by Anquetil (Hodgson 2006, 305). 157 was published when Hegel was around six years old, which was about five years after Anquetil published the French translation. In an essay from "the high school years" dated July 1787, Hegel cited Zoroaster in a footnote pertaining to Plato's Alcibiades (Hegel 1968, 175). The essay was about the great fame of the ancient Persian and Egyptian Empiresand how the people of Greece learned about the art of formal education and sources of magical wisdom from the people who taught the Magic of Zoroaster, the progeny of Ahura Mazda (Hegel 1968, 175). The essay provides evidence that at the age of sixteen, Hegel knew of Zoroaster and may have read or heard about him even earlier.87 There are similarities between the content and prose of the Avesta and the works of Hegel and Marx. Hegel used a dialectic style of argumentation which Marx identified in a study of his published works. It may be useful to explore the possibility that Hegel's writing style was influenced by various ancient sources associated with religion such as the Vedas, the Avesta, and the books which encompass the Abrahamic


tradition. The Contradictions of Material Life The use of phases and dialectical reasoning may not be the best path to an accurate philosophy of history, but it is certainly a convenient and often convincing way to organize one. According to Marx, there are periods of history which represent a form 87 Hegel's essay also seems to include a reference to the utopian novel by French author Denis Veiras known as The History of the Sevarambians [L'Historie des Séverambes] (1675), in which the ideal city was founded by an Iranian Zoroastrian (Veiras 2006, 203). Hegel wrote, "Man konnte gewiss damals alle idealischen Plane eben so dreist nach Persien verlegen, als wir sie jetzt in das Lander Severamben verlegen. Ein jedes Land, das so weit entfernt war, war das Utopiensimilarities between the Gathas and his style of argumentation. In a footnote about the turning points in his intellectual activities, which included the study of Philo of Alexandria at an early age, Mills noted that in 1876, "he turned to the Avesta to study the history of Hegel's procedure by sublated negation" (Mills 1977, 140). The hymns of Zoroaster illustrate how monotheist thought is rooted in an epic battle between conflicting spirits. The prose and content is characterized by the ancient view of progressive motion based on a process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. As it says, "In the beginning, both Mentalities became conscious of each other, and while the deceitful one chose to perpetrate evil, the most Holy Spirit chose the truth, just like the followers of


Ahura Mazda" (Yasna 30.3-5; Guthrie (Tr.) 1914). Marx did not focus on the references to Zoroastrianism in Hegel's works, but his view of history is genetically rooted in Zoroastrian cosmology since he adopted the Hegelian method. According to Zoroaster, the initial belief in the existence of good and evil spirits resulted from a misperception of reality. What we perceive as periods of light and darkness can be reconciled by the Universal Spirit. 159 Robin George Collingwood agreed with Marx's interpretation of dialectical historicism in Hegelian thought. In the Idea of History, he supports this point by discussing the Greek and Roman wars. He claimed that Roman culture owes its existence to the wars among the Greeks. According to the legend of Aeneus, the Romans were believed to bethe descendants of the defeated Trojans who fled after the conquest of Troy (Virgil 1917, 299). Nevertheless, the Roman culture eventually developed into the antithesis of the Greek world. Collingwood proposed that the struggle between these two forces eventually resulted in a synthesis known as "the Christian world" (Collingwood 1946, 119). The dialectical method may be applied to many other points in history. In The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Marx suggested that the dictatorship of Louis XIV led to its antithesis, otherwise known as the radical French Revolution (Marx 2003, 4). These periods were eventually reconciled by the rule of Napoleon, who laid the groundwork for the transition from agrarian capitalism to the era of industrial capitalism. The transition coincided with dramatic shifts in class structure as


the ruling classes of the feudal and agrarian periods were replaced by military elites, merchants, and bankers. Ironically, while Marx claimed that he used the Hegelian method of dialectical argumentation, his rejection of Hegelian idealism created a major dialectical struggle in itself. Hegel's theories support a communitarian model for political life, and I have suggested that they have a deep background in Zoroastrianism. His ideas were the 160 culmination of the Romantic Movement in philosophy which rejected the overly rational individualism of the Enlightenment. In other words, Hegel's spiritual communitarian model represents the antithesis to rational individualism. Based on the dialectical model, Hegel's followers split into two major factions since they could not agree on how to interpret his core ideas. A group known as the "Young-Left Hegelians"defined their faction by rebelling against the religious dimension of Hegel's philosophy.88 They attempted to clarify his communitarian values through a secular perspective. In contrast, the "Old-Right Hegelians" followed a less radical interpretation in support of the religious dimension. The "Old" Hegelians emphasized the importance of Hegel's theological training, which helped them attain teaching positions at top universities. Most of them taught theology and their views supported the Protestant values of the Prussian State. Hegel's most prominent follower was a "Young" Hegelian known as Karl Marx. He supported Hegel's communitarian values but his writings inspired a more prominent ideology based on the antithesis of spirit. In other words, Marx re-articulated Hegel's communitarian ideals from a purely material perspective. This leads us to Friedrich Nietzsche, who included references to


to the real Zarathustra" (Kauffman1974, 199). Jenny Rose also examined the degree to which the real Zarathustra was incorporated into Nietzsche's ideas through a brief review of some of the books that were available to him as well as a list of overlapping themes.89 She noted that, "although some of [her] comparisons may seem to be stretched somewhat in order to demonstrate Nietzsche's familiarity with the Zarathustra of Zoroastrian lore, the fact is that a close reading of Thus Spoke discovers the existence of most of these familiar Zoroastrian themes" (Rose 2000, 181). The inclusion of Zoroaster as the main character of Nietzsche's story was based on his perception that Zoroaster's noble effort to reform religious thought was futile. Nietzsche recognized how most of Zoroaster's ideas were ultimatelytwisted in order to justify the same type of unethical behavior that he criticized in his hymns. "The process of recreating the image of Zarathustra does not then end with Nietzsche" (Rose 2000, 181). "In his booklet Zarathustra's Wiederkehr [Zarathustra's Return] (1919), Hermann Hesse takes up Nietzsche's theme and focuses on the building of an individual's character 89 "These include: Zarathustra's entrance into the world laughing, his fight against sorcerers, his wanderings, the importance of animals, such as the wolf (usually Ahrimanic), horses and cows, who encounter the child Zarathustra;; his meaningful dreams, his initiation of 'laws,' his lack of followers, and hatred by his enemies. Both prophets pray to the sun, both praise the dawn, the light of the stars, and the cow, they hate cattle raiders;


for both, marriage is a sacred institution; both speak of the moral qualities of purity, wisdom, goodness, hospitality, courage and honesty; images of the mountain and the wind are prominent. Both figures are regarded as the friend and protector of living things; both apparently reject the cult of the dead;; noontide is significant for each of them" (Rose 2000, 181). 163 through the 'teachings' of Zarathustra as the means of restoring the German spirit after the First World War" (Hess 1993, 112 and Rose 2000, 181). The Dialectic Never Ends The attacks against the religious dimension of Hegelian thought could have been minimized if his students spent more time studying Zoroastrianism, or listened closely when he delivered his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion. These attacks were describedof religion (Kroner 1975, 1). According to Stephen Crites, he was tremendously influenced by the Greek and Roman classics, as well as the Bible (Crites 1998, 5). Hegel's family was of old Lutheran stock and his family included a number of pastors in addition to craftsmen, scholars, and public officials (Crites 1998, 7). He grew up in Swabia, a region with a peculiar spiritual 164 character. According to Crites, there is a strong mystical hue to its characteristic spirituality which dates back to at least the Middle Ages (Crites 1998, 7). "Hegel was true to his Swabian background in the peculiar and, so to speak, Gothic combination of introversion and self-abnegation with a heaven–storming Eros for the sublime and the universal" (Crites 1998, 7). Crites essentially suggests that


