Articles

As Indiana Jones returns to our screens, John Preston looks at the Nazi archaeologist who inspired Spielberg's hero, and finds a story more bizarre than anything the director could have dreamt of

 Very little is certain in the short life of Otto Rahn. But one of the few things one can with any confidence say about him is that he looked nothing like Harrison Ford. Yet Rahn, small and weasel-faced, with a hesitant, toothy smile and hair like a neatly contoured oil slick, undoubtedly served as inspiration for Ford's most famous role, Indiana Jones.

Like Jones, Rahn was an archaeologist, like him he fell foul of the Nazis and like him he was obsessed with finding the Holy Grail - the cup reputedly used to catch Christ's blood when he was crucified. But whereas Jones rode the Grail-train to box-office glory, Rahn's obsession ended up costing him his life.

WHEN URBAN VERLAG IN FREIBURG published the first edition of Crusade Against the Grail [Kreuzzug gegen den Gral] in 1933, the book was not an immediate bestseller. But its eloquence deeply moved those who read it. One so moved was Albert H. Rausch, the 1933 Georg Biichner prizewinner who published under the pseudonym Henry Benrath. Rausch wrote an introduction for the book called Kreuz und Gral [Cross and Grail], which eventually appeared in the Baseler Nachrichten later in the year.

 Per Aspera Ad Astra

 The Racist Left: Biological racism should be the most important part of any theory of identity. Races create cultures and traditions. Without race-specific world views there would be no tradition. Every tradition corresponds to the drive of a race soul to express and glorify itself. The foremost philosopher of National Socialism, Alfred Rosenberg (not a Jew!), realized this very well when he argued that "the character of today's world revolution lies in the awakening of the racial types." Racial war is an integral part of the natural process of selection and evolution. That some races are worth more than others is therefore obvious. Not too much value should be placed on the idea of a so-called "spiritual" race as an undiluted materialist outlook is the only outlook that accepts the reality of the present, the past and the future. A rock from Mars is worth more than a hundred books on transcending the differences in archetypes. This is not only true because there is not one ancient archetype at the root of the archetypes known today. The archetypes were always many, but only one archetype is worthy of worship.

Otto Rahn werd geboren in Michelstadt (Odenwald) op 18 februari 1904. Na zijn middelbare studies (en de eerste wereldoorlog) trekt hij naar de universiteit waar hij aanvankelijk rechten studeert. Maar al spoedig gaat zijn belangstelling uit naar de literatuur en laat hij zich inschrijven aan de faculteit der letteren in Heidelberg. Zijn droom is literair recensent te worden voor een krant of tijdschrift.

Als muziekliefhebber dweept hij met Wagner. Diens "Parsifal" brengt hem in contact met de graallegenden en hun Duitse auteur Wolfram von Eschenbach. Die studie zal hem nooit meer loslaten.