Karl Maria Wiligut
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Image:Karl-Maria-Wiligut.jpgKarl Maria Wiligut (alias Weisthor) (December 10, 1866 - January 3, 1946) was a major influence on Nazi mysticism and Germanic Neopaganism. He has been called "Himmler's Rasputin".
Born in Vienna, he adopted neopagan beliefs in the early 1920s and claimed to have a clairvoyant recollection of the early history of Germany. He claimed to be the last descendant in a line of male heirs who were the offspring of a union between air gods ("Asen") and water gods ("Wanen"), giving him a unique ancestral-clairvoyant memory going back to 228,000 BCE when there were supposedly three suns in the sky and creatures such as giants and dwarves roamed the earth.
Wiligut identified Irminism as the true ancestral religion, claiming that Wotanism was a schismatic false religion. He claimed that the Judeo-Christian Bible had originally been written in Germany about a Germanic god he called "Krist," and that both had been misappopriated in furtherance of a conspiracy by Christians, Jews, and Freemasons.
In 1924, Wiligut was involuntarily committed to a mental institution in Salzburg, Austria, where he remained until 1927. Records reflect violence at home, including threats to kill his wife, grandiose projects, eccentric behavior, occult interests, and eventually a diagnosis of schizophrenia involving megalomaniac and paranoid delusions. A court found him incompetent to manage his affairs. In 1932, he abandoned his wife and family, and he emigrated from Austria to Germany, residing in Munich. He is known to have corresponded with many admirers and disciples, including Ernst Rüdiger and members of the Order of the New Templars.
He was introduced to Reichsführer-SS Himmler and, in September 1933, was appointed (under the pseudonym "Karl Maria Weisthor") to head a Department for Pre- and Early History which was created for him within the SS Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHA). He was promoted to the rank of Standartenführer (colonel) in April 1934, made head of Section VIII (Archives) for RuSHA in October 1934, and promoted to the rank of Oberführer (lieutenant-brigadier) in November 1934. In Spring 1935 Wiligut was transferred to Berlin to serve on Himmler's personal staff. He was promoted to the rank of Brigadeführer in September 1936.
In 1936, Gunther Kirchhoff and Wiligut undertook an Ahnenerbe study of the Murg Valley in the Black Forest, where there was a settlement described as consisting of old half-timbered houses, architectural ornament, crosses, inscriptions, and natural and man-made rock formations in the forest, which they theorized showed it to be an ancient Krist settlement.
Wiligut contributed significantly to the development of Wewelsburg as the order-castle and ceremonial center of SS pseudo-religious practice. He officiated in the role of priest at weddings of SS men and their brides. He designed the Totenkopfring, which Himmler personally awarded to prestigious SS officers.
In November 1938, Karl Wolff, chief adjutant of Himmler's personal staff and the second-highest ranking officer in the SS, visited with Wiligut's wife and learned of Wiligut's earlier involuntary commitment to a mental institution, which proved embarrassing to Himmler. Wiligut's staff was notified that his "application" for retirement on grounds of age and poor health had been granted in February 1939, and the official retirement was dated August 28, 1939.
He died in Arolsen, Hessen, Germany.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Wiligut, Karl Maria (2001). The Secret King: Karl Maria Wiligut, Himmler's Lord of the Runes. Dominion. ISBN 1-885972-21-0.
- Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (2003). The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology. Gardners Books. ISBN 1-86064-973-4.; originally published as Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (1992). The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology; The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany, 1890-1935. New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-3060-4.
- ↑ Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. The Occult Roots of Nazism ISBN 0-8147-3060-4, 1985.de:Karl Maria Wiligut
