Hitler and the Occult:

The Magical Thinking of Adolf Hitler

Raymond L. Sickinger

Because the name Adolf Hitler evokes so many images and pro-
vokes so many responses, it is difficult, if not impossible, to sort through
them and arrive at the real Hitler. Hitlers character and career, however,
have remained consistently popular subjects. Many people have tried to
give insights into his character and personality. But some of the most
controversial have been those writers who have claimed a strong connec-
tion between Hitler and occult practices. In fact, over the past thirty
years two radically different positions on the subject have formed. The
first group of writers generally ignored, rejected, or downplayed the rela-
tionship of Hitler and occult knowledge, while the second argued that
such a connection was the only way to understand the true power of
Hitler.
The first group includes some of the major biographers of Hitler:
Bullock, Toland, and Fest. Alan Bullock rejected any suggestions that
Hitler was fascinated with occult knowledge and practices. He main-
tained that there was no evidence to substantiate the once popular belief
that he resorted to astrology. His secretary says categorically that he had
nothing but contempt for such practices, although faith in the stars was
certainly common among some of his followers like Himmler.
According to Bullock, Hitler was a rationalist and materialist .... What
interested Hitler was power, and his belief in Providence or Destiny was
only a projection of his own sense of power (389-90).Yet he still made
references to Hitlers magic and to his magic circle (563,722,776),
suggesting that even Bullock may have perceived an inexplicable side of
Hitler.
Unlike Bullock, John Toland documented some of Hitlers supersti-
tious beliefs and practices. Laying the cornerstone of a modern art
museum in Munich during the fall of 1933, Hitler broke a silver hammer
when he struck the cornerstone with it. According to Toland, There was
an awkward silence because of a superstition that the architect would die
if the hammer broke. Goebbels tried to make light of it. . . . But it was no
joke to Hitler, who was convinced that it was a bad omen. Interestingly,
107
108 . Journal of Popular Culture

the architect, Troost, was hospitalized a few days later and died within a
few months (Toland 296, 384, 565). Toland also recounted a Teutonic
Divination Ceremony which took place early in the morning of January
1 , 1939, and which involved the pouring of molten lead in water to
determine the future. In his view, Hitler did not seem satisfied with his
results, for afterwards he sat down in an armchair, gazing dejectedly at
the fire, and hardly spoke for the rest of the evening (695).
Although Toland revealed a superstitious side of Hitler, he did not
support claims of any greater occult interests or powers. For example,
after describing Hitlers body language lessons provided by Erik Jan
Hanussen, one of the most renowned seers and astrologists in Europe,
Toland reported that Hitler asked Hanussen to cast his horoscope. The
horoscope indicated certain hindrances to his rise to power that could
be removed only by a mandrake (a root in the shape of a man) found in
a butchers yard in the town of Hitlers birthplace by the light of the full
moon. But whether or not Hitler gave any credence to what Hanussen
said was openly questioned by Toland. H. R. Knickerbockers interview
with Dr. Carl Gustav Jung was also treated in Tolands work. Jung
expressed his conviction that Hitler was like a shaman; his power was
magic. Toland, however, made no comment about whether or not he
accepted Jungs thesis. As regards matters of astrology, Toland was clear
that astrological speculation concerning the Fuhrer was verboten.
Moreover, although Hess and Himmler experimented with a variety of
esoteric, occult practices, Toland argued that Hitler did not approve of
such things (384-85,682,806,909,1047).
The third biographer, Joachim Fest ,rejected that school of thought
which attributes superhuman abilities to Hitler. According to Fest,
Hitlers career depended not so much on demonic traits as on his typi-
cal, normal characteristics. The course of his life reveals the weak-
nesses and ideological bias of all the theories that represent Hitler as a
fundamental antithesis to the age and its people. He was not so much the
great contradiction of the age as its mirror (Fest 7). To be sure, Fest
made references to Hitlers demagogic magic, his mediumistic
powers, his magical self-reassurance, and his phrases from the realm
of magic (149, 367, 646), but these Fest used primarily for emphasis
and dramatic effect; they were not to be taken literally.
Unlike the first group, the second group of writers posited the unde-
niable connection between Hitler and the occult. Included in this latter
group are Louis Pauwels, Jacques Bergier, Jean-Michel Angebert, Dusty
Sklar, and Trevor Ravenscroft. In the mystical, and sometimes esoteric,
work entitled The Morning of the Magicians, Pauwels and Bergier chas-
tised historians for reducing one of the most fantastic episodes of con-
 Hitler and the Occult . 109

temporary history to the level of an elementary history lesson on evil

instincts. To understand fully Hitler and the Nazi Movement, both
argued that historians must decide to abandon our positive way of look-
ing at things and try to enter a Universe where Cartesian reason and real-
ity are no longer valid (133, 139). Claiming that Hitler believed in a
magic relationship between Man and the Universe,* Pauwels and
Bergier contended that Hitler wanted to bring about, by scientific or
pseudo-scientific means, a return to the beliefs of a bygone age accord-
ing to which Man, society and the Universe all obey the same Laws, and
there is a close connection between soul-states and the movements of the
stars (209, 172).
In The Occult and the Third Reich: The Mystical Origins of Nazism
and the Search for the Holy Grail, Jean-Michel Angebert3 described the
roots of the Nazi Movement:

It is, therefore, an analysis of National Socialist thought by way of the labyrinth

of esoteric tradition that we propose to the reader. The central theme being
Gnosis, with its most significant thrust represented by the prophet Mani, its evo-
lution necessarily brings us to Catharism, a neo-Gnostic sect of the Middle
Ages, and thence to Templarism. Subsequently, Gnosis goes underground,
degenerating with the Rosicrucians and the Illuminati of Bavaria, and finally
culminates, after many detours, in the mysterious Thule Society.

