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Some
facts about the life and career of Carl (Karl) Loog
Little is known about Carl Loog, who called himself Karl Loog until 1930. According to the edition-1916 of the Rangliste
der höheren Reichs-Post- und Telegraphenbeamten, he was born in
1875. In 1895, in Kolberg, he began to work in telegraphy. In 1898, he
passed his first examen for the job of Postpraktikant, a job he
got in 1901. In 1905, he became Ober-Postpraktikant; in 1914 Inspektor. The Berliner Adressbuch shows
that from 1916 to 1936, he lived in Berlin with short intervals. Between
1916 and 1931, he lived in the Berlinerstraße 10 (Berlin-Wilmersdorf);
in 1934 and 1935, he lived in Berlin-Nikolassee (Von Lüdendorfstraße
32-34). Until 1920, he worked as a Telegraph
Inspektor. In 1921, he became Telegraph
Direktor was mentioned (this function is also mentioned on page 128
in Mysterien von Sonne und Seele [dr. H.-H. Kritzinger, Berlin,
1922, written in 1921]). In the issue of March 1, 1922 of the Verzeichnis
der höheren Beamten der Reichs-Post und Telegraphenverwaltung, he
was listed as a Postrat.
Since this function was also mentioned in the article Prophezeiungen - Eine
Erwiderung von Postrat C. Loog, published in the January
issue of 1922 of the monthly Psychische Studien, one might
conclude that Loog started to work as a Postrat by the end of
1921. In 1928, Loog started to work at the Reichspostzentralamt.
In the issue of March 1942 of the Verzeichnis der
höheren Beamten der Deutschen Reichspost - nach dem Stand vom 15.
Februar 1942, the rank of Postrat was mentioned and the Reichspostzentralamt.
The title page of the copy of Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus which
is part of the collection Hitler Personal Library of the Brown
University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA, contains the handwritten note Oberpostrat
in telegr. technischen Reichspostministeriums Berlin.
On September 15, 1936, Loog retired. In 1938, he lived in Bad
Schwartau; from 1939, he lived in Lunenburg. His name is still mentioned
in the edition-1942 (February 15) of the Verzeichnis der höheren Beamten der
Deutschen Reichspost, the last edition in World War II of this
register, which might mean that Loog was alive in at least the beginning
of 1942. In the Verzeichnis der höheren Beamten der Deutschen
Bundespost (1956), the first post-war update of the Verzeichnis der
höheren Beamten der Deutschen Reichspost, Loog's name is no longer
mentioned. On
the pages 158 and 159 of Nostradamus - der Prophet der Weltgeschichte
(Berlin, 1953) dr. phil. Alexander Max Centgraf, using the pseudonym
dr. N. Centurio, had written that Loog since a considerable time had
taken the great secret of Nostradamus with him into his grave.
Unfortunately, Centgraf did not mention the date of Loog's decease. This
means that Loog died between 1942 and 1953. According to dr. Patrice
Guinard, a French Century-scholar, Loog died in 1945, but he does
not give the source of this information.
Two articles which Loog wrote about telegraphy are part of the collection of the Deutsche
Nationalbibliothek: the 12 page-article Pufferbetrieb, published in
Berlin in 1927 in Telegraphen- und Fernsprech-Technik and the
7-page article Die selbsttätige Regelung des Pufferbetriebes mittels
Relais-Stufenschaltung, published in Berlin in 1931, also in Telegraphen-
und Fernsprech-Technik.
In Germany, three patents of Loog are registered. The earliest patent,
dating from October 30, 1919 and registered as nr. 335608, is entitled Schaltung
für die Stromversorgung von Mikrophonstromkreisen aus dem
Starkstromnetz. This patent is also registered in France. A
second patent, dating from April 26, 1929 and registered as nr. 504120,
is entitled Schaltungsanordnung zur selbsttätigen Regelung des
Ladestromes einer Batterie, insbesondere für
Fernsprechstromversorgungsanlagen, mittels eines Differentialrelais,
dessen Wicklungen in die Lade- und Entladeleitung geschaltet sind. This
patent is also registered in Belgium and France. A third patent, dating
from January 29, 1930 and registered as nr. 514898, with an addition,
registered as nr. 543648, is entitled Schaltungsanordnung für die
Stromversorgung von Fernsprechanlagen mit selbsttätiger Regelung des
Pufferstromes. This patent is also registered in Belgium, England,
France and The Netherlands.