Hegel's writing style is largely rooted in his region's particular language and views on spirituality. When he was eighteen, Hegel entered a theological seminary school in Tübingen where some of the most celebrated intellectuals from Swabia were educated (Kroner 1, 1975). Fackenheim emphasized how the relation between religious life and Hegelianism demands heavy concentration on his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (Fackenheim 1982, 9). He also suggested that Hegel distinguished the "Jewish God from all pagan deities, those of Greece and Rome included" (Fackenheim 1982, 134). The books written by scholars like Crites and Fackenheim are targets of the core argument of this study, which is that Zoroastrianism is so unjustly ignored. Fackenheim never discussed Zoroastrianism even though it was such a major part of Hegel's Philosophyof History, his Philosophy of Art, as well as his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (Hegel 1991b, 173, Hegel 2006, 297 Hegel 1879, 11). In his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Hegel wrote included a section on Persian religion which he also referred to as "The Religion of Light" (Hegel 2006, 297). He claimed that the Persian religion set "the form in which God is known as what truly has 165 being in and for itself, and known truly as this; so God is in truth what is independent, what is inwardly determinate, and hence God is the good" (Hegel 2006, 297). The publication of the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion was based on the final course that Hegel taught. In these lectures, Hegel distinguished


with questions of creation and existence. However, like any ideology, they may lead to the practice of religious rituals and traditions. The idea of divine revelation is a lot more metaphoric in folk religions since many oral traditions were based on the natural observation of objects and patterns created by God. For instance, the ancient Vedic and Zoroastrian poets used a formulaic prose based on astronomical calculations which led their audiences to believe that they literally spoke the word of God since their poetry was based on the natural creations they observed. In other words, there are no miracles in folk religions. In his early theological writings, Hegel proposed that the miracles described in the Bible are meant to prove its authenticity which he identified as a logicalthe Persians and the Babylonians.91 According to Boyce, "during the latter period of Darius's reign, Babylonians refined their formulas for calendrical adjustments even further by introducing nineteenyear cycles, during each of which seven months were similarly intercalated" (Boyce 2005, 7). "This system achieved an almost perfect correspondence between the lunar and solar years, which may have been well appreciated by Zoroastrian priests who concerned themselves with calendrical matters" (Boyce 2005, 7). Before Darius's reign, the conquest of Egypt in 525 by Cambyses, Cyrus's son, helped the Persians learn about another quite different calendar, also based on a system of time-reckoning (Boyce 2005, 7). "This is attested from the days of the Old Kingdom, in the third millennium BCE, and it consisted of a calendar of twelve months of


30 days, followed by a "little month" of five days. From its format it is reasonable to deduce that this had a 360-day predecessor of "early-culture" type with a month intercalated every six years, and an autumn beginning, since the dominant phenomenon of the Egyptian natural year was the annual autumn flooding of the land by the Nile. The reformed calendar measured the length of 91 A few tribes lived in regions with winters so harsh that almost nothing happens then (during winter), and they simply ignored this time; but for most peoples the cycle of the natural year, controlled by the sun, dictated the length of the calendar year made up of lunar months (thirty-day increments based on the instinct for decimal counting, which led on tobut the lunar system leads to a large amount of calendarical drift when used to calculate the 92 "The introduction of five more days was a radical step, and calendar change is in any case notoriously difficult to bring about. Years may therefore have passed in discussion, with the slow gathering of support (probably chiefly in Persia / Pars), before the proposal at last gained what was essential, the approval of the Great King. It was plainly impossible even then to explain the intended change to all members of the Zoroastrian communities within the Persian Empire, extending from the borders of India to the western coast of Anatolia, overwhelmingly non-literate, and most of them with no interest whatever in questions of exact chronological calculation. Change must largely have


been enforced; and the Persian Great King had the power to do this, for he had the imperial army at his command, and could exact obedience from his satraps, each of whom had his own troops. The reformed calendar was likely introduced in one of the years 481-479 BCE, when Nouruz would have been celebrated at the spring equinox on the first day of the first month (the only years in which this would have been so under the earlier Achaemenians). Xerxes (519-465 BCE), Darius' son, was then on the throne, and his Daiva inscription shows him to have been a deeply pious, orthopractic Zoroastrian, who must have been convinced of the propriety of the reform. It also shows him to have been ruthless in enforcing measures whichhe thought were right for the religion, and it is highly probable that advocates of the reform presented it (and believed this themselves) as, in fact, a return to the calendar given by Zoroaster to his community, who had not worthily maintained it" (Boyce 2005, 7). 169 length of a year. The lunar calendar and a solar year have an approximate average of 361 days since a lunar year can be rounded to 354 or 355 days, while a solar year is a little over 365 days. In turn, the lunar calendar will realign with the motion and location of the sun every 33 years. Meanwhile, the number of days calculated over 19 years is very close to the length of a 235-month lunar cycle. In the Quran,


there is only one passage that included a reference to the number 19, which described "nineteen angels" as a form of authentication based on unmatchable numerology (Quran 74.30-31). Section 19, which is labeled "Maryam," also contains a reference to authentication within a story about Jesus (Quran 19.33). In addition, the Arabic name Wahid (or Vahid in the Farsi pronunciation) means "the one," and has letters which numerically match up to the number 19. Ironically, the term "Arabic Numerals" refers to the adoption of Indian Numerals by Arabs and various other peoples who previously used letters as numbers. The Indo-Aryan legacy of formulaic prose and astronomical poetry had a major influence on the numerological composition of the Quran. Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of History explicitly described the differencebetween a religion and a philosophy of religion. Fackenheim ultimately defended Hegel's philosophy by pointing out that as early as 1844, when Hegel's philosophy had widely been declared dead, "his biographer Karl Rosenkranz observed that if this were the case, 'one would have to be astounded by the vehemence with which it is attacked precisely by those who declare it dead"' (Fackenheim 1982, 4 [Rosenkranz 1844, 8]). Fackenheim concluded that the attacks on Hegel for the religious dimension of his 170 thought were unwarranted, but he mainly attributed it to the problem of interpretation caused by Hegel's writing style. He never discussed Hegel's references to Zoroastrianism, which also serve as a defense against the charge that his thought is too religious. In accordance with Zoroastrianism and the idea


that Hegel's philosophy of religion regards Christianity as a culmination of the history of all world religions (Jaeschke 1991, 13). In other words, Jaeschke argued that Hegel's 93 While some scholars argue that the religious dimension of Hegel's thought is very important, scholars like Georg Lukács claim that it can be over-emphasized (Lukács 1976, 28-29 and 181). 94 Lauer published A Reading of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit which suggested that the Spirit discussed by Hegel was based on the character of Jesus (Lauer 1976, 275). 171 philosophy was influenced by a variety of cultures and stages, which Hegel referred to as the Judaic and Greek religions. He then claims that it began with the religion of light, which Jaeschke believes to be Judaism, and not the Iranian religion(Jaeschke 1990, 201). Jaeschke's interpretation that the Judaic tradition was the initial inspiration for Hegel's Spirit is based on extensive analysis of his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion. He also claimed that in the nineteenth century it was customary to discuss the unity and plurality of three religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Jaeschke 1991, 11). Any Hegel scholar who read about Zoroastrianism would immediately consider whether Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion can provide insight into his idea of Spirit. Jaeschke confirmed that these lectures can provide insight into his idea of Spirit, but he claimed that Hegel's Spirit refers to the God of Israel (Jaeschke 1990, 201). Jaeschke suggested that the only evidence that the Iranian religion is the inspiration for Hegel's Spirit is based


