Rudolf von Sebottendorf

Adam Alfred Rudolf Glaueralso known asRudolfFreiherrvon Sebottendorff(orSebottendorf;9 November 1875 - 8 May 1945) was aGerman occultist,writer,intelligence agent and political activist. He was the founder of theThule Society,a post-World War I Germanoccultist organization where he played a key role, and that influenced many members of theNazi Party.He was aFreemason,^[1]aSufi^[2]of theBektashiorder - after hisconversion to Islam^[3]- and a practitioner ofmeditation,astrology,numerology,andalchemy.^[4]He also used the aliasErwin Torre.

Early life

Glauer was born inHoyerswerdain thePrussian Province of Silesia(present-daySaxony), the son of a locomotive engineer. He appears^{[disputed–discuss]}to have worked as atechnicianinEgyptbetween 1897 and 1900, although according to his own account he spent less than a month there in 1900 after a short career as a merchant sailor.^{[citation needed]}^{[dubious–discuss]}In July of that year he travelled toTurkey,where he settled in 1901 and worked as anengineeron a large estate there.^{[citation needed]}

By 1905 he had returned to Dresden where he married Klara Voss, but the couple divorced in 1907. TheMünchener Post(14 March 1923) reported that he was sentenced as a swindler and forger in 1909,^{[citation needed]}which Goodrick-Clarke (1985: 251) insists is a misprint for 1908.^{[citation needed]}

He became anOttomancitizen in 1911 and was apparently adopted (under Turkish law) by the expatriate Baron Heinrich von Sebottendorff shortly thereafter. The adoption was later repeated in Germany and its legal validity has been questioned, but it was endorsed by the Sebottendorff family (Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 140–41) and on this basis he asserted his claim to the Sebottendorff name and to the title ofFreiherr.^[5]

After fighting on the Ottoman-Turkish side in theFirst Balkan War,Glauer returned to Germany with aTurkishpassport in 1913. He was exempted from military service during theFirst World Warbecause of his Ottoman citizenship and because of a wound received during the First Balkan War.

Occult and mystical influences

Glauer was introduced tooccultismandesotericconcerns when he was living inBursa,Turkey. His wealthy host, Hussein Pasha, was a Sufi and interested in such matters; it was around this time that Glauer saw theMevlevi Orderand visited theGreat Pyramid of Gizain July 1900.^[6]At Bursa, Glauer became acquainted with the Termudi family, who wereJews from Thessaloniki.^[6]The Termudi family were involved in banking and the silk trade.^[6]They were alsoFreemasons,belonging to a lodge affiliated to theRite of Memphis-Misraim.^[6]This network of lodges was closely connected to theCommittee of Union and Progress(which later joined theYoung Turks).^[1]The patriarch of the Termudi family initiated Glauer into the lodge and when Termudi died, he bequeathed his library of occult,Kabbalistic,Rosicrucianand Sufi texts to Glauer.^[6]^[7]

One of the books that Glauer inherited from Termudi featured a note from Hussein Pasha, which piqued his interest in the SufiBektashi Order,in regards to theiralchemicalandnumerologicalpractices.^[7]^[8]Speculations say he might have converted toIslamwithSufi-orientation, although the evidence (from his own semi-autobiographical writings) is rather tenuous on this point. In his autobiographical novel,TheRosicrucianTalisman(‹See Tfd›German:Der Talisman des Rosenkreuzers), Sebottendorff distinguishes between Sufi-influenced TurkishMasonryand conventional Masonry.

By about 1912 he became convinced that he had discovered what he called "the key to spiritual realization", described by a later historian as "a set of numerological meditation exercises that bear little resemblance to either Sufism or Masonry" (Sedgwick 2004: 66).^{[full citation needed]}