 Die
Weissagungen des Nostradamus (1921 [1920])
On Nostradamus, Loog wrote one book: Die Weissagugen des
Nostradamus: erstmalige Auffindung des
Chiffreschlüssels und Enthüllung der Prophezeiungen über Europas
Zukunft und Frankreichs Glück und Niedergang, 1555-2200, using the C as the initial of his first name, as in the article,
published in Psychische Studien. Die Weissagungen des
Nostradamus was published in 1921 in Pfullingen in Württemberg by
Johannes Baum publishers, a company which was specialized in publishing
occult literature. In Die Weissagungen des
Nostradamus,
which was finished in the course of 1920, Loog had arranged a number of
quatrains by means of a key he derived from a number of Latin
lines in the Letters which accompany the Centuries. Basing himself upon
these quatrains, he made statements about the past, the present and the
future of Europe until 2200. In Magische Kräfte -
Geheimnisse der menschlichen Seele, dr. Hans-Hermann Kritzinger, in
the 1920's a prominent person
in the paranormal field, who in 1922 was the editor of Psychische Studien,
wrote that it was during World War I that Loog derived the key from the
Preface and the Epistle. In Das magische Quadrat des Nostradamus,
Karl Drude, who after World War II elaborated Loog's ideas, quoted a
remark by Loog which shows that he derived the key near the end of World
War I.[1]
Loog's aim of Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus was, as
can be read in the epilogue to its fourth edition, to (a) draw attention
to the "peculiar phenomenon of clairvoyance", (b) to produce
evidence of the existence of clairvoyance and (c) to draw the attention
of his readers to things which he, in his hobbyist study of the
Provençal seer, considered to be peculiar and interesting.
The source text which Loog used while writing Die Weissagungen
des Nostradamus was Le Pelletier's Les Oracles de Michel de
Nostredame (Paris, 1867). From this work, he copied a number of
links, such as the link of quatrain 01-35 to the decease in 1559 of
Henry II and the link of quatrain 09-20 to the arrest in 1791 of Louis
XVI.
In 1921,
Die Weissagungen
des Nostradamus had five editions, in 1922 three more were
published. In 1931, the price of the the eighth edition was 1.80 Mark.
The first edition contained an epilogue, written by Johannes Baum
publishers, in which was noted that on October 20, 1920, Loog
confidentially handed over the key word he used. From the fourth edition, an
epilogue was included, dating from October 1921, in which Loog explained
some elements of his cipher key and defended himself against critics. In
a more extensive version, this epilogue was published in the January
issue of volume 1922 of the monthly
Psychische Studien – Monatliche Zeitschrift vorzüglich der
Untersuchung der wenig gekannten Phänomene des Seelenlebens gewidmet.
It was entitled: Prophezeiungen - eine Erwiderung von Postrat C. Loog. This reply
made clear that Loog addressed directing himself to notably count Carl Ludwig
Friedrich Otto Von Klinckowstroem, whose criticism on his code key was
published on the pages 580/585 of the October issue of volume 1921 of Psychische Studien,
entitled Prophezeiungen - Eine kritische Betrachtung. Von
Klinckowstroem had doubts about Loog's code key, a.o. because Loog,
according to him, not only used the 942 genuine Century-quatrains
when deriving the code key, but also the 27
"leftover-quatrains" which, according to Von Klinckowstroem,
most likely were not genuine. In his reply, Loog emphasized that he only
used the 942 genuine quatrains. In the January issue of volume 1922,
Loog's reply was followed by Von Klinckowstroem's reaction it; he
remained doubtful.
A
review in 1922
In 1922, the Theosophisch-Okkulte Bücherschau
published a review of Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus. A
quote from this review shows that Loog's comment upon the Centuries in
connection with Germany's situation after World War I gave him hope.
According to the reviewer, Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus
showed that the Frenchman Nostradamus had predicted the
downfall of the League of
Nations and the Versailles Treaty and the foundation of a
Great-German empire. The quote also illustrates
that in 1922, both in Germany and abroad, the contents of Die Weissagungen des
Nostradamus were quite sensational.
