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ARYAN ANCESTORS, PARIAHS
AND THE LUNATIC FRINGE
D O R O T H Y M. FIGUEIRA
In going East . . . everyone . . . ought to feel that he is going to his "old
home," full of memories, if only he can read them. 1
If we follow them [the Indian poets] cautiously, we shall find that with
some effort we are still able to walk in their footsteps. 2
De l'lnde . . . descend un torrent de lumiere, un fleuve de Droit et de
Raison. 3
I
Historians of the occult have made irresponsible claims to the
influences of Eastern cosmic theories and practical methods for
spiritual development u p o n National Socialism. 4 Mythologizers
of Nazism as well as sober scholars have drawn a causal relationship between early Sanskrit philology, Indian philosophy and
National Socialist ideology. 5
In a journalistic work translated f r o m the French as The Soul of
India (1961), Amaury de Riencourt speculates that, with the help
of I n d i a n philosophy, G e r m a n y f o u g h t a n d destroyed the
Greco-Roman and Semitic heritages of European culture in the
twentieth century. 6 A direct line is drawn f r o m early European
study of philology which recognized the relationship between
German and Sanskrit, to those Romantic poets and philosophers
entranced with India, t h r o u g h Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Houston Stewart Chamberlain culminating with Adolf Hitler. T h e
suggestion that the entirety of German history, especially Romanticism, contributed in the formation of the T h i r d Reich is not a
radical proposal. 7 Riencourt modifies this topos by suggesting a
direct movement f r o m the Romantics to the National Socialists.
Raymond Schwab's La Renaissance orientate (1950) also recently
reedited, 8 draws a direct connection between Schopenhauer,
I n d i a a n d N a t i o n a l Socialism. S c h w a b m a i n t a i n e d t h a t
Schopenhauer used India as a cudgel to beat the Semitic tradition. Schopenhauer's critique of the Old Testament is perceived
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as having an insidious racist and hegemonic agenda. Once again a
causal relationship between early philologists, Schopenhauer and
subsequent racists and anti-Semites is proposed.
Leon Poliakov's Le Mythe aryan associated Indomania, Germanenwahn and anti-Semitism in one breath. He cites F. Schlegel
as the first a u t h o r of the Aryan myth 9 and interprets Herder's
enthusiasm for Indian philosophy as symptomatic of Germany's
impatience to release itself f r o m J u d e o - C h r i s t i a n fetters. 1 0
Poliakov maintains that Schopenhauer allowed Germany to see
itself as a child of India and Buddhism. 1 1 Poliakov then draws a
connection between Schopenhauer's pro-Indian (for Poliakov,
synonymous with pro-Aryan) sentiments and his anti-Semitic and
anti-Jewish arguments. 1 2 Thus, J a k o b Grimm can appear as an
influential propagandist of the Indo-German and Aryan myth. 1 3
T o be fair to Poliakov, he does not single out the Germans; most
of E u r o p e a n history presents a single history of the Aryan myth,
which he does not distinguish f r o m anti-Semitism. For Poliakov,
all anthropology, linguistics, philosophy and history is the prehistory of the destruction of the Jews.
Terribles simplificateurs} Yes, but these theses prove elucidative,
nevertheless. Given the recent reeditions in English of both
Schwab and Riencourt and the publication of other works suggesting a deep connection between India and National Socialism,
it appears that this trend in scholarship is flourishing. It is not
surprising that the more recent of such works can call u p o n
Orientalist criticism to lay claims to an a priori racist/imperialist
agenda at work in all East-West literary and philosophical relations. 14 In the following pages, I would like to examine specific
Indian symbols which f o u n d their way into Nazi ideology and
iconography in the hope of deciphering the role such influences
played.
Historians trace the rise of National Socialism to the influences
of nationalism, anti-liberalism, cultural pessimism a n d racism. 15
T h e vision of the Volk, a national collectivity inspired by a common creative energy, was promulgated as the unique essence of
the German people. Mosse has speculated that this ideological
preoccupation resulted f r o m Germany's delayed political unification and the Romantic reaction to modernity. 1 6 When Germans
began to conceive of their national unity, they did so in cultural
terms. Sturm und Drang, the identity of all Germans in folk songs
Dorothy M. Figueira
3
a n d the Romantic idealization of medieval G e r m a n y laid claim to
a spiritual unity, if t h e r e never was a political unity. Racism, too,
had a place in volkisch ideology. By exploiting racial differences,
G e r m a n s lent validity to the claims of national distinctions a n d
superiority. In this direction, they were aided a n d abetted by
Darwinism, p u r p o r t i n g that the s u p e r i o r would prevail over inferior races. How, then, did G e r m a n s identify the Volkl W h e r e
did the notion of the Aryan race e n t e r into their u n d e r s t a n d i n g of
their cultural identity?
In the Petersburger Sanskrit Worterbuch, the t e r m arya is d e f i n e d
as treu, ergeben, a n d f r o m m . Aarya, belonging to Treuen can signify
"ein m a n n des eigenen Stammes." T h e P e t e r s b u r g dictionary
cites the term's etymology f r o m areioi ( H e r o d o t o s r e f e r s to a
people n a m e d arioi, dwelling in present-day Iran) and Diodorus'
mention of the Areianoi. In 1763 the French translator of the Zend
Avesta, Anquetil D u p e r r o n translates H e r o d o t u s ' a n d Diodorus'
Aryans asariens a n d in 1776, J o h a n n Friedrich Kleuker translates
their n a m e into G e r m a n as Arier.
In the late e i g h t e e n t h century, 1 7 Sir William J o n e s sought to
discover the relationship between Sanskrit a n d the Classical a n d
m o d e r n E u r o p e a n languages. With time, scholars such as F.
Schlegel, Franz Bopp, J a c o b G r i m m a n d Aug. Fried. Pott would
a d d their respective theories. Which Volk was the Urvolk? W h a t
was t h e Mutter- f r o m w h i c h Tochter-V'dlker s p r a n g ? W h i c h
Ursprache did this Volk use a n d , finally, w h e r e was their Urheimat?
As G r i m m a n d Pott would maintain, the Aryans in India a n d
Persia were the Urvolk, Sanskrit the Ursprache, a n d the Central
Asian Highlands the Urheimat. It was believed that these Aryans
moved south and west, d i f f e r e n t i a t e d a n d isolated themselves.
T h e o d o r Benfey (1868) t h o u g h t they migrated in the opposite
direction, f r o m E u r o p e to Asia.
G e r m a n linguists t h e n sought n a m e s f o r the newly discovered
linguistic family, such as Japhetische, Sarmatisch, Kaukasisch,
Indisch-Teutsch, Mittellaendisch, Sanskritisch, I n d o g e r m a n i s c h ,
Indokeltisch, Indoeuropaisch, a n d Arisch. T h e y identified its
Ursprecher as T e u t a r i e r , Arioteuten, o r Viros. If the relationship
between Sanskrit a n d m o d e r n E u r o p e a n languages was mistakenly t h o u g h t to be that of an Ursprache to a Sprache, then those
who spoke these languages were Indians a n d their descendants
included, a m o n g others, the G e r m a n s . 1 8 Schlegel (1819) used
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Arier in the sense of "our G e r m a n ancestors while they were still in
Asia." 19 T h e Aryan language was the language of the Ur-Aryans.
T h e Aryans were, therefore, the equivalent of the Uruolk f r o m
which the collected linguistic and Volk- family descended. T o
support his argument, Schlegel developed what we know to be
false etymologies, such as the G e r m a n Ehre deriving f r o m the
Sanskrit root ari.20 Significant in this regard is the fact that
Schlegel's knowledge of Sanskrit was incomplete and colored by a
crisis of faith which coincided with his study of the language. 2 1
Christian Lassen also thought that the old Germans were named
Arier, although he personally p r e f e r r e d the alternative term Indogermanen.22 "Aryans," the Ur-inhabitants of Iran and India,
comprised the g r o u p of peoples f r o m the language family which
speak the Indogermanic language and which, according to biblical genealogy, had been named Japhetic.
With A. F. Pott's article "Indogermanischer Sprachstudium" in
the Allgemeine Encyclopadie der Wissenschaften und Kiinste, the term
indoeurop'disch gained parlance. 2 3 For the sake of clarification,
since this term suggested that all European languages came f r o m
the same branch, Pott spoke of a Sanskritsprachstamm, with
Sanskrit now thought to be the oldest language.
T h e racial use of the term "Aryan" can be f o u n d in Gobineau,
Retzius, Poesche and Penka. For Gobineau, the Aryan race
ranked superior to all others d u e to its cultural sophistication; he
recognized Aryans as the passive material f r o m which "Culture"
was formed. Although formally a monogenist, Gobineau still accepted the biblical creation myth. For the Urheimat, Gobineau
held to the theory of an Asian migration, 2 4 in which the Aryans
wandered into India, met and mixed with the indigenous Blacks.