Portraying Hitler as an initiate of the Thule Society, this work main-

tained that Hitler eventually became the new imperial Messiah and
the master of the Third Reich, an adept in that black magic in which he
had been initiated. Hitlers mesmerizing powers did not surprise
Angebert, because the Fuhrer doubtless owes it to his Bavarian origins.
Southern Germany is a hotbed of mediums ...and other occultists...born,
like Adolf Hitler, in the little town of Branau-am-Inn (53,160,232).
In the hands of Dusty Sklar,Hitler emerged as a person with a pen-
chant for the occult. Maintaining that the Viennese bookseller Ernst
Pretzsche introduced Hitler to consciousness-expanding drugs, as well
as to astrological and alchemical symbolism, SkIar emphasized that
[bly daring to break taboos against acts which would disgust other
people, one might gain powers of which ordinary men did not dream.
S h e concluded that Hitlers later reputation for unnatural
practices ...may well have been deserved. Hitlers will to power, accord-
ing to Sklar, has not been given its proper due .... But this early will to
power betrays the interests of a potential occultist. After examining
Hitlers youth and career, she was convinced that Hermann Rauschnings
memorable assessment of Hitler was accurate:
110 . Journal of Popular Culture

Black magic, white magic-Hitler is the typical person with no firm foundation,
with all the shortcomings of the superficial, of the man without reverence, quick
to judge and quick to condemn. He is one of those with no spiritual tradition,
who, being caught by the first substitute for it that they meet, hold tenaciously
to that, lest they fall back into Nothingness .... For all those who have been
unsuccessful in the battle of life National Socialism is the great worker of
magic. And Hitler himself is the first of these; thus he has become the master-
enchanter and the high priest of the religious mysteries of Nazidom.

For Sklar there was no doubt that Hitler was the supreme magician
(16,23-24,49,125).
Of all the writers in this second group, the most controversial was
Trevor Ravenscroft. In his highly popular work, The Spear of Destiny,
Ravenscroft contended that the Holy Lance which pierced Christs side
was the talisman of power and was to become the central pivot in the
life of Adolf Hitler and the very source of his ambitions to conquer the
world. According to this account, when, as a young man, Hitler first
saw the lance, he thought it was some sort of magical medium of reve-
lation .... I felt as though I myself had held it in my hands before in some
earlier century of history-that I myself had once claimed it as my talis-
man of power and held the destiny of the world in my hands. While
viewing the lance in the Hapsburg museum, the young Hitler had a
vision of his future role in service to the Superman. The person to whom
Hitler confided this story was an associate of Ravenscroft, Dr. Walter
Stein, who insisted that he had numerous conversations with Hitler and
who in turn reported them to Ravenscroft. The latter, however, made no
formal notes of these talks. Moreover, Ravenscroft asserted that Hitler
entered into an occult world of magic which was the key to his power. In
his view, Dietrich Ekkart introduced Hitler to a world of cosmology and
magic in the Thule Society, recognizing Hitler as the Anti-Christ who
would eventually control the power of the lance. During the Anschluss in
1938, Hitler seized the lance and its powers for his own and transported
it and other treasures to Nuremberg. In fact, Ravenscroft clearly believed
that Hitler wanted magical power and that monstrous sexual perversion
was the very core of his whole existence, the source of his mediumistic
and clairvoyant powers and the motivation behind every act through
which he reaped a sadistic vengeance on humanity (xx-xxi, 8-9,60-61,
92,155,160,315-16,330).
Most of the claims of the second group of authors are intriguing, but
generally unsubstantiated. In fact, a recent work by an Australian jour-
nalist, Ken Anderson, ripped apart the claims of Ravenscroft and other
occult historians. In Andersons view, it is necessary to reject claims
 HitlerandtheOccult Ill

that Hitler had supernatural powers of his own.... The occult influences
he is said to have been open to ...are unproven ...and he remains an
enigma! However, allowing false and fanciful claims about Hitler to go
unchallenged will not help to unwrap that enigma (233-36).
There is, however, a third position that needs to be considered. Must
we either accept completely or reject completely the thesis that Hitler
had supernatural powers? Can we instead suggest that Hitler thought and
acted in a magical way and that he found a magical approach to difficult
problems to be effkacious rather than insist that Hitler really had super-
natural powers? It is this latter thesis that needs to be explored further,
because one of the best ways to gain insight into Hitler and to interpret
his actions both before and during the war is to understand that he
thought and acted in a magical way.
It has already been indicated by one biographer that Hitler had a
superstitious nature (Toland 565, 695), and there is little doubt that
Hitlers personality was one prone to believing in magic (Vyse 25-57).
In his youth, Hitler lived in a fantasy world. For example, Hitler had a
fantasy relationship with a young girl named Stephanie Jansten.
Although Hitler never directly communicated with her, he believed in
their common destiny. In Tolands words, Hitler was immersed ...in
Norse and German mythology where the women were anything but ordi-
nary, and he probably had a romanticized, knightly concept of all things
sexual. No prosaic introduction for this young Siegfried! Fantasy built
on fantasy (30-31). As Hitlers friend, August Kubizek, stated in his
recollections: For such exceptional human beings as himself and
Stephanie, he said, there was no need for the usual communication by
word of mouth; extraordinary human beings would understand each
other by intuition ....This mixing of dream and reality is characteristic of
the young Hitler (58-69). Such intuition would later become a hall-
mark of Hitlers thinking and the inspiration for many of his decisions.
Although Kubizek commented that Hitler was absolutely sceptical
about occultism and more than rational in these matters, he also gave
further insights into the development of magical thinking in his friend.
Hitler convinced Kubizek to join him in the purchase of a lottery ticket.
He was certain that they would win: Never did it occur to Adolf to
reproach himself for having taken for granted that the first prize
belonged to him by right. In another recollection, Kubizek shared his
belief that Hitler would prefer to stick to his wishful thinking rather
than unbosom himself with real people. Neither did Hitler have an open
mind nor did he engage in critical reflection: I never felt ...that he was
seeking anything concrete in his piles of books, such as principles and
ideas for his own conduct; on the contrary, he was looking only for con-
112 . Journal ofPopuhr Culture

