BETWEEN OCCULTISM AND FASCISM: ANTHROPOSOPHY AND THE
POLITICS OF RACE AND NATION IN GERMANY AND ITALY, 1900-1945
Peter Staudenmaier, Ph.D.
Cornell University 2010

https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/17662/Staudenmaier%2C%20Peter.pdf

The relationship between Nazism and occultism has long been an object of popular
speculation and scholarly controversy. This dissertation examines the interaction
between occult groups and the Nazi regime as well as the Italian Fascist state, with
central attention to the role of racial and ethnic theories in shaping these
developments. The centerpiece of the dissertation is a case study of the
anthroposophist movement founded by Rudolf Steiner, an esoteric tendency which
gave rise to widely influential alternative cultural institutions including Waldorf
schools, biodynamic agriculture, and holistic methods of health care and nutrition. A
careful exploration of the tensions and affinities between anthroposophists and fascists
reveals a complex and differentiated portrait of modern occult tendencies and their
treatment by Nazi and Fascist officials.
Two initial chapters analyze the emergence of anthroposophy’s racial doctrines, its
self-conception as an ‘unpolitical’ spiritual movement, and its relations with the
völkisch milieu and with Lebensreform movements. Four central chapters concern the
fate of anthroposophy in Nazi Germany, with a detailed reconstruction of specific
anthroposophical institutions and their interactions with various Nazi agencies. Two
final chapters provide a comparative portrait of the Italian anthroposophical movement
during the Fascist era, with particular concentration on the role of anthroposophists in
influencing and administering Fascist racial policy.
Based on a wide range of archival sources, the dissertation offers an empirically founded
account of the neglected history of modern occult movements while shedding new light
on the operations of the Nazi and Fascist regimes. The analysis focuses on the interplay
of ideology and practice, the concrete ways in which contending worldviews attempted
to establish institutional footholds within the organizational disarray of the Third Reich
and the Fascist state, and shows that disagreements over racial ideology were embedded
in power struggles between competing factions within the Nazi hierarchy and the Fascist
apparatus. It delineates the ways in which early twentieth century efforts toward spiritual
renewal, holism, cultural regeneration and redemption converged with deeply regressive
political realities. Engaging critically with previous accounts, the dissertation raises
challenging questions about the political implications of alternative spiritual currents and

counter-cultural tendencies. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 
Biographical Sketch iii
Acknowledgements iv
Preface: From Spiritual Science to Spiritual Racism viii
Introduction: Racial Politics in the Modern Occult Revival and the Rise of Fascism 1
1. Germany’s Savior: Rudolf Steiner and the Esoteric Meaning of Nation and Race 56
2. The Politics of the Unpolitical: German Anthroposophy in Theory and Practice,
1913-1933 112
3. Accommodation, Collaboration, Persecution: Anthroposophy in the Shadow of
National Socialism, 1933-1945 181
4. The German Essence Shall Heal the World: Ideological Affinities Between
Anthroposophy and Nazism 257
5. Education for the National Community? The Controversy over Waldorf Schools
in the Third Reich 305
6. The Nazi Campaign against Occultism 354
7. Anthroposophy and the Rise of Fascism in Italy 410
8. Italian Anthroposophists and the Fascist Racial Laws, 1938-1945 446
Conclusion: Occultism and Fascism in Historical Perspective 500

Bibliography 526

PREFACE
From Spiritual Science to Spiritual Racism
This is a study of an unusual movement in an unusual time. It deals with topics
that are difficult to define precisely, and it takes issue with a variety of scholarly and
popular interpretations of several controversial themes. It is both a historical account
of an under-examined chapter in the history of fascism and the history of occultism, as
well as an extended argument about the relevance of unorthodox beliefs about race.
Rather than attempting a comprehensive overview of occult tendencies during the
fascist era, it focuses on one central case study, a movement known as anthroposophy.
Founded by Rudolf Steiner in the early years of the twentieth century, anthroposophy
has become renowned in different parts of the world for its efforts on behalf of
alternative education, holistic health care, organic farming and natural foods,
environmental consciousness, and innovative forms of spiritual expression, among
other causes. At the root of anthroposophy, located on the border between religion and
science, lies an elaborate esoteric philosophy based on Steiner’s teachings. A widely
influential figure in occult circles who was raised in Austria, lived most of his adult
life in Germany, and died in Switzerland, Steiner imparted an international character
to his movement while grounding it firmly in German cultural values. In contemporary
German contexts anthroposophy is recognized as “the most successful form of
‘alternative’ religion in the [twentieth] century.”1
Outside of Germany, the term ‘anthroposophy’ and the name Rudolf Steiner
will be unfamiliar to many readers. Even those who have some experience with the
public face of anthroposophy – through Waldorf schools, biodynamic farming,