He noted how far-sighted the Indian Law-givers had been when
they recognized in this intermingling the decline of Indian culture. For this reason, Gobineau maintained, they instituted the
system of castes. Gobineau attributed the capacity of spirituality
to Aryan blood. 2 5 Closest to the Aryan was the b r a h m a n , and so
forth in declining order. Gobineau held that Buddhism and Islam
struck the death blow to Aryanhood, t h r o u g h its wanton disregard for caste. Nevertheless, Gobineau placed India as the exception in universal history. It was the only high culture with longterm success at separating the races. Most significantly, Gobineau,
the aristocrat (and Viking, for that matter) posited India as the
Dorothy M. Figueira
5
Gegenbild to E u r o p e — e s p e c i a l l y n i n e t e e n t h - c e n t u r y E u r o p e
which was c a r e e n i n g toward bastardization t h r o u g h the overthrow of class structure. Gobineau did not use the t e r m Arier f o r
Jews. 2 6 H e held to Noah's genealogy a n d , f o r him, the Semites
belonged to the white race. It should be n o t e d that Gobineau's
theories, unlike those of the o t h e r Aryan race theorists, were
hardly circulated or accepted by his contemporaries.
T h e o d o r Poesche, Karl P e n k a , a n d G e o r g e V a c h e r de
L a p o u g e 2 7 maintained that t h e r e existed a linguistic classification
of I n d o - E u r o p e a n languages necessitating an I n d o - E u r o p e a n
c o m m u n i t y of speakers, a Volk family. T h e s e theorists routinely
combined linguistic classifications with race classifications. 28 For
Poesche and Penka, the Urtype was dolichocephalic ( G e r m a n Scandanavian) a n d bracycephalic (Celt, Slav). W h o was Urherr
a n d who was the Urknecht in their system? In England, the Germans (Anglos, Saxons a n d N o r m a n s ) subjugated indigenous
Celts; in France, the G e r m a n s (Franks) the Celtic Gauls; in Southe r n E u r o p e , the G e r m a n s the indigenous Italians o r Iberians; in
the East, the G e r m a n s subjugated the Slavs. T h e s e G e r m a n s were
the b r a h m a n s in India: they were strong, blond a n d blue-eyed in
the n o r t h d u e to light a n d climate. Poesche situated their Urheimat
in Lithuania; Penka in Scandinavia; L a p o u g e by the N o r t h Sea. In
early times, this Urvolk w a n d e r e d to India, but they f o u n d the
climate unconducive. T h e y eventually left; those who had ties
with the d a r k i n d i g e n o u s p o p u l a t i o n r e m a i n e d . T h u s these
Aryans effected a selection of the fittest, when the colonizers were
decimated a n d forced to mix f o r survival. T h e present-day inhabitants of India have only a small percentage of Aryan blood
coursing t h r o u g h their veins, since, early on in their stay, they
diluted their race by mingling with the indigenous population.
Poesche held that while m o d e r n Indian languages were mostly
Aryan, the Volk physically could n o longer m a k e such a claim. T o
these Aryan theorists, the Indians were
Negroes and Mulattoes, who know how to retain the noble language of
their paternal ancestors. Subtropical nature has physically and spiritually
overrun the Aryan species and stifled its fullness. 29
Poesche, Penka a n d d e L a p o u g e were strictly Darwinian a n d ,
by accepting e n v i r o n m e n t as the selection factor, they diametrically o p p o s e d Gobineau f o r w h o m India provided the last Aryan
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bastion which had protected itself f r o m mixture. For these Aryan
theorists, mixture was inevitable; the only way the Aryans would
live in India was by sacrificing race in o r d e r to keep language and
culture.
T h e view that the Aryans had degenerated paralleled the general devaluation of India in nineteenth-century European consciousness. By the end of the nineteenth century, the initial
Romantic enthusiasm with India and her inhabitants had considerably ebbed. While for thinkers such as H e r d e r and Goethe
India had been the cradle of civilization, it now became, to cite
Enrico de Michelis, the grave of the Aryans. 3 0 In a similar downward spiral did the Aryans in India d e g e n e r a t e f r o m their
forebears. Although the Indians were not excluded f r o m the
Aryan race category, as it was stipulated in the Arierparagraph31 of
the Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums of April 7,
1933, 32 by the time of the National Socialist iViirnberger Gesetzen
of September 15, 1935, it could no longer be a question of Aryan
and not Aryan, 3 3 but deutsches oder artverwandtes Blut. Thus, the
initial race theorists differed significantly f r o m the National
Socialists in that their mechanical race selection theory left little
room for factors such as Will or, more importantly, Selbstzucht
(self-discipline). While the racial fate of the Indian Aryan was
determined by his passivity or fatalism, the fate of the German
Aryan necessitated a will to power.
II
In actuality, the myth of the Nazi link with the Orient has less to
do with the migrations of Aryan warlords than with National
Socialism's complex p e d i g r e e of T h e o s o p h i c a l p r o v e n a n c e .
Theosophy provided a mixture of Ancient Egyptian esoterica,
American spiritualism, Hinduism and Buddhism. Mme.
Blavatsky f o u n d e d the Theosophical Society in New York City in
1875. By presenting a tirade against the rationalism and materialism of the m o d e r n Western world, Mme. Blavatsky encouraged
her readers to seek truth t h r o u g h ancient religion in defiance of
contemporary agnosticism and m o d e r n science. She first directed
t h e m to Ancient Egype in Isis Revealed (1877). With her emigration to India in 1879 and no doubt sensitive to the popularity of
translations f r o m Sanskrit scripture, she shifted her base of oper-
Dorothy M. Figueira
7
ations as well as the locus of T r u t h to India. T h e o s o p h y received
in India its systematic f o r m u l a t i o n .
T h e Secret Doctrine (1888), primarily a plagiarism of c o n t e m p o rary works o n H i n d u i s m , describes the activities of God f r o m the
b e g i n n i n g of creation. T h e o s o p h y s u p p o r t e d belief in a cyclical
historical process. T h e present universe can be viewed as an e m a nation a n d subsequent progression. T h e first volume of The Secret
Doctrine describes cosmogenesis w h e r e the primal unity of the
u n m a n i f e s t Divine Being becomes manifested t h r o u g h e m a n a tion a n d gradually fills the universe. All subsequent creation t h e n
passes t h r o u g h seven evolutionary cycles. Blavatsky illustrated
cosmic cycles with a variety of esoteric symbols, of which the swastika, an I n d i a n symbol of luck, was the most p o p u l a r . In fact, it
became the seal of the Theosophical Society.
In the second volume of The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky attempts
to relate m a n to this vision of the cosmos (anthropogenesis). During each cycle, seven consecutive root races, d e s c e n d i n g o n a scale
of spiritual d e v e l o p m e n t a n d increasingly e n m e s h e d in the material world, rise and fall. O n e of these root races, the Aryan, h a d as
its first u n d e r r a c e the ancient Indians, followed by those Indians
who had been sent to Egypt (called Ario-Semites), the Persians,
a n d Celts. T h e fifth Aryan u n d e r r a c e , the T e u t o n i c , currently
reigned, possessing qualities such as scientific u n d e r s t a n d i n g ,
which is especially prevalent, we a r e told, in G e r m a n y . T h e s e
Aryans were in the process of ascent; their process of spiritual
advance lay b e f o r e t h e m . T h e agglutinated speech of the o t h e r
races a n d their respective u n d e r r a c e s became inflected in the
Sanskrit of the Aryan race.
A n o t h e r tenet of T h e o s o p h y i n c o r p o r a t e d the H i n d u belief in
reincarnation a n d karma. T h e individual h u m a n ego was reg a r d e d as a tiny f r a g m e n t of Divine Being. T h r o u g h reincarnation, each ego p u r s u e d the stages of the cosmic j o u r n e y toward
eventual r e u n i o n with the Divine Being, f r o m whence it issued.
O n e is countlessly r e b o r n according to the principle of karma—
w h e r e good acts e a r n s u p e r i o r reincarnation, a n d bad an inferior
rebirth.
T h e Jews belong to the second Aryan u n d e r r a c e , the so-called
Ario-Semites, a m i x t u r e of those Aryans who w a n d e r e d f r o m
India to Egypt a n d were called Ursemites. T h e Jews a r e also
t h o u g h t to have s t e m m e d f r o m the f o u r t h root race, the Atlan-
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tans. Blavatsky identified the Jews with the pariahs (candala) of
ancient India.
T h e y can just as well be the expelled chandala of Ancient India who were
mentioned as the "Brick wall" by Veda-Vyasa and Manu . . . T h e Semitic
languages are the bastard descendants of the first corruption of the
eldest children of early Sanskrit . . . T h e Semites, especially the Arabs,
are later Aryans, materially degenerate in intellect and perfection. T o
these belong all the Jews and Arabs. T h e first belong to a branch which
descends f r o m the Indian candalas. 3 4
T h e concept of the pariah had been emplotted in eighteenth
and nineteenth century literature and opera as the noble savage,
an Enlightenment symbol for social equality. 35 In contradistinction to Enlightenment and Romantic imagery, in the m o d e r n
racist configuration of Theosophy, the pariah retains its Indian
status as a degenerate. A third metaphorization of the pariah,
distinct still f r o m those of the Enlightenment and Theosophy, is
to be f o u n d in the fulminations of Nietzsche. Whereas the Enlightenment and Romantic pariah rebelled against his fate,
Nietzsche's candala (Tschandalen) symbolized fatalistic resignation
and passivity in the guise of charity. He too was a product of the
shift which had occurred in the general reception of things Indian; the pariah as a symbol for cultural progress had become an
object of the despair with the European present.