on the contrast between light and darkness (Jaeschke 1990, 203). However, Jaeschke never mentioned that in his Lectures on the Philosophy of History, Hegel explicitly stated that "human" history began in Iran when Zoroaster discovered the Universal Spirit (Hegel 1991b, 173). In 1831 Hegel changed the structure of his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, which originally named Judaism and Greek religion as the determinate religions of a middle phase. He categorized Judaism as a subdivision of Zoroastrianism within a "transitional" position of the first phase of world religion (von der Luft 1989, 5). Some scholars attribute these changes to the limited studies of West Asia during that period 172 (von der Luft 1989, 5), while some have even considered charges of anti-Semitism (Fackenheim 1982, 136). Based onfew years, but that Hegel continued to experiment with new ways of presenting the material to his students in the hopes of publishing a book on the philosophy of religion (von der Luft 1989, 62). Hegel's philosophy has had very little impact on education theory since his death in 1831. However, some of his letters written whilst head teacher at the Nuremberg Gymnasium (1808-1816) reveal that pedagogical and educational issues played a very important part in the development of his philosophy and his teaching in this period (Tubbs 1996, 181). Nigel Tubbs reveals Hegel's views on experimental learning, on discipline within the school, on the nature of the student/teacher relationship, on curriculum design, and on style of teaching and learning (Tubbs 1996, 181). At a more critical and


theoretical level, he shows that he recognized the domination implicit in the 173 teacher/pupil relationship, and reveals how he incorporated the mastery of the teacher into his pedagogy as substantial education content (Tubbs 1996, 181). Finally, at a philosophical level, his practice as a classroom teacher can be seen as an example of his philosophical system in action, illustrating its dialectical contradictions, its phenomenological and experiential structure, and above all, its systematic view of what education really is (Tubbs 1996, 181). The prose and content of Hegel's lecture style is so poetic that it allows scholars to find beauty and meaning in his description of any religion. In his Lectures on the Philosophy of History, Hegel organized his discussion of the people of Judea as a subsection ofPersia, and stated that, "In every religion there is a divine presence, a divine relation; and a philosophy of History has to seek out the spiritual element even in the most imperfect forms" (Hegel 1991b, 195-196). The history of the Babylonian exile and the legacy of Cyrus the Great played a major role in the development of the Jewish tradition. The "Light" they presently regard as the God of Israel first shined on the eternal homeland of the Jews, Iran. Hegel stated that "the God of the Jewish People is the God only of Abraham and of his seed: National individuality and special local worship are involved in such a conception of deity" (Hegel 1991b, 195). "Before him, all other gods are false: moreover the distinction between 'true'


and 'false' is quite abstract; for as regards the false gods, not a ray of the Divine is supposed to shine into them. But every form of spiritual force, and a fortiori every religion is of such a nature, that whatever peculiar character, an affirmative element is necessarily contained in it. 174 However erroneous a religion may be, it possesses truth, although in a mutilated phase" (Hegel 1991b, 195). The first independent kingdom of Judea suffered from internal disruption and was divided. "The two kingdoms, equally infelicitous in foreign and domestic warfare, were at last subjected to the Assyrians and Babylonians; through Cyrus the Israelites obtained permission to return home and live according to their own laws" (Hegel 1991b, 198). As mentioned in Chapter One, Hebrew scholar EphraimE. Urbach argued that the Jews were mostly polytheist during the Babylonian exile and believed their God was superior to the gods of various city-states (Urbach 1975, 20). Their God was in essence the God of Israel. Once Cyrus freed the Jews from captivity, some of them settled in Iran while others interacted with Iranians throughout the Empire. According to Urbach, the Zoroastrians they encountered in Iran inspired their strict monotheist thought (Urbach 1975, 20).95 In other words, the Zoroastrian faith inspired the Jews to elevate the God of Israel to the Universal Spirit, which eventually developed into the Abrahamic God. As W.J. Johnson wrote, "It has long been recognized by some, that Zoroastrianism played a role in the development of both Judaism and Christianity" (Johnson 1998, 6).


upon Jewish history would be settled at once without question (Mills 1977, 212).96 However, Mills aimed to present additional evidence which avoids the controversy over "supernatural" rhetoric. In addition to Zoroaster's influence on Jewish history, he was also interested in its influence on Greek philosophy and Christianity. In Zarathustra, Philo, the Achaemenids, and Israel, he suggested that the Zoroastrian conception of Vohu Manah (Good Mentality), which was essentially an expression for the attributes of "truth and benevolence," was practically synonymous with the Greek perspective on knowledge (logos) (Mills 1977, 20). Philo of Alexandria (20 BCE – 50 CE), also known as Philo Judaeus, made numerous contributions to Jewish philosophy while hoping to reconcile various perspectives on religion through universal logos (knowledge) (Philo 1854, 1-4, and 486-487, Philo 1855,that Hegel wrote during the post-Enlightenment period in which the concept of religion itself was disputed (Lewis 2011, 3). In Hegel's Social Philosophy: the Project of Reconciliation (1994), Michael O. Hardimon stated that Hegel used Geist (Spirit, Mind) to refer to human individuals, human culture and society, as well as God (Hardimon 1994, 43).98 However, the main point of his book was not meant to point out the importance of religion in Hegel's thought. It suggested that Hegel's social philosophy was based on the reconciliation of the individual and the modern community. In "Hegel and the Political Theology of Reconciliation" (2001), Mark Lilla claims that "Hegel was not a Christian thinker," but his philosophy is defined by a form of reconciliation that is unmistakably Christian (Lilla 97Bernard M.G.


Reardon wrote a guide to Hegel's Philosophy of Religion based on this assumption (Reardon 1977, ix). 98In "God As Absolute Spirit: A Heideggerian Interpretation of Hegel's God Talk," Yong Huang argued that Martin Heidegger's conception of "Being" can provide insight into Hegel's conception of God. Huang noted that in the post-modern era, God-talk is facing serious challenges (Huang 1996, 489). According to Huang, Hegel did not regard God as a metaphysical being, but an idea "internal to human knowing" (Huang 1996, 490). 177 2001, 860). Similarly, in "'The Spirit of Christianity and Its Faith:' Toward a Reconsideration of the Role of Love in Hegel" (2002), Alice Ormiston examined Hegel's unpublished works on love (1798-1799) and claimed that one of Hegel's major projects was to reconcile the modern individualwith the expression of love that characterized the early followers of Jesus (Ormiston 2002, 499). In turn, while Hegel can be regarded as the "Thomas Aquinas of Protestantism," he was merely responding to the intellectual trend of post-Enlightenment scholarship (Nys 2009, 3). The term religion itself was dramatically reconceived during Hegel's life and it was undoubtedly influenced by European travelers to Asia, especially Anquetil du Perron's acquisition of the Zoroastrian texts.99 Bernard M.G. Reardon briefly referenced Zoroastrianism in a summary section of his "guide" to Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion. Out of the aforementioned authors concerned with the religious dimension of Hegel's thought, Jaeschke and Reardon were the only authors who discussed "Iranian religion." However, Jaeschke never mentioned Hegel's direct references to Zoroastrianism even though Hegel