1 Stefanie von Schnurbein and Justus Ulbricht, eds., Völkische Religion und Krisen der Moderne:
Entwürfe “arteigener” Glaubenssysteme seit der Jahrhundertwende (Würzburg: Königshausen &
Neumann, 2001), 38.
ix
Camphill communities, Weleda or Demeter products, and so forth – are sometimes
surprised to learn that these phenomena are manifestations of an esoteric worldview. If
the external trappings of anthroposophy are not always widely recognizable, its occult
underpinnings are still less well known. Many anthroposophists today are
apprehensive about ‘occult’ vocabulary, though Steiner and the founding generation of
the movement used it freely. For Steiner’s present followers, what is often important
about anthroposophical principles is not so much their historical pedigree but their
practical application, and anthroposophists have earned respect for their contributions
to pedagogical reform or their commitment to ecological sustainability or their work
with developmentally disabled children and adults. By placing these activities and the
ideas that inspired them into historical perspective, this study will show how
complicated and conflicted their development was, in ways which may alter our
understanding of their present image.
My reconstruction of this contested history will not provide an exhaustive
account of anthroposophy in Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy, and inevitably it will not
do full justice to the complexities involved. One primary task will be to trace the
circuitous path that led from ‘spiritual science’ to ‘spiritual racism.’ Steiner described
anthroposophy as a “spiritual science,” staking a claim which his followers took very
seriously and endeavored to expand and establish as an alternative to what they
viewed as the shortcomings of mainstream science. At the heart of this ambition was
the belief that materialism had degraded scientific thought, and indeed all of modern
culture, and that a thoroughgoing spiritual renewal was necessary in order to revive
humanity’s relationship with both the natural and supernatural worlds.
Anthroposophist efforts in this direction took a wide variety of forms in many
different fields, but the central focus here will be on esoteric conceptions of race and
nation. By the time Germany and Italy embarked on a world war and elevated racial 
x
principles to centerpieces of their regimes, some of Steiner’s followers had gone from
exploring spiritual science and spiritual renewal to propagating “spiritual racism” as
the solution to the modern crisis. The factors that took them down this unforeseen road
did not reflect the trajectory of the anthroposophist movement as a whole, but making
sense of the evolution of occult racial thought under fascism entails understanding the
transition from spiritual renewal to spiritual racism in its starkest form.
The interpretation proposed here is premised on the idea that anthroposophy
embodied a contradictory set of racial and ethnic doctrines which held the potential to
develop in different directions under particular political, social, and cultural
conditions. In spite of anthroposophists’ insistence that their worldview was
‘unpolitical,’ my argument will identify an implicit politics of race running throughout
their public and private statements, a body of assumptions about the cosmic
significance of racial and ethnic attributes that shaped their responses to fascism.
Many of Steiner’s followers considered their own views to be anti-nationalist and antiracist, and there was no straight line that led inexorably to the extreme and explicit
formulations of spiritual racism. What emerged were racial and ethnic stances that
were frequently ambiguous and multivalent but that in several cases found a
comfortable home in fascist contexts precisely because of their spiritual orientation,
one that did not deign to concern itself directly with the distasteful realm of politics.
The resulting history reveals the limits of a spiritual renewal approach to individual
and social change, and of an unpolitical conception of new ways of life, even with the
loftiest of aspirations. For some anthroposophists, such discourses of enlightenment
and emancipation became bound up with authoritarian aims.
These developments did not take place in a vacuum. Anthroposophy was part
of a broader stream of ‘life reform’ movements that held considerable appeal in early
twentieth century Germany and brought together tendencies which seem like strange 
xi
bedfellows today, such as groups combining vegetarianism and holistic spirituality
with Aryan supremacy. One way to understand cultural and political phenomena like
these is as instances of left-right crossover, a recurrent pattern in Steiner’s era.2
 Much
of what made occult racial thought so volatile derived from this fusion of left and
right. Similar dynamics emerged in other parts of Europe as well, and fed into the
diffuse discontent with modern social life which helped pave the way for the rise of
fascism. This combination of modern and anti-modern sentiments is characteristic of
several of the movements examined here. A leading scholar of fascism’s history has
recently argued for “seeing both the European occult revival that produced Theosophy
and Anthroposophy, and the ‘life reform movement’ which cultivated alternative
medicine, neo-paganism, and yoga, not as symptoms of a peculiarly German malaise,
but as local manifestations of pan-European forms of social modernism bent on
resolving the spiritual crisis of the West created by materialism and rationalism.”3
Particularly in English-speaking contexts, the historical background to such
trends is not always well known. The juxtaposition can be jarring when ideas that
seem more at home in a New Age retreat than a fascist dictatorship are traced back to
their sources. For scholars interested in the history and politics of esotericism, it is
important to allow space for heterodox beliefs, even when those beliefs have a
compromised past. The task is to understand movements like anthroposophy and try to
make historical sense of them, not to marginalize or denigrate them as irredeemably
tainted by their unacknowledged origins. It is also important to maintain a sense of the

