Nazi occultism in popular culture

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Representations of the Ahnenerbe and Nazi occultism are common in fantasy fiction, and they have become part of the background several conspiracy theories.

1 Representations, studies and depictions in modern popular culture
2 References
3 See also

[edit] Representations, studies and depictions in modern popular culture

[edit] Documentary

Schwarze Sonne documentary by Rüdiger Sünner. Sünner also produced a book to accompany this documentary.
Nazis: The Occult Conspiracy (1998), directed by Tracy Atkinson and Joan Baran, narrated by Malcolm McDowell.
The Occult History of the Third Reich, Starring: Patrick Allen, Director: Dave Flitton
- Adolf Hitler - Occult History Of The Third Reich
- The SS: Blood And Soil - Occult History Of The Third Reich
- Himmler The Mystic - Occult History Of The Third Reich
- The Enigma Of The Swastika - Occult History Of The Third Reich
"Decoding the Past" Episode: The Nazi Prophecies" by the History Channel^[1]^[2]
Hitler and the Occult by the History Channel^[3]
The Riddle Of Rudolph Hess/Himmler's Castle: Wewelsburg
In 1994, Channel 4 ran a Michael Wood documentary entitled Hitler's Search for the Holy Grail, as part of its "Secret History" series.^[4]
Unsolved Mysteries of World War II: Occult & Secrets, also known as Volume 3 in the series.
- Rudolf Hess (Occult)
- Hitler's Secret Weapons
- Enigma of the Swastika (Occult)
- Himmler's Castle: Wewelsburg (Occult)
- The Last Days of Hitler
- Decision At Dunkirk/Stalin's Secret Armies

(Different editions have different episodes)^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]

Hans-Jürgen Syberberg's Hitler - Ein Film aus Deutschland (Hitler, A Film From Germany), 1977. Originally presented on German television, this is a 7-hour work in 4 parts : The Grail; A German Dream; The End Of Winter's Tale; We, Children Of Hell. The director uses documentary clips, photographic backgrounds, puppets, theatrical stages, and other elements from almost all the visual arts, with the "actors" addressing directly the audience/camera, in order to approach and expand on this most taboo subject of European history of the 20th century.
MythBusters: Episode: Secret Nazi genetic experiments.

[edit] Film

Nazi occult-hunters have been featured in the Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones films. The Ahnenerbe organization was the basis for the Nazi archaeologist villains in these movies. They involve several plots related to Nazi mysticism, especially as related to archaeology. As one of the characters in Raiders of the Lost Ark says, Hitler is "obsessed with the occult." Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade connects grail legend with Nazi occultism.^[9]
The Thule Society (including some of their most known members) plays an important role in the Fullmetal Alchemist movie.
Constantine features the Holy Lance as a main plot point. It is found buried in Mexico, wrapped in a Nazi flag.
Hellboy touches upon a fictional group of mysticist Nazis bent on summoning forces from other dimensions.
Bulletproof Monk features a group of Nazis attempting to get the Scroll of the Ultimate, giving them unlimited power of good and evil.
Invincible (2001 film)
Unholy^[10]

[edit] Games

The computer game Return to Castle Wolfenstein featured a plotline involving Nazi obsession with the occult. It portrays an organization (SS Paranormal Division) based on the Ahnenerbe practicing occult rituals and magic. The game drew themes of Nazi mysticism, among other things, from its predecessors, Wolfenstein 3D and its sequel, Spear of Destiny, the latter of which also featured a storyline concerning Nazi mysticism.
The video game BloodRayne involves a plotline concerning the Thule society and its members, and features a lot of in-game Thule society imagery.
A fictional division of the Ahnenerbe, the Karotechia, has a prominent place in the mythology of the Delta Green setting for the role playing game Call of Cthulhu, and stories based upon the setting. In it, the survivors of the Karotechia, a group founded to study occult tomes and conduct magical research, live on in South America, training sorcerers and cultists to found the Fourth Reich, all under the sway of Hitler's ghost (actually Nyarlathotep in disguise).
In the game Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb there is a castle in which there are Gestapo agents searching an occult castle in Prague for items of Occult value.
The X-Box 360 game Operation Darkness features supernatural British commandos (werewolves etc.) fighting Nazi vampires, zombies, and other monsters conjured by Hitler.^[11]
ÜberSoldier
In the game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune the main character Nathan Drake comes across a long-abandoned Nazi U-Boat stranded on a waterfall. On it, he finds that the crew are dead and mutilated and a map to a tropic island were the statue of El Dorado was taken to. Near the end of the game, Nathan finds himself in a abandoned German Submarine Base built into the island in which he finds that the Germans had sought for the power of the statue of El Dorado but too late learned that it carries a curse that had mutated them into monsters.

[edit] Literature

Occult-obsessed Nazis have long been a staple of superhero comic books:
- Neo-Nazis are recurring villains in Warrior Nun Areala, most notably Dr. Frederick Ottoman, a mad scientist with fleets of Nazi-UFOs and spies in every government.
- In the 1980s, DC Comics writer Roy Thomas invented a retcon to explain why Superman, the Spectre, and the Justice Society of America had been unable to defeat the Nazis: Hitler possessed the Spear of Destiny (Spear of Longinus) which gave him magical control over any superheroes who ventured into his territory.
- In the Marvel Comics comic book series The Invaders, Thor was summoned by Hitler to battle that superhero group; however, Thor soon realized he was being used, and returned to Asgard.
- The Hellboy comic books and movie also portray the Nazis and the Thule Society as powerful occult figures; in that universe, Hitler lived until 1958 and waged a “secret war” from South America after the collapse of the Third Reich.
- David Brin’s short story “Thor Meets Captain America” and graphic novel The Life Eaters center on this theme, as well.
- The Danger Girl comic book features as its villains a modern-day Nazi group called 'The Hammer', which intends to use occult artifacts from Atlantis to establish a Fourth Reich.
James Herbert's novel, The Spear, deals with a neo-Nazi cult in Britain and an international conspiracy which includes a right-wing US general and a sinister arms dealer, and their obsession with and through the occult with resurrecting Himmler.
Katherine Kurtz’s novel Lammas Night presents Nazis as powerful magicians who must be opposed by British witches.
The villains of Clive Cussler's novel Atlantis Found are modern Nazis who operate out of a secret base in Antarctica who are linked to the ancient culture of Atlantis.
The Island of Thule is an important location in the Silver Age Sentinels superhero role playing game and collections of short stories based upon the game. It was raised from the Atlantic Ocean by Kreuzritter (“Crusader”), a Nazi superhuman who wears a mystical suit of armor made by a long-disappeared Aryan culture.
Kouta Hirano's manga series Hellsing features Millennium, a group of Nazis with the purpose of creating a reich that will last a thousand years (in accordance with Hitler's vision). This organization is heavily mystical, including among its number a werewolf, a catboy, and an army of 1,000 vampires known as the Letztes Bataillon ("Last Battalion"). It is led by a former SS officer whose true intention is the pursuit of absolute war.
James Twining - The Black Sun^[12]
James Rollins - Black Order
Charles Stross features the fictitious Ahnenerbe activities in his The Atrocity Archives
Daniel Easterman's 1985 literate best-seller, The Seventh Sanctuary, features the Ahnenerbe and a Nazi city in the Saudi desert, where the Ark of the Covenant has been discovered, and from which it is planned that a Fourth Reich will be created.
Norman Spinrad's novel The Iron Dream parodizes Nazi mysticism.