regarded it as a synonym for the Iranian religion. Regardless, we shall see that Hegel's references to Zoroastrianism provide insight into his understanding of the nature of Spirit. 99 The relationship between religion and philosophy has been redefined at various points in history. For some people, some forms of religious knowledge transcend philosophy, for others, religion and philosophy are parallel paths to truth which stand equal to each other. Religion may also be categorized under the general pursuit of knowledge and wisdom, often described as a philosophy of religion. 178 Hegel's Texts on the Nature of Spirit According to Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1840), history is the process in which Spirit becomes completely conscious of itself. In other words, the purpose of history is forall humans to realize that they are united by the phenomenology of mind. In these lectures, the definition of Spirit was based on the definition Hegel provided in the Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), in which he wrote that Spirit is the actuality of the ethical world, "the self-of actual consciousness to which it [Spirit] stands opposed [even if it depends on it]" (Hegel 1807, 265). Thus, "the nature of Spirit may be understood by a glance at its direct opposite-Matter" (Hegel 1991b, 17). For Hegel, the first major turning point in the process of history began when the first person became conscious of the Universal Spirit. That person was Zoroaster and his ethical philosophy influenced the policies of the Persian Empire. The highlight of the Oriental phase of


history took place in Iran, which started the story of "human" history. "As Light illuminates everything-imparting to each object a peculiar vitality-so the Persian Empire extends over a multitude of nations, and leaves to each one its peculiar character" (Hegel 1991b, 187).100 Hegel strongly associated the terms Light and Spirit, which are core principles in his philosophy. The science 100 According to Hegel, "the Persian Empire is an Empire in the modern sense-like that which existed in Germany, and the great imperial realm under the sway of Napoleon; for we find it consisting of a number states, which are indeed dependent, but which have retained their own individuality, their manners, and laws. The general enactments, binding upon all, did not infringe upon their political and social idiosyncrasies, butdeath and destruction (Hegel 1879, 11). Hegel referred to the Iranian religion as the "Religion of Light (Persian Religion)" in his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (Hegel 2006, 297). 180 During the same period when he delivered his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Hegel explicitly described the importance of Anquetil's acquisition of the Zoroastrian texts in his Lectures on the Philosophy of History. He discussed how Anquetil acquired these texts from the Parsis he met in Bombay (Hegel 1991b, 176). He was also aware that the Parsis fled Iran in the wake of the "Mahometan" conquest (Hegel 1991b, 176). Hegel implied that he understood how the ancient Avestai language changed as Zoroastrianism spread from East Iran to the Western tribes that would become the leaders of


the Persian Empire. "In Media and Persia the religion of Zoroaster prevailed, and Xenophon relates that Cyrus adopted it" (Hegel 1991b, 176). However, "none of these countries was the proper habitat of the Avestai people, which Zoroaster himself calls the pure Aryan: we find a similar name in Herodotus, for he says that the Medes were formerly called Arii-a name with which the designation of Iran is connected" (Hegel 1991b, 176). In other words, even though the Persians and the Medes referred to themselves as Aryan tribes, the term Aryan was initially associated with the language and setting of the Avesta. Hegel viewed the third phase as a period of decline but expected a return to glory in the fourth and final phase. Nevertheless, the Roman desire forsatisfaction prepared the ground for a higher spiritual world which manifested itself in connection with the 181 Christian religion (Hegel 1991b, 320).101 The Christian conception of the trinity consists of the "Father" and the "Son," and their duality essentially characterizes "Spirit" (Hegel 1991b, 324). According to Hegel, it is in this truth that the relation of man to this truth is posited, for Spirit makes itself its own polar opposite and when "comprehended in pure ideality, the antithetic form of Spirit is the Son of God" (Hegel 1991b, 324). However, the unity between man and God must not be superficially conceived, since man is only God only in so far as he "annuls what is merely natural and limited in his Spirit and elevates himself to God" (Hegel


1991b, 324). In this stage, Spirit is able to unify all the perspectives and stages of human history. Hegel asserted that "the Spirit now grasps the infinite positivity of its own inwardness, the principle of the unity of divine and human nature and the reconciliation of the objective truth and freedom which have appeared within self-consciousness and subjectivity" (Hegel 1991b, 379). In the Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820), Hegel implied that the Germans have a connection to the "Oriental" phase of history through Nordic culture. He wrote, "The task of accomplishing this reconciliation is assigned to the Nordic principle of the Germanic peoples" (Hegel 1991a, 379). In other words, based on the pattern of the sun and the 101 In his Lectures on the Philosophy ofReligion, Hegel stated that the "multitude of gods constitutes a very wide-ranging circle of divinities, to be sure; but it is the immediate character of the universality of Roman destiny, or the ruling Jupiter-it lies in the very definition of this foundation-that all these gods together, the individual gods, are gathered into one. The extension of the Romans' worldly dominion consisted in this: that individuals and peoples were brought under one power and rule, and likewise their ethical powers, the divine national spirits, were compressed into one pantheon, assembled under one destiny, subordinated to the one Jupiter Capitolinus. Whole cargos of gods were hauled to Rome from Egypt, Greece, Persia (the Mithra worship), etc. Rome is a potpourri of all sorts of religions, the total condition is one


of confusion" (Hegel 2006, 383-384). 182 historical pattern of development in our spiritual and political institutions, the rise of representative governments in "Germanic countries" (along with Hegel's lectures) marked the time and place in which we reached the final stage of history. Hegel's philosophy of history outlines a four step process which ends when all humans recognize the power of the Universal Spirit. History ends with the articulation of his philosophy, which reconciled conflicting ideas and phases through a symbolic revival of Zoroastrian rhetoric and prose. Unfortunately, his prophecy was beyond the comprehension of his most prominent students as well as the leaders of the Prussian State. His ideas fragmented into a wide spectrum of ideologies which polarized the so called "Hegelians" and foreshadowed the rise of anopportunistic Aryan revival. Conclusion This chapter focused on the connection between Zoroastrianism and philosophy of history. This history helps us understand puzzles in Hegelian thought, and offers a somewhat different, yet potentially useful way to think about familiar ideas and concepts. Zoroastrianism emphasized the importance of the Universal Spirit which was adapted as a core concept by numerous philosophers of history. In addition, Zoroaster referred to his own discovery as the beginning of a new age which created a millenarian trend in human thought. Although Zoroaster attempted to reconcile the battle between light and darkness, he was never able to fully eradicate the conflicts that pertained to religion, or completely resolve the debates that pertained to dualism, monotheism, and the problem of evil. 183 Chapter Four The Eastern


Roots of Aryan Nationalism In the twentieth century, German leaders declared themselves the descendants of the ancient Aryan warriors and maintained close ties to contemporary Iran and India. While there were certainly linguistic connections between German, English, Farsi, and Sanskrit, the German claims to the ancient Aryan culture were also concerned with religion. The Nazi movement in Germany was strongly influenced by the accounts of the European travelers in Asia between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, especially their stories about Zoroastrianism. Before I examine the connection between the European travelers and the Nazi party I will briefly outline the relations between Iran, India, and Germany, prior to World War Two. German Relations with the Aryan Homeland During the 1930s, the Nazis declared that Iran and India were historichomelands of the Aryan peoples (Rosenberg 1930, 7, Dunlap 1944, 296, and Mokhtari 2011, 13).102 They sponsored research missions to India hoping to find support for their theories. These expeditions required a large amount of funding and were largely disrupted by the conflicts of World War Two. Nevertheless, the Germans admired the hierarchical 102 During World War Two, the Nazi propaganda machine declared Iranians an Aryan nation and racial kin of the Germans (Mokhtari 2011, 13). The Nazis also subsidized propagandist newspapers that were written in German, Gujarati, and Farsi in order to promote their ideology in India and Iran (D'Souza 2000, 82). The editor of some of these newspapers, Saif Azad, an Iranian resident of Germany, was forced to move his operations to Bombay after the Iranian


