Karl Maria Wiligut
Encyclopedia
Karl Maria Wiligut (December 10, 1866, Vienna
- January 3, 1946) was an Austrian
Ariosophist
infantry regiment of Milan I king of Serbia. At 17 December 1883 he was appointed as an infantryman, four days later he became a gefreiter
. In 1888, he was promoted to lieutenant.
In 1906 he married Malwine Leuts von Teuringen of Bozen
, with whom he had two daughters, Gertrud and Lotte. A twin brother of one of the girls died as an infant, a devastating tragedy for Wiligut, who was desperate for a male heir to which he could pass on his "secret knowledge", which estranged him from his wife.
In 1889, he joined the quasi-masonic "Schlaraffia-Loge". He published his first book, Seyfrieds Runen, in 1903, under his real name, as "Karl Maria Wiligut (Lobesam)", mentioning his real and additional artist name. 1908 followed the Neun Gebote Gots, where Wiligut first claimed to be heir to an ancient tradition of Irminism. Both List and Wiligut were influenced by Friedrich Fischbach
's 1900 Die Buchstaben Gutenbergs.
During World War I
, Wiligut served at the southern and eastern fronts. On 1 August 1917, he was promoted to colonel. In May 1918, he was retired from the front and commanded a convalescents' camp near Lviv
.
After almost forty years in military service, he retired on 1 January 1919 with an impeccable record, and moved to Morzg near Salzburg
and dedicated his time to occult studies. He renewed his acquaintance with Theodor Czepl of the Ordo Novi Templi, who in winter 1920/21 spent seven weeks in Wiligut's house. Czepl compiled a report for the archive of the O.N.T., where he describes Wiligut as "a man martial in aspect, who revealed himself as bearer of a secret line of German kingship".
Wiligut supposedly founded the postwar newspaper Der Eiserne Besen, although no evidence for such a newspaper could be found as of today.
Wiligut's wife remained unimpressed by her husband's claim to kingship, and blaming him for their destitution she pushed for his hospitalisation in a mental institution. At 29 November 1924, Wiligut was, while in a cafe with some friends, arrested by the police and taken to the local mental institution where he stayed a couple of years.
and megalomania
and was declared legally incompetent
by a Salzburg court and then institutionalized in a Salzburg asylum, where he remained until 1927. In 1932, he abandoned his wife and family, and 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.
in September 1933 at a conference of the Nordische Gesellschaft
, Wiligut was inducted into the SS
(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). In April 1934 he was promoted to the SS equivalent of his old colonel rank (Standartenführer
), and then made head of Section VIII (Archives) for RuSHA in October 1934. In November 1934 a promotion followed to the rank of Oberführer
(lieutenant-brigadier), and then in the spring of 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 Berlin, where he worked in the office of Karl Wolff
, chief adjutant of the SS, Wiligut developed his plans for the rebuilding of the Wewelsburg
into an allegorical "center of the world". Wiligut's friend Manfred von Knobelsdorff
attempted to practise Wiligut's Irminism on the Wewelsburg. A baptismal ceremony for Karl Wolff's eldest son Thorisman is published in the Wolf Bibliography by Jochen Lang. The irministic 'baptism' occurred on 4 January 1937, attended by SS dignitaries Reinhard Heydrich
and Karl Diebitsch
.
In summer 1936, Gunther Kirchhoff and Wiligut, undertook a private 22 day expedition to the Murg Valley
near Baden-Baden 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 claimed, showed it to be an ancient Krist
settlement. Wiligut identified Schloss Eberstein as a center of Irminism. In Saxony, he discovered another "Irminist complex", identifying Einum as "spirit point", Bodenburg
as "will point", Gandersheim
as "central awareness point", Engelade as "force hand point", Calefeld as "heart point" of the crucified Balder
, Brunstein as "generative point", Naensen as "material hand point" and Ebergötzen
as "skould point".
Wiligut identified Irminism as the true German ancestral religion, claiming that Guido von List
's Wotanism
and Armanen runic row
was a schismatic false religion. Himmler, on Wiligut's recommendation, had many of List's followers and non-official Nazi occultists imprisoned in concentration camps. .
Wiligut contributed significantly to the development of Wewelsburg as the order-castle and ceremonial center of SS pseudo-religious practice. He designed the Totenkopfring, which Himmler personally awarded to prestigious SS officers.