2
 On left-right crossover in the reform milieu and counter-cultural and non-conventional circles see
Thomas Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte 1866-1918 vol. I (Munich: Beck, 1990), 152-53, 564, 586,
772-73, 788-89, 828-32, and with reference to alternative spiritual groups George Williamson, The
Longing for Myth in Germany: Religion and Aesthetic Culture from Romanticism to Nietzsche
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 287-88.
3 Roger Griffin, Modernism and Fascism: The Sense of a Beginning under Mussolini and Hitler
(London: Palgrave, 2007), 258. For reasons explained in the Introduction, the problematic concept of
the ‘modern’ will play an important role in this study as one of the unavoidable basic terms of the
discussion, despite its disadvantages.
xii
countervailing possibilities and potentials latent within these heterodox movements,
even while noting the political naiveté and historical oblivion they sometimes display.
The seductive character of fascist culture and politics and the longing for a new and
revitalized world led more perspicacious contemporaries astray as well, and the path
that turned from spiritual science to spiritual racism was not built by occultists alone.
Rather than an indictment of the follies of esoteric wisdom seeking, the history
recounted here can serve as a reminder of the ambiguities of modernity in both its
unconventional and familiar forms.
Examining the fortunes of occult ideas and movements in Nazi Germany and
Fascist Italy not only reveals unexpected aspects of occultism; it also brings to light
important features of Nazism and Fascism themselves. My analysis gives critical
attention to institutional factors in both the German and Italian contexts and shows the
extent to which debates over racial theory were embedded in power struggles between
competing factions within the Nazi hierarchy and the Fascist apparatus. The
polycentric nature of the National Socialist bureaucracy and its hybrid of party and
state offices went hand in hand with fundamental and longstanding disputes between
different agencies, and between different groupings within the same agencies, about
central components of Nazi doctrine. Like Fascist race thinking, Nazi racial thought
was far from homogeneous, and the intricate interplay of institutional exigencies and
ideological affinities sometimes yielded unanticipated consequences for Nazi officials
and esoteric organizations alike. Similar dynamics applied to the concept of the
German nation. Even stronger disagreements arose in areas where anthroposophists
played a prominent part, including the role of alternative medicine, organic
agriculture, and non-traditional schooling within Nazism’s new order. The ensuing
clashes among disparate elements in the Nazi leadership illuminate an often
overlooked facet of Hitler’s regime.
xiii
By focusing on the fate of a relatively small group devoted to idiosyncratic
beliefs, and by approaching the matter from the margins rather than the center and
from the bottom up as much as from the top down, a changed viewpoint begins to
emerge that offers new ways of understanding esoteric ideas as well as fascist policies,
practical pursuits as well as committed worldviews. This study challenges a number of
perspectives that still find proponents in some scholarly quarters and in public
consciousness. It challenges the image of the Nazi regime as a totalitarian monolith
and shows instead how polycratic it was, with Hitler’s lieutenants often enough
working at cross purposes to one another. It challenges the notion that the crucial
relationship between occultism and Nazism was one of ideological influence and looks
instead at the complex institutional frameworks within which these ideologies were
embedded, and the complicated relationships that emerged from them. It challenges
the belief that Nazi officials simply rejected occultist groups across the board, as well
as the belief that the Nazis themselves were fundamentally indebted to occult precepts
or practices. It challenges the conclusion that Italian Fascism reluctantly adopted racist
measures at the insistence of its Nazi ally, and provides a detailed examination of less
familiar but highly influential variants of Fascist racial thought. Finally, it challenges
the assumption that esoteric race theories were an anachronism or pre-modern or antimodern and explores the degree of engagement between occult thinkers and modern
scientific and cultural trends.
In addition to offering an alternative perspective on previous interpretations,
this study introduces several new themes that have not received significant historical
attention before. It provides the first extended analysis of the relation between
anthroposophical race doctrines and Nazi and Fascist policies, and explores the
multiple affiliations linking anthroposophists to other occult tendencies and to various
political predispositions. It delineates the tenacious opposition to esoteric groups 
xiv
within the Nazi security apparatus and deciphers the underlying reasons for this
institutional animosity. It highlights the relevance of racial and ethnic tenets for
Steiner’s followers and their project of spiritual renewal, presenting anthroposophist
arguments in their own original terms. It investigates the degree to which
anthroposophists succeeded in making common cause with Nazi and Fascist
functionaries across a number of fields, ideologically as well as practically. It shows
that Waldorf schools, biodynamic agriculture, and other esoteric endeavors found
admirers in unlikely places, and affords an alternative view of anthroposophy’s past
as well as its present. It poses provocative questions about the unexamined history of
spiritual reform movements as well as underappreciated aspects of fascism’s rise and
fall.
These are controversial questions, and a historically contextualized account
can help to forestall both guilt-by-association reasoning and ex post facto apologetics.
A careful and clearly circumscribed investigation of one branch of the modern occult
revival in the fascist period provides an opportunity to explore the subject in detail
while remaining responsive to broader historical and intellectual concerns. But a
sustained focus on anthroposophy as a case study of the interaction between
occultism and fascism also presents definite limits. It is difficult to identify any single
esoteric tendency that would be representative of the extraordinarily variegated occult
spectrum as a whole, and my analysis does not assume that Steiner’s movement can
stand in for the entire modern occult scene. What makes anthroposophy a meaningful
exemplar of these broader phenomena is its relatively mainstream status within the
panoply of esoteric groupings, an important counterpoint to the marginal image of the
occult overall. Much of this study revolves around the contrasts and tensions between
anthroposophist self-conceptions and the perception of their ideas and activities by
others, whether sympathetic or hostile. Steiner presented his teachings as an inclusive 
xv
alternative worldview, a systematic approach offering answers to questions in all
areas of life, and this ambitious undertaking won anthroposophy enthusiasts as well
as enemies. Anthroposophy’s history can be seen as an instance of a larger contest
between esoteric hopes and political possibilities, allowing us to assess occultism as a
historical subject in its own right rather than an easily dismissed oddity, a peripheral
and fleeting phase from a bygone era, or a mysterious object of speculation and
fantasy.
The widespread perception of some sort of connection between National
Socialism and the occult, both considered to lie at the outer limits of historical
comprehension, feeds the suspicion that there must be a hidden link between them.
But the links were rather ordinary, and can be explained not through the apparent
deviance and oddness of occultism, but through its commonness and popularity, by its
participation in and influence by central cultural currents of the era. The consoling
thought of fascism and occultism as eruptions of irrationality, as little more than a
counterfeit of modern reason and social progress, depends on a simplified view of a
complex history; it forgets that “the myths which fell victim to the Enlightenment
were themselves its products.”4
 This dialectical intertwinement of myth and
enlightenment is central to the unusual manner in which the relationship between
occultism and fascism unfolded, at a time when both were on the rise. Spiritual
science gave way to spiritual racism not merely through the devious designs of fascists
or the oblivious dreams of occultists, but through the attempt to realize goals which
still seem alluring and noble in our own time. Recognizing the multifaceted nature of
this history can help to comprehend both its emergence and evolution in the previous
century and its implications for today.