Involvement with the Thule Society

By 1916, Glauer had attracted only one follower. In that year, however, he came into contact with theGermanenorden,and was subsequently appointed theOrdensmeister(local group leader) for theBavariadivision of the schismatic Germanenorden Walvater of the Holy Grail. Settling inMunich,he established theThule Society,which became increasingly political. On 5 January 1919Anton Drexler,who had developed links between the Thule Society and various extreme right workers' organizations in Munich, together with the Thule Society'sKarl Harrer,established the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP), or German Workers' Party.^[9]This party was joined in September 1919 byAdolf Hitler,who transformed it into theNational Socialist German Workers' Partyor Nazi Party.^[10]With help of his spouseKäthe BierbaumerGlauer acquired the newspaper "Münchner Beobachter"which was shortly after renamed to theVölkischer Beobachter.The newspaper was purchased by the Nazi Party in December 1920 on the initiative of Chase Bauduin and Dietrich Eckart, who became the first editors. In 1921, Hitler acquired all shares in the company, making him the sole owner of the publication.^[11]The paper was to become Hitler’s most important propaganda tool.^{[citation needed]}

By then, however, Glauer had left the Thule Society and Bavaria, having been accused of negligence in allegedly allowing the names of several key Thule Society members to fall into the hands of the government of the short-livedBavarian Soviet Republic,resulting in the execution of seven members after the attack on the Munich government in April 1919, an accusation that he never denied.^{[citation needed]}Sebottendorf fledGermanyforSwitzerlandand thenTurkey.^{[citation needed]}

Later life

After leaving Germany, Glauer publishedThe Practice of Ancient Turkish Freemasonry(‹See Tfd›German:Die Praxis der alten türkischen Freimauerei),^[12]and then, in 1925,TheRosicrucianTalisman(‹See Tfd›German:Der Talisman des Rosenkreuzers), a semi-autobiographical novel which is the main source for his earlier life (see: "Rosicrucians").

He returned to Germany in January 1933, and published "Before Hitler Came: Documents from the Early Days of the National Socialist Movement" (‹See Tfd›German:Bevor Hitler kam: Urkundlich aus der Frühzeit der Nationalsozialistischen Bewegung),^[13]dealing with the Thule Society and the DAP. Hitler himself understandably disliked this book, which was banned. Glauer was arrested, but somehow escaped (presumably due to some friendship from his Munich days) and in 1934 returned to Turkey.^[14]

His most polemic and obscure work,Bevor Hitler kam,was translated and published in English. The preface dates to November 1933.^[15]

Glauer was an agent of theGerman military intelligencein neutralIstanbulduring the period 1942–1945, while apparently also working as a double agent for theBritishmilitary.^{[citation needed]}His German handler, Herbert Rittlinger, later described him as a "useless" agent (eine Null), but kept him on largely, it seems, because of an affection for "this strange, by then penniless man, whose history he did not know, who pretended enthusiasm for the Nazi cause and admiration for the SS but who in reality seemed little interested in either, much preferring to talk about Tibetans".^[14]

Much remains unknown about his death, some accounts claim it was suicide by jumping into theBosporuson 8 May 1945.^[16]^{[dubious–discuss]}^{[citation needed]}

Bibliography

1924.Die Praxis der alten türkischen Freimauerei: Der Schlüssel zum Verständnis der Alchimie.Reprinted 1954, Freiburg im Breisgau: Hermann Bauer.
1925.Der Talisman des Rosenkreuzers.Pfullinger in Württemberg: Johannes Baum Verlag.
1933.Bevor Hitler kam: Urkundlich aus der Frühzeit der Nationalsozialistischen Bewegung.Munich: Deukula-Grassinger.

References

^^a ^bGoodrick-Clarke 1985: 138 and see Howard 1989: 124 ( "In 1901 von Sebottendorf was initiated into a Masonic lodge which, like many in the Middle East, had connections with theFrench Grand Orient"). Furthermore:" the masonic lodge, which Glauer had joined atBursain 1901, may have been a local cadre of the pre-revolutionary Secret Society of Union and Progress, founded on the model of Freemasonry by Salonican Turks to generate liberal consciousness during the repressive reign of the Sultan. "(Goodrick-Clarke,op. cit.,139).
^Sebottendorf, Rudolf, Freiherr von (2013).Secret practices of the Sufi Freemasons: the Islamic teachings at the heart of alchemy.Stephen E. Flowers. Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions.ISBN 978-1-59477-468-3.OCLC 777663008.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Mark Sedgwick,Against the Modern World,Oxford University Press(2004), p. 66
^Ellic Howe,Urania's Children
^Regarding personal names:Freiherris a former title (translated as'Baron'). In Germany since 1919, it forms part of family names. The feminine forms areFreifrauandFreiin.
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^eGoodrick-Clarke 1985,p. 138.
^^a ^bLuhrssen 2012,p. 21.
^Sebottendorff,Der Talisman des Rosenkreuzers,1925: 65-68, cit. in Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 138, 251.
^Kershaw 2008,pp. 82, 83.
^Kershaw 2008,pp. 75, 76, 82, 83, 87.
^Schwarzwaller 1988,p. 80.
^"Hitler and the Secret Societies".www.juliusevola.net.Retrieved2019-11-30.
^Phelps, Reginald H. (1963).""Before Hitler Came": Thule Society and Germanen Orden ".The Journal of Modern History.35(3): 245–261.doi:10.1086/243738.ISSN 0022-2801.JSTOR 1899474.
^^a ^bSedgwick, page 97
^"Before Hitler Came".Tradition.2024-05-25.Retrieved2024-08-24.
^"THE THULE SOCIETY – NAZISM'S PRECURSORS - The Most Evil Secret Societies in History".erenow.org.Retrieved2023-12-26.