Herman Wirth, first president of the Ahnenerbe, was less than impressed with Wiligut, and in a letter to Rudolf J. Mund describes him as a senile alcoholic plagiarizing Guido List. But Wirth himself was dropped by Himmler after his forgery of a "Fossum calendar disk" he had alleged to have found in a 1937 Ahnenerbe expedition to Sweden was uncovered.
, chief adjutant of Himmler's personal staff and the second-highest ranking officer in the SS, visited 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, only a few days prior to the outbreak of World War II
. Wiligut's final years were insecure: he moved to Aufkirchen in 1939, to Goslar
in 1940, and to Wörthersee
in 1943, and after the war to a refugee camp in St. Johann near Velden
, where he suffered a stroke. After this he was permitted to return to Salzburg, but he soon moved on to Arolsen in Hesse
, where he died on 3 January 1946. His gravestone is inscribed with "UNSER LEBEN GEHT DAHIN WIE EIN GESCHWÄTZ" ("Our Life Passes Away Like Idle Chatter").
's 1900 Die Buchstaben Gutenbergs.
Wiligut claimed to be in the tradition of a long line of Germanic mystic teachers, reaching back into prehistoric times. He also claimed to have spiritual powers that allowed him direct access to genetic memories of his ancestors thousands of years previously.
From 1908, Wiligut was in contact with the occultist Ordo Novi Templi in Vienna. Wiligut claimed that the Bible
had originally been written in Germanic, and testified to an "Irminic" religion - Irminenreligion or Irminism - that contrasted with Wotanism
. He claimed to worship a Germanic god "Krist", whom Christianity was supposed later to have appropriated as their own saviour Christ
.
Germanic culture and history, according to Wiligut, reached back to 228,000 BC. At this time, there were three suns, and Earth was inhabited by giants, dwarfs and other mythical creatures. Wiligut claimed that his ancestors, the Adler-Wiligoten, ended a long period of war. By 12,500 BC, the Irminic religion of Krist was revealed and from that time became the religion of all Germanic peoples, until the schismatic adherents of Wotanism
gained the upper hand. In 1200 BC, the Wotanists succeeded in destroying the Irminic religious center at Goslar
, following which the Irminists erected a new temple at the Externsteine
, which was in turn appropriated by the Wotanists in AD 460. Wiligut's own ancestors were supposedly protagonists in this setting: the Wiligotis were Ueiskunings ("Ice kings") descending from a union of Aesir and Vanir
. They founded the city of Vilna as the center of their Germanic empire and always remained true to their Irminic faith.
Wiligut's convictions assumed a paranoid trait in the 1920s as he became convinced that his family was the victim of a continuing persecution of Irminists, at present conducted by the Roman Catholic Church, the Jews and the Freemasons, on which groups he also blamed the defeat of World War I and the downfall of the Habsburg Empire.
During the 1920s, Wiligut wrote down 38 verses (out of a number purportedly exceeding 1,000), the so-called Halgarita Sprüche, that he claimed to have memorized as a child, taught by his father. Wiligut had designed his own "runic alphabet
" for this purpose.
Werner von Bülow and Emil Rüdiger of the Edda-Gesellschaft (Edda Society) translated and annotated these verses. They claimed that numbers 27 and 1818 are connected with the Black Sun. Verse number 27 according to Willigut is a 20,000 year old "solar blessing":
Werner von Bülow translates this as follows:
Santur is interpreted as a burnt-out sun that was still visible at the time of Homer
. Rüdiger speculates that this was the center of the solar system hundreds of millennia ago, and he imagines a fight between the new and the old Suns that was decided 330,000 years ago. Santur is seen as the source of power of the Hyperboreans.
In esoteric currents of Neo-Nazism
, Neofolk
, National-Socialist black metal
and Neopaganism
, Wiligut's writings enjoyed a renewal of interest in the 1990s.
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
- January 3, 1946) was an Austrian
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
Ariosophist
Ariosophy
Armanism and Ariosophy are the names of ideological systems of an esoteric nature, pioneered by Guido von List and Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels respectively, in Austria between 1890 and 1930. The term 'Ariosophy', meaning wisdom concerning the Aryans, was first coined by Lanz von Liebenfels in 1915 and...
Biography
Wiligut was baptised as a Roman Catholic in Vienna. At the age of 14, he joined the Kadettenschule there. Aged 17, he was conscripted to the k.u.k.Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
infantry regiment of Milan I king of Serbia. At 17 December 1883 he was appointed as an infantryman, four days later he became a gefreiter
Gefreiter
Gefreiter is the German, Swiss and Austrian equivalent for the military rank Private . Gefreiter was the lowest rank to which an ordinary soldier could be promoted. As a military rank it has existed since at least the 16th century...
