While names like Odin and Thor dominate the landscape of Norse mythology, the name Waralda occupies a much darker and more controversial niche. Emerging not from ancient sagas, but from a disputed 19th-century manuscript, Waralda became a cornerstone for Heinrich Himmler’s attempt to reconstruct a pure Germanic faith.
The Origin: The Oera Linda Book
Waralda first appeared in the Oera Linda Book, a manuscript discovered in 1867. The text claimed to be a history of the Frisian people dating back thousands of years, describing an ancient, egalitarian, and highly advanced Nordic civilization.
In this text, Waralda is not a thunder-wielding god like those of the Eddas. Instead, he is the "All-Spirit" or the "Ancient One"—a pantheistic, supreme life force that governs the universe and the laws of nature. By the early 20th century, most scholars had dismissed the book as a clever hoax, but for German völkisch nationalists, it was treated as a lost scripture.
Himmler and the Quest for a Germanic Vatican
Heinrich Himmler was deeply dissatisfied with Christianity, which he viewed as an alien, jewish imposition on the German people. He sought a spiritual framework that would justify the racial hierarchy of the Third Reich.
When Herman Wirth, a co-founder of the Ahnenerbe (the SS Ancestral Heritage office), championed the Oera Linda Book in the early 1930s, Himmler became an ardent believer. To Himmler, Waralda represented a primordial monotheism —proof that Germans had a sophisticated spiritual understanding long before the arrival of Roman missionaries.
Waralda’s Role within the SS
The concept of Waralda was integrated into the ideological training of the SS in several ways:
The Gottgläubig Concept: Himmler encouraged SS men to leave traditional churches and identify as Gottgläubig (Believers in God). This God was often framed through the lens of Waralda—not a personal deity to whom one prays for mercy, but a cold, cosmic force of nature and destiny that favored the Aryan race.
Wewelsburg Castle: At the SS ideological center in Wewelsburg, the symbolism of an ancient, pre-Christian Germanic past was everywhere. Waralda was seen as the spiritual source from which the Blood and Soil of the German people drew its strength.
The Ahnenerbe’s Mission: Despite heavy criticism from other NS officials (including Alfred Rosenberg, who suspected the Oera Linda Book was a fraud), Himmler used the Ahnenerbe to fund research attempting to prove the book’s—and Waralda’s—historical authenticity.
"We believe in a God Almighty who stands above us; he has created the Earth, the Fatherland, and the Volk, and he has sent us the Führer. Any human being who does not believe in God should be considered arrogant, megalomaniacal, and stupid and thus not suited for the SS"
- Heinrich Himmler
No comments:
Post a Comment