firmation of those principles and ideas he already had. While listening

to Wagner, Adolf willingly let himself be carried away into the mystical
universe which was more real to him than the actual workaday world
(93-95, 129, 184, 191-92). These descriptions are not just those of an
aimless young dreamer; they represent a form of magical thinking in
which the world is thought to be manipulated by will.
A wartime report developed for the Allies during World War 11
includes information which not only corroborates Kubizeks statement
about Hitlers lack of critical reflection but which also reinforces this
point about magical thinking:

[Hitler] does not think out in a logical and consistent fashion, gathering all
available information pertinent to the problem, mapping out alternative courses
of action, and then weighing the evidence pro and con for each of them before
reaching a decision. His mental processes operate in reverse. Instead of studying
the problem as an intellectual would do, he avoids it and occupies himself with
other things until unconscious processes furnish him with a solution. Having the
solution he then begins to look for facts that will prove that it is correct.... [But
he] becomes dependent on his inner guide, which makes for unpredictability on
the one hand and rigidity on the other. (Langer 74-75)

His wartime experiences from 1914 to 1918 had reinforced these magi-
cal elements in his personality. Hitler saw front-line action and fre-
quently volunteered for dangerous duty. Saved at least once, if not more
times, by his inner voice or intuition, Hitler came to believe that he
was blessed, that he was earmarked by Providence for a special mission.
There was some kind of magical destiny for him (Toland 79-97).
In his early life, Hitler indeed thought and acted in a magical way
and his experiences taught him to trust, rather than to discredit, this magi-
cal approach to life. For many people, however, the word magic unfor-
tunately raises images of Houdini and other illusionists. Although Hitler
was certainly a master of illusion, that is not the meaning intended here.
The magical tradition has very deep roots in the human past. Magic was
once an essential part of life and certainly an essential part of political
life, because its primary purpose was to give human beings power: As a
belief, [magic] is the recognition of the existence of occult power, imper-
sonal or only vaguely personal, mystically dangerous and not lightly to
be approached, but capable of being channeled, controlled, and directed
by man. As a practice, magic is the utilization of this power for public or
private ends. In the magical tradition, the role of the person who prac-
tices magic or acts magically is clearly defined. That designated person
identifies or predicts what is otherwise hidden in time or in space from
 Hitler and the Occult . 113

human eyes; he influences and manipulates the objects and phenomena

of nature and all creatures so that they may satisfy actual or assumed
needs; and, finally, he combats, neutralizes, and remedies the onslaught
of evils, real or imaginary, afflicting mankind. The extent of magic is
almost as wide as the life of man. All things under heaven, and even the
inhabitants of heaven, become the subject of its sway (Webster 55).
This description perfectly fits the role of Der Fuhrer. He claimed to
know what is otherwise hidden. According to Werner Maser,
Hitler...was convinced that he had discovered and grasped what histori-
ans and philosophers had sought for millennia- the eternal course of
history .... [Elarly on he came to see himself as a political genius, as
someone who had lifted the veil of history and discovered the final
truth (280). Mein Kampf was just one of the ways Hitler revealed what
was hidden; his speeches were another. As Fest indicated,
Significantly, he trusted inspiration more than he did thought and
genius more than diligence .... Geniuses of the extraordinary type, he
remarked, with a side glance at himself, can show no consideration for
normal humanity (531). Ernst Roehm was also quick to recognize this
magical trait in Hitler: What he wants is to sit on the hilltop and pretend
hes God.... He wants to let things run their course. He expects a mira-
cle (Rauschning 153-54). Although highly critical of Hitler, Hermann
Rauschning gave witness to Hitlers tendency to act as if he were provid-
ing profound revelations into mysteries: Pronounced with the authority
of the recognized leader..., such dicta ...g ave the impression of deep reve-
lations .... He regarded it as belittling of his stature if we mentioned simi-
lar opinions ...[and] was unaware that the ideas that seemed to him to be
mysterious inspirations were the product of the general intellectual out-
look. According to Rauschning, Hitler believed that a new age of
magic interpretation of the world is coming, of interpretation in terms of
the will and not of the intelligence. Hitler was the voice of that new age
(223-25).
Hitler claimed to be able to manipulate the objects and phenomena
of nature and all creatures in order to satisfy needs. His twenty-five-
point program for the Nazi Party in 1920 and his Mein Kampf in 1923
constituted his magic formula for the ills and the needs of his Germany.
Throughout his career he remained faithful to most of these original
principles, because a true magician never deviates from the formula or
the precise set of rituaIs needed to achieve the desired result? In fact,
Hitler was quite adamant about fidelity to the formula:

Therefore, the program of the new movement was summed up in a few guiding
principles, twenty-five in all .... [Tlhe so-called program of the movement is
114 . Journal of Popular Culture

absolutely correct in its ultimate aims, ...but in the course of time the conviction
may well arise that in individual instances certain of the guiding principles
ought perhaps to be framed differently.... Every attempt to do this, however,
usually works out catastrophically. For in this way something which should be
unshakeable is submitted to discussion. (Hitler, Mein Kampf 458)

Hitler finally claimed that he was the person who combats, neutral-
izes, and remedies the onslaught of evils, real or imaginary, aflicting
mankind. The Jews in particular became the chief scapegoat (Webster
54)6for all of Germanys problems-past, present, and future. They were
the most significant taboo. In a magical world, Crises are generally
engendered by breaches of taboo (Balikci 199). As Robert Waite
remarks, The Jew was the single, simple answer to all problems. Who
had stabbed Germany in the back during the war and caused disastrous
defeat? Who had signed the armistice?... Who had accepted the Treaty
of Shame? Who were the profiteers and exploiters who caused the infla-
tion and the Great Depression? The answer was clear and compelling;
always and only the Jew! (368). In a speech in Munich on July 28,
1922, Hitler contended that [tlhe Jew has never founded any civiliza-
tion, though he has destroyed hundreds.... In the last resort it is the Aryan
alone who can form States and set them on their path to future great-
ness.,.. p]he Jew...with his envious instinct for destruction...seeks to dis-
integrate the national spirit of the Germans and to pollute their blood.
Hitler believed that he was called and that he was the only one to save
Germany from this evil threat (Toland 197).
The famous Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung recognized that
Hitler thought and acted magically. As indicated earlier, Tolands biogra-
phy included Jungs insights. But the actual interview was conducted by
an American journalist named H. R. Knickerbocker in 1941. In this
interview, Jung defined the nature of Hitlers power:

There were two types of strong men in primitive society. One was the chief who
was physically powerful, ...and another was the medicine man who was not
strong in himself but was strong by reason of the power which the people pro-
jected into him .... Hitler belongs in the category of the truly mystic medicine
man. His body does not suggest strength. The outstanding characteristic of his
physiognomy is its dreamy look. I was especially struck by that when I saw pic-
tures taken of him in the Czechoslovakian crisis; there was in his eyes the look
of a seer.

Knickerbocker further questioned Jung about Hitler s powerful

effect upon Germans and his inability to impress many foreigners in the
same way. Jung was quick to respond:
 Hitler and the Occult 115

It is because Hitler is the mirror of every Germans unconscious. But of course

he mirrors nothing from a non-German .... Hitlers power is not political; it is
magic. To understand magic you must understand what the unconscious is. It is
that part of our mental constitution over which we have little control and which
is stored with all sorts of impressions and sensations; ...Now the secret of Hitlers
power is ...twofold; first, that his unconscious has exceptional access to his con-
sciousness, and second, that he allows himself to be moved by it. He is like a
man who listens intently to a stream of suggestions in a whispered voice from a
mysterious source, and then acts upon them. In our case,...we have too much
rationality, ...to obey it-but Hitler listens and obeys. (Knickerbocker 45-47)

In the ancient world, the medicine man or the shaman served a polit-
ical function by advising political leaders. In fact, in the shamanistic,
magical tradition, the shaman is said to possess special insights and mys-
tical visions, but is too unstable to be handed the reins of power
(Cavendish 1: 63). As described by Richard Cavendish,

The shaman or sorcerer-priest ...is frequently classed as a psychopath. In spirit

he flies up to heaven, descends to hell, and dives to the nethermost regions of
the sea. He receives messages from the dead, communes with spirits. But his
mental balance is insecure and he is easily unhinged. If suddenly angered or
startled he loses his self-control completely. His eyes redden and bulge out, his
face goes through the most hideous contortions, and unless restrained he will
not hesitate to maim or to murder the person who provoked him.

Such a person is believed to be touched by the divine and to have special

insights and magical powers which can be very valuable to the commu-
nity in which he lives. Considered holy, he brings healing to those who
are sick and protects the whole community from evil (12: 1765, 1678).
Does Jungs description of Hitler have any merit? There are indeed
similarities between Hitler and the medicine manhhaman of magical
lore. Rauschning attested that Hitler is simply a sort of great medicine-
man. He is literally that, in the full sense of the term. We have gone back
so far toward the savage state that the medicine-man has become king
among us. He further observed that it is the Shamans drum that beats
round Hitler. Asiatic, African cults and bewitchments are the true ele-
ment of his spell, and furious dances to the point of exhaustion. The
primitive world has invaded the West (Rauschning 259). There were
others who attested to this shaman-like quality: For us this man was a
whirling dervish. But he knew how to fire up the people, not with argu-
ments, ...but with the fanaticism of his whole manner, screaming and
yelling, and above all by his deafening repetition, and a certain conta-
116 . Journal of Popular Culture

