254 book reviews

Peter Staudenmaier
Between Occultism and Nazism: Anthroposophy and the Politics of Race in the
Fascist Era (Aries Book Series 17), Leiden/Boston: Brill 2014. Approx. 430 pp. isbn
9789004264076.

The relationship between esotericism and National Socialism has aroused

much controversy. A large amount of popular and scholarly literature has dis-
cussed close ties between Nazism and “the occult,” a catch-all term for irrational
and deviant thought that supposedly stood in stark contrast to European main-
stream culture. Nazism has often been depicted as an “other” of German or
European culture, an outcome of the same aberrational, anti-modern sphere
as “occultism” and “magic.” In contrast, a range of studies have argued for a
more nuanced, historically informed understanding of occultism and its asso-
ciation with the history of National Socialism. Corinna Treitel, in A Science for
the Soul (2004), maintained the inherently “modern” character of occultism
and emphasized its progressive tendencies. In her analysis of the relationship
between occultism and the National Socialist state, Treitel described the official
stance towards esoteric worldviews, groups, and individuals as one of “escalat-
ing hostility” that culminated in a violent crackdown by the Sicherheitsdienst
(sd, Security Service) and Gestapo, in June 1941. This functioned as an impor-
tant corrective to the prevalent narratives or “Nazi occultism” and showed
that Nazi attitudes towards occultism were not as appreciative as they have
often been depicted. However, historians such as Eric Kurlander have recently
pointed out that Treitel tended to downplay the affinities between Nazism and
“the occult”: While popular narratives about “Nazi occultism” were certainly
wrong, it would be erroneous to exclusively focus on the staunch enemies of
occultism within Nazi ranks and misunderstand the measures of the sd and
Gestapo as the outcome of a monolithic state policy. In a word, the criticism
of sensationalist narratives sometimes seemed to have resulted in correspond-
ing simplifications. Consequently, it would be necessary to pay more attention
to the historical evidence showing actual connections between occultism and
National Socialism.
With his case study of German and Italian Anthroposophy, Peter Stauden-
maier presents the arguably most nuanced and best-grounded contribution to
this debate in many years. On the basis of an impressive amount of source
material and scholarship, Staudenmaier manages to avoid both apologetic
and polemical simplifications. Probably the greatest merit of his analysis is
the depiction of the complexity of both “occultism” and “National Socialism,”
which are put into perspective by a consequent historical contextualization.
Staudenmaier makes perfectly clear that the standard image that ‘casts both

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi: 10.1163/15700593-01702005

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Nazism and occultism as profoundly remote, fundamentally aberrant, essen-

tially estranged from the enlightened world of today’ is untenable (pp. 23–24).
Rather, currents like Theosophy or Anthroposophy function as a ‘reminder of
the irreducible ambiguities of modernity’ that often cannot clearly be attri-
buted to the political left or right (p. 6). Yet, Staudenmaier determines striking
points of contact between contemporary occultism, National Socialism, and
Fascism. According to Staudenmaier, in trying to establish alternative mod-
els of modernity, ‘[m]odern and anti-modern trajectories were entangled in
fascism as in occultism, and nascent fascist movements drew from both left
and right while championing a vision of national regeneration.’ Those shared
concerns ‘opened appreciable room for intersections between occultism and
fascism’ (p. 19). This complex and often highly ambiguous relationship proves
that it is as wide off the mark to ‘blame Nazism on shadowy occult machina-
tions’ as the effort to ‘portray occultists as blameless victims of Nazism.’ The
links between ‘National Socialism and the occult’ were ‘ordinary, not esoteric.
They can be explained not through the deviance of occultism but through its
familiarity, its participation in and influence by central cultural currents of the
era’ (p. 327).
In order to support this argument, Staudenmaier focuses on the topoi of
“nation” and “race.” The development of Steiner’s racial ideas against the
broader background of German culture shows how Theosophical ideas of eso-
teric evolution converged with ideas about messianism, monism, nationalism,
and race theories that were commonplace in the Wilhelmine and Weimar eras
(see esp. pp. 40–60). Staudenmaier demonstrates that the paradoxical combi-
nation of racist and universalist elements that was so typical for Theosophi-
cal and Anthroposophical doctrines can be better understood if they are seen
as the outcome of broader European cultural developments whose nation-
alist and racist tendencies were accentuated by the belief in a German mis-
sion (or Sendungsbewusstsein) to herald the spiritual regeneration of human-
ity (pp. 60–62). It is this notion that later formed, as Staudenmaier shows in
Chapter 4, the most important basis for ideological affinities between Anthro-
posophy and Nazism. When the Nazis referred to Volksgemeinschaft, or national
community, they drew on longstanding German cultural themes that also
formed the context of emergence of Steiner’s thought and the Anthroposoph-
ical variants of esoteric discourse. It is often overlooked that Nazi treatments
of race were ‘remarkably heterogeneous’ (pp. 159–160). The Nazis’ racism and
anti-Semitism were subject to ‘larger historical dynamics of exclusion, violence,
and regeneration’ that ‘required mobilizing different dimensions of racial and
national thought, bridging the gap between radicalized Nazi aspirations and
the broader palette of German cultural themes’ (p. 177). In short, the topoi of

