1/32 This is a thread about the #Hyperborea-Mythos in the #Hellboy-Comics.
I'm posting this thread because I love the comics but am worried about the use of history and myths in them. Especialy the Hyperborea-Mythos was connectet with the place I'm living: Lower Saxony, Germany
I'm posting this thread because I love the comics but am worried about the use of history and myths in them. Especialy the Hyperborea-Mythos was connectet with the place I'm living: Lower Saxony, Germany
2/32 This thread contains more than 30 main-points plus sub-points (recognizable by the dots). The sub-points contain further information and explanations, plus source references. Hyperboreans are abbreviated with H.
3/32 In the context of remembering Nazi crimes, experts view comics like Hellboy with trepidation, fearing a dangerous misinterpretation of history for commercial motives.
4/32 As far as I know, critical literature about the Hyperborea myth and its reception by the fascists is surprisingly rare in Germany. The only book I know is "Von Hyperborea nach Auschwitz" by Arn Strohmeyer (2005).
5/32 The title of Strohmeyer's book is pretentiously exaggerated. There is no direct connection between the myth and the concentration camp in Poland. Apart from that, the book is at best popular science but far from being comparable with esoteric books.
6/33 The title of Strohmeyer's book is meant to imply that a utopia of antiquity has turned into a nightmare of modernity. In his book, Strohmeyer shows us some of the „paths“ that, in his view, have led there.
7/32 For the ancient Greeks and their predecessors, the „Hyperboreioi“ were the "inhabitants of a wish- and godsland imagined at the edge of the earth. […] The H. are a pious, peaceful, cheerful people without suffering, without death“. (D. Kleine Pauly [2], p. 1274)
8/32 The Hyperboreans are said to have lived "beyond the mountains", in the far north. Boreas was for the ancient Greeks the rough north wind (sometimes a god). A friend from Greece told me Boreas also today simply means north. (see also: #Aurora Borealis…)
9/32 Poets and philosophers such as Abaris, Aristeas, and Hecataeus of Abdera told stories about the Hyperboreans. The historian Herodotus doubted their existence (Hdt. 4, 32).
10/32 The more northern Europe was explored in antiquity (especially by the Romans), the more likely it became that the Hyperboreans were an imagination. Therefore they were increasingly mystified as nobles avages or saints. (Strohmeyer, p. 21 onwards)
11/32 In 1771 the philologist Abraham Jakob Wenzel told his students that the H. lived in Asia, but he criticized a colleague who claimed that the H. came from Southern-Russia. Penzel also associated the H. with #Tibet. (Strohmeyer, p. 45 onwards)
12/32 Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813) criticized hyperboreamania by translating the "Lies and Dialogues" of the Roman Lukian, who told of a H. who could perform magic and pull the moon from the sky. Btw, #Hekate also appears in this context. (Strohm., p. 47o)
13/32 Wilhelm Ludwig Wekhlin published the journal "Hyperboreische Briefe" from 1778. The journal served enlightenment and humanitarian purposes. One issue dealt with the mistreatment of Catholic children by a fanatical Protestant. (Strohm., p. 53 onwards)
14/32 In 1836 Christoph Karl Barth tried to prove with his book "Die altteutsche Religion" that the Germans were hyperboreans. [One proof should be that the name Hekate reminds of the word Hexe (Witch).] For Barth the H. were rather a priesthood than a folk. (Strohmeyer)
15/32 Friedrich #Nietzsche identified himself with the thinkers of antiquity. In their time, he would have been an inhabitor of Hyperborea, which is one reason why his book "The Antichrist" begins with the words, "We are Hyperboreans..."
16/32 In 1888 H. P. #Blavatsky claimed in her gigantic esoteric book "The Secret Doctrine" that the H. were the 2nd of seven „rootraces“ she had invented herself. H.P.B. co-founded #Theosophy and combined #esotericism and #racism into a unity.