gious rhythm. This he has learned to do and it has a fearfully exciting

and barbaric effect (Zuckmayer 384). Kubizek once referred to Hitler as
a person of ecstatic creativeness (200). Apparently some German
people saw what Jung had seen.
As Rauschning pointed out, what is peculiar is that Hitler seemed to
combine the role of political leader and shaman. The Fuhrer, a title
which is vague in definition, mystical in quality, and magical in its
powers, highlights this very point. No one questioned the insight of a
shaman. No one questioned Der Fuhrer. Hitlers anger, like the anger of
the magical shaman, was notorious. He would lash out, sometimes ver-
bally, sometimes physically, against those who questioned his insights,
insights often derived from no official sources of authority (Waite 8-10).
His fluctuation between laziness and bursts of energy were also shaman-
like (Waite 42; Fest 535). In earlier periods of time, a shaman could be
ignored or appeased by a leader, but his words were never absolute com-
mands. With Hitler, however, the visions and magic formulae of the
shaman become absolute commands. The shaman was now the leader
who divined the future.
Essential to magic is the power of words. In magical theory, just as
someone of strong personality can use words to control other people, so
the magician armed with the lightning of concentrated will-power and
the thunder of overwhelming language can dominate anything in the uni-
verse.. .. In magic, according to the French magician Eliphas Levi, ...to
affirm and will what ought to be is to create; to affirm and will what
ought not to be is to destroy. The person who utters the words must
have a very strong will and the words that he utters must be valid by
virtue of being revered as sacred by time and tradition (Cavendish 11:
1418). There is no doubt that Adolf Hitler believed in the magic power
of words. As he said in Mein Kampf, But the power which has always
started the greatest religious and political avalanches in history rolling
has from time immemorial been the magic power of the spoken word,
and that alone (107). He believed that if he uttered the same message
over and over that it would become reality. His speeches were like
incantations. A magician delivering an incantation does so with a rising
intensity as he proceeds: This contributes to a rising state of intoxica-
tion, in which the magician convinces himself that the words he utters
are charged with invincible power and are actually taking effect .... [Tlhe
words are put together deliberately ...and are rhythmical .... [Tlheir
impressive sound and beat influence the supernatural forces which he
attempts to control (Cavendish 11: 1419-20). Hitlers speeches exhib-
ited this same quality. Heinz Haushofer recalled: It was terrible ...shout-
ing and arm waving. He was not interrupted. He just spoke and spoke,
 HitkrandtheOccuiV 117

like a record in a groove, for an hour or an hour and a half until he

became absolutely exhausted ...and when he was finished and breathless,
he just sat down once more a simple and nice man (Toland 284).
Hitlers speeches repeated the same themes again and again. And his
voice would rise with excitement, sweeping his audience along with
him. The businessman Kurt Ludecke described his response to a speech
by Hitler: Presently my critical faculty was swept away.... The intense
will of the man, the passion of his sincerity seemed to flow from him
into me. I experienced an exaltation that could be likened only to a reli-
gious conversion. I felt sure that no one who had heard Hitler that after-
noon could doubt that he was a man of destiny, the vitalizing force in the
future of Germany (Ludecke 13-14;Fest 323-24).The power of Hitlers
words was indeed magical.
Ritual is still another important dimension of the magical tradition.
Doing things in a precise way is an essential part of successful magic.
By nature Hitler was a man of ritual. According to Robert Waite,
Intimates all agreed that Hitlers daily routine was followed to the
smallest detail. As chancellor, when taking his dog for a walk, Hitler
went through the same field every time, and each time he threw a piece
of wood from exactly the same spot in exactly the same direction. Any
attempt to persuade him to deviate from the pattern would result in con-
siderable agitation and anger on his part (15). Hitler wanted to maintain
control; ritual gives a person a sense of control, while magic ritual
promises actual control. The yearly Nuremburg rallies provide an excel-
lent example of ritual which was intended to produce magical results.
The use of special symbols, fire, incense, repetition of phrases and words
were all intended to do just what magic ritual intends to do: to control
nature, humans, even the divine forces, and ultimately to give Hitler
power (Toland 492-97):
The presence of Hitler and his personal will was essential to the
whole ritual process. As one historian of the supernatural notes, If the
magician is not present (and not only physically but emotionally present)
he can achieve nothing. For this reason, spells and incantations tend to
look inert and meaningless when printed, like a cross between a cook-
book and the jottings of a madman (Hill and Williams 138-39).Hitler
was fanatical about his role. Everything was orchestrated carefully; no
detail was left to chance. The 1938 rally captured on film by Leni
Riefenstahl gives ample evidence of the power of ritual and the impor-
tance of Hitlers role. It is indeed a magical ceremony at which Hitler
presides and to which he brings the full force of his will and emotions
(Bullock 379; Toland 492-97). Without the presence of Hitler, there
would be no future for Germany. In fact, there would simply be no
118 . Journal of Popular Culture