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nation and race featured prominently both in Anthroposophical and National

Socialist thought because they were central parts of German cultural discourse
that would set the stage for the emergence of the Third Reich.
During the Weimar period, the Anthroposophists’ relationship to the völ-
kisch milieu and Ariosophical ideas was highly ambiguous. In Chapter 2, Stau-
denmaier succeeds in emphasizing the complexity and fluidity of Anthro-
posophical, völkisch, and Ariosophical ideas about a spiritual transformation
of Europe, themes of “blood” and “spirit,” as well as anti-materialism, anti-
intellectualism, and anti-Semitism. The nature of the “occult milieu” was ex-
tremely fractious and its connections with the right-wing spectrum were com-
plicated by its constant rivalries (p. 100). Staudenmaier argues that the Anthro-
posophical self-perception as an “unpolitical” movement turned out to be “a
double-edged sword” as it often neglected the very real possible outcomes of
racist ideas and notions of German superiority (p. 99). As a consequence, many
members of the movement were remarkably receptive to Nazi rhetoric. Under
the Third Reich, Anthroposophy was confronted with changing and sometimes
contradictory conditions, leading to a mixture of accommodation, collabora-
tion, and persecution. This confusing situation is described in Chapter 3, where
Staudenmaier rightly emphasizes the character of the National Socialist state
as ‘externally totalitarian but internally riven with disagreements, divisions,
rivalries’ (p. 101). The reactions of Nazi officials towards Anthroposophy were
at times diametrically opposed. Most notably, Anthroposophical ideas were
positively received by Rudolf Hess and his staff, by sympathizers in the Amt
Rosenberg, and by proponents of Walther Darré’s Blut-und-Boden ideology. It
is well known that Anthroposophical approaches to medicine and health were
approved in Hess’s department of public health (pp. 123–129); that biodynamic
agriculture was actively supported by authorities up to the extent of biody-
namic plantations in ss concentration camps (pp. 129–143); and that some
Anthroposophical groups and institutions like the Waldorf schools continued
their existence even after the ban of the society in 1935 (the difficult situation of
the schools is further elaborated in Chapter 5). All this, as well as the mixed and
often ambivalent reactions of leading Anthroposophists, can, again, be com-
prehended by a historical contextualization: ‘Multivalent affiliations among
life reform tendencies, alternative sub-cultures, esoteric spirituality, and holis-
tic views of nature provided one of the unsteady stages on which the fitful and
irregular development of Nazism played itself out’ (p. 145).
Regardless of those signs of acceptance, Anthroposophists faced persecu-
tion under the Third Reich and were targetted by the ‘Campaign against occult
doctrines and so-called occult sciences’ of June 1941. This was due to a power-
ful ‘hard-line anti-occultist faction’ within the Nazi regime, headed by Reinhard

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Heydrich, Martin Bormann, and Joseph Goebbels. The episode, a major subject
of scholarly discussions, is essential for an understanding of the relationship
between esotericism and National Socialism. Staudenmaier shows how the
campaign of June 1941 was the outcome of longer power struggles within the
Nazi “polycracy.” It combined the actions of Heydrich’s sd, the Gestapo, and
their allies such as Bormann and Goebbels. Staudenmaier stresses the para-
doxical situation that ‘official Nazi hostility toward organized occult groups
depended as much on underlying ideological similarities as on overt ideo-
logical distance’ (p. 215). The “investigation of ideological enemies” (Gegner-
forschung) conducted by the sd and its rivalry with the Gestapo is of central
importance for this. In order to prove its own indispensability in the face of an
increasing lack of actual enemies in Germany, the sd tended to greatly exag-
gerate the threat posed by their objects of study. In light of the importance
of racial identity and national belonging in the teachings of many occultist
groups, including Anthroposophy, sd analysts deemed them especially dan-
gerous because they perceived them as competitors to the totalitarian claim
of National Socialist Weltanschauung: ‘What made occult organizations into
“ideological enemies,” in other words, was not so much ideological distance as
ideological proximity’ (p. 245). While this argument is not new, Staudenmaier
is the first scholar to discuss it in a highly nuanced and convincing manner: by
highlighting both the fractured nature of Anthroposophy, the “occult milieu,”
and National Socialism; by explaining those currents in the light of historical
contingency and entanglement; and by using a wide range of archival sources,
publications, and correspondences.
Staudenmaier gives additional weight to his argument with an analysis of
Italian Anthroposophists and their roles in the Fascist state. Most remarkably,
Staudenmaier shows that it was ‘in Fascist Italy rather than Nazi Germany that
esoteric ideas about the spiritual nature of race came to fruition and influ-
enced concrete measures adopted by the state’ (p. 284). This was due to the
success of a “spiritual racism” propagated by authors such as Julius Evola (1898–
1974) and Giovanni Preziosi (1881–1945), as well as Anthroposophists such as
Massimo Scaligero (1906–1980), Aniceto Del Massa (1898–1975) or Ettore Mar-
tinoli (1895–1958). Italian Anthroposophists were even more sharply divided
than their German counterparts, with prominent members being anti-Fascists
or Jews. However, Anthroposophical ideas ‘found significant points of con-
tact with Fascist thought through compatible doctrines about race and nation’
(p. 281) and would eventually play a significant role in the complex develop-
ment of Fascist racist and anti-Semitic thought. This can be exemplified by the
roles of Del Massa and Martinoli, who became to occupy influential positions
within the Fascist bureaucracy, namely in the Center for the Study of the Jew-