4 Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment (Stanford: Stanford University

Press, 2002), 

Ecofascism Revisited: Lessons from the German Experience 2nd ed. Edition

by Janet Biehl (Author), Peter Staudenmaier (Author)

Ecofascism Revisited Lessons From The German Experience

https://archive.org › stream › Ecofascism Revisited - Lessons from the Ger...

Full text of "Ecofascism Revisited Lessons From The German Experience" ... TO THE SECOND EDITION: Preface Ecofascism was originally published in 1995, at a ... JANET BIEHL PETER STAUDENMAIER 1995 Peter Staudenmaier Fascist ... (To his credit, the author of the above lines, a major deep ecological theorist in ...

An Interview with Peter Staudenmaier ... - Swans Commentary

swans.com › library › art18 › barker122

Dec 3, 2012 - Peter Staudenmaier (PS): I was an independent scholar and activist for many ... Biehl (Janet Biehl and Peter Staudenmaier, Ecofascism: Lessons from the German Experience, AK Press 1995; second edition: Ecofascism ... Arthur Versluis, ed., Esotericism, Religion, and Politics (North ... About the Author.

Fascist Ecology: The "Green Wing" of the Nazi Party and its Historical Antecedents PDF

Peter Staudenmaier, Marquette University

Hammer of the Gods: The Thule Society and the Birth of Nazism 

by David Luhrssen (Author)  Format: Kindle Edition   https://tinyurl.c/y9nc22hvom

Public interest in Adolf Hitler and all aspects of the Third Reich continues to grow as new generations ponder the moral questions surrounding Nazi Germany and its historical legacy. One aspect of Nazism that has not received sufficient attention from historians of the Third Reich is the doctrine’s origins in the Thule Society and its covert activities.

A Munich occult group with a political agenda, the Thule Society was led by Rudolf von Sebottendorff, a German commoner who had been adopted by nobility during a sojourn in the Ottoman Empire. After returning to Europe, Sebottendorff embraced a form of theosophy that stressed the racial superiority of Aryans. The Thule Society attempted to establish an anti-Semitic, working-class front for disseminating its esoteric ideas and founded the German Workers’ Party, which Hitler would later transform into the National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party. Several of the society’s members eventually assumed prestigious posts in the Third Reich.

David Luhrssen has written the first comprehensive study of the society’s activities, its cultural roots, and its postwar ramifications in a historical-critical context. Both general readers and academics concerned with European cultural and intellectual history will find that Hammer of the Gods opens new perspectives on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe.

Review

"Hammer of the Gods is the mother lode of insights into the mindset of the Third Reich, and affirms a compelling thesis of extreme nationalism borne on the wings of international myth making. This book is for anyone who enjoys unsolved mysteries, history, and mythology, Nazi politics by stealth and terror, and attempts to probe the dark side of the human psyche. Hammer of the Gods is told in a compelling style that relates a haunting narrative; the reader will find this book bone chilling as its key ideologues set Adolf Hitler on his perversions of humanity, power, and destiny which exploded into a worldwide conflagration."—Lone Star Book Review

(Lone Star Book Review)

"David Luhrssen's compelling narrative exposes the crucible of Nazism in the nationalist Thule Society in post-1918 Munich. This secret organization provided the infant Nazi Party with a mass-circulation newspaper, while its key ideologues—Dietrich Eckart, Alfred Rosenberg, and Rudolf Hess—set Adolf Hitler on his path to power."—Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, author of The Occult Roots of Nazism

(Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke)

"In this beautifully written book, David Luhrssen evokes with lyric character studies key intellectual developments predating the critical years of Weimar and the long overlooked link between völkisch societies and Hitler's perversions of humanity, power, and destiny. From the Indus to Vienna, from Constantinople to Munich, the trail takes us to Nazism's door and affirms a compelling thesis of extreme nationalism borne on the wings of international myth making."—Barbara Syrrakos, professor of history, City University of New York