Germany. As Hitler once remarked, I must in all modesty say that my

own person is indispensable. Neither a military nor a civilian personality
could replace me.... I am convinced of the strength of my brain and my
resolution .... The fate of the Reich is dependent entirely upon me
(Waite 46).
For magic to work, it needs a receptive audience whose members
believe in its efficacy. There is evidence that Hitlers Germany provided
him with such an audience. As H. G. Baynes pointed out in 1941,
Hitlers apparent belief in his own divine gift lends him an arrogant air
of certainty which had a paralyzing effect upon the suggestible minds of
the Germans (Baynes 16). Otto Strasser remarked on Hitlers uncanny
ability to connect with his audience: A clairvoyant, face-to-face with
his public, goes into a trance. That is his moment of real greatness .... He
believes what he says; carried away by a mystic force, he cannot doubt
the genuineness of his mission. Strasser likened Hitler to a wireless
receiving set which enabled him, with a certainty with which no con-
scious gift would endow him, to act as a loudspeaker, proclaiming the
most secret desires, the least admissible instincts, the sufferings and per-
sonal revolts of a whole nation (Strasser 62-66). Konrad Heiden in his
introduction to The Memoirs of Felix Kersten (Heinrich Himmlers
masseur) declared that in Germany between the wars, there were so
many miracles performed, so many ghosts conjured, so many illnesses
cured by magnetism, so many horoscopes read that it seemed like a
veritable mania of superstition had seized the country, and all those
who made a living by exploiting human stupidity thought the millen-
nium had come.9Germany was ripe for such a person, because it was
ripe for magical thinking.
Hitler not only had an audience open to his magical thinking, but his
magical solutions also seemed to be successful in practice. Success con-
firmed to him the genuineness of his approach. As a result, Hitler learned
not to question his way of thinking, but rather to blame those who were
unfaithful to following it precisely.I0And his success was based in part
on his magical belief that he could divine the future. Believing that he
knew the future of Germany, Hitler thought that he could lead the
German people into the future, if they would only listen to and obey
him. In fact, it was this confidence about knowing the future that created
tensions with the German military. For example, Hitlers attempt to
remilitarize the Rhineland was opposed by the military. The military
feared that the army was not ready for any retaliation from the French
and British. Hitler, however, believed that success comes to the daring
and he proved to himself that his instincts were superior. This incident
convinced Hitler that his insight into the future outcome of present
 HitlerandtheOccult . 119

actions was sound You can serve God only as a hero.... I go the way
that Providence dictates with the assurance of a sleepwalker (Toland
525-3 1). Hitler moved his foreign policy forward with intensity. By
March of 1939, Hitler had obtained many of the foreign policy objec-
tives he had proposed as early as the 1920s for the regeneration of
Germany. This repeated success reinforced Hitlers belief that he had a
special intuition and could predict the future: I am...convinced that
the secret of the greatest successes in history was that based, not on
human logic, but on inspirations of the moment .... [Ilntuition...plays a
major part..[ in] politics, statecraft, and military strategy.* Yet Hitler
could still be apprehensive under the right set of circumstances. On
August 24, 1939, Hitler met with a group of trusted people at Eagles
Nest above Berchtesgaden. While watching a display of northern lights
that night, Hitler saw an omen in the predominantly red light cast on him
and his friends. He indicated to an aide that the omen clearly meant that
without force, Germany would not make it this time (Toland 752).
Within a few short days, the invasion of Poland occurred and World War
I1 had begun.
By the time war broke out in 1939, Hitler was firmly in control of
the army, because he trusted only his own insights. In February of 1938,
Hitler became the official supreme commander-in-chief of the armed
forces. He created the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), which
served as his military staff under his direct command. The air force and
the navy were already subject to him. By December of 1941, Hitler
assumed control of the army as commander-in-chief and imposed strat-
egy on the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH), the Army High
Command. Hitler had virtually complete control of military affairs and
he was in large part responsible for the successes of 1939 and 1940 (Fest
625-34). Most historians concede that he had some military talent~.~ But
his successes in 1939 and 1940 were his undoing. He believed that his
willpower was sufficient; he merely had to will what he wanted to
happen and it would happen (Spielvogel222; Toland 762; Wagener 150-
154). By 1941, according to Fest, Hitler was sustained by the cer-
tainty ...that Providence presided over all his decisions. This growing
effort to invoke irrational support strikingly reflected his state of uneasi-
ness. Quite often his gestures of magical self-assurance occurred as
abrupt interjections in matter-of-fact conversations (647). By 1942
Hitler even turned his thoughts to India and had already planned a vast
naval base at Trondheim to serve future needs (Lewin 34; Toland 891).
This is clearly a magical, not a rational, approach to wartime operations.
This approach became even more pronounced after 1942. Hitler
would not allow retreat, because retreat would indicate that his insights
120 . Journal of Popular Culture
and his magic formula for Germany were not infallible. Any deviation
from his plans, like the deviation from a precise set of magic rituals,
would spell disaster, he thought. As the military historian, Ronald
Lewin, argued, from June of 1943,in the conduct of military operations
[Hitler s] procedure was...irrational, holding-out-to-the-last, flawed con-
ceptually and in execution because its pattern was shaped by the flaws in
his own personality (151).
There were numerous attempts to end Hitlers reign of power from
1938 to 1944,but all ended in failure. The last and, perhaps, most
famous plot occurred during the end stages of the war in July of 1944.A
huge explosion in the staff meeting room at Wolfschanze bruised and
shook Hitler, but it did not kill him. His vengeance against the military
personnel who were implicated was swift and brutal. The effect of each
of these successful escapes from death only served to confirm Hitlers
belief that he was a special person with magical power to control his fate
and that of Germany. It also brought him sympathy from many Germans
who did not support the resistance (Fest 707-15;Toland 1092-1127;
Bullock 743-52).14
Hitler ended his career in a grand magical gesture, remaining consis-
tent to the last. Hitler was fascinated with the theories of Dr. Horbiger,
who talked of the universe as the creation of the conflict between fire
and ice (Hitler, Secret Conversations 263). Perhaps he was attracted to
this theory because it was so closely related to the Norse myth of cre-
ation (Hamilton 312-13).But the myth also promised a day of doom
(Ragnarok), when the world and the gods would be destroyed by
Armaggedon, the destroying fire followed by the renewal of life.
According to the myth,

First will come ...winters...accompanied by great wars throughout the whole

world. Brothers will kill each other for the sake of gain, and no one will spare
father or son in manslaughter or in incest .... The stars will disappear from
heaven.... [Tlhe whole surface of the earth and the mountains will tremble
so...that the trees will be uprooted from the ground, mountains will crash down,
and all fetters and bonds will be snapped and severed.... The wolf Fenfir will
advance with wide open mouth...and his eyes and nostrils will blaze with fire....
[virewill [be flung] over the earth and bum up the whole world.