17/32 The later founder of the #Anthroposophy and the Waldorf schools Rudolf Steiner, followed Blavatsky and adopted her ideas about "races" and the Hyperboreans. (See Peter Staudenmaier and Helmut Zander)
18/32 Guido v. List and Jörg Lanz v. Liebenfels, two pseudo-aristocrats, also adopted Blavatsky's ideas about „rootraces“ and explicitly combined them with German #völkisch (folkisch) ideas. They founded the Ariosophy. (See Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke)
19/32 Blavatsky also inspired the U.S. writer Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961), who wrote several pulp stories centered around the myth of Hyperborea. (see Will Murray)
20/32 Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) followed Clark Ashton Smith when he invented his most famous character "#Conan" and placed him in a world called #Hyboria.
21/32 Meanwhile (1931), the coffee merchant Ludwig Roselius built the „#AtlantisHouse“ in Bremen. Roselius was a well-known supporter of the expressionist artists-movement in Lower Saxony. In 1927, he had already built the Paula-Becker-Modersohn-House.
22/32 The Atlantis House in Bremen is based on the ideas of the Dutch philologist Hermann Wirth, who founded the "Forschungsgemeinschaft Deutsches Ahnenerbe" together with Heinrich Himmler in 1935. (See Michael H. Kater, 1974)
23/32 Ludwig Roselius hired expressionist artist Bernhard Hoetger to build the Atlantis House. Hoetger also designed a crucified Odin for the facade of the Atlantis House, expressing the idea that the Germanic tribes would have been ahead of Christianity.
24/32 After the Nazis took over the government in 1933, Roselius tried to ingratiate himself with them. But Hitler was not pleased; he declared Expressionist art in Bremen, including the Atlantis House, to be „entartete Kunst“ (degenerate art).
25/32 Shortly after the foundation of the association "Ahnenerbe" Hermann Wirth was dismissed from his duties because his work was too pseudo-scientific even for the Nazis. (Volker Koop, 2012, p. 16 onwards)
1.1/32 This thread is interrupted by Twitter between points 25 and 26. It continues here:
https://twitter.com/Finnef2/status/1510584080152342536
25.1/32 At this point, the thread is interrupted by Twitter. It continues here:
https://twitter.com/Finnef2/status/1510584080152342536
1.2/32 here you can jump to the conclusion:
https://twitter.com/Finnef2/status/1510584119243292674
3.1/32 One extreme example of the misuse of the history of National Socialism is currently Russian President Vladimir Putin, who justifies his war against Ukraine by claiming that Ukrainians are Nazis. taz.de/Putins-Nazi-De…
21.1/32 there is an wikipedia page about the Atlantis House en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis_…
3.2/32 Hendrik Buhl: "Funny Nazis! Comics zwischen Information und Unterhaltung " in "Rechtsextremismus, Rassismus und Antisemitismus in Comics", herausgegeben von Ralf Palandt, 2011
Screenshot + deepl translation
Screenshot + deepl translation
16.2/32 An Introduction to the Contemporary Racism Debate on Theosophy by Julian Strube watermark.silverchair.com/lfab109.pdf?to…
16.3/32 I also recommend this video by Andrew White
16.3.1/32 A screenshot of the footnote, Andrew white talked about. Look "Ths Secret Doctrine - Vol. 2" page 421.
16.4/32 Correction: The term "root race" was used by the #Theosophist A. P. #Sinnett already before Blavatsky in his book "Esoteric Buddhism" (1883). Also here we find the imagination that these "races" would be connected with sunken continents like #Atlantis.
16.4.1/32 Here we also find #racism: Sinnett claims there are still survivors of the extinct/sunken continents/"root races" today and that they would show a "tendency to decay". As an example he misuses the #Aborigines.
#Theosophy
#Theosophy
16.4.2/32 Sinnett is quoted several times in the Secret Doctrine. For Example: The Secret Doctrine Vol. 2, page 328
16.5/32 According to the "secret doctrine" the #Hawaiians are supposedly dying out because of their #karma.
The Secret Doctrine Vol. 2, page 780
#Theosophy #esotericsm #racism
The Secret Doctrine Vol. 2, page 780
#Theosophy #esotericsm #racism
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