Hammer of the Gods: The Thule Society and the Birth of Nazism
Feb 2012 · Potomac Books, Inc.
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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.
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.
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...
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About the author
David Luhrssen has taught at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and lectured at Marquette University and Beloit College. Luhrssen is a contributor to Women and War: A Historical Encyclopedia from Antiquity to the Present (2006) and coauthor of A Time of Paradox: America since 1890 (2006). He has been published in Historically Speaking, History Today, the Wisconsin Academy Review, and other journals. He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in history at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and has worked as an editor and cultural critic. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
David Luhrssen has taught at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and lectured at Marquette University and Beloit College. Luhrssen is a contributor to Women and War: A Historical Encyclopedia from Antiquity to the Present (2006) and coauthor of A Time of Paradox: America since 1890 (2006). He h...
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