(Barbara Syrrakos)

"Hammer of the Gods provides a mother lode of insights into the mindset of the Third Reich, the personalities that populated the German landscape at the collapse of the empire in 1918, the impact of a miniscule neopagan occult lodge in planting the seeds of destruction, and the violent undercurrents in the struggle between Left and Right that thrived on fanaticism, exploding into a worldwide conflagration. Anyone who enjoys unsolved mysteries, history, mythology, politics by stealth and terror, and attempts to probe the dark side of the human psyche, told in a compelling style that relates a haunting narrative, will find this book chilling yet crave for more."—Glen Jeansonne, professor of history, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

(Glen Jeansonne)

About the Author

DAVID LUHRSSEN is the arts and entertainment editor at Milwaukee’s Shepherd Express and has worked as a film critic for more than twenty years. He is the author of Mamoulian: Life on Stage and Screen.

FRANKEN SCIENCE 

Nanoweapons: A Growing Threat to Humanity 

by Louis A. Del Monte (Author)  Format: Kindle Edition  https://tinyurl.com/yafjokgo
It just might render humanity extinct in the near future—a notion that is frightening and shocking but potentially true. In Nanoweapons Louis A. Del Monte describes the most deadly generation of military weapons the world has ever encountered. With dimensions one-thousandth the diameter of a single strand of human hair, this technology threatens to eradicate humanity as it incites world governments to compete in the deadliest arms race ever. 

In his insightful and prescient account of this risky and radical technology, Del Monte predicts that nanoweapons will dominate the battlefield of the future and will help determine the superpowers of the twenty-first century. He traces the emergence of nanotechnology, discusses the current development of nanoweapons—such as the “mini-nuke,” which weighs five pounds and carries the power of one hundred tons of TNT—and offers concrete recommendations, founded in historical precedent, for controlling their proliferation and avoiding human annihilation. Most critically, Nanoweapons addresses the question: Will it be possible to develop, deploy, and use nanoweapons in warfare without rendering humanity extinct?

Unholy Alliance: A History of Nazi Involvement with the Occult (New and Expanded Edition) Hardcover – Dec 2 2019

by Peter Levenda (Author), Norman Mailer (Foreword)

In June of 1979, Peter Levenda flew to Chile - then under martial law - to investigate claims that a mysterious colony and torture center in the Andes Mountains held a key to the relationship between Nazi ideology and its post-war survival on the one hand, and occult ideas and practices on the other. He was detained there briefly and released with a warning: "You are not welcome in this country." The people who warned him were not Chileans but Germans, not government officials but agents of the assassination network Operation Condor. They were also Nazis, providing a sanctuary for men like Josef Mengele, Hans-Ulrich Rudel, and Otto Skorzeny. In other words: ODESSA.

Published in 1995, Unholy Alliance was the first book in English on the subject of Nazi occultism to be based on the captured Nazi archives themselves, as well as on the author's personal investigations and interviews, often conducted under dangerous conditions. The book attracted the attention of historians and journalists the world over and has been translated into six languages. A later edition boasts the famous foreword by Norman Mailer.



How did occultism come to play such an important role in the development of Nazi political ideology? What influence did such German and Austrian occult leaders as Lanz von Liebenfels and Guido von List have over the fledgling Nazi party? What was the Thule Gesellschaft, and who was its creator, Baron von Sebottendorf? Did the Nazi high command really believe in occultism? In astrology? In magic and reincarnation?

This is a new and expanded edition of the original text, with much additional information on the rise of extremist groups in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the United States and the esoteric beliefs that are at their foundations. It is the first book in a trilogy that includes Ratline and The Hitler Legacy. This is where it all began.

BLACK SUN covers the mindset and motives that drive far-right extremists

Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity 

by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (Author)  Format: Kindle Edition

More than half a century after the defeat of Nazism and fascism, the far right is again challenging the liberal order of Western democracies. Radical movements are feeding on anxiety about immigration, globalization and the refugee crisis, giving rise to new waves of nationalism and surges of white supremacism. A curious mixture of Aristocratic paganism, anti-Semitic demonology, Eastern philosophies and the occult is influencing populist antigovernment sentiment and helping to exploit the widespread fear that invisible elites are shaping world events.

Black Sun examines this neofascist ideology, showing how hate groups, militias and conspiracy cults gain influence. Based on interviews and extensive research into underground groups, the book documents new Nazi and fascist sects that have sprung up since the 1970s and examines the mentality and motivation of these far-right extremists. The result is a detailed, grounded portrait of the mythical and devotional aspects of Hitler cults among Aryan mystics, racist skinheads and Nazi satanists, and disciples of heavy metal music and occult literature.

Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke offers a unique perspective on far right neo-Nazism viewing it as a new form of Western religious heresy. He paints a frightening picture of a religion with its own relics, rituals, prophecies and an international sectarian following that could, under the proper conditions, gain political power and attempt to realize its dangerous millenarian fantasies.

GOODRICK-CLARKE HAS WRITTEN TWO OTHER SERIOUS WORKS, (NOT SPECULATIVE)WHICH QUALIFIES AS SUCH BECAUSE HE HAS FOOTNOTES

ON OCCULT ESOTERIC NAZISM; THE OCCULT AND THE THIRD REICH, AND HITLER;S PRIESTESS WHOM I HAVE POSTED ABOUT.