Nietzsche has popularized the figure of the candala in his discussion of Christianity and Buddhism which he characterized as
the world's two great nihilistic movements, "decadent" and
rooted in the monstrous disease of the will. 36 In Buddhism, however, Nietzsche recognized a more consistent type of pessimism. 37
It provided a "nihilism that was freer, more aristocratic and more
cultivated than in Christianity, it was a Tschandala religion." 38
Nietzsche identified his vision of the Untermensch with the
candala ; the Christian t h r o u g h love and pity for his fellow man
r e n d e r e d himself an Untermensch. In opposition to Christianity,
the H i n d u faith, as expressed in the Laws of Manu exhibited a
realistic acceptance of life (a "jasagende arische Religion,") 39
which did not disguise its appreciation of power. Led by a nonmoralizing elite m a d e - u p of the noble classes, philosophers and
warriors, Indians controlled the rabble which was always ruled by
Zucht. Nietzsche understood Indian morality as promulgated in
Manu in the following m a n n e r :
Dorothy M. Figueira
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Here is the task presented, not less than four races to breed once and for
all: a priestly, warrior, peasant and finally a servant race, the sudras . . .
But also it is important for this organization to be formidable, not in
battle with a brute, but with its opposite idea, the man of race, the mishmash man, the candala.40
Like the Ubermensch, the ancient H i n d u possessed a feeling of
completion, an a f f i r m a t i o n of life a n d a t r i u m p h a n t , pleasant
feeling about himself. 4 1 His success was d u e to his ability to segregate himself rigorously f r o m the " e x c r e m e n t of society." 42 T h e
Tschandala a n d his religion, o n the o t h e r h a n d , r e a f f i r m e d the
n e e d f o r Nietzsche's alternative vision.
These orders are instructive enough—in them we have at once Aryan
humanity, completely pure, completely original—we learn that the idea
"pure blood" is the contrary of a harmless conception. On the other
hand, it becomes clear which people perpetuated hatred, candala hatred
against this humanity, where it became a religion and a genius . . . Under
this point of view are the Christian gospels, as the Jewish root, only
understandable as the breeding of race and privilege—it is the antiAryan religion par excellance: worthy of the candala—the gospel
preached to the poor and lowest, the collected revolt of all the downtrodden, the ill-bred, those who have come off poorly against the
"race"—the immortal candala revenge as a religion of love. . . 43
Nietzsche's Tschandala r e p r e s e n t e d the individual who has been
r e n d e r e d weak in will by a weak religion. H e did n o t identify the
Tschandala with the Jew. T h e association of candalas44 with Jews
was, t h e r e f o r e , an i m p o r t a n t d e v e l o p m e n t . Theosophists, as well
as o t h e r occultists such as List a n d Lanz von Lebenfels, would
make this connection a n d a p p r o p r i a t e the f i g u r e of the candala in
their racial ideology. 4 5
T h e o s o p h y flourished in the last decades of the n i n e t e e n t h
century. Its vogue in G e r m a n y a n d Austria derived f r o m the fact
that T h e o s o p h y provided a philosophical rationale for the Lebensreform g r o u p s of Wilhelmian G e r m a n y . T h e e n d of the c e n t u r y
saw the growth of the G e r m a n Theosophical m o v e m e n t owing
largely to the e f f o r t of Franz H a r t m a n n (1838-1912). From 1892
o n w a r d , translations f r o m I n d i a n sacred texts alongside the
works of Mme. Blavatsky were available in several j o u r n a l s .
H a r t m a n n ' s j o u r n a l Lotusbliithen,
which h a d a swastika
emblazoned o n the cover, was distributed by Wilhelm Friedrich, a
Leipzig publisher of esoteric works dealing with karma a n d translations of the Bhagavad G\ta. O t h e r j o u r n a l s include Paul Zillman's
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Metaphysische Rundschau (1896), which published articles on yoga,
phrenology, astrology as did Prana (1909-19); Harald Gravell van
Jostenoode's Aryavarta, a volkish text imbued with a mixture of
Buddhist piety; and, finally, Ostara.
Not only was the German occult subculture well developed
prior to the First World War, but, with the appearance of such
publications, a definite evolution took place in occult ideology.
While the earliest Austrian Theosophy was coupled with mystical
Christianity, its later Viennese manifestation dealt more with
myth, folklore and comparative religions. Theosophy's eclecticism with respect to esoteric lore and its non-Christian perspective on the cosmos and man's origins, were well suited to volkisch
speculation.
Guido von List provided a synthesis of Theosophy and German
mythology. In Wotanism, List incorporated the " H i n d u " concept
of birth cycles (death and rebirth), as well as the belief that all
creatures are emanations of a spiritual force. Man, as an integral
part of this unified cosmos, must live in accordance with nature,
i.e. in close identity with one's Volk and race. Friedrich published
List's Sexualreligion (1897) describing the sexual religion of the
Aryans and their practice of eugenics to maintain the purity of the
race. Only the union of the p u r e could release primal energy and
produce excellent offspring. In Die Gnosis (1903), List e x p a n d e d
u p o n his theories concerning the immortality of soul, reincarnation and karmic determination. With the publication of the German translation of The Secret Doctrine, List became more and more
influenced by Theosophy. H a r t m a n n would praise him for discovering the congruence between Germanic and H i n d u doctrines. 4 6
List's blueprint for change called for the Pan-German empire
establishing the subjection of non-Aryans to Aryan masters in a
hierarchical state where professions rested solely on racial purity.
Aryans were relieved f r o m menial tasks in o r d e r to rule over
non-Aryans. This vision, clearly based on H i n d u caste edicts, did
not differ significantly f r o m the N u r e m b u r g Laws of 1930's.
In List's last work Die Ursprache der Ario-Germanen (1914), the
ancient German national past corresponds to H i n d u kalpa or
world cycle. List's apocalyptic hopes for the end of the present
cycle and the dawning of new age struck responsive chords in
Viennese society suffering f r o m over-crowding, 4 7 tuberculosis,
Dorothy M. Figueira
11
and the dissolution of traditional social institutions. T h e o s o p h y
a n d the bastardization of H i n d u religious concepts o f f e r e d an
occult vision of the millenium. T o w a r d the e n d of the war, List
suggested that the G e r m a n victims would be reincarnated as a
collective messianic body. By using the principle of karma, he
claimed that the 100,000 war d e a d would be r e b o r n to f o r m elite
messianic corps a r m e d f o r a subsequent national revolution,
which, in keeping with his vision of the kali yuga,4H would u s h e r in
the new age. 4 9
As an Austrian reaction to the d e m a n d s of Slavic nationalists,
t h e P a n - G e r m a n i s t m o v e m e n t led to the e m e r g e n c e of t h e
Ariosophists. Racism was a vital e l e m e n t of the Ariosophist doctrine. Gobineau's t h e o r y of the Nordic Aryans' superiority a n d his
pessimistic p r e d i c t i o n of t h e i r s u b m e r g e n c e by n o n - A r y a n
peoples c o r r e s p o n d e d well with accepted Darwinian postulates.
Aryans n e e d not succumb to the fate of deterioration b u t could
prevail against threats of decline a n d contamination by maintaining their racial purity. 5 0 T h e Ariosophists, who were initially active in Vienna b e f o r e the First World War, were responsible f o r
contributing the occult c o m p o n e n t to the G e r m a n nationalist
cause. In addition to e n d o r s i n g belief in the obsolescence of the
social o r d e r by their s u p p o r t of the belief that the m o d e r n world
was based o n evil principles, they substituted f o r their disenc h a n t m e n t with the c o n t e m p o r a r y world a vision of an ideal
world. T h u s they combined the G e r m a n volkisch nationalism a n d
racism with " H i n d u " notions b o r r o w e d f r o m the T h e o s o p h y of
Mme. Blavatsky a n d Nietzsche, with a view toward proselytizing
the coming e r a of G e r m a n world rule.
Ariosophy's a m a l g a m a t i o n of c u r r e n t racist theories with
theories of karma resulted in a Manichean worldview g r o u n d e d in
gnostic fatalism. 5 1 J u s t as belief in karma justified caste exclusion
f o r Indians, likewise it supplied a basis f o r Ariosophical t h o u g h t
whose p r i m a r y concern consisted in distinguishing the d a r k e r
races f r o m the Aryans who possessed a pan-psychic energy which
was believed to be identical with God. 5 2
By positioning the Aryans closest to the Divine, the Ariosophist
Lanz von Lebenfels viewed h u m a n history as a conflict between
Aryan divine m e n a n d Untermenschen, specifically r e f e r r e d to as
the Tschandalen. T h e fall of man resulted f r o m the Aryans' racial
c o m p r o m i s e . Good was pitted against evil, the blond against the
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Tschandala. Lanz specifically identified these Tschandalen with the
Jews.
