(12 Jan 1893 – 16 Oct 1946) A Baltic German architect, politician, theorist, and Nazi Inner Circle Party Member, closer to Hess and Himmler than Hitler, Goebbels or Speer who often mocked him in private as the “Party Philosopher” (Albert Speer: “Infiltration”). Awarded the National Prize (German Nobel prize equivalent) in 1937. Born in Estonia and fled to Germany after the “Reds” took over which he and other “Whites” continually lobbied Hitler to reverse by invading Russia. This Eastern contingent of ethnic Germans and others who fled Lenin and Trotsky formed one of the key groupings in the inner circle of the party, paralleling other exile communities in history such as the later Miami Cuban’s for the virulent fervor of their anti-communism. (Toland: “Adolph Hitler”)
Rosenberg’s mystical work “The Myth of the Twentieth Century” was as important if not more so than Hitler’s Mein Kampf as setting the party line in it’s radical line to deal “once and for all” with the “Judeo-Bolshevik Menace”, as was his roll as Master Propagandist as publisher of the Party Newspaper “The Volkischer Beobachter” (Speer: “Inside the Third Reich”).
His statements were virulently Anti-Semitc but it is conceivable that this was merely a device as part of his contingent’s lobby efforts to reverse the Russian Revolution. Speer wrote that Rosenberg often stymied Himmler’s Empire building plans in the East. Who knows, maybe he was just another crazy nazi occultist, albeit one of mixed ancestry himself. As they say there is none more fervent than the converted.
It has been speculated that Rosenberg was model for the character “Meloch” who lead the Nazi Occult Archeological Team in the Steven Spielberg classic “Raiders of the Lost Ark” who were in a race with “Indiana Jones” to discover the Lost Ark of Covenant.
Another among the many people who may have influenced Adolf Hitler’s in the selection of the swastika as a Nazi symbol was Alfred Rosenberg, the “intellectual leader” of the Nazi movement. Born the son of a poor shoemaker, Alfred Rosenberg’s key to his rise to fame among the Nazi leadership was the possession of a manuscript he smuggled from Moscow, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. [1] Some claim that he presented the manuscript to Hitler, who saw in it a blueprint to total power.
Despite some Jewish ancestry, Rosenberg gained access to the Thule Society by showing the Protocols to Rudolf Hess and to Dietrich Eckart, who became wildly excited on reading it. Very soon the Protocols viewed its first German edition. The book was given away at no cost and widely distributed. French, Polish, and British editions appeared. Then it was published also in America, in Italy, and in Hungary.
In 1930 Rosenberg reached a high point in his career as a Nazi ideologue with the publication of his most important work, The Myth of the 20th Century. According to a review of that time, it was, “with Hitler’s Mein Kampf, the most important work on National Socialism.” The book eventually became a best seller, and sold more than one million copies.
During World War II, Rosenberg led an art-looting staff which carried off to Germany more than 21,000 carloads of stolen paintings, rare books, sculptures, and jewelry. Much of this loot found its way into the private collections of Reichmarshall Herman Göering. Rosenberg repudiated Christianity completely. Instead, he and other Nazi leaders wanted to set up a pagan cult of “blood, race, and soil.” They would go back to the dark ritual of dramatic rites of their ancestors.
The New Pagans resurrected Odin, Thor, and the old gods of primitive Teutons before Christ’s time. Instead of the Old Testament they adopted Nordic sagas and fairy tales. They set up a new trinity for worship—bravery, loyalty, and physical force. They even created a hymn for the new German Faith Movement:
The time of the Cross has gone now,
The Sun-wheel shall arise,
And so, with God, we shall be free at last
And give our people their honor back.
Though Hitler did not openly supported the new paganism, he was not opposed to its ideas. In 1937, he awarded the National Prize, Germany’s version of the Nobel Prize, to Alfred Rosenberg, maximum foe of Christianity and leader of the Neo-Pagans. Rosenberg, the White Russian turned into Nazi philosopher, wanted a return to the old Teutonic religion of fire, sword, and swastika.