government shut down one of his newspapers in Tehran (D'Souza 2000, 82). 184 structure of Indian society which they claimed as a model for international relations. The Nazis also admired the history of the Iranian people who they regarded as "pure-blooded" Aryans. While Iranians referred to their country as "Iran" since the time of Zoroaster, it was officially recognized as "Persia" outside of Iran until 1935. That year, Iran officially changed its name after the Iranian ambassador to Germany suggested it to Reza Shah (Yarshater 1989, 62). Many Iranians opposed the change claiming that Iran would lose its ties to Cyrus the Great and the ancient Persian Empire (Gershevitch 1985, 239). Regardless, the Iranian government proceeded with the change. Iran is derived from the term "Airyanem" which ismentioned in Younger Avestai texts such as the Vendidad (Fargard 1.3; Darmesteter (Tr.) 1879, 4-5 and Fargard 19.39 and Darmesteter (Tr.) 1879, 223). Before it changed the international name of the country, the Imperial Government of Iran supported close ties to Germany in order to balance Russian and British influences. German officers, technicians, and business personnel maintained a large presence in Iran after both nations' leaders signed commercial treaties in 1873. While seeking to modernize the national university system, the government recruited faculty members from Europe, hiring mostly German and Austrian professors (Haghighat 2004, 77). Meanwhile, German citizens played a large role in modernizing Iran's transportation and communication systems during the first half of the twentieth century. The Iranian 185 delegates in Nazi Germany were referred to as


the representatives of the "Aryan Nation" (Mokhtari 2011, 13). In 1941, the Allied Forces occupied Iran and used the German-designed transnational railroad as a weapons supply route. This tactic allowed the United States and Britain to rapidly arm the Russians so they could fight the Germans. After the Nazi defeat in World War Two, the Russians remained in northern Iran while the British remained in the southern territory. Although Iran declared neutrality during the war, the Allies removed Reza Shah from his position since he was a Nazi sympathizer. They replaced him with his son, Prince Mohammad Reza Shah. The British and the Russian forces reluctantly agreed to leave Iran in 1946 once they realized that an occupation was not practical because a conflict would destroy its vitalinfrastructure. The Nazis twisted the Aryan identity and contradicted most of what the Aryans stood for. The ancient Aryans never committed genocide against Semitic cultures. In turn, the political environment during Nazi rule was characterized by madness and disorder, which gave some Iranians and Indians a chance to express their cultural traditions of toleration. The story of Abdol Hossayn Sardari was told by Fariborz Mokhtari's In the Lion's Shadow (2011). Mokhtari's book began with the experiences of Sardari's brother-in-law, Anoshirvan Sepahbody, who was the Minister of the Iranian delegation in France during the Nazi occupation. Before he escaped the violent chaos in Paris (Mokhtari 2011, 13), Minister Sepahbody had entrusted the consulate to Sardari, a young diplomat with a 1936 law degree from the University of Geneva (Mokhtari


2011, 186 13). When Sepahbody and his family arrived in Moulins, Sepahbody witnessed a Nazi General slap and scold a junior officer at a hotel for placing an insulting message on Sepahbody's table because the officer thought he was Jewish (Mokhtari 2011, 12). The officer confessed to writing the message, and claimed he did not know that Sepahbody was an Iranian diplomat. He was also ordered to apologize to the Iranian Minister (Mokhtari 2011, 12).103 While it was advisable for diplomats in France to return to their home countries, Sardari refused and insisted that he could not return without his fellow citizens. Nazi officers did not resist Sardari's wishes until he emphasized that the Iranian Jews must be allowed to return as well. The Nazis were reluctant tothe core principles of Nazi 103 This story is based on interviews with Ambassador Anoshirvan Sepahbody's son, Farhad Sepahbody, who also became an ambassador (Mokhtari 2011, 138). 187 ideology. The Nazis distinguished non-Muslim Iranians as "nicht Judische Abstammung" and "Blutmassig nicht Juden" [Non-Jewish Ancestry and Non-Jewish Blood] (Mokhtari 2011, 14). This group included Zoroastrians, Christians, and Armenians (Mokhtari 2011, 14). The second group included people whose religion was based on the teachings of Moses but whose blood and race were not Jewish (Mahrdad 1999, 86-87 and Mokhtari 2011, 14). Meanwhile, "the de facto governor of occupied France, German Ambassador Otto Abetz, had assured Sardari that Iranian (Jews) would not be subjected to 'the special Nazi laws'" (Milani 2001, 91).104 Sardari also saved hundreds of non-Iranian Jews by printing


Iranian passports for them as well. "After having secured the safety of fellow Iranians, he issued documents for others, often recommended by his trusted Iranian Jewish friends" (Mokhtari 2011, 16). According to Mokhtari, he saved an estimated 2,400 Jews (Mokhtari 2011, 16). He unilaterally established Iran as a safe haven for all Jews without informing the Iranian government. The occupation of Iran by Allied Forces ended the diplomatic ties between Iran and Nazi-occupied France. Nevertheless, Sardari remained in France and continued his campaign to save Jewish lives. By 1942, "the Nazi leadership in Berlin, perhaps in response to Sardari's arguments, initiated a number of inquiries to determine the blood classification of the followers of Moses in Iran, Afghanistan, and Georgia" (Mokhtari 104 Ambassador Fereydoun Hoveyda confirmed during interviewswith Milani that Sardari had received a letter with this information. Abetz was the German Ambassador to Vichy from 1940-1944, after he had been expelled as persona non grata in 1939. He had joined the Nazi party in 1931 and had been assigned to France as a member of the German Foreign Service from about 1935 (Milani 2001, 91 and Mokhtari 2011, 138). 188 2011, 14). Sardari's theories about the Iranian Jews reached the attention of Adolf Eichmann, the senior minister for Jewish Affairs under the Nazi regime. Eichmann regarded them as "the usual Jewish tricks and attempts at camouflage" (Mokhtari 2011, 103). Regardless, the Nazis were distracted enough to allow Sardari to print hundreds of passports before and after Eichmann's ruling. According to Mokhtari, Sardari represented a


nation, a culture, and a government. His story reflects a national sentiment (Mokhtari 2011, 6). Mokhtari's research on the story of Sardari was motivated by persistent rumors of Iranian diplomats having helped Jews abroad for decades, and stories of Iranians assisting Jewish refugees entering Iran from Iraq, Afghanistan, and the former Soviet Union (Mokhtari 2011, 7). He learned more about Sardari through interviews with government officials, diplomats, scholars, and Jews who lived in France during the Nazi occupation. Sardari's efforts are still commemorated by various Jewish organizations in Los Angeles (Mokhtari 2011, 17). He skillfully exploited the internal ideological differences within the Nazi party (Mokhtari 2011, 14). His story demonstrates how these differences were influenced by complex historical research and rash improvisation. Nazi Abad The legacy of Iranianand German relations continued after World War Two. Iran maintained close commercial ties with West Germany, which remained Iran's largest trading partner up until 1974 when it was surpassed by the United States. In 1960, there were 15,000 Iranian students living abroad, and by 1966 that number had risen to 30,000 189 (Chehabi 1990, 195). During the 1960s, [West] Germany had the highest number of Iranian students but it was eventually passed by the United States as more students acquired the resources to travel further (Chehabi 1990, 195). During the 1970s, West Germany contained the largest number of expatriate Iranians. Meanwhile, Iran's nuclear program was largely supported by its 1976 agreements with West Germany for the establishment of six nuclear power reactors in Iran. The first two were