T h e Jews as a race a m o n g all historical and prehistorical races and f r o m
the dross of all the ruined of all cultures of mixed-together candala
peoples. 5 3
According to Ariosophy, the time had come to reverse the ascendency of the inferior races in Europe. By advocating the extermination of inferior races, Lanz exceeded Nietzsche's rhetorical
fulminations against Christian compassion, which called f o r
sterilization and castration. 5 4 T h e Pan-German periodical,Ostara,
dealt with such problems as economical racial issues. A m o n g
stock themes of this journal are f o u n d the caste laws according to
Manu, documentation concerning the Manichean struggle of
dark races against blonds, racial somatology, antiparlamentarianism and racial sexual differences. 5 5 For a population distressed by the effects of defeat, economic collapse and revolution
u p o n their traditional values, the second Ostara series (1922), 58
o f f e r e d solace: "all oriental and ancient states had declined with
the appearance of mob-rule and the dictatorship of the blond
"Ario-heroic" ruling class." Some historians, seeking to account
f o r his Manichean vision of Aryan versus Jew, maintain that Hitler was deeply influenced by a disciple of Lanz, Dr. Karl
Lueger, 5 7 and was a regular reader of Von Liebenfels' Ostara.58
Hitler was certainly receptive to the comic book Manichean vision
of the conflict between Blonds and the dark races and it is generally believed that he was more influenced by the conflict between
Aryans and Tschandalas of Ostara and similar pamphlets than by
Gobineau and Nietzsche. Furthermore, one can find echoes of
Lanz' theories as they were articulated in Ostara in the T h i r d
Reich's decrees banning interrace marriages, extinction of inferior races t h r o u g h polygamy, and SS Lebensborn homes. 5 9
However, the suggestion of any direct influence of occultnationalistic groups on Hitler must be tempered. In Mein Kampf,
Hitler made contemptuous attacks on the "volkisch wandering
scholars" of these lodges and noted that Germany's salvation dem a n d e d a mass political party which could be effectual in battle
and not the antiquarianism and ceremonial antics so prevalent in
these o r g a n i z a t i o n s . 6 0 In this sense, Hitler a c k n o w l e d g e d
Ariosophy as a symptom rather than a significant influence. T h e
NSDAP would diverge in its views on ideology and action f r o m
Dorothy M. Figueira
13
these organizations, a l t h o u g h a direct line of symbolic succession
can be seen in their m u t u a l symbol, the swastika, which can be
traced back t h r o u g h List to T h e o s o p h y .
T h e s e various occult groups, however, all did c o n f o r m to a
certain stereotype a n d , as such, reflect the ideological climate of
their day. T h e i r doctrines cited exalted a n d s u p e r h u m a n ancestors, whose ancient gnostic rule h a d b r o u g h t the Aryans wisdom
a n d power until it was s u p p l a n t e d by an alien a n d hostile culture.
T h e y contributed to the mythological m o o d of t h e subsequent
Nazi era by the fact that the N S D A P originated f r o m their ranks.
T o suggest that they directly influenced people in positions of
political power exaggerates their importance. 6 1 D u r i n g the T h i r d
Reich, such organizations were officially dissolved; the general
Nazi policy was to suppress lodge organizations a n d esoteric
groups.
T h r e e elements of I n d i a n p r o v e n a n c e f o r m a bridge between
the n i n e t e e n t h - c e n t u r y " I n d i a n " occultism and Nazism: the t e r m
"Aryan," the swastika, a n d the candala. T h e s e elements a n d their
t r a n s f o r m a t i o n into objects of militancy coalesce a n d bear f r u i t in
g r o u p s such as the G e r m a n e n O r d e r , f o u n d e d in 1912 a n d t h e
later T h u l e Society. Rudolf von Sebottendorf revived the Germ a n e n O r d e r in 1917. 62 Advertised as a G e r m a n i c lodge f o r
G e r m a n - b l o o d e d m e n , its symbol was the swastika. 6 3
For Sebottendorf, the t e r m " A r y a n " could be etymologically
broken down in the following m a n n e r :
Ar rune = eagle. Sons of the eagle, the son . . . according to the stone
watch-towers of Stonehenge and Oudry in Brittany, a high culture of the
Aryans 1000 years before Christ can be established. 64
Unlike Theosophists, who viewed h u m a n i t y as an all-inclusive
fraternity, such occult racist g r o u p s conceived of Aryans in a
biological sense. T h e y imitated T h e o s o p h y ' s use of the swastika
which became the G e r m a n wheel of the sun.
Sebottendorf a p p r o p r i a t e d the t e r m Tschandalen f r o m Lanz
von Liebenfels a n d used it in the M i i n c h n e r Beobachter, soon to
become the Volkischer Beobachter, whose motto was " N i e d e r mit
d e n T s c h a n d a l e n . " T h e subsequent National Socialist use of the
t e r m Tschandala derived f r o m this implementation by Lanz, a n d
not f r o m Nietzsche (Gotzendammerung a n d Antichrist), a l t h o u g h
Nietzsche's concepts would have suited Nazi ideologues. 6 5
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T h e r e are clearly connections and cross-fertilizations between
occult and political groups. However, the facts do not support the
claim of a d i r e c t causal c o n n e c t i o n b e t w e e n T h e o s o p h y ,
A r i o s o p h y , t h e T h u l e a n d Nazism. T h e anti-Semitism of
Theosophy's f o u n d e r supplied a religious rationalization for occult anti-Semitism and a strong racist substructure; Ariosophy
would take the vision of god-men and make them GermanAryans, the T h u l e Society would take the Ariosophist ideas of
racial supremacy and seek to implement them. T h e entire spect r u m borrowed the occult interpretation of h u m a n history as
apocalypse a n d was fully g r o u n d e d in the idea of spiritual
superiority. T h e bonds between filiation and influence are not
without their murkiness.
T h e discovery of Indian culture in the 18th century, along with
such forces as the French Enlightenment, did in fact effect the
destruction of biblical myth regarding the origin of man. However, this rejection of the biblical worldview need not necessarily
be viewed as establishing the sine qua non equivalent to antiSemitism. 66 Rather, it announces the beginning of the scholarly
writing of history. India, a m o n g other countries, became an object of study. However, when India entered into discussions of the
Nationalist camp of the Weimar Republic, it did so in an incestuous fashion. Germany had been sacrificed by the Imperialistic
Western powers who had, by means of the Versailles Treaty,
given Germany a colonial status. Oswald Spengler (1924) would
typify Germany as "ein europaisches Indien." 6 7 For A r t h u r Moeller van den Bruck, 6 8 Germany needed to fight the same battle
against British imperialism as India. T h e revolutionary g r o u p of
the National Socialists broke with Hitler in 1930 with this antiimperialistic orientation as one of their points of division. They
articulated their purpose in the Grundmanifest of the Schwarzen
Front:
For us, consent with the Indian fight for f r e e d o m f r o m English domination and capitalist exploitation has been and is important. This is so
mainly f r o m the fact that each weakening of a contractual power of
Versailles is favorable, as is the sympathetic agreement with each fight
which leads the subjugated peoples against their exploitative usurpers. It
is a compelling result of o u r concept of nationalism, a volkisch peculiarity,
that we assume the b u r d e n of other peoples and nations. 69
Dorothy M. Figueira
15
In contradistinction to this ideology of solidarity, Hitler's position
was, however, perfectly clear. H e advocated the supremacy of o n e
race of high value over the world.
An alliance of the down-trodden nations is a d u m b slogan . . . When
today the Indians live under the rule of England . . . or the Blacks under
the rule of any European people, so is this grounded in their inferiority
. . . T h e Freedom fight of the Blacks, Indians and so forth is an attempt to
break the natural order . . . T h e admiration of Gandhi is, in my estimation, a racial perversity. 70
In this respect, Hitler r e p u d i a t e d volkisch politics in favor of a
Capitalistic race-imperialism based o n the E u r o p e a n model. 7 1
T h u s , with this j u d g m e n t , India ceased being the symbol of a
fictitious G e r m a n past. In subsequent National Socialist ideology,
India came to r e p r e s e n t an apocalyptic vision of G e r m a n y ' s f u ture.
Ill
It was primarily t h r o u g h the rantings of the official National
Socialist party ideologue, A l f r e d Rosenberg, that this shift occ u r r e d . In the Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert, Rosenberg discussed
India at length. T h e r e we learn that the ancient Indians lived
their lives not f o r love, b u t f o r the sake of duty a n d h o n o r . 7 2
T h e i r s constituted the first racial cultural wave which, originating
in Atlantis, had crossed the m o u n t a i n s of India p u s h i n g back a n d
surpassing the inferior races, prevailing over u n - A r y a n superstitions a n d magical cultic practices. T h e Aryan Indians kept a p a r t
f r o m the d a r k inhabitants, by instituting a policy of separation.
T h u s racial purity was responsible f o r the great achievements of
these I n d i a n s . N o n - A r y a n magic d i s a p p e a r e d , w h e n A r y a n
spirituality, based on the aristocratic self-consciousness, overcame the u n - A r y a n magical sacrifice-based religion.
