Germanic Order

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The Teutonic Order was a German secret society that was founded in Leipzig in 1912 together with the Reichshammerbund and pursued anti-Semitic goals.

aims

At the time the order was founded, the rumor was circulating in popular circles that there was an extensive secret Jewish conspiracy in Germany to which the Jews owed their influence in society. So the idea arose to set up an anti-Jewish secret organization, using Freemasonry as a model.

The main goal was formulated to monitor Jews and their activities, to collect appropriate information and to disseminate it. The anti-Semitic magazine Der Hammer , published by Theodor Fritsch , was regarded as the “sharpest weapon in the fight against Judaism and other enemies of the people” .

Whoever wanted to join the order had to prove an impeccable “ Germanic ” parentage, was not allowed to be physically disabled and should ideally have blond hair, blue to light brown eyes and light skin. Corresponding information was also requested with regard to the spouse. In 1919 Bernhard Koerner was elected as "clan guardian" .

development

The Teutonic Order emerged as a secret organization parallel to the public Reichshammerbund within the readership of the magazine Der Hammer and was structured like a liar based on the model of the Freemasons . The first lodge of the later Teutonic Order was founded in April 1911 under the direction of Hermann Pohl as the " Wotanloge " in Magdeburg . She specified the rules and rituals for the organization, which was named "Teutonic Order" on March 12, 1912 and was led by Pohl from May onwards. In a manifesto from January 1912 this propagated an " Aryan- Germanic religious rebirth". With the aim of a racially pure German nation, he already demanded the deportation of "Jews, anarchist half-breeds and gypsies ".

In that year the order reached 316 members by founding several lodges in north and east Germany, in 1913 it had 451 members. In the south of the empire, however, only a few insignificant lodges emerged. After the order had grown rapidly to over 1,000 members, membership stagnated during the First World War.

In 1916 the order split up because Hermann Pohl left the order due to criticism and founded his own "Germanic Order Walvater". With the establishment of the Thule Society in 1918, the Germanic order quickly lost its importance; its members migrated there.

In the young Weimar Republic , the Teutonic Order was involved in the recruitment of political assassins, for example in the murder of the former minister Matthias Erzberger in 1921 and in an attack on the publicist Maximilian Harden . In 1934 the association was banned.

Rituals and symbols

According to a surviving representation of the initiation of a novice of the order, the ritual combined elements of Freemasonry with those of folk ariosophy ( Guido von List ) and with music by Richard Wagner . One of the symbols used was the swastika ("swastika"). This was common in folk circles at the time, but it was the Teutonic Order, through whose successor organization Thule Society, this symbol found its way into the repertoire of National Socialism .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke : The occult roots of National Socialism , 2nd ed. Wiesbaden 2004, p. 115.
  2. ↑ a b Goodrick-Clarke, p. 116.
  3. ^ Gregor Hufenreuter: Germanic Order. In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus. Hostility to Jews in the past and present. Volume 5: Organizations, Institutions, Movements. Berlin: De Gruyter Saur 2012, pp. 280–282
  4. ↑ Goodrick-Clarke, pp. 114-116.
  5. ^ Uwe Puschner : The völkisch movement in the Wilhelmine Empire. Language - Race - Religion , Darmstadt 2001, p. 386.
  6. ↑ Johannes Leicht: Der Reichshammerbund on LeMO .
  7. ↑ Goodrick-Clarke, p. 120.
  8. ↑ Goodrick-Clarke, pp. 116-118.