Hitler's monsters : a supernatural history of the Third Reich

Kurlander, Eric 1973- (author.).

Summary: "The definitive history of the supernatural in Nazi Germany, exploring the occult ideas, esoteric sciences, and pagan religions touted by the Third Reich in the service of power. The Nazi fascination with the occult is legendary, yet today it is often dismissed as Himmler's personal obsession or wildly overstated for its novelty. Preposterous though it was, however, supernatural thinking was inextricable from the Nazi project. The regime enlisted astrology and the paranormal, paganism, Indo-Aryan mythology, witchcraft, miracle weapons, and the lost kingdom of Atlantis in reimagining German politics and society and recasting German science and religion. In this eye-opening history, Eric Kurlander reveals how the Third Reich's relationship to the supernatural was far from straightforward. Even as popular occultism and superstition were intermittently rooted out, suppressed, and outlawed, the Nazis drew upon a wide variety of occult practices and esoteric sciences to gain power, shape propaganda and policy, and pursue their dreams of racial utopia and empire"--

Record details

ISBN: 0300190379
ISBN: 9780300190373
Physical Description: 1 online resource (xxii, 422 pages) : illustrations
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Publisher: New Haven : Yale University Press, [2017]
Copyright: ©2017

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	The Supernatural Roots of Nazism : Ario-Germanic Religion, Border Science, and the Austro-German Occult Revival, 1889-1914 -- From the Thule Society to the NSDAP : Fashioning the Nazi Supernatural Imaginary, 1912-24 -- Exploiting Hitler's Magic : From Weimar's Horrors to Visions of the Third Reich -- The Third Reich's War on the Occult : Anti-Occultism, Hitler's Magicians' Controversy, and the Hess Action -- The Stars Come Down to Frozen Earth : Border Science in the Third Reich -- Lucifer's Court : Ario-Germanic Paganism, Indo-Aryan Spirituality, and the Nazi Search for Alternative Religions -- The Supernatural and the Second World War : Folklore and Border Science in Foreign Policy, Propaganda, and Military Operations -- Monstrous Science : Racial Resettlement, Human Experiments, and the Holocaust -- Nazi Twilight : Miracle Weapons, Supernatural Partisans, and the Collapse of the Third Reich.
Restrictions on Access Note:	NLC staff and students only.
Source of Description Note:	Print version record.