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Richard Stanley

The author of The Secret Glory film about Otto Rahn.
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Otto Rahn Memorial Website interview with Jeanne D'Août, the Author of White Lie

Hi, Jeanne! 
I congratulate you on the release of your book White Lie. This is a great event for all who are familiar with the work, searching and life of Otto Wilhelm Rahn. When did you first hear of him?

Jeanne:
The first time I heard of Otto Rahn was probably during my research of the history of Montségur and the Cathars in connection with Grail lore. I never studied the man himself and only knew what most people know; that he researched Grail lore, visited Montségur and was working for Himmler as a relic hunter in a pre-war Germany. It wasn't until 2008 that a friend sent me "Crusade against the Grail" in English, followed by "Lucifer's Court" and Nigel Graddon's "Otto Rahn, Quest for the Holy Grail". I was thinking of writing a thriller book at that time about the 1st century, and the mysteries of the Languedoc. I had already done a lot of research for the book, but didn't get around to actually writing it, because the financial crisis had made me and my husband work 7 days a week to make a living. In 2011 I first had the chance to sit down properly and started writing in January. I would write almost 18 to 20 hours a day for several months and Otto slowly became one of the key players in the book.

Otto Rahn in SS uniform

Otto Rahn in SS uniform, perhaps in Wewelsburg. The photo is too imprecise to be sure that this is Otto, but Richard Stanley says it's him. 

White Lie by Jeanne D'Aout

The Secret of Otto Rahn - Relic Hunter

The nineteen thirties, Nazi Germany. Organisations like the Nordische Gesellschaft and the Thule Gesellschaft were researching the origin of the Germanic people, the Arian race. Obsessed with the ancient cultures which connected their ancestors, they searched all corners of the earth trying to find relics and remains of these old civilizations. Relic hunter Otto Rahn seached for the Grail treasure. Here, in Occitania.

Rahn visited Occitania many times and stayed for months at the time during 1929 - 1932. In '32 he leased a hotel called 'Les Maronniers' in Ussat-les-Bains. On the photo we see him entertaining his mother in the garden of the hotel. He is wearing a sweater which his mum nitted for him, showing the symbol of the Thule Gesell-schaft of which he was a member. When the hotel went bankrupt, he had to leave France.

Hans-Jürgen Lange

Hans-Jürgen Lange wurde am 22.11. 52 in Bad Sachsa/Südharz geboren. In Düsseldorf studierte er "Visuelle Kommunikation". Zahlreiche Reisen führten ihn nach Südost-Asien, Indien und Nepal.

Als Autor des Buches "Otto Rahn und die Suche nach dem Gral" hat Lange sich wohl am intensivsten mit Otto Rahn auseinander gesetzt. Er beriet Rüdiger Sünner zu dem Film "Schwarze Sonne", das britsche BBC drehte ein Interview mit ihm und der Filmemacher Richard Stanley dokumentierte sein biografisches Wissen zu Rahn in "The Secret Glory".

Отто Ран и Пиренейский Грааль

Поскольку о Граале говорится и пишется много, каждый ищет что-то значимое для себя. Самое загадочное здесь то, каким образом эта священная реликвия вообще оказалась связанной с альбигойцами? Ведь мы знаем так же и рассказ о том, что Иосиф Аримафейских лично отвез Чашу – если это была действительно чаша – в Англию, в Гластонбери…
(Кажется, что каждая страна по своему трактовала легенду о Граале, с учетом местных фольклорных особенностей и легенд... Проходя «сквозь» местную мифологию, эта легенда - и сам артефакт – обретали форму, в которой были наиболее приемлемы и священны в данной местности? В Англии, в Британии, где кельты и друиды почитали богиню Керрридвенн и ее священный котел – Грааль так же принял форму чаши. А в Пиренеях, где поклонялись Кибеле в пещерах и гротах, где находили метеориты, упавшие с неба, с их целительными свойствами – Грааль стал камнем, упавшим практически тоже с неба, из короны Люцифера. Не забудем, что легенды о Граале имеют больше литературное происхождение, скажем так, а не фольклорное.)

Отто Ран в Википедии

Отто Вильгельм Ран (нем. Otto Wilhelm Rahn (18 февраля 1904, Михельштадт — 13 или 14 марта 1939, гора Куфштайн близ городка Куфштайн, Тирольские Альпы, Австрия) — немецкий писатель и исследователь, археолог-любитель, сотрудник Аненербе, оберштурмфюрер СС.

Otto Rahn in Wikipedia

Otto Wilhelm Rahn (February 18, 1904—March 13, 1939) was a German medievalist and a Obersturmführer (First Lieutenant) of the SS, born in Michelstadt, Germany.

Speculation still swirls around Otto Rahn and his research. From an early age, he became interested in the legends of Parsifal, Holy Grail, Lohengrin, and the Nibelungenlied. While attending the University of Giessen he was inspired by his professor, the Baron von Gall, to study the Albigensian (Catharism) movement, and the massacre that occurred at Montségur. Rahn is quoted as saying that "It was a subject that completely captivated me''".
Work

Dust Devil - The Final Cut, DVD (The Secret Glory included)

The Secret Glory film is inside
DISC THREE: The Secret Glory
 The third disc in this set contains The Secret Glory, which is Richard Stanley's 2001 documentary that details SS Officer Otto Rahn's bizarre quest to find the Holy Grail. With a ninety minute running time, this feature length documentary proves to be a fascinating look into a part of the Second World War that isn't really touched on much in the history books or the standard History Channel style documentaries. It begins with Stanley's narration explaining how Lucifer was cast out of Heaven, then the origins of the Holy Grail. We get some history of the artifact that explains its significance and from there we learn about how the Nazi's came to be interested in finding the grail, specifically how Otto Rahn obsessed over it.

Richard Stanley

Richard Stanley is the award-winning South African-born filmmaker, who made a name of himself with his first feature film, the scifi-movie Hardware. A low budjet movie about a mad-dog android loose in an apartment was released in 1990. Critics slammed it as a Terminator rip-off, yet the film became a financial success. The 1,5 million dollar budjet was paid back quite handsomely and continuation was imminent.

In 1992, Stanley followed Hardware with Dust Devil, a story based on the myth of a Namibian serial killer. A fallout with the distributors led to the recutting of the US version, while the bankruptcy of the British-based production company Palace Pictures temporarily shut the postproduction down in Europe and the film remained mauled or unfinished, depending how you look at it. Finally Stanley himself managed to finance a new, restored print from the original negative, which has later gained a cult following similar to Hardware.

About The Secret Glory film

The Secret Glory< has been released as a part of Subversive Cinema's Dust Devil box-set.
The Secret Glory tells the story of Otto Rahn (1904-1939), who worked in Ahnenerbe (Ancestral Heritage Society), a Schutz-Staffel division in the Nazi Germany. Rahn was convinced he knew where to find the Holy Grail and after being nominated an SS officer, he finally had the resources to pursue it.
"What [Rahn] discovered remains as mysterious as the stories surrounding his untimely death in 1939, but with rare archival footage, old letters and photographs Stanley manages to conjure up the vision of a grand quest, which began in the 13th century and hasn't lost its alluring power until today." [Taken from the Oldenburg Film Festival website.]