The original text of this quote read as follows: Wie
zu erwarten, hat Loogs neues Nostradamus-Werk in und außer Deutschland
größtes Aufsehen erregt, denn es ist ja der Franzose, der u. a. den
Bruch des Völkerbundes, die Vernichtung des Versailler Vertrages und
den Aufstieg Groß-Deutschlands prophezeit.
A
review in 1927
Von
Klinckowstroem, who in 1921/22 in Psychische Studien discussed
with Loog about Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus, discussed Die
Weissagungen des Nostradamus once again in the section Originalarbeiten
in volume II of the Zeitschrift für kritischen Okkultismus und
Grenzfragen des Seelenlebens (p.97-104). And once again, Von
Klinckowstroem was not convinced that Loog had found the key with which
the Centuries could be deciphered. Von Klinckowstroem wrote that
Loog unveiled some elements of his key, but not the key itself, which
made it impossible for others to apply this key.
He endorsed the critic of Johann Illig in Historische Prophezeiungen (Pfullingen
in Württemberg, 1922, p. 68) that Loog had not been able to break
through the gloomy nature of the Centuries. Closing, he noted
that if Nostradamus while writing the Centuries used the key
which Loog had derived from them, this would imply that the text of all
quatrains as well as the text of the Preface to Cesar and the Epistle to
Henry II had to have been conceived in 1555. This, according to Von
Klinckowstroem, was not the case. The Epistle to Henry II was written on
March 14, 1557, a date, mentioned in the first half of the Epistle.
Various early editions of the Centuries had different contents.
The 1850-Bareste-edition contained four centuries (century 04 running
from quatrain 04-01 to 04-53). A 1590-Antwerp-edition however, which was
supposed to be a reprint of a 1555-Avignon-edition, contained seven
centuries (century 07 running from quatrain 07-01 to 07-35). The
centuries 08, 09 and 10 were only available in editions which were
printed in 1568 or later. In the eyes of Von Klinckowstroem, the value
of Loog's key depended on the number of quatrains he had used. Von
Klinckowstroem repeated his critic in Psychische Studien that
Loog's key, because of a wrong number of quatrains, could not be used to
decipher the Centuries.
Die
Weisssagungen des Nostradamus as a proof of the clairvoyance of
Nostradamus (1931)
In 1931, in the
series Die okkulte Welt, published by the Johannes Baum Verlag in
Pfullingen in Württemberg, volume 187 was published, entitled Nostradamus
und das zweite Gesicht, written by Prof. d. Dr. E. Dennert
(1861-1942), nature scientist, philosopher and founder and chairman of
the Keplerbund. In a time in
which according to Dennert the interest in the occult increased and in
which in several countries parapsychological research was developed, he
asked if one could find out if Nostradamus, who often was ridiculized,
yes/no had the gift of clairvoyance. In Nostradamus und das zweite
Gesicht, Dennert discussed a number of Century-comments,
notably Loog's Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus. For Dennert,
this book was interesting, since Loog by means of a cipher key (which
Dennert extensively discussed) had arranged the quatrains in order of
fulfillment. Regarding Loog's comments in connection with the future,
Dennert wrote that the quatrains were that gloomy that they don't give
concrete information which leads to certainty. About Loog's comments in
connection with events in the past, Dennert wrote that they irrevocably
proved that Nostradamus described events in his quatrains which occurred
in the years between 1555 and 1920. This brought him to the conclusion
that the gift of clairvoyance is a real thing, which shows that man is
more than a collection of atoms and that there is a clarity which raises
above materialism, which renders the beauty of the material world and
the depth of scientific knowledge pale.
Loog's
ongoing interest in the Centuries
From a number of books and magazines, it becomes clear that
until at least 1940, Loog kept on studying the Centuries and
wrote or spoke in public about his findings. 1922
[1921]: rumours about a new Century-comment by Loog
In Mysterien von Sonne und Seele
(Berlin, 1922 [1921]), Kritzinger
made some remarks which show that he and Loog heavily exchanged views
about Nostradamus and the compilation of the Centuries and that
he was willing to publish a new Century-comment, written by Loog.
