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Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels

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Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels
Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels
Born
Adolf Josef Lanz

(1874-07-19)19 July 1874
Penzing,Vienna,Austria-Hungary
Died22 April 1954(1954-04-22)(aged 79)
Vienna,Allied-occupied Austria
NationalityAustrian
Other namesLanz von Liebenfels
Known forRacist and occult ideas

Adolf Josef Lanz(19 July 1874 – 22 April 1954), also known under hispseudonymasJörg Lanz von Liebenfels,was anAustrianpolitical and racial theorist and occultist, who was a pioneer ofAriosophy.He was a former monk and the founder of themagazineOstara,in which he publishedanti-semiticandvölkischtheories.[1]

Early life[edit]

He was born on 19 July 1874 in thePenzingdistrict ofViennain what was thenAustria-Hungary,as the son of schoolmaster Johann Lanz and his wife Katharina, née Hoffenreich. His parents weremiddle class,and his father's ancestors had beenburghersin Vienna since the early 18th century.[2]His mother was believed to have been of Jewish ancestry, making him fail his own racial criteria. Consequently, he claimed to be the son of Baron Johannes Lancz de Liebenfels and began to call himself "Baron Adolf Georg (Jörg) Lanz Von Liebenfels Ph.D."[3]

As a young boy, he was fascinated by the myth of theHoly Grail.[4]

Liebenfels became amonkin theCistercianorder in 1893, assuming the name Georg and living in theHeiligenkreuz monastery.[5][4]In 1894, he claimed to have become "enlightened"after finding the tombstone of aKnight Templar,and began developing his theories of "blue-blondAryanism"and"lower races".In 1899, he left the Cistercian order.[4]

Work with Theozoology[edit]

Further information:Ariosophy § Theozoology

In 1905, he published his bookTheozoölogie oder die Kunde von den Sodoms-Äfflingen und dem Götter-Elektron[6](Theozoology,or the Science of the Sodomite-Apelings and the Divine Electron) in which he advocatedsterilizationof the sick and the "lower races" as well as forced labour for "castratedchandals",and glorified the" Aryan race "as"Gottmenschen"(" god-men ").[1]Liebenfels justified his esoteric racial ideology by attempting to give it aBiblicalfoundation; according to him,Eve,whom he described as initially being divine, involved herself with ademonand gave birth to the "lower races" in the process.[7]Furthermore, he claimed that this led to blonde women being attracted primarily to "dark men", something that only could be stopped by "racial demi xing" so that the "Aryan-Christianmaster humans "could" once again rule the dark-skinned beastmen "and ultimately achievedivinity.A copy of this book was sent toSwedishpoetAugust Strindberg,from whom Liebenfels received an enthusiastic reply in which he was described as a "propheticvoice ".

One year later, in 1905, Liebenfels founded the magazineOstara, Briefbücherei der Blonden und Mannesrechtler,of which he became the sole author and editor in 1908. Liebenfels himself claimed to have up to 100,000 subscribers, but it is generally agreed that this figure is grossly exaggerated. Readers of this publication includedAdolf Hitler,Dietrich Eckartand the British Field MarshalHerbert Kitcheneramong others. Liebenfels claimed he was visited by the young Hitler in 1909, whom he supplied with two missing issues of the magazine.

As a student ofGuido von List,Liebenfels further expanded his theories;[8]other influences includedOtto Weininger,of whom Liebenfels was a fervent follower, andHelena Blavatsky.[1]

Flag of theOrder of the New Templars.

Secret Society Order of the New Templars[edit]

Main article:Order of the New Templars

The Order of the New Templars –Ordo Novi Templi(ONT) was aproto-fascistsecret societyin Germany founded by Lanz in 1900.[9][4]It was modelled after thecatholicmilitary ordertheKnights Templarand similar in its hierarchical structure to theOrder of Cistercians,of which Lanz had been a member.