After this separation of blood and blood, the Aryans constructed their
picture of the world, which, in its depth and breadth even today has been
surpassed by no philosophy. 73
H o w e v e r , this s u p r e m a c y was eventually o v e r t u r n e d as t h e
Aryans lost their sense of color a n d blood. In o t h e r words, the
Aryans died in their quest f o r the individual self. 74 Aryan blood
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was diluted t h r o u g h infelicitous mixing of the races, "after longlasting proximity with the ever more penetrating representation
of the low-caste indigenous population." 7 5
With their supremacy thus overturned, Indian Aryans became
less creative as bastard art (in the f o r m of such things as phallic
worship) took over. Although traces of Aryan genius occasionally
blossomed in the lyrics of Kalidasa and the philosophy of Shankara, it could not stem the tide. It was not simply the issue of blood
which precipitated the Aryans' downfall, but rather their spiritual
values, specifically the concepts of Atman IBrahman, which destroyed their sense of race, as it had once destroyed their personality. 76 In the misguided quest for the individual Self, the Aryan
oversoul perished. 7 7 With the loss of personality and racial consciousness followed also the loss of honor. In terms reminiscent of
Nietzsche, India has fallen prey to influences which sapped its
spiritual strength. 7 8
Buddhist and Christian compassion as well as Indian pessimism
brought about the apotheosis of the Aryan Untermensch,79 Compassion, loss of individual racial Self, inaction and the ultimate
consequent of fatalism characterize the destiny of the Aryan in
India. 8 0 T h e land of o u r dreams and hopes for cultural invigoration perished d u e to its own spiritual flaw. Those advocating Indian spirituality in the West, those indulging in the fatuous quest
for redemption might well take notice of where their flirtation is
leading them. 8 1
India's tragedy consists in the disappearance of the Indian
Aryan. T h e society which had once given us the genius of Sanskrit
epic and the sophistication of speculative philosophy has now
degenerated into race chaos. India was "used up" (verbraucht) and
weak. 82 T h e figure of Gandhi epitomized India's implicit call for
inaction and fatalism. T h e Indian situation was bad enough: its
rejection of the world led to the Aryans mixing with indigenous
populations, which led to spiritual weakness and loss of a racial
"will to self-assertion" (Selbstbehauptungswillen) and Gandhi with
his pacifism struck the death blow. 83
Rosenberg took particular issue with the G a n d h i - r a p t u r e
('Gandhi-Verziickung) which was raging in the volkisch-nationalist
camp. T h e admirers of Gandhi were particularly deleterious to
G e r m a n A r y a n s . G e r m a n s following I n d i a n philosophical
fatalism and its m o d e r n historical praxis can only lose their own
Dorothy M. Figueira
17
n a t u r e , a n d hence their myth of race. In this r e g a r d , Rosenberg
admitted his indebtedness to H o u s t o n Stewart Chamberlain. 8 4
Either t h e r e would be a universal reawakening o r G e r m a n y
would follow India's course a n d redescend into chaos. 8 5 Alt h o u g h G e r m a n y ' s contributions to myth r a n k e d above all o t h e r
nations, like India it would fall prey to mongrelization. G e r m a n y
was f o r t u n a t e in that, having observed the racial decline of its
Aryan forbears, it could avoid a similar destiny. 8 6
As did Nietzsche, Rosenberg viewed this mulattoization of the
world to be also s u p p o r t e d by Christianity. Like Buddhist compassion, Jesuitical-Roman spineless pity was u n - G e r m a n i c a n d
d e g e n e r a t e . H u m a n i t a r i a n i s m , as advocated in the eighteenth
a n d n i n e t e e n t h centuries, presented a fatal e r r o r which only
c o m p o u n d e d Oriental abstract fantasy. 8 7 T h e vision of m a n ' s
equality, articulated f o r e x a m p l e in the early n i n e t e e n t h - c e n t u r y
pariah literature, is subverted in t h e later image of the candala.
T h e enlightened project of Humanitat, with all its presuppositions, must be r e p u d i a t e d , lest it justify the e n f r a n c h i s e m e n t of
Negroes, the incurably sick a n d the insane. 8 8
T h u s , in place of the Nordic "desire f o r the e n h a n c e m e n t of
life" ("Lust an d e r Steigerung des Lebens"), in which o n e can
recognize Nietzsche's Herrenmoral, Rosenberg f o u n d the "world
conquest of the decrepit Aryan I n d i a n " ("Weltiiberwindung des
gealterten arischen Inders") whose acme in B u d d h i s m r e p r e sented the " a p p e a r a n c e of the r u i n of the Nordic racial spirit in
the tropical I n d i a n e n v i r o n m e n t . " 8 9 B u d d h i s m struck the final
blow to A r y a n h o o d , by b r e a k i n g all r e m a i n i n g b o n d s to family,
line, Volk a n d State, a n d f u r n i s h e d ideological f e r m e n t f o r the
disintegration of racial barriers (Auflosung der Rassenschranken).
Both Rosenberg a n d G i i n t h e r present India as a projection of the
E u r o p e a n situation. All the topoi f o r the critique of civilization
could be collected in the description of the I n d i a n Aryan's decline: moral universalism, Nietzsche's Sklavenmoral, Individualism, the destruction of family, sexual self-destruction a n d the
big city, which was seen by the race hygieneticians of the late
n i n e t e e n t h century as the Rassengrab. India, once metaphorically
the cradle of G e r m a n civilization, now became the symbol of its
grave. It f u n c t i o n e d , thus, as both a n e x a m p l e a n d a w a r n i n g to
t h e Nazis. J u s t as the Aryans in India fell, so would those in
E u r o p e , if the situation were not reversed.
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An aristocrat such as Gobineau portrayed India as an example
of successful conservation of a white master race t h r o u g h the
strict separation of races in castes. Aryans in India were not
ruined, their descendants rule today as brahmans and ksatriyas.
T h e duration of Indian culture was based on conservation of
Aryan master elements, the gradual decline of the Indian Aryans
t h r o u g h mixture was as an unavoidable natural process.
T h e Darwinian race theoreticians of the late nineteenth century perceived in the decline of the Indian Aryan proof that a
physical type cannot subsist in an environment to which it is not
suited and, f r o m the case study of India, they drew anticolonialist
conclusions. Rosenberg saw in the fall of the Indian Aryans a
parable for the fall of race t h r o u g h the lack of the will to selfassertion. T h e Indian Aryan did not understand the myth of race
sufficiently and, therefore, did not sufficiently fulfill caste rules;
they mixed with indigenous populations, lost their moral identity,
made cities, disappeared in race chaos, and finally died. They
represented "a racial disgrace, whose product today as miserable
bastards in the water of the Ganges seek a cure for their crippled
existence." 90
Rosenberg, unlike Gobineau, did not recognize this dilution of
blood as an historical movement which, at best, could be retarded.
Rather, t h r o u g h a will to self-discipline (Zucht), he believed that
race could be t u r n e d a r o u n d and once again raised. Race was not,
as in Darwin, a passive e n d u r i n g work determined by environment, but a process legitimizing the mastery of the Nordic races
over lesser races, the British over the Indians, the German over
everyone else.
Hitler had rejected any bond between volkisch Germany and
national liberation movements. T h e lunatic fringe had transf o r m e d the nineteenth-century image of the Aryan ancestor into
that of another popular exotic character, the pariah. By attributing the Aryan's demise to his spiritual values, loss of will to selfassertion and blood chaos, Rosenberg provided the ideological
framework to "rationalize" Hitler's race-imperialism.
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Dorothy M.
Figueira
19
REFERENCES
1. F. Max Miiller, India: What Can It Teach Us (New York: Funk and
Wagnalls, 1883), 49.
2. Rig-Veda Samhita: the Sacred Hymns of the Brahmins, trans, and ed. F.
Max Miiller, 6 vols. (London: William H. Allen, 1856), 3:ix.
3. Jules Michelet, La Bible de I'humanite (Paris: Chamerot, 1864), 485.
4. Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier, The Morning of the Magicians
(New York: Avon, 1963) posited the idea of the importance of the Thule
Society and its contacts with Gurdgieff. J. H. Brennan, The Occult Reich
(New York: New American Library, 1974) posited the influence of Tibetan Buddhists on Hitler. See also R. Alleau, Hitler et les societes secretes
(Paris: B. Grasset, 1969); T. Ravenscroft, The Spear of Destiny (New York:
Bantam, 1973); J. M. Angebert, The Occult and the Third Reich (New York:
Macmillan, 1974).
5. For a critique of this scholarship, see Jiirgen Liitt, "Indische Wurzeln des Nationalsozialismus?" Zeitschrift fur Kulturaustausch 3 (1987):
468-79.
6. Amaury de Riencourt, The Soul of India (London: Jonathan Cape)
268: " T h e oriental Renaissance was bearing bitter fruits, and it is still an
open question whether all this could have happened without the discovery of Aryan India in the 19th century."