Out of this universal destruction, however, will come new life and
rebirth (Leeming 85-88).Hitler, the fortunate wolf (Toland 130-31),15
knew the legends of German mythology, reading about them often in his
early years (Kubizek 182;Waite 102) and was fascinated by the inter-
play of destruction and creativity. Moreover, Hitler was fascinated by
 Hitler and the Occult . 121

fire .... He worked himself into a frenzy of delight over the pictures of
great capitals of Europe in flames (Waite 34). His insistence on a
scorched-earth policy and on his own immolation represented a magical
fulfillment of both the destruction and the hope of Gctterdtirnmerung,
The Twilight of the Gods. As Robert Waite has suggested, in ordering
the Gotterdiimmerung for his world, ... Hitler envisaged himself as a
Teutonic god fulfilling ancient myth (425). In fact, a recent psychologi-
cal study of suicide described it as a magical act, actuated to achieve
irrational, illusional ends (Wahl 23). Whatever way you look at it,
Hitlers last act was indeed a magical one.
In conclusion, the opposing claims of the two different camps of
writers explored in this paper can be reconciled. We neither have to
accept fully that Hitler had supernatural, occult powers, nor do we have
to reject totally his connection with occult matters. Instead, we can view
Hitler as a person who developed a pattern of magical thinking and who
was confirmed in this kind of thinking by the successes which he was
convinced were caused by it. As one scholar has noted of magical think-
ing, Thus the belief in magic, far from appearing unreasonable and
illogical to those who hold it, seems to be confirmed over and over again
by the experiences of daily life (Webster 489). Confident in his own
ability to divine the future direction of Germany, Hitler had no need of
astrologers and others who claimed special insights. In fact, such people
were a genuine threat to his own power.j Moreover, interpretations of
Hitlers foreign policy movements as a death wish and as a need to
destroy (Waite 386-411) overlook the genuinely hopeful attitude of
Hitler that his magical formula and his magical intuition would surmount
all obstacles. As Fest noted, We might say: only unreality made him
real. In his comments to his entourage, even in those weary, toneless
monologues in the last phase of the war, his voice became animated only
when he spoke of the gigantic tasks, the enormous plans for the
future. Those were his real reality (677).
In 1942, Hitler remarked that if the German people lost faith in him,
if the German people were no longer inclined to give itself body and
soul in order to survive-then the German people would have nothing to
do but disappear (Secret Conversations 210)! Less than one year before
his suicide, Hitler expressed his faith that the gods love those whom
they ask the impossible and who ask the impossible of them. Such
delusions were fatal:

Magic must rank among the greatest of mans delusions. In the presence of the
unknown and the disconcerting the magician does not investigate critically, but
is content with an explanation that appeals to imagination. He builds an airy
122 . Journal of Popular Culture

fabric of fancy and discovers in the external world sequences of cause and
effect which are nonexistent. He thinks that he understands them and, self-
reliant and imperturbable, would turn them to his own benefit.... [Mlagical
beliefs and practices have operated to discourage intellectual acquisitiveness, to
nourish vain hopes that can never be realized, and to substitute unreal for real
achievement.(Webster 506-7)

Such a person was Adolf Hitler. Until the bitter end, he deluded himself
with the belief that he, and he alone, was Germanys magical savior.

Notes

They have even been particularly popular features on the History Channel,
which has also aired programs on Hitlers and the Nazi Partys connections
with occult practices.
The quote is actually taken from Hermann Rauschnings statement: It is
impossible to understand Hitlers political plans unless one is familiar with his
basic beliefs and his conviction that there is a magic relationship between Man
and the Universe. Pauwels and Bergier think that he was one of the few to
understand what was actually transpiring in Hitlers Germany.
T h e name Jean-Michel Angebert is a pen name formed from the names of
two individuals who actually authored the work in question.
4Sklarsquotation from Rauschning is found on p. 125.
Test supports this view (122-24, 199-220) and so does Toland (12-130,
265-71). Bullock, however, does not view the twenty-five points as a program
which Hitler would not alter. He actually claimed that Hitler was later embar-
rassed by them (74-77).
%onically, a scapegoat was part of Jewish folklore and magic. To ward off
evil or a demon, it would be driven into a goat by means of a ritual.
Quoted in Bullock 407. His statement about the Jews in 1922 is repeated
nearly verbatim at later points in his career. See Mein Kampf 305-8. See also
Hitlers Secret Conversations 97. Even at the very end of his life, the same mes-
sage prevailed. See also Genoud 50-57.
*According to Webster (77), a magical rite normally involves a manual
act, a verbal expression (spell or incantation), and the use of some material,
inanimate object (charm or medicine) possessing occult power either original
with it or ascribed to it. This description fits the blood flag ceremony, among
others, performed by Hitler.
9Quoted in Sklar 3. Heidens points are certainly reinforced and developed
more extensively in modes.
 Hitkr and the Occult 123

To the very end this is true. His Last Will and Testament gives ample
proof of this. See Genoud. See also Schwaab 143-45.
In the magical tradition, although shamans were considered too unpre-
dictable to be entrusted with power, their potential to see into the future (to
divine) was very valuable and was used by leaders to evaluate policies or tac-
tics. See Cavendish 1: 63.
I2Quotedin Wagener. See also Toland 984, Anderson 113-20.
9 e e Toland 745-46; Fest 63. Bullock (582) holds a lower view of Hitler on
this score. For more discussion of Hitler as a military leader, see Gilbert,
Schramm, Lewin.
9 e e Hoffmann 135-47. See also Baigent and Leigh. Baigent and Leigh
contend that Stauffenberg believed that Hitler was practicing black magic and
saw the opposition to Hitler in grand mystical terms of good against evil.
This is the meaning of the name Hitler. For Hitlers interests in wolves,
see Waite 26-27,166-67,425.
I6For an insight into the issue of astrologers and the Third Reich, see
Wil helm Wulff.
Speech of 5 July 1944 in Domarus 2 (4): 2233; quoted in Maser 207-8.