. In 1888, he was promoted to lieutenant.
In 1906 he married Malwine Leuts von Teuringen of Bozen
Bozen
Bozen may refer to:*Bolzano, a bi-lingual northern Italian provincial capital city of which Bozen is the official German name*Bözen, a Swiss municipality*Bożeń, a village in Poland*Bozen Green, a village in Hertfordshire, England...
, with whom he had two daughters, Gertrud and Lotte. A twin brother of one of the girls died as an infant, a devastating tragedy for Wiligut, who was desperate for a male heir to which he could pass on his "secret knowledge", which estranged him from his wife.
In 1889, he joined the quasi-masonic "Schlaraffia-Loge". He published his first book, Seyfrieds Runen, in 1903, under his real name, as "Karl Maria Wiligut (Lobesam)", mentioning his real and additional artist name. 1908 followed the Neun Gebote Gots, where Wiligut first claimed to be heir to an ancient tradition of Irminism. Both List and Wiligut were influenced by Friedrich Fischbach
Friedrich Fischbach
Friedrich Fischbach was a German textile designer.-Biography:He received his education at the Berlin Academy of Industrial Design. In 1862, he moved to Vienna where he followed the profession of decorator and designer. There he prepared drawings for the collection of pattern designs in the...
's 1900 Die Buchstaben Gutenbergs.
During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Wiligut served at the southern and eastern fronts. On 1 August 1917, he was promoted to colonel. In May 1918, he was retired from the front and commanded a convalescents' camp near Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
.
After almost forty years in military service, he retired on 1 January 1919 with an impeccable record, and moved to Morzg near Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
and dedicated his time to occult studies. He renewed his acquaintance with Theodor Czepl of the Ordo Novi Templi, who in winter 1920/21 spent seven weeks in Wiligut's house. Czepl compiled a report for the archive of the O.N.T., where he describes Wiligut as "a man martial in aspect, who revealed himself as bearer of a secret line of German kingship".
Wiligut supposedly founded the postwar newspaper Der Eiserne Besen, although no evidence for such a newspaper could be found as of today.
Wiligut's wife remained unimpressed by her husband's claim to kingship, and blaming him for their destitution she pushed for his hospitalisation in a mental institution. At 29 November 1924, Wiligut was, while in a cafe with some friends, arrested by the police and taken to the local mental institution where he stayed a couple of years.
Hospitalisation
Wiligut's medical records reflect violence at home, including threats to kill his wife, grandiose projects, eccentric behavior and occult interests. Eventually, in 1924, he was diagnosed with schizophreniaSchizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
and megalomania
Megalomania
Megalomania is a psycho-pathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of power, relevance, or omnipotence. 'Megalomania is characterized by an inflated sense of self-esteem and overestimation by persons of their powers and beliefs'...
and was declared legally incompetent
Capacity (law)
The capacity of both natural and legal persons determines whether they may make binding amendments to their rights, duties and obligations, such as getting married or merging, entering into contracts, making gifts, or writing a valid will...
by a Salzburg court and then institutionalized in a Salzburg asylum, where he remained until 1927. In 1932, he abandoned his wife and family, and emigrated from Austria to Germany, residing in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
. He is known to have corresponded with many admirers and disciples, including Ernst Rüdiger
Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg
Ernst Rüdiger Camillo Starhemberg was an Austrian nationalist and conservative politician prior to World War II, a leader of the Heimwehr and later of the Christian Social Party/Fatherland's Front...
and members of the Order of the New Templars.
Involvement in Himmlers 'Persönlicher Stab'
Shortly after being introduced to Reichsführer-SS HimmlerHeinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
in September 1933 at a conference of the Nordische Gesellschaft
Nordische Gesellschaft
Nordische Gesellschaft was an association founded in 1921, with the objective of strengthening German-Nordic cultural and political cooperation. It was based in Lübeck, Germany. The association had both German and Scandinavian members. After the National Socialist take-over in Germany 1933...
, Wiligut was inducted into the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
(under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"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). In April 1934 he was promoted to the SS equivalent of his old colonel rank (Standartenführer
Standartenführer
Standartenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in the so-called Nazi combat-organisations: SA, SS, NSKK and the NSFK...