7. Of particular use in this regard are the works of Georg Mosse, The
Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich (New York,
Grosset and Dunlap, 1964); Nazi Culture: Intellectual, Cultural and Social
Life in the Third Reich (New York: Howard Fertig, 1966); The Nationalization of the Masses: Political Symbolism and Mass Movements in Germanyfrom the
Napoleonic Wars through the Third Reich (New York: Howard Fertig, 1980);
Masses and Men: Nationalist and Fascist Perceptions of Reality (New York:
Howard Fertig, 1980); Toward a Final Solution: A History of European Racism (New York: Harper and Row, 1978). Also important in this context
are the works of Leon Poliakov, Harvest of Hate: The Nazi Program for the
Destruction of the Jews of Europe, foreward by Reinhold Niebuhr (New
York: T h e Holocaust Library, 1979); The Aryan Myth: A History of Racist
and Nationalist Ideas in Europe. T r a n s . E d m u n d Howard (London:
Heinemann, 1971); The History of Anti-Semitism. Trans. Miriam Kochan
(New York: Vanguard, 1968) and Leon Poliakov and Josef Wulf, Das
Dritte Reich und seine Diener. Documente, 2nd edit. (Berlin: Grunewald
Verlag G.m.b.H., 1956).
8. Raymond Schwab, The Oriental Renaissance, trans. Gene PattersonBlack and Victor Reinking, forward by Edward Said (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984).
9. Leon Poliakov, Le Mythe aryan, essai sur les sources du racisme et des
nationalismes (Paris: Calmann-Levy, 1971) 214, 384.
10. Leon Poliakov, Le Mythe aryan, 210.
11. In the same manner, Nietzsche allowed Germans to see themselves
20
COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS
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as descendants of Iran and disciples of Zarathrustra (Leon Poliakov, Le
Mythe aryan, 210).
12. Leon Poliakov, Le Mythe aryan, 217.
13. Leon Poliakov, Le Mythe aryan, 223.
14. This critical approach, borrowing heavily f r o m the premises of
Edward Said's Orientalism (New York: Pantheon, 1978) has most recently
been articulated in Martin Bernal, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of
Classical Civilization (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University
Press, 1987); Ronald Inden, "Orientalist Constructions of India," Modern
Asian Studies 20, 3 (1986).
15. Clarence C. Brinton, " T h e National Socialists' Use of Nietzsche,"
The Journal of the History of Ideas, April 1940, (1): 131-150 a n d Fritz Stern,
The Politics of Cultural Despair: A Study in the Rise of Germanic Ideology
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981).
16. G. Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology, 1-10.
17. E i g h t e e n t h - c e n t u r y linguistics was b a s e d u p o n biblical
monogenesis: the Semitic branch stemmed f r o m Sem, the Hamitic (African) f r o m Hem and the Japhetic (Caucasian, Asian-European) f r o m
J a p h e t . Differences were attributed to the milieu theory which held that
climate, nourishment and lifestyle altered physical attributes. Thus,
George Louis Leclerc, the C o m t e d e Buffon (1707-88) and J o h a n n Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840) held that the Urtype (Adam/Noah) evolved
through degeneration into different races. Along with Cuvier, Lamarck
speculated that there occurred periods of catastrophe in which biological
and geological material, normally relatively stable, became enormously
plastic. Darwin, basing his thoughts on Lamarck's theory of the species,
held that the species passed through change d u e to environment and
therefore functioned dynamically.
18. Friedrich Schlegel, Kritische-Friedrich-Schlegel-Ausgabe, ed. E. Behler, 24 vols. (Munich: Schoningh, 1966) 14:18ff.
19. F. Schlegel, Uber den Anfang unserer Geschichte und die letzte Revolution
der Erde 1819 in Kritische-Friedrich-Schlegel-Ausgabe, 8:520: ". . . unser
germanischen Vorfahren, wahrend sie noch in Asien waren."
20. F. Schlegel, Kritische-Friedrich-Schlegel-Ausgabe, 8:520.
21. F. Schlegel, Kritische-Friedrich-Schlegel-Ausgabe, 14:279: "War es
i r g e n d e i n w u n d e r b a r e r B e g r i f f von d e r h o h e n W i i r d e n u n d
Herrlichkeit des Nordens, wie wir ihn in den indischen Sagen iiberall
verbreitet finden?" Schlegel answered, "Der erste bestimmte Abfall von
Gott." See this author's article, " T h e Politics of Exoticism and Friedrich
Schlegel's Metaphorical Pilgrimage to India," Monatshejte vol. 81, Winter
1989 (4):425-434.
22. Hans Siegert, "Zur Geschichte der Begriffe "Arier" und "arisch" in
Worter und Sachen Zeitschrift fur Indogermanische Sprachwissenschaft Volksforschung und Kulturgeschichte, Band 22, neue Folge Band 4, Heidelberg
1941 (2): 73-99.
23. A. F. Pott, "Indogermanischer Sprachstudium," Allgemeine Encyclopddie der Wissenschaft und Kiinste, ed. J o h a n n Samuel Ersch and J o h a n n
Gottfried Gruber, 84 vols. (Leipzig: J. F. Gleditsch, 1840) 18.2.1.
Dorothy M.
Figueira
21
24. Gobineau depended heavily upon the research of Christian Lassen.
25. Joseph Arthur de Gobineau, Versuch iiber die Ungleichheit der
Menschenrassen, trans. Ludwig Schemann, 4 vols. (Stuttgart: F. Frommann, 1939-40) 2:208.
26. T h e first time that the term Aryan was used in the "not-Jewish"
sense was in the Satzung of a Wiener Turnverein of 1887: "Mitglieder
konnen n u r Deutsche (arische Abkunft!) sein." See Hans Siegert, Zur
Geschichte des Begriffs "Arier", 98 cited in Sieferle, 466.
27. In the preface to L'Aryan, son role social (Paris, 1899), George
Vacher de Lapouge judges the term "Aryan" as inadequate, acknowledging its use in the title of his work as a concession to the public which
was accustomed to it.
28. It was with F. Max Miiller, that the distinction between linguistic
and racial classification was articulated. In his Antrittsrede to the University of Strassburg in 1872, Max Miiller noted that there were only Aryan
and Semitic linguistic families, but no Aryan race, blood or skulls. In
other words, he firmly stated that you cannot base ethnological classification on linguistic principles and warned against the mixing of linguistic
and anthropological terms. See Uber die Resultate der Sprachwissenschaft,
Vorlesung gehalten in der kaiserlichen Universitat zu Strassburg am xxiii. mai
MDCCCLXXII (Strassburg: K. J. T r u b n e r , 1872) 17: "Es giebt Arische
und Semitische Sprachen, aberes ist unwissenschaftlich . . . von Arischer
Rasse, von Arischen Blut, oder von Arischen Schadeln zu sprechen, und
dann ethnologische Classificationen auf linguistischen Grundlagen zu
Versuchen." Miiller had nothing against an anthropologist speaking
about dolichocephalic races, etc. He was not against race theory perse. On
the contrary, he was member of the Gobineau Vereinigung. See G.
Deschner, Gobineau und Deutschland, diss, Erlangen 1967.
29. T h e o d o r Poesche, Die Arier, Ein Beitrag zur historischer Anthropologic
(Jena: H. Costenoble, 1878) 150: "Neger und Mulatten, die sich die
herrliche Sprache einiger V o r f a h r e n vaterlicherseits zu erhalten
wussten. Subtropische Natur hat in Indien leiblich und geistig die arische
Art iiberwuchert und in Ihrer Fiille erstickt." See also Die Arier, 154.
30. Enrico de Michaelis, L'Origine degli Indo-Europei, Biblioteca di Scienza moderne 12, Turin 1903, cited in Ludwig Wilser, Indogermanische
Probleme. Politisch-Anthropologische Revue 1904-05 (3): 45.
31. Aryans were thus defined: "Der Arier (auch Indogermanen,
Japhetiten) sind einer der drei Zweige der kaukassischen (weissen)
Rasse; sie zerfallen in die westlichen (europaischen) d.s. dies Oestlichen
(asiatischen) Arier, d.s. die Inder (Hindus) und Iranier (Perser, Afganen, Armenier, Georgier, Kurden). Nichtarier sind daher: l.die Angehorigen des beiden anderen Zweige der kaukassischen Rasse, namlich die Semiten (Juden, Araber) und Hamiten (Berber). Die Finnen und
Ungarn gehoren zur mongolischen Rasse; es ist aber kaum die Absicht
des Gesetzes, sie als Nichtarier zu behandeln.", cited in Sieferle, 459-60.
See also Haensel/Strahl, Politisches ABC des Neuen Reichs (Stuttgart, 1933),
13-14 under the rubric Arier.
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COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS
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32. T h e general purpose of this law was to exclude f r o m the Civil
Service all Jews who before the First World War were not civil servants or
could not show proof of active duty.
33. Reichbiirger- und Blutschutzgesetz. Meyers Lexikon, Bd. 1,1936, sp. 557
stated that the designation "deutschbliitig" superceded "arisch."
34. Helena Petrovna [ H a h n - H a h n ] Blavatsky, Die Geheimlehre, die Vereinigung von Wissenschaft, 4 vols. (Vienna: Donau Verlag, 1955) 1:332:
"Sie konnen ebensogut die vertriebenen Chandalas des alten Indiens die
von Veda-Vyasa u n d Manu erwahnten "Ziegelmauer" sein . . . die
semitische Sprachen sind die Bastardabkommlinge der ersten Korruptionen des altesten Kinder des friihen Sanskrit . . . Die Semiten, insbesondere die Araber, sind spatere Arier—entartet in Geistigkeit u n d
Vervollkommenheit in Stofflichkeit. Zu diesen gehoren alle J u d e n und
Araber. Die ersteren sind ein Stamm, der von d e m Chandalas Indiens
enstammt."