Works Cited

Anderson, Ken. Hitler and the Occult. New York Prometheus, 1995.
Angebert, Jean-Michel. The Occult and the Third Reich: The Mystical origins of
Nazism and the Search for the Holy Grail. New York: Macmillan, 1974.
Baigent, Michael, and Richard Leigh. Secret Germany: Stauffenberg and the
Mystical Crusade against Hitler. London: Penguin, 1995.
Balikci, Asen. Shamanistic Behavior among Netsilik Eskimos. Magic,
Witchcraft, and Curing. Ed. John Middleton. American Museum
Sourcebooksin Anthropology. New York The Natural History Press, 1967
Baynes, H. G. Germany Possessed. London: Cape, 1941.
Bullock, Alan. Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. New York: Harper & Row, 1964.
Cavendish, Richard, ed. Man, Myth, Magic: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the
Supernatural. 24 vols. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1970.
Domarus, Max, ed. Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen 1932-1945. 2 vols. in 4.
Munich: Suddeutscher, 1965.
Fest, Joachim. Hitler. Trans. Richard and Clara Winston. New York Vintage,
1975.
Genoud, Franqois, ed. The Testament of Adolf Hitler: The Hitler-Bormann
Documents February-April 1945. Trans. Colonel R. H. Stevens. London:
Cassell, 1959.
Gilbert, Felix, ed. Hitler Directs His War. New York: Oxford UP, 1950.
124 ~ Journal of Popular Culture

Hamilton, Edith. Mythology. New York: New American Library, 1%2.

Hill, Douglas, and Pat Williams. The Supernatural. New York: Hawthorn,
1965.
Hitler, Adolf. Hitlers Secret Conversations 1941 - I 944. Trans. Norman
Cameron and R. H. Stevens. New York Farrar, Straw & Young, 1953.
-. Mein Kampf. Trans. Ralph Manheim. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971.
Hoffmann, Peter. Generals and the German Resistance. The Nazi Revolution.
Ed. Allan Mitchell. Boston: Heath, 1997.
Knickerbocker, H. R. Is Tomorrow Hitlers? New York Reynal & Hitchcock,
1941.
Kubizek, August. The Young Hitler I Knew. Trans. E. V. Anderson. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1955.
Langer, Walter. The Mind of Adolf Hitler: The Secret Wartime Report. New
York Stein & Day, 1972.
Leeming, David Adams. The World of Myth. New York Oxford UP, 1990.
Lewin, Ronald. Hitlers Mistakes: New Insights into What Made Hitler Tick.
New York: Morrow, 1984.
Ludecke, Kurt. I Knew Hitler. New York Scribners, 1937.
Maser, Werner. Hitlers Letters and Notes. Trans. Arnold Pomerans. London:
Heinemann, 1974.
Pauwels, Louis, and Jacques Bergier. The Morning of the Magicians. Trans.
Roll0 Myers. New York: Stein & Day, 1964.
Rauschning, Hermann. The Voice of Destruction. New York Putnams, 1940.
Ravenscroft, Trevor. The Spear of Destiny. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser,
1982.
Rhodes, James M. The Hitler Movement: A Modern Milienarian Revolution.
Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution, 1980.
Schramm, Percy. Hitler: The Man and the Military Leader. Trans. and ed.
Donald S. Detwiler. Chicago: Quadrangle, 1971.
Schwaab, Edleff H. Hitlers Mind: A Plunge into Madness. New York: Praeger,
1992.
Sklar, Dusty. The Nazis and the Occult. New York: Dorset, 1989.
Spielvogel, Jackson J. Hitler and Nazi Germany: A History. 3rd ed. New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall, 1996.
Strasser, Otto. Hitler and I. Trans. Gwenda David and Eric Mossbacher.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1940.
Toland, John. AdolfHitler. New York: Doubleday, 1977.
Vyse, Stuart A. Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition. New York:
Oxford UP, 1997.
Wagener, Otto. Hitler: Memoirs of a Confidant. Ed. Henry Ashby Turner, Jr.
Trans. Ruth Hein. New Haven: Yale UP, 1985.
 Hitler and the Occult . 125

Wahl, Charles William. Suicide As a Magical Art. Clues to Suicide. Ed.

Edwin S . Schneidman and Norman L. Farberow. New York McGraw-Hill,
1957.
Waite, Robert G. L. The Psychopathic God: AdolfHitler. 1977. New York: Da
Capo, 1993.
Webster, Hutton. Magic: A Sociological Study. 1948. New York: Octagon,
1973.
Wulff, Wilhelm. Zodiac and Swastika: How Astrology Guided ffitlers
Germany. New York: Coward, McCann, & Geoghegan, 1973.
Zuckmayer, Carl. Als wiirs ein Stiick yon mir. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer,
1966.

Raymond L. Sickinger is professor of history at Providence College in

Providence, RI.