On The Immolation Of Nationalist Heroes: Joan Of Arc And Adolf Hitler
"Joan of Arc (6 January 1412 – 30 May 1431 ) is a national heroine of France and a saint of the Catholic Church. She stated that she had visions, which she believed came from God, and she used these to inspire Charles VII's troops to retake most of his dynasty's former territories which had been under English and Burgundian dominance during the Hundred Years' War.
She had been sent to the siege of Orléans by the then-uncrowned King Charles VII as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the disregard of veteran commanders and ended the siege in only nine days. Several more swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Reims and settled the disputed succession to the throne.
Following the coronation the Royal army attempted further campaigns, but with less success. She refused to leave the field when she was wounded during an attempt to recapture Paris that autumn. Hampered by court intrigues, she led only minor companies from then on, and fell prisoner during a skirmish near Compiègne the following spring. A politically motivated trial by the English convicted her of heresy. The English regent, John, Duke of Bedford, had her burnt at the stake in Rouen. She had become the heroine of her faction at the age of seventeen, but died at the age of nineteen. Some twenty-four years later, after the English were driven out, Joan's aged mother, Isabelle, convinced the Inquisitor-General and Pope Callixtus III to reopen Joan's case, resulting in an appeal which overturned the original conviction by the English. Pope Benedict XV canonized her on 16 May 1920.
Joan of Arc has remained an important figure in Western culture. From Napoleon to the present, French politicians of all leanings have invoked her memory. Major writers and composers, including Shakespeare, Voltaire, Schiller, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Twain, Shaw, and Brecht, have created works about her, and depictions of her continue to be prevalent in film, television, and song."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc
*
"The [proto-Hitlerian] youth organization of the Monistenbund -- inspired and led by [Ernst] Haeckel himself [the German biologist and philosopher who promoted Charles Darwin's work in Germany] -- sponsored sun-worshiping festivals each summer solstice....
Others wanted a Wagnerian twist to their Volkish neopaganism. They gathered in bearskins and made ritual sacrifices of animals to Wotan, Thor, Baldur, and other Teutonic deities. They studied the symbols of the ancient Norse runes and took visionary journeys to meet with members of the ancient spiritual brotherhood. There were dozens of groups like these, large and small. They convinced themselves that they were chosen, like the grail knights in Wagner's Parsifal, to seek and protect the Holy Grail -- in this case, the spiritual purity of Aryan Blood. The most famous of these was the Tannenberg Foundation of General Erich Ludendorff, war hero and, later, a coconspirator in Adolf Hitler's failed putsch in 1923. The symbol of Ludendorff's organization was the hammer of Thor. Like many in German culture at the turn of the century, Ludendorff wanted to eradicate Christianity and replace it with an Aryan faith. As one commentator on the neopagan movement in Germany revealed, "In line with the Tannenberg program for the restoration of the ancient Germanic religion, General Ludendorff, accompanied by a few young men, would from time to time retire to the forests near Munich, where a bonfire was lighted and a horse sacrificed in honor of Thor, the god of Thunder."
Richard Noll "The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung", pages 116 and 305.
*
"Examples of Hitler's 'odd beliefs or magical thinking' abound in his 'table talk', the turgid monologues which he inflicted each night on his bored and exhausted entourage. Thus he believed he could read other people's thoughts and exert magical control over them and that he had a sixth sense that protected him from danger. For example, having made a speech at the Party Beer-Cellar in Munich just before the outbreak of the Second World War, something suddenly prompted him to leave, instead of staying on to chat with the Party faithful as was his custom. Within minutes of his departure a bomb exploded, killing eight of the old comrades and injuring scores of others. He seems to have experienced no such premonition in March 1943 when a bomb was placed on the plane in which he flew back to Berlin from the Eastern front, but the bomb failed to detonate. A further attempt to assassinate him at an exhibition a few days later also failed because, once again, he decided on impulse to leave early. 'Who says I am not under the special protection of God?' he exclaimed. An example of his magical thinking is his frequently repeated declaration that he and Germany were mystically merged: 'I know that everything that you are, you are through me, and everything that I am, I am through you alone!'
Of the 'unusual perceptual experiences' reported by Hitler, he acknowledged that he heard voices like those which inspired Joan of Arc: they told him to rescue the Fatherland from the Jews. He also claimed that he had a vision of Wotan, the old German war god, pointing to the East above the heads of the cheering Viennese crowds at the time of Austrian Anschluss.
Anthony Stevens and John Price "Prophets, Cults, and Madness" pages 97-98.
*
Please see Bob Shingleton's On An Overgrown Path post today on Hitler's court composer Ernst Hanfstaengl.
http://theovergrownpath.blogspot.com/2006/05/
hitlers-court-composer-was-harvard.html
*
After fleeing from Hitler after almost 20 years of close 'friendship', German-American bisexual (and partially Jewish) aristocrat Hanfstaegl consulted with Swiss psychological theorist Carl Jung as to the 'demonic' quality of Adolf Hitler's bisexuality, before later consulting for the U.S. government Office of Strategic Services in Washington, D.C.
Also see Chris Nicholson's book "Apotheosis" prepared for the Wagner Society of Queensland, Australia, which contains the following:
"Hitler had nothing but contempt for Americans ‘I feel the deepest hatred and repulsion towards anything American. In its whole outlook America is a half-Jewish, half-Negroid society … The German Reich has 270 opera houses and a richer cultural life than is known there. Basically Americans live like pigs in a well-tiled sty.’"
http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/njfleming1/apotheosis.htm
Joan of Arc, c. 1485. The only known portrait painted from life has not survived, so all depictions of her are based upon artistic license. (Centre Historique des Archives Nationales, Paris, AE II 2490)
Photo credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc With thanks.