35. See this author's article "Pariahs and Prostitutes: Exotic Exemplars
of Bourgeois Virtue in Nineteenth Century Europe," Rivista di Letterature
moderne e comparate, vol. 42, Oct.-Dec. 1989 (4):349-363.
36. F. Nietzsche, Werke in Drei Bdnden, ed. Karl Schlechta, 3 vols.
(Munich: Carl Hanser, 1954-56) 3:770.
37. F. Nietzsche, Werke in Drei Bdnden, 2:649.
38. F. Nietzsche, Werke in Drei Bdnden, 3:712.
39. F. Nietzsche,Nachlass, ed. Schlechta, 3:701.
40. F. Nietzsche, Werke in Drei Bdnden, 2:980-2: "Hier ist die Aufgabe
gestellt, nicht weniger als vier Rassen auf einmal zu ziichten: eine priesterliche, eine kriegerische, eine handler u n d ackerbauerische, endlich
eine Dienstboten-Rasse, die Sudras . . . Aber auch diese Organisation
hatte es notig, f u r c h t b a r zu sein—nicht diesmal im Kampf mit einer
Bestie, sondern mit ihrem Gegensatz-Begriff, d e m Zucht-Menschen,
dem Mischmasch-Menschen, dem Tschandala."
41. F. Nietzsche, The Antichrist, 56.
42. This reference does not appear in the Schlechta edition but in F.
Nietzsche, Kritische Gesamtausgabe, eds. Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1967) 13:378: "Der offizielle Begriff des
Tschandala ist genau d e r eines Auswurfs u n d Excrements des vorn e h m e n Classen."
43. F. Nietzsche, Werke, ed. Schlechta, 2:980-982: ". . . Diese verfiingungen sind lehrreich genug—in ihnen haben wir einmal die arische
Humanitat, ganz rein, ganz urspriinglich—wir lernen, dass der Begriff
"reines Blut" der Gegensatz eines harmlosen Begriffs ist. Andrerseits
wird klar in welchem Volk sich d e r Hass, d e r Tschandala-Hass gegen
diese "Humanitat" verewigt hat, wo er Religion, wo er Genie geworden
ist . . . U n d e r diesem Gesichtspunkte sind die Evangelien Christentum,
als jiidischer Wurzel und n u r verstandlich also Ziichtung, d e r Rasse, des
Privilegiums das—es ist die antiarische Religion par excellance: das
Tschandala—werte, das Evangelium den Armen, d e n Niedrigen gepredigt, der Gesamt-Aufstand alles Niedergetretenen, Elenden, Mis-
Dorothy M.
Figueira
23
s r a t e n e n , S c h l e c h t w e g g e k o m m e n e n gegen die "Rasse"—die unsterbliche Tschandala-Rache als Religion der Liebe . . ."
44. According to Manu, even among outcasts, the candalas were the
lowest like swine or dog and excluded from the village.
45. A popular theme for this lunatic fringe consisted in speculation of
the descendance through sudra men and brahman women.
46. "Rundschau in der auslandischen theosophischen Literatur," Neue
Lotusbliiten, 1910 (2): 370.
47. T h e population of Vienna tripled between 1870-90.
48. T h e equivalent to the Age of Bronze in Hindu mythology.
49. "Neuzeitliche Einherier" und "Wer ist der Starke von Oben?" in
Johannes Balzli, Guido v. List, der Wiederentdecker uralter arischer Weisheit
(Leipzig und Vienna, Guido von List Gesellschaft, 1917) 116-24; 125-33.
50. Social Darwinists published between the 1890's and 1910. Ernst
Hackel, the eminent zoologist who warned against the mixing of races,
founded the Monist League in 1906 to popularize a racist version of the
social Darwinism among Germans.
51. Later racist theorists, such as Vacher de Lapouge (1854-1936) and
Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855-1927), based their theories on skull
measurements and other physical characteristics such as hair color and
eye color, rather than the earlier racists, like Gobineau, who relied on
linguistics as the standard of racial distinction.
52. T o draw these distinctions, heraldic devices, in which the Aryans
had recorded the karma of their families were studied. S e e j o r g Lanz von
Liebenfels, "Grundriss der ariosophischen Geheimlehre," Zeitschrift fur
Menschenkenntnis und Menschenschicksal, 1 (1925-26): 4-11.
53. Cited in Wilfried Daim, Der Mann, der Hitler die Ideen gab. Die sektierischen Grundlagen des Nationalsozialismus (Vienna/Cologne/Graz, 1985)
146: "Die J u d e n als ein von alien historischen und vorhistorischen Rassen
und aus den Schlacken aller untergegangenen kulturvolker zusammengemischtes Tschandalenvolk."
54. J o r g Lanz von Liebenfels, Theozoologie oder die Kunde von den
Sodoms-Aefflingen und dem Gotter-Elektron (Vienna: Moderner Verlag,
1905) 147-52.
55. Note that Sir William Jones' translation of the Lams of Manu (1794)
had been translated into German by Johann Christoph Hiittner under
the title Hindu-Gesetzbuch (Weimer: Industrie Comptoirs, 1797) and had
been examined in racist sense by a F. Gernandt, "Aus dem HinduGesetzbuch des Manu" in the Politisch-Anthropologische Revue 3 (1904):
264-68. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, The Occult Roots of Nazism. The
Ariosophists of Austria and Germany 1890-1935 (Wellinborough, Northamtonshire: Aquarian Press, 1985), 242, suggests that this might have been
Lanz' source. Lanz used Tschandala for lower classes and mongrelized
inferiors, see Ostara 1, April 1908 (22): 6, 16.
56. Die Ostara und das Reich der Blonden, vol. 1.
57. Lueger was a mayor of Vienna in the 1890's and one of the first
European politicians to make a career out of anti-Semitism.
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COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS
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58. J e f f r e y A. Goldstein, "Anti-Semitism in Occultism and Nazism,"
Yad Vashem Studies 1979 (13): 64, see also G. Mosse, The Nationalization of
the Masses, 197.
59. Die Ostara, vols. 22, 23 of April 1908, issues devoted to the Laws of
Manu a n d race theory of the Indo- Aryans.
60. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (Munich: Zentralverlag des NSDAP,
1934), 394-8.
61. T h e one exception to this rule was Karl Maria Wiligut (pseud.
Weisthor) whom Goodrick-Clarke refers to as the private magus of
Himmler (Goodrick-Clarke, 177) a n d head of the Department of Race
and Early History within the Race and Settlement main office of the SS,
a m o n g whose duties was to produce German mantras.
62. For an account of proto-Nazi history, see Rudolf von Sebottendorf,
Bevor Hitler kam, Urkundliches aus der Friihzeit der Nationalsozialischen Bewegung (Munich: Grassinger, 1934).
63. T h e G e r m a n e n O r d e r ' s official newsletter had swastika on cover,
also on various pieces of organization jewelry. Although current a m o n g
various volkisch organizations, it was through the Germanen O r d e r and
the T h u l e Society, its successor organization in post-war Munich, that
this device came to be adopted by the Nazis.
64. Rudolf von Sebottendorf, Bevor Hitler kam, 250: "Ar Rune = Adler.
Sohne des Adlers, d e r Sonne . . . Nach den Sternwarten von Stonehenge
und O u d r y d e r Bretagne lasst sich eine hohe Kultur der Arier auf 1000 v.
Chr. feststellen."
65. T h e m o d e r n racist can easily see s o m e t h i n g biological in
Nietzsche's discussion of race, the Tschandala, pure blood, Jewishness
a n d spiritual Ziichtung.
66. Elizabeth de Fontenay suggests this very concept in "Fuir l'histoire?
La pitie dangereuse," Presences de Schopenhauer ed. Roger Pol-Droit
(Paris: Grasset, 1989), 84-85. According to this author, Schopenhauer,
H e r d e r , Schelling, and F. Schlegel investigated India for no other purpose than to uproot Christianity f r o m its Hebraic roots.
67. Oswald Spengler, Neubau des deutschen Reiches (Munich: C. H. Bee,
1924) 14.
68. A r t h u r Moeller van den Bruck, Das Recht der jungen Volker
(Munich: R. Piper, 1919).
69. "Die sozialisten verlassen die NSDAP," Das Grundmanifest d e r
Schwarzen Front (1930). In Otto Strasser,Aufbau des Deutschen Sozialismus
(Prague: Heinrich Grunov, 1936), 138: "Fur uns war u n d ist die Zustimm u n g zum Kampf des indischen Volkes um seine Freiheit von englischer
Herrschaft u n d kapitalistischer Ausbeutung eine Notwendigkeit, die
sich ebenso sehr aus der Tatsache ergibt, dass fiir eine deutsche Befreiungspolitik j e d e Schwachung einer Vertragsmacht von Versailles
giinstig ist, wie aus der gefiihlsmassigen Zustimmung zu j e d e m Kampf,
den unterdriickte Volker gegen ausbeutende Usurpatoren fiihren, da es
eine zwingende Folge unserer Idee des Nationalismus ist, dass das Recht
d e r Erfullung volkischer Eigenart, das wir fiir uns in Anspruch nehmen,
auch a n d e r e n Volkern u n d Nationen zusteht . . ."