Sources

Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (1985).The Occult Roots of Nazism: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany 1890-1935.Wellingborough, England: The Aquarian Press.ISBN 0-85030-402-4.Reprinted 1994 asThe Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology,New York: New York University Press.ISBN 0-8147-3060-4
Michael Howard. 1989.The Occult Conspiracy: secret societies, their influence and power in world history.Destiny Books.ISBN 0-89281-251-6
Kershaw, Ian (2008).Hitler: A Biography.New York: W. W. Norton & Company.ISBN 978-0-393-06757-6.
Luhrssen, David (2012).Hammer of the Gods: The Thule Society and the Birth of Nazism.Potomac Books.ISBN 978-1597978583.
Schwarzwaller, Wulf (1988).The Unknown Hitler: His Private Life and Fortune.National Press Books.ISBN 978-0-915765-63-8.
Sedgwick, Mark (2004).Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century.New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN 0-19-515297-2

External links

[SebottendorffMason-1] Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 138 and see Howard 1989: 124 ( "In 1901 von Sebottendorf was initiated into a Masonic lodge which, like many in the Middle East, had connections with theFrench Grand Orient"). Furthermore:" the masonic lodge, which Glauer had joined atBursain 1901, may have been a local cadre of the pre-revolutionary Secret Society of Union and Progress, founded on the model of Freemasonry by Salonican Turks to generate liberal consciousness during the repressive reign of the Sultan. "(Goodrick-Clarke,op. cit.,139).

[2] Sebottendorf, Rudolf, Freiherr von (2013).Secret practices of the Sufi Freemasons: the Islamic teachings at the heart of alchemy.Stephen E. Flowers. Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions.ISBN 978-1-59477-468-3.OCLC 777663008.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[3] Mark Sedgwick,Against the Modern World,Oxford University Press(2004), p. 66

[4] Ellic Howe,Urania's Children

[5] Regarding personal names:Freiherris a former title (translated as'Baron'). In Germany since 1919, it forms part of family names. The feminine forms areFreifrauandFreiin.

[gc-6] Goodrick-Clarke 1985,p. 138.

[l-7] Luhrssen 2012,p. 21.

[8] Sebottendorff,Der Talisman des Rosenkreuzers,1925: 65-68, cit. in Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 138, 251.

[FOOTNOTEKershaw200882,_83-9] Kershaw 2008,pp. 82, 83.

[FOOTNOTEKershaw200875,_76,_82,_83,_87-10] Kershaw 2008,pp. 75, 76, 82, 83, 87.

[FOOTNOTESchwarzwaller198880-11] Schwarzwaller 1988,p. 80.

[12] "Hitler and the Secret Societies".www.juliusevola.net.Retrieved2019-11-30.

[13] Phelps, Reginald H. (1963).""Before Hitler Came": Thule Society and Germanen Orden ".The Journal of Modern History.35(3): 245–261.doi:10.1086/243738.ISSN 0022-2801.JSTOR 1899474.

[Sedgwick,_page_97-14] Sedgwick, page 97

[15] "Before Hitler Came".Tradition.2024-05-25.Retrieved2024-08-24.

[16] "THE THULE SOCIETY – NAZISM'S PRECURSORS - The Most Evil Secret Societies in History".erenow.org.Retrieved2023-12-26.

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