Product description

From Publishers Weekly
This comprehensive inquiry examines the disturbing historical and contemporary connections between certain religious cults and Nazi ideology. Goodrick-Clarke (Hitler's Priestess; The Occult Roots of Nazism) begins with a consideration of the origins of American neo-Nazism and ends with a thorough discussion of well-known, current far-right groups: the European skinheads, the Aryan Nations and the World Church of the Creator movement, which inspired the 1999 shooting spree in the Midwest. In between, the author focuses on the intersection between Nazi ideology and religious and cultural oddities, showing, for example, how some Nazi leaders, particularly Heinrich Himmler, were obsessed with esoterica and strange historical justifications for pro-Aryan racial theory. Over the past 75 years, Nazi ideology has been mixed with Hinduism, magic, alchemy and the occult as a rebellion against the status quo. In Nazi Satanism, "the swastika and Third Reich imagery join black candles, skulls and magical pentagrams in a tableau of ritualized transgression." And during the post-WWII era, many fascists saw UFO sightings as an indication that Nazis would come back to rule the world. Throughout, Goodrick-Clarke catalogues the ideologies, histories, personalities and appeals of the groups, most of which have always found young white men to be their most receptive audience. There's little evaluation of the potential that the small, splinter groups now active might have to commit future atrocities, but the author adds to our knowledge of the broad, frightening tentacles of Nazi ideology. Illus.


Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Goodrick-Clarke's The Occult Roots of Nazism examined the influence of late 19th- and early 20th-century German and pagan mysticism on National Socialist thought. This sequel, based on the writings of past and contemporary adherents of these ideas, continues this study among modern American and European racist groups. The new angle is the glorification of Hitler and Nazism. Goodrick-Clarke shows how a strange mix of racism, paganism, Eastern religion, Christianity, Satanism, rock music, and science fiction is being used to support the revival of fascist ideas; adherents see Hitler himself as an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu who survived World War II at a secret German flying-saucer base located in Antarctica. This disturbing work presents a troubling picture of the mindset of the modern Far Right. For all libraries. Stephen L. Hupp, West Virginia Univ.
Parkersburg
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Anyone who remembers the devastation wrought by Nazi fanaticism can only be astonished and dismayed by this book. Who could have foreseen that half a century after the defeat of the Third Reich the Jews would once again be perceived as a demonic power intent on destroying the ‘Aryan race’, or that Hitler would be imagined as a divine being who is about to return to earth to complete the Holocaust? For the matter, who could have foreseen that the preposterous ‘pagan’ cult developed by Heinrich Himmler would ever be revived? Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke shows not only that these things have indeed happened but how and why they have happened. He also suggests what dangers they may portend. Black Sun is both an enthralling and a deeply disturbing work. It deserves the most serious attention and a wide readership.”

-Norman Cohn,author of The Pursuit of the Millennium and Warrant for Genocide

“[An] important work.”
-Philadelphia Inquirer

“Presents a troubling picture of the mindset of the modern Far Right.”
-Library Journal

“Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke has done pioneering work in the field of the occult roots of Nazism. In the present volume he performs the same invaluable service with regard to the ideological fantasies of post war neofascism.”
-Walter Laqueur

“Excellent book provides a lucid and often chilling guide.”
-Journal of European Studies
About the Author

Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke is the author of several books on ideology and the Western esoteric tradition, including Hitler’s Priestess and The Occult Roots of Nazism, which has remained in print since its publication in 1985 and has been translated into eight languages. He writes regularly for European and US Journals and has contributed to several films on the Third Reich and World War II.

614 BILLIONAIRES 

EARNED 1/5 OF AMERICA'S GDP

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THAT IS OUR COMMONWEALTH

STOLEN FROM US 

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FRANKEN SCIENCE

Genius Weapons: Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Weaponry, and the Future of Warfare
by Louis A. Del Monte (Author) Format: Kindle Edition https://tinyurl.com/y9hbar9d

A technology expert describes the ever-increasing role of artificial intelligence in weapons development, the ethical dilemmas these weapons pose, and the potential threat to humanity.Artificial intelligence is playing an ever-increasing role in military weapon systems. Going beyond the bomb-carrying drones used in the Afghan war, the Pentagon is now in a race with China and Russia to develop "lethal autonomous weapon systems" (LAWS). In this eye-opening overview, a physicist, technology expert, and former Honeywell executive examines the advantages and the potential threats to humanity resulting from the deployment of completely autonomous weapon systems. Stressing the likelihood that these weapons will be available in the coming decades, the author raises key questions about how the world will be impacted. Though using robotic systems might lessen military casualties in a conflict, one major concern is: Should we allow machines to make life-and-death decisions in battle? Other areas of concern include the following: Who would be accountable for the actions of completely autonomous weapons--the programmer, the machine itself, or the country that deploys LAWS? When warfare becomes just a matter of technology, will war become more probable, edging humanity closer to annihilation? What if AI technology reaches a "singularity level" so that our weapons are controlled by an intelligence exceeding human intelligence?Using vivid scenarios that immerse the reader in the ethical dilemmas and existential threats posed by lethal autonomous weapon systems, the book reveals that the dystopian visions of such movies as The Terminator and I, Robot may become a frightening reality in the near future. The author concludes with concrete recommendations, founded in historical precedent, to control this new arms race.