to be built by German Kraftwerk Union (KWU) in Bushehr, each housing Siemens 1,300 MW(e) reactors (Kibaroglu 2006, 215). After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the first Western diplomat to officially visit Tehran was the German Foreign Minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who visited in 1984 (Hunter 1989, 141). A neighborhood in southern Tehran is still named "Nazi Abad." Abad translates as town or village in Farsi. Nazi Abad was a designated residential zone located near an industrial park. Before World War Two, Iranians named it after the large number of German residents who worked on the transnational railway project. The railway project began in 1927 and was completed in 1938. During the 1930s, Iranians used the term "Nazi" as a synonym for German. After the Iranian Revolution, Germany regainedits position from the United States as Iran's largest trading partner. In 2005 Germany had the largest share of Iran's export market with $5.67 billion, which is about 14.4 percent (Habibi 2006, 1). In order of volume, the main source countries for Iran's imports in 2006 were Germany, China, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, and France (Hooglund 2008, xxix). In the recent 190 decade, China passed Germany to become Iran's number one trading partner (Chang 2011, 11).105 A large amount of Chinese products pass through the United Arab Emirates before they are shipped to Iran which provides additional obstacles for trade data analysis. Iran and Germany clearly have a unique political relationship, as well as a cultural relationship which can be traced back to ancient times. This


relationship played a key role in the rise of German nationalism prior to World War Two. Unfortunately, the Nazi leaders used these connections to justify their plans to industrialize Germany through murder and slavery. German Nationalism After World War One, the Germans felt humiliated for numerous reasons. They were forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles in which they admitted defeat and agreed to the loss of vital territories. In 1871, the German Empire was founded in the Palace of Versailles which made the ceremony after World War One even more humiliating. The Germans were charged with high reparation costs since they were identified as the main aggressor in the most destructive war of all time. In order to pay back loans and reparations, the German government printedlarge amounts of currency which led to hyperinflation. At this point, governmental efforts to control the money supply were 105 In 2010, two-way trade between Iran and China exceeded twenty three billion dollars (Chang 2011, 11). 191 useless. These conditions facilitated the rise of a nationalist party which promised radical economic change. As most people know, between 1933 and 1945, Germany was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazis). During this period, Nazi ideology was Germany's alternative to Leninist and liberal ideologies. The Nazis aimed to restore German glory through nationalist rhetoric and rapid rearmament. They claimed that the Germans were the descendants of the ancient Aryans based on linguistic, literary, and archeological evidence. The claim to Aryan culture gave Germany a unique


Workers Party which was founded by Anton Drexler in 1919. Unlike Leninist parties, the German Workers Party focused on the social welfare of Germans rather than workers in general. Its foundation was largely influenced by a romantic and legendary revival of ancient German culture. During the early years of its existence, the party was associated with attacks against corporate industrialism (Grill 1982, 153-154). Drexler and his followers blamed Germany's social and economic problems on the Jewish population of Europe (Waite 1977, 115). Sadly, due to the religious restrictions concerning money-lending in Christian and Islamic societies, Jewish people from scholars belonging to the dominant non-Gypsy majority. This has undoubtedly contributed to a series of research biases in the field that have only recently come under closer scrutiny and critiqueof war profiteering and considered the Jews in Europe as a threat to the German nation. Meanwhile, the party searched for a messianic figure that would fulfill the vision of its founders and save the German nation (Goodrick-Clarke 2005, 80, 95, and 197). As a member of the German military, Hitler was originally assigned to spy on the German Workers Party.107 However, he decided to join it in 1919 since he accepted the party's core values. "Membership was restricted to Germans who could establish the 'purity of blood' for three generations;; and every candidate had to pledge he would join energetically in the 'struggle against internationalism and Jewry'" (Toland 1976, 85). Soon after he joined the party, he met Dietrich Eckart, one of the founding members. Eckart was


a member of the Thule Society. He was "perhaps the most important ideologue in the early stages of the [Nazi] movement" (Steigman-Gall 2003, 17). He coined the phrase, "the Jewish materialist spirit within us and without us" which implied a religious element in the Nazi typology and suggested that the Jewish "problem" was not solely racial (Steigman-Gall 2003, 17). The party was the "brainchild" of Rudolf Freiherr von Sebottendorff, who instructed Anton Drexler, also a member of the Thule society, to form a Political Workers' Circle "to win the workers to his völkisch (populist) 107 Based on its name and early anti-corporate rhetoric, the German Workers Party could be associated with Marxism-Leninism. Hitler was commanded to infiltrate and disrupt such organizations. Once he spied on the German WorkersParty, he realized that its members shared his militant stance against the rise of Marxist-Leninist groups. 194 cause" (Toland 1976, 85). Like Hitler, von Sebottendorff believed in the Germanic wave of the future and so threw his considerable energies into the formation of a Bavarian branch of the Teutonic Order in the decade after 1900, and was forced to give his organization the innocent title of the Thule Society as a cover, due to the recent labor movements and revolutions throughout the country (Toland 1976, 85). The ideology of the Thule Society members was closely related to the Ariosophist views of Guido von List, to be discussed below. Both von List and Eckart predicted the arrival of a "German Messiah." Eckart expressed his ideas about the German Messiah


in a poem only weeks before he met Hitler at a German Workers Party gathering in 1919 (Hant 2010, 395). As soon as he heard Hitler speak, he realized he had found "the Great One" mentioned in his poem. According to Claus Hant, "the coming of the savior now, in the darkest hour, was consistent with the Ariosophists' Hindu-inspired philosophy of continual becoming and passing" (Hant 2010, 395). The Indo-Aryans believed that the downfall of something old always contained something new. So it was the "old" prophet, von List, who died in 1919, the same year that Hitler entered the public spotlight with his speech at the Sterneckerbräu beer hall in Munich" (Hant 2010, 395). As a mentor for Hitler during his early membership in the party, Eckartintroduced Hitler to influential citizens as "the man who will liberate Germany" (Toland 1976, 99). During their first encounter, "Drexler was so impressed by Hitler's delivery and logic that he whispered to his secretary 'this one has what it takes, we could use 195 him'" (Toland 1976, 87). Once he joined the Germany Workers Party, Hitler was quickly promoted to upper leadership positions based on his oratorical skills. Hitler swiftly established himself as the supreme orator of the party. He organized large events and gatherings which allowed him to share his views and expand the party. His speeches attacked the conditions Germany faced under the Treaty of Versailles and blamed the leaders who were too weak to resist it in the first place. He also believed that the


German people could not thrive and coexist with the Jewish population. Hitler's ascendancy deeply concerned some of the other members of the party since they objected to his volcanic and mercurial style (Toland 1976, 95). Meanwhile, Drexler was also distressed by the direction of the party along with the sudden influx of members with military ties, but he was so convinced that Hitler was the hope of the party that he supported a move to make him the new chief of propaganda (Toland 1976, 95). After his opponents attempted to disband and merge the German Workers Party with its rival Socialist party, Hitler demanded more control and acquired the position of party chairman (Toland 1976, 111). Hitler led a failed coup in 1923. He was arrested after sixteenrebels were killed. Hitler went to prison and wrote Mein Kampf before he was released in 1924. He dedicated it to Dietrich Eckart and it was published in 1925. During the failed coup, the rebels carried a Swastika Flag which absorbed the blood of the martyrs. This inspired a ritual in which Nazi flags were authenticated by touching the original flag. According to Hitler, the blood of the martyrs was the "Holy Water of the Third Reich" (Hitler 1927, 1). 196 Nazi blood carried a sacred and symbolic form of energy, which was also the basis for political and civic rights. Hitler ran for President in 1932. In many places, the Nazis used intimidation against people who were working for the re-election of President Paul von Hindenburg which


