Ostara (magazine)

The Ostara was a 1905 to 1917 by the Austrian ariosophs Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels Series published and self-composed for the most part, by a high degree of racism was dominated and at least in Vienna was a certain distribution. Due to the thesis put forward by Wilfried Daim in 1958 that Adolf Hitler had read them and therefore had a lasting influence on their content, the writings were at times given great historical relevance. In recent times, however, a significant influence on Hitler has been put into perspective.

Surname

The series was named after the Germanic spring goddess Ostara .

target

Ostara "began as a magazine devoted to the political and economic problems of the Habsburg monarchy from an anti-liberal and pan-German point of view."

From issue 19/20, Ostara referred to itself as

the only and first racial science newspaper that actually wants to use the results of racial studies to fight the socialist and feminist subversives and to preserve the Aryan noble race from destruction through pure breeding .

From issue 70 the self-description was:

Ostara is the first and only illustrated Aryan-aristocratic collection of writings that provides evidence in words and pictures that the blonde heroic person is the beautiful, moral, noble, idealistic, ingenious and religious person, the creator and sustainer of all science, art and Culture and main bearer of the deity. Everything ugly and evil stems from the mixture of races to which woman was and is more devoted than man for physiological reasons. The Ostara has therefore become the rallying point of all noble beauty, truth, purpose in life and God-seeking idealists in a time that carefully cultivates the feminine and low-race and ruthlessly exterminates the heroic blond human species .

history

Between 1905 and 1917, 89 issues of Ostara were published. Up to issue 64 (1913) they were published in Rodaun , from issue 65 the place of publication was Mödling near Vienna . The first edition appeared in the "Akademischen Verlag Wien-Lpz", the following issues in Ostara-Verlag. Lanz von Liebenfels was referred to as the “responsible leader”.

Lanz wrote most of the Ostara articles himself. Up to issue 25 (1908), a total of 15 articles had not been written by him; thereafter he was the sole author of the published articles.

The Ostara booklets were in any case widespread in Vienna during the pre-war and wartime periods . They were available for a comparatively low price of 4.50 kroner in many tobacconists and were occasionally also on display in coffee houses and cheap people's cafes. It is often assumed that Adolf Hitler noticed the Ostara especially before the First World War and read at least some issues.

The number of copies made can no longer be determined. Lanz himself stated that 100,000 copies of his booklets had been published. In today's research, this number is considered to be far too high. It is true, however, that some issues already saw a second edition in the pre-war period, although again it is not known how high the respective first and second editions were.

The last edition was published in 1917 with issue No. 89. Lanz stated that there were 11 other editions. However, there is no evidence of publication. Ekkehard Hieronimus assumes that Lanz had planned these issues, but the lack of raw materials in the last year of the war prevented publication.

Around 40 new editions of individual issues had appeared by 1931.

Content

Lanz, who wrote almost all of the booklets himself, spoke out primarily on issues of racism , anti- feminism and anti-parliamentarianism. He interpreted the First World War as the decisive phase of the struggle between the “blondes” and the “dark ones”, who, within the framework of his theozoology or ariosophy, gave the superior Aryan “godmen” (Theozoa) and those to the lower instincts and, as such, to the progress of the Represent inferior races opposing humanity. He owed his racial Manichaeism to theosophical and occult subcultures. The feminism fought Lanz because he attributed the woman a much stronger impulsiveness than the man. He therefore viewed their supposed promiscuity as a threat to the preservation of the Aryan race. In a similar way he assigned lower classes of society to the lower races, whereby all forms of emancipation were considered reprehensible to him.

Historical meaning

During his time in Vienna before the First World War (1907–1913), Adolf Hitler had read ethnic literature, party newspapers and tracts, including the Ostara magazine. The Austrian writer Wilfried Daim concludes from this that Lanz von Liebenfels is the man who gave Hitler the ideas (this is the title of his Lanz biography, first published in 1958). This view is not shared in modern science. According to the general opinion, the ideological influence of Lanz (and thus that of the Ostara) on Hitler was rather small or negligible.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke : The Occult Roots of National Socialism. Stocker, Graz et al. 1997, ISBN 3-7020-0795-4 , p. 90.
2. ^ Ludolf Herbst : Hitler's Charisma. The invention of a German messiah. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-10-033186-1 , p. 70. However, Herbst does not consider this to be certain.
3. ↑ Goodrick-Clarke: The Occult Roots of National Socialism. Stocker, Graz et al. 1997, ISBN 3-7020-0795-4 , pp. 86-91.
4. ↑ Joachim Fest : Hitler. A biography. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1973, ISBN 3-549-07301-1 , p. 72. Goodrick-Clarke: The occult roots of National Socialism. Stocker, Graz et al. 1997, ISBN 3-7020-0795-4 , p. 175. Brigitte Hamann : Hitlers Wien. 7th edition. Piper, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-492-03598-1 , p. 316 ff.