The Germanenorden

The Germanenorden was created in Berlin in 1912 by Theodor Fritsch and many renowned German occultists, notably Philipp Stauff, a member of the Guido von List Society and the High Armanen Order, and Hermann Pohl, the Germanenorden's first head. The order was a covert movement that aspired to become a tiny but loyal group, and it was a sister movement to the more open and mainstream Reichshammerbund.

During World War I, the Germanenorden was split in two. Eberhard von Brockhusen rose to the position of Grand Master of the "loyalist" Germanenorden. In the same year, he was joined by Rudolf von Sebottendorff (previously Rudolf Glauer), a wealthy adventurer with broad occult and mystical interests. Sebottendorff, a Freemason who practiced Sufism and astrology, admired Guido von List and Lanz von Liebenfels. He was drawn to Pohl's runic knowledge and became the Master of the Walvater's Bavarian region late in 1917, convinced that the Islamic and Germanic mystical systems shared a similar Aryan source. Sebottendorff, charged with recovering the province's fortunes, grew membership from around a hundred in 1917 to 1,500 by the autumn of the following year.

The Germanenorden had a Freemasonry-based hierarchical fraternal structure. The structure was chosen because it was assumed that Jews were secretly organizing and that it would be preferable to oppose their influence on German public life by utilizing the same manner. The principal objective was to monitor Jewish activity and to serve as a repository for anti-Semitic literature. Secondary priorities included commercial aid among members and the distribution of völkisch publications, particularly Fritsch's Hammer.

Founded: 1912

Location: Germany

Purpose: monitoring Jews and spreading antisemitic material
Founder: Theodor Fritsch