had a dampening effect on their propaganda activities (Pridham 1973, 266). Although Hitler's loss to von Hindenburg was a disappointment to many of his followers, he gained a large number of votes and popular support (Pridham 1973, 264-265). The Nazis increased their share of the vote to 37.4 percent which gave them 230 seats in the Reichstag, more than any other party (Giblin 2002, 68). Based on his popular support, Hitler was appointed by President von Hindenburg to the position of Chancellor in 1933 (Pridham 1973, 253 and Toland 1976, 288). Hitler's party eventually gained control of parliament and led a vote to significantly increase his power. As von Hindenburg was close to death, his position was dissolved and merged with the duties and responsibilities of the Chancellor(Toland 1976, 356 and Giblin 2002, 87). Hitler was proclaimed "Fuhrer" which translates as leader and spiritual guide (Toland 1976, 356). Von Hindenburg died in 1934. Hitler and his followers attempted to strengthen the German economy through policies that were based on Aryan supremacy. The State financed reconstruction and rearmament projects through forced labor and seized assets (Gruner 2006, 10-11 and 169). Many private firms benefited from these projects while Hitler sought to gain more 197 territories. Before Germany was eventually defeated and humiliated again in World War Two, it seemed that Hitler was the messiah that most Germans were searching for. Hitler's efforts can be understood as the culmination of an anti-Semitic pagan revivalist movement that existed in Germany for centuries. The Nazi leaders held a variety


of religious views such as paganism, Protestantism, and Catholicism. According to Richard Steigman-Gall, the pagan and Christian members of the Nazi elite engaged in numerous struggles to define the Nazi ideology in their terms (Steigman-Gall 2003, 93). Meanwhile, Reinhold Krause, a member of a Protestant Church organization known as the League for a German Church, expressed unconditional commitment to National Socialist laws and values, and urged the rejection of most Biblical practices as "Jewish superstition" (Steigman-Gall 2003, 74-75 and Overy 2004, 284). He also caused a tremendous amount of controversy by calling for the removal of the Old Testament from the Christian Bible and discouraging the persistence of Christian love, promoting a heroic, "fighting Jesus" (Steigman-Gall 2003, 75 and Overy 2004, 284). The history of both German paganismand Christianity was characterized by anti-Semitism, antiMarxism, and anti-liberalism, which made both of them very useful for Nazi scholars. In Germany, the discourse about the separation between Aryan and Semite first arose as an intellectual debate within Christianity (Steigman-Gall 2003, 108). Although there was some historical logic to the Nazi ideology, the leaders essentially agreed with anything that justified Hitler's policies. The Nazi scholars and researchers supported various historians who argued that Christianity was an Aryan religion. In other words, 198 they believed the Christian tradition was rooted in "Indo-European" history. In German art, Christ was portrayed as an Aryan hero who struggled against the Jews (SteigmanGall 2003, 108). As far as the Nazis were concerned, the portrayal of Jesus as a darkskinned martyr was part of an


one between Semites and Aryans, the Shia representing the upsurge of Aryan Iran, in a racial revolt against Semitic domination" (Lewis 1987, 22). As Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke argued, only "religious beliefs and myth could explain the success of an ideology concerned with special racial and esoteric knowledge, the belief in a nefarious world-conspiracy of scheming Jews and other racial inferiors, and the apocalyptic promise of group salvation in a millenarian apotheosis of the German nation" (Goodrick-Clarke 2005, vii). Although the ancient Aryans were known for their policies of toleration and their efforts to protect 199 the Jews, many German nationalists, such as Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels, twisted their ideas in order to support their hatred. The Occult Roots of the Nazi Movement The Nazi movement was heavily influenced bysecret millenarian groups. These groups were characterized by recent trends in pagan revivalism and the study of ancient German culture. Initially, the leaders of the Protestant Reformation expressed concerns about corruption within the Roman Catholic Church and its imposition of Latin as an official language. Later, the German priest Martin Luther translated the Bible into German (first printed in 1534) in order to make it more accessible to the masses of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Meanwhile, most German nationalists refused to accept the view that the Germanic peoples were barbarians until they were Christianized. The accounts of the European travelers to Asia between the sixteenth and the nineteenth centuries supported this view. They included notions about the similarities between German, English, Farsi, and Sanskrit


as well as Zoroastrian influences on the Abrahamic tradition. The European travelers and the German philosophers that were interested in Zoroastrianism unintentionally set into motion the events that would culminate in the rise of Aryan Nazism. There were certainly linguistic connections between German, English, Farsi and Sanskrit but the German claims to ancient Aryan culture were also concerned with religion. For German nationalists, Iranian culture allowed them to separate themselves from the rest of Europe both ethnically and spiritually. If Zoroastrianism was 200 recognized as the first monotheist faith, the Germans who claimed to be Aryan would no longer have to express any gratitude to the Jews or the Romans as the forerunners of Christianity or any other form of God worship. In The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptionsof Christianity, 1919-1945 (2003), Richard Steigman-Gall examined the religious views of Nazi leaders. According to SteigmanGall, the pagan and Christian members of the Nazi elite engaged in numerous struggles to define Nazi ideology in their terms (Steigman-Gall 2003, 93). Adolf Hitler maintained a position of confessional neutrality since Protestant and Catholic disunity was a threat to nationalism. Some Nazi leaders stated that Biblical practices were "Jewish superstition" (Overy 2004, 1). In The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazism, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke tells the story of Guido von List (1848-1919), an Austrian philosopher who discussed the existence of a proto-Aryan language as well as a proto-Aryan religion led by a set of sun-priests (Goodrick-Clarke 2005, 33-37 and von List 1908, 1).108 The rule of


the sun-priests was sanctioned by an enlightened sun-king. This is very similar to the Zoroastrian tradition, as well as Norse mythology such as the Sagas. The Sagas are stories about ancient Germanic histories which include references to religious worship (Sturluson 1899, 361). The arctic sun is very important in ancient 108 Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (1953-2012) was a professor who specialized in Ariosophy and other esoteric ideas at the University of Exeter, as well as the director for the Center of the Study of Esotericism within the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. He published numerous works on occult and esoteric traditions and is best known for his work on The Occult Roots of Nazism (2005). 201 Norse history. In the Zoroastrian tradition, light and fire are symbols of truth.In these contexts, the term Aryan, which also translates as noble, describes an enlightened class of priests in addition to a race. The term "aristocrat" is rooted in the word Aryan, which also relates to words which describe a class of "possessors," "skilled" constructors, or the people that are able to "properly fit" and "assemble" useful equipment (Laroche 1960, 124-128 and Bailey 1987, 1). Von List himself added the aristocratic "von" to his family name in the early 1900s, which seems to fit his religious fantasy. However, he also claimed that by choosing to be a scholar and artist rather than pursuing a commercial life like his father, he had revived his family tradition and therefore had the legal right to reacquire the name (Goodrick-Clarke 2005, 42).109 He


claimed that his grandfather abandoned the title when he became an inn-keeper (Goodrick-Clarke 2005, 42). Von List published an unsigned article, "Germanischer Lichtdienst" [German Light Rituals], in 1899 which discussed the significance of pagan solstice fires. List suggested that it symbolized the original birth of the sun (von List 1899, 5). He then claimed that the swastika was a holy Aryan symbol, since it derived from the fire whisk that twirled the cosmos into being (Goodrick-Clarke 2005, 52). The ancient records of the swastika symbol in Asia as well as Germanic countries supported the connection between the Germans and the ancient Aryans. 109 Guido von List's father was a wealthy leather merchant who encouraged his son to take over the family business. 202 The swastika dates back to2,500 BCE and can be traced to the Indus Valley. It spread to China and Japan where it was included in various writing systems. The ancient symbol for the Chinese term "Wu" is similar to a swastika. The term "Wu" refers to a doctor or spiritual practitioner, which is possibly based on the term for the Magi (Magu) (Mair 1990, 27). The swastika also appears on an ancient Iranian necklace from the first millennium BCE (National Museum of Iran), as well as Northern European weapons from before and after the Viking age (8th century CE). Von List claimed he was concerned with esoteric forms of knowledge rather than exoteric forms of knowledge which are intended for the lower classes (Goodrick-Clark 2005, 17). He regarded Roman Catholicism in Austria


