Germanenorden

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The Germanenorden or Teutonic Order or Germanic Order, was a secret society in Germany early in the 20th century. The Germanenorden was formed by several prominent German occultists in 1912, including Hermann Pohl, the first leader. <ref>"P2 - The Nazi Party, the Thule Society, the Occult, and German..." (overview),</ref> The order, whose symbol was a swastika, had a hierarchical fraternal structure similar to freemasonry. It taught to its initiates nationalist ideologies of nordic race superiority, antisemitism, as well as occult, almost magical philosophies.

In 1915 during World War I, the Germanenorden was split into two parts: the "Loyalist German Order" and the "Germanenorden Walvater" ("Germanic Order Walvater"). <ref name=NaziLIB>

    "THE NATURE OF NAZI IDEOLOGY" (history), Robert Thomas, 2005,
    Libertarian.co.uk webpage:
    LibertarianCoUk-Histn015-PDF.

</ref> In 1916, Rudolf Glauer joined the Walvater branch and was charged with reviving the fortunes of the Bavarian section of the order.<ref name=NaziLIB/> In August 1918, Rudolf renamed the order the "Thule Gesellschaft" ("Thule Society") (Thule being a lost continent from Greek Mythology) and made the society's symbol the swastika, oak leaves and the sword.<ref name=NaziLIB/> Rudolf Glauer later changed his name to Baron von Sebottendorf. This group lead to the Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei (DAP), which was renamed as NSDAP (or Nazi party) on April 1, 1920.

Some say that the Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei (later the Nazi Party or NSDAP) when under the leadership of Adolf Hitler was a political front for the secret society.