), and then made head of Section VIII (Archives) for RuSHA in October 1934. In November 1934 a promotion followed to the rank of Oberführer
Oberführer
Oberführer was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party dating back to 1921. Translated as “Senior Leader”, an Oberführer was typically a Nazi Party member in charge of a group of paramilitary units in a particular geographical region...
(lieutenant-brigadier), and then in the spring of 1935 Wiligut was transferred to Berlin to serve on Himmler's personal staff. He was promoted to the rank of Brigadeführer
Brigadeführer
SS-Brigadeführer was an SS rank that was used in Nazi Germany between the years of 1932 and 1945. Brigadeführer was also an SA rank....
in September 1936.
In Berlin, where he worked in the office of Karl Wolff
Karl Wolff
Karl Friedrich Otto Wolff was a high-ranking member of the Nazi Schutzstaffel , ultimately holding the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS. He became Chief of Personal Staff to the Reichsführer and SS Liaison Officer to Hitler until his replacement in 1943...
, chief adjutant of the SS, Wiligut developed his plans for the rebuilding of the Wewelsburg
Wewelsburg
For the village of Wewelsburg see Village of WewelsburgWewelsburg is a Renaissance castle located in the northeast of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the village of Wewelsburg which is a quarter of the city Büren, Westphalia, in district of Paderborn in the Alme Valley. The castle has the...
into an allegorical "center of the world". Wiligut's friend Manfred von Knobelsdorff
Manfred von Knobelsdorff
Manfred von Knobelsdorff, Lieutenant Colonel Waffen-SS, oversaw much of Wewelsburg Castle from February 12, 1935 through January 24, 1938, where he presided over several ceremonies...
attempted to practise Wiligut's Irminism on the Wewelsburg. A baptismal ceremony for Karl Wolff's eldest son Thorisman is published in the Wolf Bibliography by Jochen Lang. The irministic 'baptism' occurred on 4 January 1937, attended by SS dignitaries Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia...
and Karl Diebitsch
Karl Diebitsch
Professor Karl Diebitsch was an artist and soldier responsible for much of the Third Reich SS regalia, including the Chained SS Officer's dagger scabbard. Diebitsch worked with graphic designer Walter Heck to design the all-black SS uniform...
.
In summer 1936, Gunther Kirchhoff and Wiligut, undertook a private 22 day expedition to the Murg Valley
Murg
The Murg is a river and right tributary of the Rhine in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.-Source:The river has numerous tributaries and is known as the Murg only from the point of confluence of the rivers Rechtmurg and Rotmurg in the community of Obertal, a part of Baiersbronn...
near Baden-Baden in the Black Forest
Black Forest
The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres ....
, 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 claimed, showed it to be an ancient Krist
Krist
Krist may refer to:People with the given name Krist:* Krist Novoselic , American rock musicianPeople with the surname Krist:* Augustin Krist , Czech football referee* Gary Krist , American writer...
settlement. Wiligut identified Schloss Eberstein as a center of Irminism. In Saxony, he discovered another "Irminist complex", identifying Einum as "spirit point", Bodenburg
Bodenburg
Bodenburg is a village in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located about 20km south of Hildesheim, and about 5km from Bad Salzdetfurth. The community has a population of 2,000.-Overview:...
as "will point", Gandersheim
Bad Gandersheim
Bad Gandersheim is a town in southern Lower Saxony, Germany, located in the district of Northeim. , it had a population 10,572.Bad Gandersheim has many half-timbered houses and is located on the German Framework Road .- Geography :...
as "central awareness point", Engelade as "force hand point", Calefeld as "heart point" of the crucified Balder
Balder
Baldr is a god in Norse mythology.In the 12th century, Danish accounts by Saxo Grammaticus and other Danish Latin chroniclers recorded a euhemerized account of his story...
, Brunstein as "generative point", Naensen as "material hand point" and Ebergötzen
Ebergötzen
Ebergötzen is a village in the District of Göttingen in Germany in Lower Saxony. It is 15 km from Göttingen and belongs to the Samtgemeinde Radolfshausen...
as "skould point".
Wiligut identified Irminism as the true German ancestral religion, claiming that Guido von List
Guido von List
Guido Karl Anton List, better known as Guido von List was an Austrian/German poet, journalist, writer, businessman and dealer of leather goods, mountaineer, hiker, dramatist, playwright, and rower, but was most notable as an occultist and völkisch author who is seen as one of the most important...
