Lanz von Liebenfels

He was borm on July 19, 1874 in the Penzing district of Vienna in what was then Austria-Hungary, as the son of schoolmaster Johann Lanz and his wife Katharina, née Hoffenreich. His parents were middle class, and his fathers ancestors had been burghers in Vienna since the early 18th century. As an adult, Lanz claimed to have been born on May 1, 1872 at Messina, Sicily as the son of Baron Johann Lancz de Liebenfels and his wife Katharina, née Skala. He also claimed to possess a doctorate degree, which wasn't true either.

Lanz became a monk in the cistercian order in 1893, assuming the name Georg and living in the Heiligenkreuz monastery. In 1894, he claimed to have been "enlightened" after finding the tombstone of a knight templar, and began developing his theories of "blue-blond aryanism" and "lower races". He left the monastery in 1899; although Lanz claimed that this was due to "growing nervousness", the official documents recorded "carnal love" as the reason, something that may have contributed to his later anti-feminism.

In 1904, he published his book "Theozoologie" ("theozoology") in which he advocated sterilization of the sick and the "lower races" as well as forced labour for "castrated chandals", and glorified the "aryan race" as "Gottmenschen" ("god men"). Lanz justified his neognostic racial ideology by attempting to give it a biblical foundation; according to him, Eve, which he described as initially being divine, involved herself with a demon and gave birth to the "lower races" in the process. Furthermore, he claimed that this led to blonde women being attracted primarily to "dark men", something that only could be stopped by "racial demixing" so that the "aryan-christian master humans" could "once again rule the dark-skinned beastmen" and ultimately achieve "divinity".

A copy of this book was sent to Swedish poet August Strindberg, from who Lanz received an enthusiastic reply in which he was described as a "prophetic voice".

One year later, in 1905, he founded the magazine "Ostara, Briefbücherei der Blonden und Mannesrechtler", of which he became the sole author and editor in 1908. Readers of this publication included Adolf Hitler and Dietrich Eckart, among others; Lanz himself claimed to have up to 100,000 subscribers, but it is generally agreed on that this figure is grossly exaggerated.

Lanz also founded the "Guido-von-List-Gesellschaft" ("Guido von List society") in 1905 and the "Ordo novi templi" ("Order of the New Templars") in 1907, which were supposed to "further the racial self-confidence by doing pedigree and racial research, beauty contests and the founding of racist future sites in underdeveloped parts of the Earth" ("das Rassebewusstsein durch Stammbaum- und Rassekundeforschung, Schönheitswettbewerbe und die Gründung rassistischer Zukunftsstätten in unterentwickelten Teilen der Erde zu fördern") and for which he bought the Werfenstein castle ruins in Austria.

Neither organization really managed to attract a large member base, though; it is estimated that the order had around 300 members, the most prominent of which was the poet Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando. Lanz' 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.

As a student of Guido von List, Lanz further expanded his theories; other influences included Otto Weininger and Karl Kraus, of who Lanz was a fervent follower. During the 1920s, he tried to be recognized as one of the ideological precursors to Adolf Hitler without success, and later dedicated himself to writing several essays and books, including various astrological prophecies and works with titles such as "Sexualphysik" ("sexual physics"), "Liebe als odische Energie" ("love as odic energy") and "Rassenmystik" ("racial mysticism").

In his publications, Lanz mixed völkisch and anti-semitic ideas with aryanism, racism and esotericism; nevertheless, he was prohibited to write in 1938. The following is a partial list of Lanz's publications:

• Katholizismus wider Jesuitismus ("catholicism versus jesuitism"), Frankfurt, 1903
• Anthropozoon biblicum, in Vjschr. für Bibelkunde 1, 1903/1904
• Zur Theologie der gotischen Bibel ("regarding the theology of the gothic bible") in Vjschr. für Bibelkunde 1, 1903/1904
• Theozoologie oder die Kunde von den Sodoms-Äfflingen und dem Götter-Elektron ("Theozoology or the account of the Sodom apelings and the God-electron"), Vienna, (1905)
• Das Breve "Dominus ac redemptor noster", Frankfurt, 1905
• Der Taxilschwindel. Ein welthistorischer Ulk, Frankfurt, 1905
• Ostara (magazin), 89 issues, Rodaun and Mödling, 1905-1917 (38 issues were republished in Vienna between 1926 and 1931)
• Kraus und das Rassenproblem ("Kraus and the race problem"), in Der Brenner 4, 1913/1914
• Weltende und Weltwende, ("World's end and world's turn"), Lorch, 1923
• Grundriss der ariosophischen Geheimlehre ("Outline of the aryosophic 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, Pforzheim and elsewhere, 1929 - 1934
• Praktisch-empirisches Handbuch der ariosophischen Astrologie ("Practical-empirical handbook of aryosophic astrology"), Düsseldorf, 1926 - 1934

  Also see

• Order of the New Templars
• Nazism
• Nazi mysticism
• Esoteric Hitlerism
  

  Further reading

• Joachim C. Fest, Hitler, p. 169f, 175f
• Ekkehard Hieronimus: Lanz von Liebenfels. Eine Biographie, Toppenstedt, 1991
• Anton Maegerle, Peter Paul Heller: Thule. Vom völkischen Okkultismus bis zur Neuen Rechten, Stuttgart, 1995.
• W. Daim: Der Mann, der Hitler die Ideen gab, 1995