as Roman colonization of the German tribes. He challenged "the conventional belief that the barbarian migrations had scattered the Celtic tribes of the region, and that it was Charlemagne who had first settled converted Germans on the eastern marches" (von List 1911, 3 and Goodrick-Clarke 2005, 66). Von List's admiration for ancient German culture overlapped with the ideologies of the Thule society, especially his anticipation of a German messiah. The Thule society was an occultist romanticist group which supported various political organizations that would eventually develop into the Nazi party.110 110 The Thule society members had tremendous influence within these organizations. Based on their membership lists, Thule Society supporters were mainly lawyers, judges, university professors, aristocratic members of the Wittelsbach royal entourage, industrialists, doctors, scientists, and rich businessmen(Goodrick-Clarke 2005, 149). 203 A notable follower of Guido von List was Adolf Josef Lanz (1874-1954), who was also known as Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels. After leaving a Catholic monastery he became a founding member of the Guido von List Society in Austria. Lanz was a follower of von List's philosophy of Aryo-Christianity, otherwise known as Ariosophy. Ariosophy is best described as an esoteric Aryan supremacy movement which largely overlapped with pagan revivalism. Unlike von List, Lanz's writings on Ariosophy focused their attacks against Judaism rather than Christianity. In 1905, Lanz founded a German nationalist magazine called "Ostara." He claimed it had a peak circulation of 100,000 copies (Daim 1994, 322). It was published in three series between 1905 and 1930. It was mostly based on Lanz's anti-Semitic


version of Ariosophy. Goodrick-Clarke suggested that the rise of secret Ariosophist groups was a symptom in anticipation of the Nazi movement (Goodrick-Clarke 2005, 202). There is evidence which suggests that Hitler was strongly influenced by the ideas of Lanz (Daim 1994, 7). In a letter from1932, Lanz wrote that "Hitler is one of our pupils" (Daim 1994, 12). He also claimed that the "swastika and the national socialist movement" are the basic offspring of Ostara (Daim 1994, 12). As Goodrick-Clarke wrote, "the lineage of the early Nazi party in respect of its sponsors, newspaper, and symbols has been traced to the Thule Society, the Germanenorden, and thus to the ideas of Guido von List" (Goodrick-Clarke 2003, 192). In addition, Goodrick-Clarke showed how Himmler officially patronized Karl Maria 204Wiligut, whose historical speculations were rooted in the ideas of von List and his Ariosophist epigones (Goodrick-Clarke 2003, 192). In interviews with witnesses, Friedrich Heer elicited descriptions of Hitler's childhood interest in German racial characteristics and his segregation of classmates into Germans and non-Germans (Heer 1968, 19-21 & Goodrick-Clarke 2003, 193). According to Goodrick-Clarke, "[Hitler's] early fixation on mother Germany across the border in the context of both Manichaean and millenarian ideas would also find an echo in the writings of both List and Lanz von Liebenfels" (Goodrick-Clarke 2003, 244).111 Hitler discussed the Aryan Christ and its relation to German culture in several speeches. In a 1922 speech in Munich, he stated that Jesus inspired him because "he recognized the Jews for what they were" and led the


fight against them (Hitler 1922, 1). He also referenced the importance of spirituality in Mein Kampf. He wrote "Indeed, nearly all attempts to exterminate a doctrine and its organizational expression, by force without spiritual foundation, are doomed to failure, and not seldom end with the exact opposite of the desired result" (Hitler 1934, 103). Hitler was a major admirer of Martin Luther for his support of German nationalism through religious reform. Hitler was raised Catholic but he eventually rebelled against the ritualistic elements of the Catholic Church. He did not publicize many of his personal religious 111 Friedrich Heer has also suggested that the emotional inspiration of Hitler's adult dreams of worlddominion and Caesarism may have derived from his childhood experience of South German Catholic pomp and pageantryat Passau between 1892 and 1895 (Heer 1968, 19-21 and Goodrick-Clarke 2003, 244). 205 views since he did not want Catholic and Protestant disunity to threaten the movement. If his movement succeeded, Berlin would have been the "New Jerusalem." Overall, Hitler backed any view that rejected the traditional roots of Christianity and supported Aryan justice. The 450th anniversary of Luther's birthday was only a few months after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 (Steigman-Gall 2003, 1). There were celebrations in Germany on behalf of both the Protestant Churches and the Nazi party. In one celebration, the regional Nazi party leader Erich Koch compared Hitler and Luther and implied that the Nazi seizure of power was an act of divine will (Steigman-Gall 2003, 1). Goodrick-Clarke's main goal was


to demonstrate how various secret theosophy cults influenced Nazi ideology and symbols. He examined the influence of these groups on Adolf Hitler as well as on the German Schutzstaffel, otherwise known as the SS, which was the military organization of the Nazi party led by Heinrich Himmler. In addition to Himmler, Hitler's elite class of officers and ministers included Alfred Rosenberg, Erich Ludendorff, Joseph Goebbels, and Rudolf Hess. Goodricke-Clarke also wrote about the life of Otto Hanisch (1856-1936), a German immigrant who founded a Mazdaznan cult in the United States around 1900 (Goodrick-Clarke 2005, 234). Hanisch claimed he was born in Tehran and referred to himself as Ottoman Zardusht (Hanisch 1902, 4 and Goodrick-Clarke 2005, 234). In the early 1900s he published various works related to spirituality andphysical health (Hanisch 1902, 3 and Hanisch 1907, 5). In 1908 he published a health journal known as 206 the Mazdaznan in Germany (Hanisch 1908, 1). In his view, the Aryans and Christians were all descendants of the Zoroastrians. The Mazdaznan cult spread from United States to Europe where Karl Heisse established a branch in Zurich. Heisse was a supporter of the Guido von List Society which was founded in 1905 (Goodrick-Clarke 2005, 66). It had members in Austria and Germany. The ideology of Aryan supremacy was influenced by Arthur de Gobineau (18161882). De Gobineau was a French diplomat who served in various countries such as Iran and Brazil (Gershevitch 1985, 884). Coincidentally, he obtained a manuscript containing the history of the Bahai faith before Iranian officials executed


its author (de Gobineau 1856, 133). De Gobineau believed Greek, Roman, and German culture were rooted in an ancient Aryan culture. However, he classified the Greeks as people who descended from Aryan stock that was modified by Semitic elements. De Gobineau believed cultural connections were maintained through race which he classified as "black, white, and yellow" (de Gobineau 1853, 205). He wrote An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1853) in which he attributed the decline of certain states to racial mixing. "I can positively say that a people will never die, if it remains eternally composed of the same national elements" (de Gobineau 1853, 33). He then wrote that if the empire of Darius had, at the battle of Arbela, been able to fill itsranks with Persians, that is to say with real Aryans, and if the Romans of the later Empire maintained a Senate and army of the same stock which existed at the time of the Fabii, their dominion would never have come to an end (de Gobineau 1853, 33). De Gobineau 207 attributed advances in human development to the Aryan race but his arguments were not directly anti-Semitic. De Gobineau's ideas were taken up in the music of German composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883). Many of Wagner's songs and theatrical performances illustrated ancient Norse mythology such as the Sagas. After Wagner died, his followers continued performances based on his work. In Parsifal, Wagner told the story of a pure-blooded Knight in pursuit of the Holy Grail. In one scene, Parsifal