's Wotanism
Wotanism
Wotanism is the name of an American Heathen religion or socio-political current based on Germanic paganism and the doctrines of David Lane. Wotan is the German name for the Germanic god known in Norse as Odin...
and Armanen runic row
Armanen runes
The Armanen runes, or Armanen 'Futharkh' as Guido von List referred to them, are a row of 18 runes that are closely based in shape on the Younger Futhark...
was a schismatic false religion. Himmler, on Wiligut's recommendation, had many of List's followers and non-official Nazi occultists imprisoned in concentration camps. .
Wiligut contributed significantly to the development of Wewelsburg as the order-castle and ceremonial center of SS pseudo-religious practice. He designed the Totenkopfring, which Himmler personally awarded to prestigious SS officers.
Herman Wirth, first president of the Ahnenerbe, was less than impressed with Wiligut, and in a letter to Rudolf J. Mund describes him as a senile alcoholic plagiarizing Guido List. But Wirth himself was dropped by Himmler after his forgery of a "Fossum calendar disk" he had alleged to have found in a 1937 Ahnenerbe expedition to Sweden was uncovered.
Retirement and death
In November 1938, Karl WolffKarl Wolff
Karl Friedrich Otto Wolff was a high-ranking member of the Nazi Schutzstaffel , ultimately holding the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS. He became Chief of Personal Staff to the Reichsführer and SS Liaison Officer to Hitler until his replacement in 1943...
, chief adjutant of Himmler's personal staff and the second-highest ranking officer in the SS, visited 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, only a few days prior to the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Wiligut's final years were insecure: he moved to Aufkirchen in 1939, to Goslar
Goslar
Goslar is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Goslar and located on the northwestern slopes of the Harz mountain range. The Old Town of Goslar and the Mines of Rammelsberg are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.-Geography:Goslar is situated at the...
in 1940, and to Wörthersee
Wörthersee
The Wörthersee is an alpine lake in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia.-General facts:The lake is elongated, about 20 km long and 1–2 km wide. It stretches from the Carinthian capital Klagenfurt in the east to Velden in the west...
in 1943, and after the war to a refugee camp in St. Johann near Velden
Velden
Velden may refer to several places:*Velden am Wörther See, a municipality in Austria on the Wörthersee*Velden, Limburg, a village in the municipality of Venlo, Netherlands*Velden , a town in the district of Nürnberger Land in Bavaria, Germany...
, where he suffered a stroke. After this he was permitted to return to Salzburg, but he soon moved on to Arolsen in Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
, where he died on 3 January 1946. His gravestone is inscribed with "UNSER LEBEN GEHT DAHIN WIE EIN GESCHWÄTZ" ("Our Life Passes Away Like Idle Chatter").
Occult involvement
In 1889 Wiligut joined the Schlaraffia, a quasi-masonic lodge. When he left the lodge in 1909, he held the rank of knight and the office of chancellor. His first book, Seyfrieds Runen, was published in 1903 under his full real name with the addition Lobesam. "Seyfrieds Runen" was a collection of poems about the Rabenstein at Znaim on the Austrian-Moravian border. In 1908 followed the Neun Gebote Gots, where Wiligut first claimed to be heir to an ancient tradition of Irminism. Both List and Wiligut were influenced by Friedrich FischbachFriedrich Fischbach
Friedrich Fischbach was a German textile designer.-Biography:He received his education at the Berlin Academy of Industrial Design. In 1862, he moved to Vienna where he followed the profession of decorator and designer. There he prepared drawings for the collection of pattern designs in the...
's 1900 Die Buchstaben Gutenbergs.
Wiligut claimed to be in the tradition of a long line of Germanic mystic teachers, reaching back into prehistoric times. He also claimed to have spiritual powers that allowed him direct access to genetic memories of his ancestors thousands of years previously.
From 1908, Wiligut was in contact with the occultist Ordo Novi Templi in Vienna. Wiligut claimed that the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
had originally been written in Germanic, and testified to an "Irminic" religion - Irminenreligion or Irminism - that contrasted with Wotanism
Wotanism
Wotanism is the name of an American Heathen religion or socio-political current based on Germanic paganism and the doctrines of David Lane. Wotan is the German name for the Germanic god known in Norse as Odin...
. He claimed to worship a Germanic god "Krist", whom Christianity was supposed later to have appropriated as their own saviour Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
.