Review

""A highly readable and deeply researched exploration of one of the most chilling aspects of the development of artificial intelligence: the creation of intelligent, autonomous killing machines. In Louis A. Del Monte’s view, the multibillion dollar arms industry and longstanding rivalries among nations make the creation of autonomous weapons extremely likely. We must resist the allure of genius weapons, Del Monte argues, because they will almost inevitably lead to our extinction.”
―James Barrat, author of Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era

“For the second time in history, humanity is on the verge of creating weapons that might wipe us out entirely. Will we have the wisdom not to use them? No one can say, but this book will give you the facts you need to think about the issue intelligently.”
―J. Storrs Hall, author of Beyond AI: Creating the Conscience of the Machine

“This thought-provoking read provides insight into future world weapons scenarios we may face as technology rapidly advances. A call to arms for humanity, this book details the risks if we do not safeguard technology and weapon development.”
―Carl Hedberg, semiconductor sales and manufacturing management for thirty-seven years at Honeywell, Inc.


“In Genius Weapons, Del Monte provides a thorough and well-researched review of the history and development of ‘smart weapons’ and artificial intelligence. Then, using his background and imagination, he paints a very frightening picture of our possible future as these technologies converge. He challenges our understanding of warfare and outlines the surprising threat to mankind that may transpire in the not-too-distant future.”
―Anthony Hickl, PhD in materials science and former director of Project and Portfolio Management for New Products at Cargill

"We are already living the next war, which is increasingly being fought with the developing weapons that Del Monte writes about so engagingly.”
―Istvan Hargittai, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, author of Judging Edward Teller

“Del Monte explores a fascinating topic, which is of great importance to the world as the implementation of AI continues to grow. He points out the many applications of AI that can help humanity improve nearly every aspect of our lives―in medicine, business, finance, marketing, manufacturing, education, etc. He also raises important ethical concerns that arise with the use of AI in weapons systems and warfare. The book examines the difficulty of controlling these systems as they become more and more intelligent, someday becoming smarter than humans.”
―Edward Albers, retired semiconductor executive at Honeywell Analytics

About the Author

Louis A. Del Monte is an award-winning physicist, inventor, futurist, featured speaker, CEO of Del Monte and Associates, Inc., and high profile media personality. For over thirty years, he was a leader in the development of microelectronics and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) for IBM and Honeywell. His patents and technology developments, currently used by Honeywell, IBM, and Samsung, are fundamental to the fabrication of integrated circuits and sensors. As a Honeywell Executive Director from 1982 to 2001, he led hundreds of physicists, engineers, and technology professionals engaged in integrated circuit and sensor technology development for both Department of Defense (DOD) and commercial applications. He is literally a man whose career has changed the way we work, play, and make war. Del Monte is the recipient of the H.W. Sweatt Award for scientific engineering achievement and the Lund Award for management excellence. He is the author of Nanoweapons, The Artificial Intelligence Revolution, How to Time Travel, and Unravelling the Universe's Mysteries. He has been quoted or has published articles in the Huffington Post, the Atlantic, Business Insider, American Security Today, Inc., and on CNBC.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.


Introduction

This book describes the ever-increasing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in warfare. Specifically, we will examine autonomous weapons, which will dominate over half of the twenty-first-century battlefield. Next, we will examine genius weapons, which will dominate the latter portion of the twenty-first-century battlefield. In both cases, we will discuss the ethical dilemmas these weapons pose and their potential threat to humanity.

Mention autonomous weapons and many will conjure images of Terminator robots and US Air Force drones. Although Terminator robots are still a fantasy, drones with autopilot capabilities are realities. However, for the present at least, it still requires a human to decide when a drone makes a kill. In other words, the drone is not autonomous. To be perfectly clear, the US Department of Defense defines an autonomous weapon system as “a weapon system(s) that, once activated, can select and engage targets without further intervention by a human operator.” These weapons are often termed, in military jargon, “fire and forget.”

In addition to the United States, nations like China and Russia are investing heavily in autonomous weapons. For example, Russia is fielding autonomous weapons to guard its ICBM bases. In 2014, according to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, Russia intends to field “robotic systems that are fully integrated in the command and control system, capable not only to gather intelligence and to receive from the other com-ponents of the combat system, but also on their own strike.”

In 2015, Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work reported this grim reality during a national defense forum hosted by the Center for a New American Security. According to Work, “We know that China is already investing heavily in robotics and autonomy and the Russian Chief of General Staff [Valery Vasilevich] Gerasimov recently said that the Russian military is preparing to fight on a roboticized battlefield.” In fact, Work quoted Gerasimov as saying, “In the near future, it is possible that a complete roboticized unit will be created capable of independently conducting military operations.”

You may ask: What is the driving force behind autonomous weapons? There are two forces driving these weapons:

1. Technology: AI technology, which provides the intelligence of autonomous weapon systems (AWS), is advancing exponentially. Experts in AI predict autonomous weapons, which would select and engage targets without human intervention, will debut within years, not decades. Indeed, a limited number of autonomous weapons already exist. For now, they are the exception. In the future, they will dominate conflict.