She had been sent to the siege of Orléans by the then-uncrowned King Charles VII as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the disregard of veteran commanders and ended the siege in only nine days. Several more swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Reims and settled the disputed succession to the throne.
Following the coronation the Royal army attempted further campaigns, but with less success. She refused to leave the field when she was wounded during an attempt to recapture Paris that autumn. Hampered by court intrigues, she led only minor companies from then on, and fell prisoner during a skirmish near Compiègne the following spring. A politically motivated trial by the English convicted her of heresy. The English regent, John, Duke of Bedford, had her burnt at the stake in Rouen. She had become the heroine of her faction at the age of seventeen, but died at the age of nineteen. Some twenty-four years later, after the English were driven out, Joan's aged mother, Isabelle, convinced the Inquisitor-General and Pope Callixtus III to reopen Joan's case, resulting in an appeal which overturned the original conviction by the English. Pope Benedict XV canonized her on 16 May 1920.
Joan of Arc has remained an important figure in Western culture. From Napoleon to the present, French politicians of all leanings have invoked her memory. Major writers and composers, including Shakespeare, Voltaire, Schiller, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Twain, Shaw, and Brecht, have created works about her, and depictions of her continue to be prevalent in film, television, and song."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc
*
"The [proto-Hitlerian] youth organization of the Monistenbund -- inspired and led by [Ernst] Haeckel himself [the German biologist and philosopher who promoted Charles Darwin's work in Germany] -- sponsored sun-worshiping festivals each summer solstice....
Others wanted a Wagnerian twist to their Volkish neopaganism. They gathered in bearskins and made ritual sacrifices of animals to Wotan, Thor, Baldur, and other Teutonic deities. They studied the symbols of the ancient Norse runes and took visionary journeys to meet with members of the ancient spiritual brotherhood. There were dozens of groups like these, large and small. They convinced themselves that they were chosen, like the grail knights in Wagner's Parsifal, to seek and protect the Holy Grail -- in this case, the spiritual purity of Aryan Blood. The most famous of these was the Tannenberg Foundation of General Erich Ludendorff, war hero and, later, a coconspirator in Adolf Hitler's failed putsch in 1923. The symbol of Ludendorff's organization was the hammer of Thor. Like many in German culture at the turn of the century, Ludendorff wanted to eradicate Christianity and replace it with an Aryan faith. As one commentator on the neopagan movement in Germany revealed, "In line with the Tannenberg program for the restoration of the ancient Germanic religion, General Ludendorff, accompanied by a few young men, would from time to time retire to the forests near Munich, where a bonfire was lighted and a horse sacrificed in honor of Thor, the god of Thunder."
Richard Noll "The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung", pages 116 and 305.
*
"Examples of Hitler's 'odd beliefs or magical thinking' abound in his 'table talk', the turgid monologues which he inflicted each night on his bored and exhausted entourage. Thus he believed he could read other people's thoughts and exert magical control over them and that he had a sixth sense that protected him from danger. For example, having made a speech at the Party Beer-Cellar in Munich just before the outbreak of the Second World War, something suddenly prompted him to leave, instead of staying on to chat with the Party faithful as was his custom. Within minutes of his departure a bomb exploded, killing eight of the old comrades and injuring scores of others. He seems to have experienced no such premonition in March 1943 when a bomb was placed on the plane in which he flew back to Berlin from the Eastern front, but the bomb failed to detonate. A further attempt to assassinate him at an exhibition a few days later also failed because, once again, he decided on impulse to leave early. 'Who says I am not under the special protection of God?' he exclaimed. An example of his magical thinking is his frequently repeated declaration that he and Germany were mystically merged: 'I know that everything that you are, you are through me, and everything that I am, I am through you alone!'
Of the 'unusual perceptual experiences' reported by Hitler, he acknowledged that he heard voices like those which inspired Joan of Arc: they told him to rescue the Fatherland from the Jews. He also claimed that he had a vision of Wotan, the old German war god, pointing to the East above the heads of the cheering Viennese crowds at the time of Austrian Anschluss.
Anthony Stevens and John Price "Prophets, Cults, and Madness" pages 97-98.
*
Please see Bob Shingleton's On An Overgrown Path post today on Hitler's court composer Ernst Hanfstaengl.
http://theovergrownpath.blogspot.com/2006/05/
hitlers-court-composer-was-harvard.html
*
After fleeing from Hitler after almost 20 years of close 'friendship', German-American bisexual (and partially Jewish) aristocrat Hanfstaegl consulted with Swiss psychological theorist Carl Jung as to the 'demonic' quality of Adolf Hitler's bisexuality, before later consulting for the U.S. government Office of Strategic Services in Washington, D.C.
Also see Chris Nicholson's book "Apotheosis" prepared for the Wagner Society of Queensland, Australia, which contains the following:
"Hitler had nothing but contempt for Americans ‘I feel the deepest hatred and repulsion towards anything American. In its whole outlook America is a half-Jewish, half-Negroid society … The German Reich has 270 opera houses and a richer cultural life than is known there. Basically Americans live like pigs in a well-tiled sty.’"
http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/njfleming1/apotheosis.htm
Joan of Arc, c. 1485. The only known portrait painted from life has not survived, so all depictions of her are based upon artistic license. (Centre Historique des Archives Nationales, Paris, AE II 2490)
Photo credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc With thanks.
posted by Garth Trinkl at 10:38 AM
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