As far as known, this plan has not been realized.[2]
1922:
lecture Die Entschlüsselung der Prophezeiungen des Nostradamus
The pages 169 and
170 of the March-issue of volume 1922 of Psychische Studien
contain a review of a lecture which Loog held for the Berliner Psychische-Studien-Gesellschaft
on January 23, 1922.
This lecture, entitled Die Entschlüsselung der Prophezeiungen des Nostradamus,
was given in the Guttmann-room, Bülowstraße 104 in Berlin, the
permanent location where the Psychische-Studien-Gesellschaft held
her meetings.
The audience was given the opportunity to debate.
After a brief discussion of the contents of Die Weissagungen
des Nostradamus, Loog discussed his polemics with Von Klinckowstroem
which was published in Psychische Studien.
Fascinating political statements of Loog in connection with the actual
political situation of those days led, according to the anonymous reporter, to the
wish that he would publish more about his efforts. Loog told that more
could be expected within a couple of years. Unfortunately, the reporter
did not describe the nature of Loog´s political statements. In Die
Weissagungen des Nostradamus, Loog wrote about the political
circumstances in Germany after World War I a.o. that it was predicted in
quatrain 10-46 that on a certain moment, Germany would no longer be a
republic, but a monarch would rise and perhaps an emperor. Germany would
also break the Versailles Treaty, which Loog considered to be most
humiliating for Germany. Writing about the Versailles Treaty, Loog saw a
repeat of the circumstances which followed the Westphalia Treaty in
1648. As a result of that Treaty, Germany's prosperity came to an end
and it took Germany almost 200 years to recover. Counting from 1919, the
year in which the Versailles Treaty took effect, Germany again would
need about 200 years to become once again a leading power. England's
decline would begin in 1939. The next World War would begin around 2100,
with Germany and France fighting each other.
1939:
a finished manuscript
In World War II, Kritzinger became involved in the
compilation of national-socialist propaganda, based upon the Centuries
and/or Century-comments. In 1961, he told the British researcher Ellic Howe that Loog gave him a manuscript in December 1939; Loog had
made a new translation of the Centuries and had given new
comments. Kritzinger said that he did not give this manuscript to the
Ministry of Propaganda; he considered it not suited for psychological warfare. It is
not clear what he did with it in later years.[3] 1940:
a reply in Der Reichswart: Prophete rechts - Prophete links -
war Nostradamus wirklich Scharlatan und Betrüger?
By the end of 1940, the national-socialist weekly Der
Reichswart published a letter on Nostradamus and the Centuries,
written by Loog. To this letter, the title Prophete rechts - Prophete links - war Nostradamus wirklich
Scharlaten und Betrüger? was given. On this website, it is entitled
Nostradamus Scharlatan? In this letter, Loog replied to
a sceptical article about Nostradamus and the Centuries,
previously published in Der Reichswart. By means of his comments
in Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus, about which Loog wrote that
it was sold out for years, he wanted to prove that Nostradamus was right
by discussing a number of quatrains which, according to him, were
fulfilled in previous years until 1940.[4]
Loog did not refer to other publications he wrote. This indicates that
between 1921 and 1940, no book by Loog about Nostradamus was published
and that the manuscript he gave to Kritzinger was not published.
The
fortune of Loog's 1921-comment on quatrain 03-57
In the study of the fortune in
World War II of the Centuries
and Century-comments, Loog's comment on quatrain 03-57 plays an
important part. In Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus, Loog linked
the beginning of the time span of 290 years of this quatrain to 1649,
the year in which the British king Charles I was beheaded. Loog silently
had copied this link from Merckwürdige
Fata Der Groß-Britanischen Crone Sint der Zeit da die Religion
reformiret worden (D.D. = Dietrich von Dobbeler, Hambourg, 1714). For 1939, the
year in which the time span of quatrain 03-57 would come to an end, Loog
foresaw the last and most severe crisis in England in a series of seven,
counting from the beheading of Charles I, and at the same time a crisis
in Poland. In Mysterien von Sonne und Seele, Kritzinger quoted
this comment.