2. Humanity: In 2016, the World Economic Forum (WEF) attendees were asked, “If your country was suddenly at war, would you rather be defended by the sons and daughters of your community, or an autonomous AI weapons system?” The majority, 55 percent, responded that they would prefer artificially intelligent (AI) soldiers. This result suggests a worldwide desire to have robots, sometimes referred to as “killer robots,” fight wars, rather than risking human lives.

The use of AI technology in warfare is not new. The first large-scale use of “smart bombs” by the United States during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 made it apparent that AI had the potential to change the nature of war. The word “smart” in this context means “artificially intelligent.” The world watched in awe as the United States demonstrated the surgical precision of smart bombs, which neutralized military targets and minimized collateral damage. In general, using autonomous weapon systems in conflict offers highly attractive advantages:

• Economic: Reducing costs and personnel.

• Operational: Increasing the speed of decision-making, reducing dependence on communications, reducing human errors.

• Security: Replacing or assisting humans in harm’s way.

• Humanitarian: Programming killer robots to respect the international humanitarian laws of war better than humans.

Even with these advantages, there are significant downsides. For example, when warfare becomes just a matter of technology, will it make engaging in war more attractive? No commanding officer has to write a letter to the mothers and fathers, wives and husbands, of a drone lost in battle. Politically, it is more palatable to report equipment losses than human causalities. In addition, a country with superior killer robots has both a military advantage and a psychological advantage. To understand this, let us examine the second question posed to attendees of the 2016 World Economic Forum: “If your country was suddenly at war, would you rather be invaded by the sons and daughters of your enemy, or an autonomous AI weapon system?” A significant majority, 66 percent, responded with a preference for human soldiers.

In May 2014, a Meeting of Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems was held at the United Nations in Geneva to discuss the ethical dilemmas such weapon systems pose, such as:

• Can sophisticated computers replicate the human intuitive moral decision-making capacity?

• Is human intuitive moral perceptiveness ethically desirable? If the answer is yes, then the legitimate exercise of deadly force should always require human control.

• Who is responsible for the actions of a lethal autonomous weapon system? If the machine is following a programmed algorithm, is the programmer responsible? If the machine is able to learn and adapt, is the machine responsible? Is the operator or country that deploys LAWS (i.e., lethal autonomous weapon systems) responsible?

In general, there is a worldwide growing concern with regard to taking humans “out of the loop” in the use of legitimate lethal force.

Concurrently, though, AI technology continues its relentless exponential advancement. AI researchers predict there is a 50 percent probability that AI will equal human intelligence in the 2040 to 2050 timeframe. Those same experts predict that AI will greatly exceed the cognitive per-formance of humans in virtually all domains of interest as early as 2070, which is termed the “singularity.” Here are three important terms we will use in this book:

1. We can term a computer at the point of and after the singularity as “superintelligence,” as is common in the field of AI.

2. When referring to the class of computers with this level of AI, we will use the term “superintelligences.”

3. In addition, we can term weapons controlled by superintelligence as “genius weapons.”

Following the singularity, humanity will face superintelligences, computers that greatly exceed the cognitive performance of humans in virtu-ally all domains of interest. This raises a question: How will superintelli-gences view humanity? Obviously, our history suggests we engage in devastating wars and release malicious computer viruses, both of which could adversely affect these machines. Will superintelligences view humanity as a threat to their existence? If the answer is yes, this raises another ques-tion: Should we give such machines military capabilities (i.e., create genius weapons) that they could potentially use against us?

A cursory view of AI suggests it is yielding numerous benefits. In fact, most of humanity perceives only the positive aspects of AI technology, like automotive navigation systems, Xbox games, and heart pacemakers. Mesmerized by AI technology, they fail to see the dark side. Nonetheless, there is a dark side. For example, the US military is deploying AI into almost every aspect of warfare, from Air Force drones to Navy torpedoes.

Humanity acquired the ability to destroy itself with the invention of the atom bomb. During the Cold War, the world lived in perpetual fear that the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics would engulf the world in a nuclear conflict. Although we came dangerously close to both intentional and unintentional nuclear holocaust on numerous occasions, the doctrine of “mutually assured destruction” (MAD) and human judgment kept the nuclear genie in the bottle. If we arm superintelligences with genius weapons, will they be able to replicate human judgment?

In 2008, experts surveyed at the Global Catastrophic Risk Conference at the University of Oxford suggested a 19 percent chance of human extinction by the end of this century, citing the top four most probable causes:

1. Molecular nanotechnology weapons: 5 percent probability

2. Superintelligent AI: 5 percent probability

3. Wars: 4 percent probability

4. Engineered pandemic: 2 percent probability

Currently, the United States, Russia, and China are relentlessly developing and deploying AI in lethal weapon systems. If we consider the Oxford assessment, this suggests that humanity is combining three of the four elements necessary to edge us closer to extinction.

This book will explore the science of AI, its applications in warfare, and the ethical dilemmas those applications pose. In addition, it will address the most important question facing humanity: Will it be possible to continually increase the AI capabilities of weapons without risking human extinction, especially as we move from smart weapons to genius weapons?