Activities
The Thule Society attracted about 1,500 followers in
Bavaria, including 250 followers in Munich.
[16]
The followers of the Thule Society were very interested in racial theory and, in particular, in combating
Jews and
communists. Sebottendorff planned but failed to kidnap Bavarian socialist
prime minister Kurt Eisner in December 1918.
[6][17] During the
Bavarian revolution of April 1919, Thulists were accused of trying to infiltrate its government and of attempting a coup. On 26 April, the Communist government in Munich raided the society's premises and took seven of its members into custody, executing them on 30 April. Amongst them were Walter Nauhaus and three aristocrats, including Countess Heila von Westarp who functioned as the group's secretary, and
Prince Gustav of Thurn and Taxis who was related to several European royal families.
[18][19] In response, the Thule organised a citizens' uprising as White troops entered the city on 1 May.
[20]
Münchener Beobachter newspaper
In 1918, the Thule Society bought a local weekly newspaper, the
Münchener Beobachter (Munich Observer), and changed its name to
Münchener Beobachter und Sportblatt (Munich Observer and Sports Paper) in an attempt to improve its circulation. The
Münchener Beobachter later became the
Völkischer Beobachter ("
Völkisch Observer"), the main Nazi newspaper. It was edited by
Karl Harrer.
Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
Anton Drexler had developed links between the Thule Society and various extreme right workers' organizations in Munich. He established the
Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP; German Workers' Party) on 5 January 1919, together with the Thule Society's Karl Harrer. Adolf Hitler joined this party in September the same year. By the end of February 1920, the DAP had been reconstituted as the
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP; National Socialist German Workers' Party), often referred to as the Nazi Party.
[21]
Sebottendorff by then had left the Thule Society, and never joined the DAP or the Nazi Party. Dietrich Bronder (
Bevor Hitler kam, 1964) alleged that other members of the Thule Society were later prominent in Nazi Germany: the list includes
Dietrich Eckart (who coached Hitler on his
public speaking skills, along with
Erik Jan Hanussen, and had
Mein Kampf dedicated to him), as well as
Gottfried Feder,
Hans Frank,
Hermann Göring,
Karl Haushofer,
Rudolf Hess,
Heinrich Himmler, and
Alfred Rosenberg.
[22] Historian
Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke has described this membership roll and similar claims as "spurious" and "fanciful", noting that Feder, Eckart, and Rosenberg were never more than guests to whom the Thule Society extended hospitality during the
Bavarian revolution of 1918,
[23] although he has more recently acknowledged that Hess and Frank were members of the society before they came to prominence in the Nazi Party.
[4] It has also been claimed that Adolf Hitler himself was a member.
[24] Evidence on the contrary shows that he never attended a meeting, as attested to by Johannes Hering's diary of society meetings.
[5] It is quite clear that Hitler himself had little interest in, and made little time for, "esoteric" matters.
[25]
Wilhelm Laforce and Max Sesselmann (staff on the
Münchener Beobachter) were Thule members who later joined the NSDAP.
[6]
Dissolution
Early in 1920, Karl Harrer was forced out of the DAP as Hitler moved to sever the party's link with the Thule Society, which subsequently fell into decline and was dissolved about five years later,
[22] well before Hitler came to power.
Rudolf von Sebottendorff had withdrawn from the Thule Society in 1919, but he returned to Germany in 1933 in the hope of reviving it. In that year, he published a book entitled
Bevor Hitler kam (
Before Hitler Came), in which he claimed that the Thule Society had paved the way for the Führer: "Thulers were the ones to whom Hitler first came, and Thulers were the first to unite themselves with Hitler." This claim was not favourably received by the Nazi authorities: after 1933, esoteric organisations were suppressed (including
völkisch occultists), many closed down by anti-
Masonic legislation in 1935. Sebottendorff's book was prohibited and he himself was arrested and imprisoned for a short period in 1934, afterwards departing into exile in Turkey.
Nonetheless, it has been argued that some Thule members and their ideas were incorporated into
Nazi Germany.
[24] Some of the Thule Society's teachings were expressed in the books of
Alfred Rosenberg.
[26] Many occult ideas found favour with Heinrich Himmler, who had a great interest in mysticism, unlike Hitler, but the
Schutzstaffel (SS) under Himmler emulated the structure of
Ignatius Loyola's
Jesuit order[27] rather than the Thule Society, according to Hohne.
Conspiracy theories
The Thule Society has become the center of many
conspiracy theories concerning
Nazi Germany, due to its occult background (like the
Ahnenerbe section of the SS).
Such theories include the creation of vril-powered Nazi UFOs.[