After the German invasion in Poland in September 1939, this comment was
taken out of its context and linked to this invasion. For dr. Paul
Joseph Goebbels, the German Propaganda minister, this link was reason to
lose himself in the Centuries. He decided to use them for
psychological warfare, in order to exploit the omnipresent superstition.[5] Nostradamus
Scharlatan? shows that Loog had the opinion that the
events in Poland in September 1939 matched with what he wrote in Die
Weissagungen des Nostradamus about quatrain 03-57 in connection with
1939.
Political
ideas
From Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus it becomes clear that Loog's
political ideas were nationalistic. He turned himself against the use of
the Centuries for political purposes.[6]
According to Kritzinger, who in December 1939 asked Loog if he
wanted to adapt the Centuries to psychological warfare, Loog
definitely did
not want to become involved in this.[7]
As far as I am concerned, Loog's Nostradamus Scharlatan? is not written for propaganda reasons. It
is a letter, which is the result of Loog's ongoing research. Nostradamus
Scharlatan? shows that in 1940, Loog was convinced that the Centuries
would be fulfilled, that he had derived a key which enabled him to comment
them and that the major part of his comment in Die Weissagungen des
Nostradamus fitted to what happened in the past years.
Loog was not a member of the NSDAP. His name does not occur in
the NSDAP-membership files which are preserved in the Bundesarchiv.
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Karl Drude |
The
fortune of Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus
The eighth
edition of Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus was the last edition
which was published before the outbreak of World War II. In 1940, the fifth and the sixth
edition were reprinted, apparently without informing Loog, who by the
end of 1940 in Nostradamus Scharlatan wrote that his book was
sold out for years.
in 1941, due
to the Aktion-Heß, a razzia among astrologers and occultists in
Germany, following the flight on May 10, 1941, of Rudolf Heß, Hitler's
deputy, to England, the Gestapo confiscated all astrological and occult
literature and ordered the publishers of these books to close their
office. Thus, Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus was taken out of
print and Johannes Baum publishers had to cease their activities.
After World War II,
Johannes Baum publishers resumed her activities, but Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus remained
unpublished.
The German Century-scholar Karl Drude, who as a
soldier got wounded in his knee in World War II, kept on studying Loog's hints about
the key with which the quatrains might be arranged in the proper order.
In 1962, Das magische Quadrat des Nostradamus was published in
Munich. In this book, Drude presented a magic square which contained a
continuous chain of the Latin lines in the Preface to Cesar and the
Epistle to Henry II, which he had arranged in a particular order. In 1963, Nostradamus - ein Leben in
der bedeutendsten Zeitwende des Abendlandes und seine Auferstehung
was published, also in Munich. In this book, Drude discussed a.o. the
life of Nostradamus and the fortune of the Centuries from the
beginning of their existence. In 1969, he wrote an extensive
introduction to the re-edition of the 1668-J.Ribou-edition of the Centuries.
Hitler
and Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus
In spring
1945, according to an article in the edition of February 7, 2004 of the
Dutch weekly De Groene Amsterdammer, written by Pieter van Os and
Sander Pleij, soldiers of the American 101st Airborne Division found in a salt
mine, close to Berchtesgaden, where Hitler had his headquarters, about
3.000 books which had been part of Hitler's library. It is almost
impossible to determine with absolute certainty which of these books he actually had read.
The books were
transported to the American Library of Congress. About 1200 of them contained Hitler's ex-libris. These books were grouped together in
one collection, the Third Reich Collection. The other books
became part of the general collection of the American Library of
Congress ore were sold, in case the library already possessed a copy.
At least two authors report that Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus was
one of the books of Hitler's book collection. One of these
authors was the German historian Michael Hesemann. In Hitlers Religion - die fatale
Heilslehre des Nationalsozialismus (Munich, 2004), he wrote that Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus
contained the prediction of the rise of Hitler, based
upon quatrain 03-58. In 2008 in New York, Hitler's
private library - the books that shaped his life (New York, 2008)
was published, written by the historian Timothy W. Ryback. Ryback had
made a list of the more than 16.000 books which Hitler possessed and
which were kept in several places. One of these books was Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus.
