Hitler and his God

“A Devil or a God”

About this circle, Peter Aschheim writes: “The Georgekreis was a circle of disciples and initiates, a sect without formal or obligatory statutes, but which was completely centred upon its master. Although small changes kept taking place in the inner circle, the number of members of this ‘secret Germany’ never exceeded forty. In spite of this small number the circle became an example of a cultural elite and had an enormous influence on the anti-establishment poetry, literary science and historical writing.” 708 This circle displayed indeed all the characteristics of a sect or a cult. The first contact with it was felt to be a decisive turnabout in life, a new birth. The choice of the disciples depended exclusively on the master, who acted in all respects as the guru. There were initiation tests and the admission was sealed with a holy oath. And the selected few were given a new name by the master, who alone knew who actually belonged to the circle and who did not.

The centre of all that was Stefan George (1868-1933), a generally appreciated poet whose fame in those days surpassed that even of Rainer Maria Rilke. “It has been said that all young Germans of the 1920’s were influenced by Stefan George, whether or not they had ever heard his name or read a single line he had written.” 709

From his words, spoken unobtrusively low,

A domination emanates and a seduction;

The empty air he makes to circle and enclose you,

And he can kill without having to touch. 710

George was indeed considered a god by some, a devil by others. One person “confessed having experienced for the first time in George’s presence what the divine actually is”, another “had the impression of a terrible, demonic, earth and world perturbing force of nature”. 711 “While regarded as the greatest German-language poet of the age … he was also revered as a prophet and a magus, a magisterial ‘guru’ and oracle presiding over an elite hand-picked cadre of intellectual and cultural initiates who ‘stood in awe of him’ as one might of a high priest. In Berlin, Munich and Heidelberg he held court to a small circle of the brightest, most imaginative and dynamic young men in Germany – the hope, as he saw them, of the country’s future. From this cenacle, he issued his often arcane and enigmatic pronouncements, and published the cryptic verse that became a cultural beacon to a generation.” 712

George Mosse sketches Stefan George as follows: “He seriously believed in his role as a poet-seer, as a herald of change. To him it seemed that poetry was the most suitable vehicle for describing the tragic conditions of the times, which, he thought, could be alleviated only through the strength and determination of a leader. Poetry struck at the heart of the matter and was, at the same time, impartial and uncommitted to any particular political solution. Above all, a poet was not limited by the seeming fatalism of materialistic, historicist or realistic considerations. He was above them. He was in direct touch with the pulse of the nation. In this framework it was logical that the poet should stride forth as the new prophet.” 713

In the George circle there was no place for women, it was a Männerbund, exclusive male territory. For this reason and his sanctification of a boy, Maximin, George and his disciples were suspected of homosexuality, although some students of his life deny the accusation. Such male bonding was a “normal” part of the personalities of the circle, all deeply embedded in the contemporary environment, as was their reaction against modernity, intellectuality and the democracy of the masses. Another typical, darkly foreboding element of the George cult were “the fantasies of omnipotence and the death wishes which played such an important part among the Georgeans”. Considering the number of suicides and of untimely deaths in the circle “one is almost inclined to speak of a death urge” among them. 714 In those days, the Knights Templar and the Hospitallers rode between Death and the Devil side by side with the knight etched by Dürer.

“George concentrated on defining the need for an elite leadership – which did not preclude the emergence of a single leader. Instead of the image of the single knight George promoted the concept of the ‘order’, such as the Knights Templar of the Crusades. The eschatological urge was strong in him, for he sincerely believed that solutions would eventually be found. The coming century was to be the age of the elite, not of the masses. It would be an era in which great personalities would impress their image, creativity, and accomplishments upon the face of society and culture. George saw these new personalities as representing both godliness and manliness and possessing extraordinary powers of will … Among his disciples, all with dispositions similar to his own, was the core of the elite.” (George Mosse 715) They embodied the true soul of Germany. He called this true soul “das geheime Deutschland”, secret Germany.