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258 book reviews

ish Problem and the General Inspectorate for Race (pp. 303–317). This ‘reveals
a harder edge to seemingly softer forms of esoteric racial discourse’ and shows
instructively how Italian esoteric racists ‘stood out as exponents of a specif-
ically Italian racial vision, rather than mere imitators of Nazi race ideology’
(pp. 284, 318).
It is this exclusive focus on the affinities between esoteric, and more specif-
ically Anthroposophical notions of nation and race that allows for some criti-
cism of Staudenmaier’s study. Of course it is legitimate to give weight to these
aspects, and Staudenmaier can hardly be accused of making false claims. How-
ever, it would have added to the complexity of Staudenmaier’s approach to shed
light on the actual differences and open conflicts between Anthroposophical
and National Socialist or Fascist ideas. The picture would have become even
more complex if Staudenmaier had devoted some space to internal Anthro-
posophical disputes, which are deliberately left out (p. 19). It might also be
mentioned that the terminology employed by Staudenmaier is often vague
and sometimes gives the impression of deliberateness: “occultism,” “the occult,”
“occult milieu,” “occultist,” “occult,” or “esoteric” are some major examples that
are used interchangeably. Of course the meaning of those terms has been very
unclear in modern discourse and remains so until today, but Staudenmaier
could have made a greater contribution towards an understanding of what
“occultism,” “esotericism” and so forth meant in their historical context. This
would have been especially enriching because Staudenmaier, quite unlike the
majority of historians of the Third Reich, shows a comprehensive knowledge
of the study of Western esotericism and could have engaged in a more direct
dialogue with its particular debates (pp. 2–4, 10). An important step towards
this would have been to make more explicit the original German and Italian
terminology and differentiate clearly between the meta-language of the study.
At times this even becomes confusing, for example when Staudenmaier intro-
duces the category of “esoteric racism,” vaguely distinguished from “spiritual
racism” (p. 289). However, these criticisms should not reduce the significance
of the study.
Staudenmaier’s Between Occultism and Nazism shows that the ambivalent
links between esotericism and National Socialism can only be explained if one
abandons simplistic dichotomic narratives and approaches the deeply entan-
gled histories of those subjects in their own right. This means not only under-
standing their complexity, fluidity, and ambiguity, but also the radical contin-
gency of their historical developments. As Staudenmaier rightly emphasizes,
‘the convoluted historical details become unsettling when the certainties of
posterity collide with the perplexities of the past’ (p. 319). It requires courage to
admit that National Socialism was not ‘irreducibly estranged from the normal

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course of things,’ that it was no radical “other,” no evil that defies understand-
ing. As Hannah Arendt has recognized, it was the ordinariness of National
Socialism that made its crimes possible. Staudenmaier convincingly argues
that it was such ordinary aspects that enabled significant links between cer-
tain esoteric and National Socialist notions. The emergence and development
of esotericism cannot be considered in isolation from “Western culture” and
was, in many ways, strikingly “ordinary.” It is no wonder, then, that it took part
in the fatal course of European modernity and is thus an expression of gen-
eral cultural developments. Those developments cannot simply be described
in teleological or dualistic terms. At times, as the work of Jacob Talmon has
shown as early as the 1950s, their political implications cannot be categorized
into left and right, and neither can they be comprehended in terms of pro- or
anti-Enlightenment stances. To ignore these “ambiguities of modernity” means
to defy an understanding of the emergence of Western identities. It can thus
be said that Staudenmaier’s book is a truly enlightening one, which will, it is
hoped, stimulate further research in the same spirit.

Julian Strube
Heidelberg University
julian.strube@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de

Aries – Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism 17 (2017) 243–259