At present, the mentioned copy of this book is part of the collection of
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. According to Ryback, this book of 120 pages contained the
prediction that in 1939, a Second World War would begin. From the fact
that the pages which contained this prediction were uncut, Ryback
derived that Hitler had not read this prediction.
Hesemann's information about quatrain 03-58 is not reliable. In Die
Weissagungen des Nostradamus, Loog did not discuss this quatrain, he
even did not quote it, not even partially. The first Century-scholar
who linked quatrain 03-58 to the birth and rise of Hitler, was dr.
Bruno Winkler in Nostradamus und seine Prophezeiungen für das
zwanzigste Jahrhundert (Görlitz, 1939 [1938], p.37-38). Therefore,
the question rises from which publication Hesemann copied the link
between quatrain 03-58 and the rise of Hitler and attributed it to Loog.
Ryback's information is also not reliable. The Brown University owns a copy of
the fourth of the fifth edition of Die Weissagungen des
Nostradamus. Both editions count 138 pages
instead of 120, as Ryback writes. Further, Loog wrote about 1939 that in
that year a crisis of unknown nature, the last one in a series of seven,
would occur in England and at the same time a crisis (of unknown nature)
would occur in Poland. The next world war, counting from 1914, would
occur around 2100 AD. In Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus,
Loog wrote nothing about a world war which would begin in 1939. Perhaps
Ryback linked the crises which Loog discussed to the German invasion in
Poland. In that case, he did not verify enough the context of Loog's
comment. Besides, Ryback's information lacks relevancy, it only
contributes to the myth that Hitler was fascinated by the occult.
It is not for the first time that rumours about Hitler's interest in the
occult circulate, which at first sight seem to be quite plausible, but
later, after thorough investigation, are not tenable. In Nostradamus
- Der Prophet der Weltgeschichte (Berlin, 1953, p.79-80) the German Century-scholar
and former national-socialist propagandist dr. Alexander Max Centgraf
wrote, using the author's pseudonym Centurio, that Hitler probably knew
quatrain 03-58. When Centgraf in 1939 got a copy of a
1568-P.Rigaud-edition of the Centuries, the librarian who was
present at that time, said that this book had just been sent back from
the Reichskanzlei, that there was a page marker between the pages
58 and 59 and that quatrain 03-58 was marked. According to Nostradamus
- Prophetische Weltgeschichte (Centurio [Centgraf], Bietigheim,
1968, p.197-198), this was a red mark. On page 260 of Nostradamus -
Der Prophet der Weltgeschichte and page 262 of Nostradamus -
Prophetische Weltgeschichte, Centgraf wrote that the copy of the
1568-P.Rigaud-edition which he saw in the Staatsbibliothek Berlin
(catalogue number Na 7590), had disappeared. Centgraf's
reports can be refuted. The copy of the 1568-P.Rigaud-edition of the Centuries
to which he referred, is kept safe and sound in the Berliner
Staatsbibliothek, carrying the catalogue number Na 7590, and
quatrain 03-58 is not marked at all.
Acknowledgements
The author
expresses his gratitude to the Deutsche Post AG - Zentrale -
Corporate Real Estate (53250 Bonn) for photocopies of relevant pages
of the Rangliste der höheren Reichs-Post und Telegraphenbeamten (1916
and 1919), the Verzeichnis der höheren Beamten der Reichs-Post und
Telegraphenverwaltung (1922) and the Verzeichnis der
höheren Beamten der Deutschen Reichspost (1928, 1938, 1939 and
1942).
Articles on this
website about publications by Carl Loog
De Meern, the
Netherlands, October 2, 2006
T.W.M. van Berkel
updated on July 7, 2012
Notes
The titles, places and
year of issue of the mentioned authors are listed in the bibliography.
- Kritzinger-1922b, p.147;
Drude-1962, p.100. [text]
- Kritzinger-1922a,
p.127-128.
- Howe, p.223.
[text]
- In 1940, according to Willi A. Boelcke,
reprinted copies of the fifth edition of Die Weissagungen
des Nostradamus were available (Boelcke-1966, p.304). [text]
- Van Berkel: Quatrain
03-57 and Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus (C. Loog,
Pfullingen in Württenberg, 1921 [1920]). [text]
- Loog-1921, p.109. [text]
- Howe, p.223. [text]
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