Nazi Occultism 3: Hitler vs Magic | European History | Extra History

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In our last episode, we saw how Nazi ideology mixed mysticism, pseudoscience, and cultural appropriation, striving to appear “modern” while rejecting established science. Despite this, Nazi leadership initially tolerated the occultists, psychics, and mediums who thrived in Weimar Germany’s volatile atmosphere. Figures like Dr. Mathilde Ludendorff crusaded against these “frauds,” claiming they weakened Germany, and were even involved in a conspiracy with foreign forces. But everything changed when Rudolf Hess flew to Britain in 1941. Branded mad and misled by astrologers, his actions spurred “Action Hess,” a nationwide crackdown on occultism.

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Miss an episode in our Nazi Occultism Series?
Part 1 -    • Nazi Occultism 1: The Thule Society |...  
Part 2 -    • Nazi Occultism 2: Weird Science | Eur...  
Part 3 -    • Nazi Occultism 3: Hitler vs Magic | E...  
Part 4 -    • Nazi Occultism 4: The Indiana Jones S...  
Part 5 -    • Nazi Occultism 5: Thor's Hammer | Eur...  
Series Wrap-up & Recommended Reading / Lies Episode - Release Date: Nov, 30th

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Erick Kurlander. Hitler’s Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich (New
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Erick Kurlander. “The Nazi Magicians’ Controversy: Enlightenment, ‘Border Science,’ and Occultism in the Third Reich,” Central European History 48 (2015): 498-522. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43965203

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Manfred Nagl. “SPF, Occult Sciences, and Nazi Myths,” Science Fiction Studies 1
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DOI: https://www.jstor.org/stable/i40070460

Stanley Stowers. “The Concepts of ‘Religion’, ‘Political Religion’ and the Study of
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Dorothy Thompson. “Culture under the Nazis,” Foreign Affairs (1936): 407-423.
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Volker Ullrich. Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939 (Vintage, 2017)
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Jeb J. Card. Spooky Archaeology: The Myth and Science of the Past. (University of New Mexico Press, 2019). https://a.co/d/0riHwxR

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