Dorothy M.
Figueira
25
70. Cited in Otto Strasser, "Hitler, Gandhi und das j u n g e Deutschland," Die Kommenden Aug. 8, 1930: 376: "Bund der unterdriickten
Nationen ist ein dummes Schlagwort . . . Wenn heute der Inder unter
d e r H e r r s c h a f t Englandes lebt . . . o d e r d e r Schwarze unter d e r
Herrschaft irgend eines europaischen Volkes, so ist dies in deren Inferioritat begriindet. . . Der Freiheitskampf der Schwarzen, Inder, usw.
ist der Versuch der Durchbrechung einer natiirlichen Rangorden . . .
Die Bewunderung von Gandhi ist in meinen Augen eine rassische Perversitat."
71. See Otto Strasser, "Hitler, Gandhi und das j u n g e Deutschland,"
377.
72. Alfred Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert: eine Wertung der
Seeluch-Geistigen Gestaltenkampfe unserer Zeit (Munich: Hoheneichen,
1943) 149: ". . . der alter Inder—und der war es, der Indien erschuf—
sein Leben liess nicht um der Liebe, sondern um der Pflicht und Ehre
willen. Ein ungetreuer wurde auch iin arischen Indien verdammt, nicht
weil er lieblos, sondern weil er ehrlos geworden war. 'Besser das Lebens
fiihlt man nur einen Augenblick, den Verlust der Ehre aber T a g f u r Tag'
(O. Bothlingk, Indische Spriiche)."
73. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert, 28: "Nach dieser
Scheidung zwischen Blut und Blut gestalteten die Arier sich ein Bild der
Welt, das an T i e f e u n d Weitraumigkeit auch h e u t e von keiner
Philosophic iiberboten werden kann."
74. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert 30.
75. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des. 20. Jahrhundert
31: ". . . nach
langdauernden Auseinandersetzungen mit den immer wieder eindringenden Vorstellungen der niederrassigen Eingeborenen." Rosenberg was also influenced by Hans F. K. Giinther who described the process of Aryan racial degeneration in Die nordische Rasse bei den Indogermanen Asiens (Munich: J. F. Lehmann, 1934), 41: "Die Kastengesetzgebung
wurde als Rassenschutz dadurch beeintrachtigt und schliesslich sinnlos,
dass sie das Aufheiraten von Frauen aus der nachstniedrigen Kaste in die
hohere zuliess . . . Auf solche Weise verdunkelte in zunehmendem Masse
das arische Indertum sich selbst und entfremdete sich selbst dem Geiste
seiner Vorvater. Durch A u f n a h m e nichtarischen Blutes wurde so im
Lauf der J a h r h u n d e r t e aus dem Indertum das Hindutum, aus indischem Geiste der Hindugeist, der vom Indogermanentum schliesslich
nur noch etwas Uebertragbares, die Sprache bewahrte." This process of
degeneration corresponded to a gradual darkening of the Aryan, even in
the highest caste. T h r o u g h the crossing of races, the mixture of castes,
and the environment, the Aryan race of India met its downfall. T h e
"lastende feuchte Hitze Indiens," infant mortality and higher sickness in
general contributed to the spiritual Widerstandswillen of the Aryans. See
Die nordische Rasse, 50: "Sie hat also eine immerwahrende Qual immer
von neuem dem ererbten Geiste mutiger arischer Lebensfrische entgegengewirkt, bis diesem mutigen, lebensfrohen, dieseitigen, echt Indogermanischen Geiste beim Zusammenbruch wurde der Erbstamme
des eingewanderten Indertums das Mark entzogen."
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COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS
REVIEW
76. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert 149-50: "Mit d e r auf
das Erdenleben iibertragenen Philosophic des Atman-Brahman verneinte—wie f r u h e r ausgefiihrt—der Arier seine Rasse, damit seine Personlichkeit, damit aber auch die Idee der Ehre als seelisches Riickgrat
seines Lebens."
77. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert 30.
78. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert 147: "Wir sprechen von
Indien als von einer weichmiitigen im All zerfliessenden, Menschenliebe
u n d Mitleiden als Hochstes lehrenden Weltanschauung . . . Und doch
ragen in diese liebe—und mitleidvollen Erzeugnisse d e r indischen Spatzeit ganz andere, altere Anschauungen hinein, die nicht personliches
Gliicksgefuhl und Leidlosigkeit als einzig erstrebenswertes Ziel anerkennen, sondern Pflichterfullung u n d Behauptung d e r Ehre."
79. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert 342: " U n d als eine solche
Tragik wird Schopenhauer unserer E h r f u r c h t stets gewiss sein, als das
Beispiel e i n e s h e r o i s c h e n — u n d in s e i n e r G e w a l t i g k e i t e c h t
abendlandischen—Kampfes um das Wesen d e r Welt; ein Mensch hat
hier alles auf eine Karte gesetzt, u n d diese hat fehlgeschlagen. Die verzweifelten A u f r a f f u n g e n zur H o h e e n d e n immer mit einem Zuriickfallen ins Nichts. Aber auch d e r doch ganz unindische Schopenhauer bekannte, das Hochste, was ein Mensch erreichen konne sei ein "heroischer
Lebenslauf." Das ist ein nordisches Bekenntnis, wie es schoner nicht
g e f u n d e n werden kann u n d deshalb ist A r t u r Schopenhauer—unser."
80. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert 267: '[Der Inder] legt ein
derart grosses Gewicht auf sie; dass er in letzter Konsequenz zu der auch
ausgesprochenen Anschauung gelangt, die T a t als solche konne einem
Wissenden, des Atman-Brahman Teilhaftigen, nichts anhaben. Er ist
"nicht durch das Werk befleckt, das bose." "Alles Fleischliche sei sowieso
n u r T r u g u n d Schein, was mit ihm geschehe, gleichgiiltig. Das ist die
letzte Konsequenz Indiens."
81. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert 660-61: "Jeder E u r o p a e r
erblickt in Alt-Indien ein Land seiner T r a u m e ; inmitten einer Zeit
technischer Bestialisierung tauchten nicht die Schlechtesten unter in die
Gedanken Jajnavalkyas, Cankaras, entziickten sich an dem Helden
Rama, dem Gotte Krischna, d e m Dichter Kalidasa. Dies hatte zur Folge,
dass diese Indiensucher Europas Erlosung durch Alt-Indien predigten
u n d gar nicht bemerken, dass dieses arische Indien einst gerade an d e n
das Herz endlos erweiternden Gedanken der spaten Upanishads zug r u n d e gegangen war."
82. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert 622. See also 661-62:
"Wir sehen hier o f f e n ein europaisches Lebensgefiihl eingreifen, das
allerdings sofort wieder d u r c h die Bemerkungen abgeschwacht wird,
dass weder H a u t f a r b e noch Ahnen den Brahmanen machten, sondern
Charakter. Hier o f f e n b a r t sich die ganze Tragik selbst des iiber die 300
Millionen seiner Volksgenossen hinausragenden Inders. Denn, wollte er
die Entfaltung der Arier schildern, so musste er bekennen, dass der
Arier bis auf ganz geringe Spuren untergegangen ist. Hinterlassen h a t e r
Dorothy M.
Figueira
27
Heldengesange, eine tiefe, grosse Philosophic, spater ins Extreme, Uferlose, Dschungelartige getrieben, das Rassenchaos forderte."
83. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert 36, see also 621-62:
"Durch ein zu weites Atemholen sind die Blutadern des Rassenkorpers
gesprengt, arisch-indisches Blut fliesst aus . . . Die Zuchtkraft arischindischer Denk- und Lebensformen also Ergebnis von nordischer Rasse
und indischer Natur ist zwar ungeheuer, aber die rassische Substanz, aus
deren Seele einst die Gedanken und Staaten entstiegen, ist bis auf
geringe Ueberreste verschwunden. Deshalb zeugte Indien auch n u r den
miiden Gandhi mit seinem Pazifismus, nicht einen einer Neuschopfung
ermoglichenden Feldherren."
84. Richard W a g n e r ' s English-born son-in-law a n d a political
philosopher who developed racial themes of Aryan superiority.
85. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert, 82.
86. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert, 104.
87. Alfred Rosenberg, Blut und Ehre: ein Kampf fur deutsche Wiedergehurt
(Munich: Franz Eher, 1939).
88. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert, 201-3.
89. Hans F. K. Giinther, Die nordische Rasse bei den Indogermanen Asiens,
51f: ". . . Zerfallserscheinung nordischen Rassengeistes in tropischindischer Umwelt."
90. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert,
36: "eine Rassenschande, deren Erzeugnisse heute als armselige Bastarde in den Wassern des Ganges eine Heilung f u r ihr verkriippeltes Dasein erflehen."