Editing Ariosophy (section)

==Germanenorden==
{{main article|Germanenorden}}

Although List had been concerned "to awaken German nationalist consciousness",<ref name="GC85-65">{{harvnb|Goodrick-Clarke|1985| p= 65}}</ref> the High Armanen Order had addressed itself to the upper and middle class Germans in Austria,<ref name="GC85-65"/> and here List had preferred the "role of the mystagogue"<ref name="GC85-123">{{harvnb|Goodrick-Clarke|1985|p= 123}}</ref> over political activism. List's disciples, however, became active in the ''[[Reichshammerbund]]'' and the ''Germanenorden'', two "historically significant", "virulently antisemitic groups"<ref name="GC85-123"/> in Germany. Both groups were organized by the political activist [[Theodor Fritsch]], a major figure in German antisemitism. Fritsch, born 1852, was the son of Saxon peasants, and he was concerned about the "small tradesmen and craftsmen"<ref name="GC85-123"/> and their threat from what he perceived to be the large 'Jewish' industry.

The List-inspired Germanenorden (Germanic Order or Teutonic Order, not to be confused with the medieval German order of the [[Teutonic Knights]]) was a ''völkisch'' [[secret society]] in early 20th-century Germany. It was founded in Berlin in 1912 by Theodor Fritsch and several prominent German occultists including Philipp Stauff, who held office in the List Society and High Armanen Order as well as [[Hermann Pohl]], who became the Germanenorden's first leader. The group was a clandestine movement aimed at the upper echelons of society and was a sister movement to the more mainstream Reichshammerbund.<ref>{{cite book|first = Richard S.|last = Levy|author-link=Richard S. Levy|title=Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution, Volume 1|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2005|page= 269}}</ref>

The order, whose symbol was a swastika, had a hierarchical fraternal structure similar to [[Freemasonry]]. Local groups of the sect met to celebrate the summer [[solstice]], an important [[Modern paganism|neopagan]] festivity in ''völkisch'' circles (and later in Nazi Germany), and more regularly to read the [[Eddas]] as well as some of the [[German mystic]]s.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Swastika and the Nazis |publisher=Intelinet |url=http://www.intelinet.org/swastika/swasti01.htm#anchor36373 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070604170547/http://www.intelinet.org/swastika/swasti01.htm |archive-date=June 4, 2007 }}</ref>

In addition to occult and magical philosophies, it taught to its initiates nationalist ideologies of Nordic racial superiority and antisemitism, then rising throughout the Western world. As was becoming increasingly typical of ''völkisch'' organisations,{{Citation needed |date=November 2007}} it required its candidates to prove that they had no non-Aryan bloodlines and required from each a promise to maintain purity of his stock in marriage.

In 1916, during [[World War I]], the Germanenorden split into two parts. [[Eberhard von Brockhusen]] became the Grand Master of the "loyalist" Germanenorden. Pohl, previously the order's Chancellor, founded a schismatic offshoot: the Germanenorden Walvater of the Holy Grail.<ref name="Goodrick-Clarke1985:131–2">{{harvnb|Goodrick-Clarke|1985|pp= 131–32}}</ref><ref name="Thomas 2005">{{harvnb|Thomas|2005}}</ref> He was joined in the same year by Rudolf von Sebottendorff (formerly Rudolf Glauer), a wealthy adventurer with wide-ranging occult and mystical interests. A Freemason and a practitioner of [[sufism]] and [[astrology]], Sebottendorff was also an admirer of Guido von List and Lanz von Liebenfels. Convinced that the Islamic and Germanic mystical systems shared a common Aryan root, he was attracted by Pohl's runic lore and became the Master of the Walvater's Bavarian province late in 1917. Charged with reviving the province's fortunes, Sebottendorff increased membership from about a hundred in 1917 to 1500 by the autumn of the following year.<ref name="Goodrick-Clarke1985:142-3">{{harvnb|Goodrick-Clarke|1985|pp= 142–43}}</ref>