Members usedcode namesso that betrayal was difficult.[9]

Lanz functioned as ideologue and agitator of the group, justifying violence and punishments such as castration in order to establish afasciststate in Germany and defend it againstcommunism.[9]

Interactions with Aryan societies[edit]

In 1905 Liebenfels and some 50 other supporters of List signed a declaration endorsing the proposedGuido-von-List-Gesellschaft(Guido von List Society), which was officially founded in 1908. He also founded his own esoteric organisation, theOrdo Novi Templi(Order of the New Templars) in 1907. These movements were supposed to "further the racial self-confidence by doingpedigreeand racial research,beauty contestsand the founding ofracist"future sites" in underdeveloped parts of theEarth"(das Rasse Bewusstsein durch Stammbaum- und Rassekunde Forschung, Schönheitswettbewerbe und die Gründung rassistischer Zukunftsstätten in unterentwickelten Teilen der Erde zu fördern). To further this agenda, he purchased theWerfensteincastle ruins inAustria.Neither organization managed to attract a large member base; though, it is estimated that the order had around 300 members, most prominent of which was the poetFritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando.Liebenfels‘s claim that the organization was already founded prior to 1900, and that he met with August Strindberg in 1896 and managed to convince him to join the order, have been shown to be fabricated.

After Hitler's rise to prominence in the 1920s, Liebenfels tried to be recognized as one of hisideologicalprecursors. In the preface of issue one in the 3rd series ofOstara,c. 1927, he wrote:

One shall remember that theswastika- andfascistmovements are basically offspring of Ostara.[10]

Publications[edit]

In his publications, Liebenfels mixedvölkischand anti-semitic ideas withAryanism,racismandesotericism.The following is a partial list of Liebenfels‘s publications:

  • Katholizismus wider Jesuitismus( "Catholicism versus Jesuitism" ),Frankfurt,1903
  • Anthropozoon biblicum,inVjschr. für Bibelkunde 1,1903/1904
  • Zur Theologie der gotischen Bibel( "Regarding the Theology of the Gothic Bible" ) inVjschr. für Bibelkunde 1,1903/1904
  • Theozoologie oder die Kunde von den Sodoms-Äfflingen und dem Götter-Elektron( "Theozoology, or the Account of theSodomiteApelings and the Divine Electron "),Vienna,(1905)
    • von Liebenfels, Lanz (1904).Theozoölogie oder die Kunde von den Sodoms-Äfflingen und dem Götter-Elektron(in German) – via The Internet Archive.
  • Das Breve "Dominus ac redemptor noster",Frankfurt,1905
  • Der Taxilschwindel. Ein welthistorischer Ulk,Frankfurt,1905
  • Ostara(magazine), 89 or 100 issues, Rodaun and Mödling, 1905–17 (38 issues were republished inViennabetween 1926 and 1931)
  • Kraus und das Rassenproblem( "Kraus and the Race Problem" ), inDer Brenner 4,1913/1914
  • Weltende und Weltwende,( "World's End and World's Turn" ), Lorch, 1923
  • Grundriss der ariosophischen Geheimlehre( "Outline of the Ariosophic Secret Teachings" ), Oestrich, 1925
  • Der Weltkrieg als Rassenkampf der Dunklen gegen die Blonden( "The World War as a Race Fight Between the Dark and the Blondes" ),Vienna,1927
  • Bibliomystikon oder die Geheimbibel der Eingeweihten( "Bibliomystikon, or the Secret Bible of the Initiated" ), 10 volumes,Pforzheimand elsewhere, 1929–1934
  • Praktisch-empirisches Handbuch der ariosophischen Astrologie( "Practical-empirical Handbook of Ariosophic Astrology" ),Düsseldorf,1926–34
  • Jakob Lorber.Das grösste ariosophische Medium der Neuzeit,Düsseldorf,1926, 4 Bänden.
  • von Liebenfels, Lanz (1926).Das Buch der Psalmen Teutch[The Book of the Teutonic Psalms] – via The Internet Archive.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^abcGoodrick-Clarke 2006,p. 674.
  2. ^Goodrick-Clarke 2004,p. 90f.
  3. ^Hamann 2010,p. 216.
  4. ^abcdDe Groot 1998,p. 231.
  5. ^Goodrick-Clarke 2006,p. 673.
  6. ^LANZ-LIEBENFELS, J. (1905). Theozoologie, oder Die Kunde von den Sodomsäfflingen und dem Götter-Elektron eine Einführung in die älteste und neueste Weltanschauung und eine Rechtfertigung des Fürstentums und des Adels. Wien, Moderner Verlag.
  7. ^De Groot 1998,pp. 236–237.
  8. ^Goodrick-Clarke 2006,p. 675.
  9. ^abcHieronymus 1996.
  10. ^"Ostara 01- 05".Ostara(in German). Vol. III, no. 1. p. 3.

Bibliography[edit]

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