Germanic culture and history, according to Wiligut, reached back to 228,000 BC. At this time, there were three suns, and Earth was inhabited by giants, dwarfs and other mythical creatures. Wiligut claimed that his ancestors, the Adler-Wiligoten, ended a long period of war. By 12,500 BC, the Irminic religion of Krist was revealed and from that time became the religion of all Germanic peoples, until the schismatic adherents of Wotanism
Wotanism
Wotanism is the name of an American Heathen religion or socio-political current based on Germanic paganism and the doctrines of David Lane. Wotan is the German name for the Germanic god known in Norse as Odin...
gained the upper hand. In 1200 BC, the Wotanists succeeded in destroying the Irminic religious center at Goslar
Goslar
Goslar is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Goslar and located on the northwestern slopes of the Harz mountain range. The Old Town of Goslar and the Mines of Rammelsberg are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.-Geography:Goslar is situated at the...
, following which the Irminists erected a new temple at the Externsteine
Externsteine
The Externsteine are a distinctive rock formation located in Ostwestfalen-Lippe of northwestern Germany, not far from the city of Detmold at Horn-Bad Meinberg. The formation is a tor consisting of several tall, narrow columns of rock which rise abruptly from the surrounding wooded hills...
, which was in turn appropriated by the Wotanists in AD 460. Wiligut's own ancestors were supposedly protagonists in this setting: the Wiligotis were Ueiskunings ("Ice kings") descending from a union of Aesir and Vanir
Vanir
In Norse mythology, the Vanir are a group of gods associated with fertility, wisdom and the ability to see the future. The Vanir are one of two groups of gods and are the namesake of the location Vanaheimr . After the Æsir–Vanir War, the Vanir became a subgroup of the Æsir...
. They founded the city of Vilna as the center of their Germanic empire and always remained true to their Irminic faith.
Wiligut's convictions assumed a paranoid trait in the 1920s as he became convinced that his family was the victim of a continuing persecution of Irminists, at present conducted by the Roman Catholic Church, the Jews and the Freemasons, on which groups he also blamed the defeat of World War I and the downfall of the Habsburg Empire.
During the 1920s, Wiligut wrote down 38 verses (out of a number purportedly exceeding 1,000), the so-called Halgarita Sprüche, that he claimed to have memorized as a child, taught by his father. Wiligut had designed his own "runic alphabet
Wiligut runes
The Wiligut runes are a runic row developed by Karl Maria Wiligut in 1934. Wiligut rejected Guido von List's Armanen runes and his overall philosophy.Wiligut claimed to have been initiated into "runic lore" by his grandfather Karl Wiligut ....
" for this purpose.
Werner von Bülow and Emil Rüdiger of the Edda-Gesellschaft (Edda Society) translated and annotated these verses. They claimed that numbers 27 and 1818 are connected with the Black Sun. Verse number 27 according to Willigut is a 20,000 year old "solar blessing":
- Sunur saga santur toe Syntir peri fuir sprueh Wilugoti haga tharn Halga fuir santur toe
Werner von Bülow translates this as follows:
- "Legend tells, that two Suns, two wholesome in change-rule UR and SUN, alike to the hourglass which turned upside down ever gives one of these the victory / The meaning of the divine errant wandering way / dross star in fire's sphere became in fire-tongue revealed to the Earth-I-course of the race of Paradise / godwilling leaders lead to the weal through their care in universal course, what is visible and soon hidden, whence they led the imagination of mankind / polar in change-play, from UR to SUN in sacrifical service of waxing and waning, in holy fire Santur is ambiguously spent in sparks, but turns victorious to blessing".
Santur is interpreted as a burnt-out sun that was still visible at the time of Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
. Rüdiger speculates that this was the center of the solar system hundreds of millennia ago, and he imagines a fight between the new and the old Suns that was decided 330,000 years ago. Santur is seen as the source of power of the Hyperboreans.
In esoteric currents of Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....
, Neofolk
Neofolk
Neofolk is a form of folk music-inspired experimental music that emerged from post-industrial music circles. Neofolk can either be solely acoustic folk music or a blend of acoustic folk instrumentation aided by varieties of accompanying sounds such as pianos, strings and elements of industrial...
, National-Socialist black metal
National Socialist black metal
National Socialist black metal is black metal that promotes National Socialist beliefs through their lyrics and imagery. These beliefs often include: white supremacy, racial separatism, antisemitism, heterosexism, and Nazi interpretations of paganism or Satanism...
and Neopaganism
Neopaganism
Neopaganism is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe...
, Wiligut's writings enjoyed a renewal of interest in the 1990s.