|
 Bibliographic
information
In
1939, Ludendorffs Verlag GmbH in Munich, the publisher of the Bund für deutsche Gotterkenntnis,
published the book Weissagungen, written by Hermann Rehwaldt
(1896-1972), one of their principal authors,
with the cooperation of one Hedwig Hentschen.[1]
Weissagungen contains tables and b/w illustrations. The first
edition consisted of 153 pages. The second edition, also published in 1939,
consisted of 188 pages. The total number of circulating copies of both
editions was 17.000. In connection
with this article, Rehwaldt's critic on Nostradamus has been studied as
published on the pages 100 - 106 in chapter 8 of the second edition of Weissagungen. On the cover of the second edition, a globe was
depicted, surrounded by the signs of the Zodiac, which each ruled an era
of 2100 years.[2]
In Weissagungen, Rehwaldt contested predictions in which the end
of the world was announced. In books like Das schleichende Gift - Der
Okkultismus, seine Lehre, Weltanschauung und Bekämpfung
(Munich,
1935) and Die kommende Religion - Okkultwahn als Nachfolger des
Christentums (Munich, 1936), he fulminated against occultism. His
attacks occultism and doom prophecies followed naturally from conspiracy
theories, formulated by Mathilde Ludendorff (1877-1966), the leading
force behind the Bund für
deutsche Gotterkenntnis, who stated that freemasons, the
International Communist Movement, the Jesuits, the Jews and the
Roman-Catholic Church joined hands on an international level in
order to rule the world and to bring ruin upon Germany and other
countries.
Erich
and Mathilde Ludendorff and the Bund für deutsche Gotterkenntnis
Mathilde Ludendorff was the
wife of Erich Ludendorff (1865-1937), who in World War I was the highest
general in the German army. In November 1923, Ludendorff and Hitler
tried to remove the government of the Weimar-Republic (the
Beerkellerputsch). This attempt to seize power failed. Hitler was
sentenced to imprisonment. Ludendorff was acquitted, against his own
will, because of his merits during World War I. From 1924 to 1928, he
was a representative in the Reichstag of the Nationalsozialistische
Freiheitspartei.
In the first round of the presidential elections in 1925, Ludendorff
acquired only 1,1 percent of the votes. Hitler did not support him;
still in prison, he called upon his followers to vote for Hindenburg in
the second round. In
1928, Ludendorff broke with national-socialism, which he considered to
be one of the conspirative forces in the world. Meanwhile, he had become
the protector of the Tannenbergbund, a right-wing organization
which, due to the leadership of his wife Mathilde, increasingly
developed pagan ideas and all kinds of conspiracy theories about
international conspiracies against Germany. Although these kind of
theories also circulated among the national-socialists, they dissociated themselves
from the Ludendorff couple, since they considered their ideas to be too
radical and transcendent.
In 1933, the national-socialists forbade the Tannenbergbund as
well as the political-philosophical movement Deutschvolk. Shortly
before his death in 1937, Ludendorff, who until then rejected every kind
of rehabilitation by Hitler, got Hitler's approval to found a national
religious movement: the Bund für deutsche
Gotterkenntnis.
When World War II came to an end, the Bund für deutsche
Gotterkenntnis ceased to exist, but in 1951, it was founded again. In 1961,
the Bund became banned since she was considered to be hostile
towards the German state and a breeding ground for anti-Semitism. Due to
errors in the proceedings, this ban was lifted in 1977, but since
then, the Verfassungsschutz keeps an eye on the Bund.[3]
Dating
of Weissagungen
On page 105
of Weissagungen, Rehwaldt wrote that a number of
quatrains is linked to the World War and the succeeding years. With the
"World War", he meant World War I, the only recent event
discussed by Rehwaldt in connection with the Centuries.
The German army invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Shortly after,
Loogs comment in Die
Weissagungen des Nostradamus that in quatrain 03-57, Nostradamus
foresaw simultaneous crises in 1939 in England and Poland, was explained
as the fulfilment of quatrain 03-57 in the form of the German invasion
in Poland in September 1939.
Rehwaldt did not criticize Loog's link between quatrain 03-57 and crises in
England and Poland in 1939 and the link, later, of this quatrain to the
German invasion in Poland. He did, however, criticize Loog's link
between quatrain 07-35 to the fact that in 1574, Henry III resigned as a
king of Poland. This might mean that at the time Weissagungen was
completed, the German army not yet invaded Poland. Therefore, it is
assumed in this article that Rehwaldt completed Weissagungen
before September 1, 1939, the date on which the German army invaded
Poland.
Source
material
According to his
own statement, Rehwaldt has read Die
Weissagungen des Nostradamus: erstmalige Auffindung des Chiffreschlüssels
und Enthüllung der Prophezeiungen über Europas Zukunft und
Frankreichs Glück und Niedergang, 1555-2200 (C. Loog,
Pfullingen in Württemberg, 1921 [1920]) and Prophezeiungen
- Alter Aberglaube oder neuer Wahrheit? (dr. M. Kemmerich
Munich,
1911).[4]
Rehwaldt
versus the Centuries
Rehwaldt attacked Nostradamus,
the Centuries and Centurie-scholars with anti-Semitic statements, conspiracy theories, jeers and linguistic arguments. He
characterized the Centuries as a gloomy matter, written by a
half-Jewish French astrologer and quack, who pretended to be clairvoyant
and had a good feeling for business. To this statement, Rehwaldt added
that Nostradamus had a special friendship with "the austere
catholic and occult queen Catherine de' Medici", who had requested
him to explain the horoscopes of her four sons. Contemporaries of
Nostradamus, i.e. his fellow-citizens in Salon-de-Provence, held him for
an impostor as Rehwaldt did, who putted Nostradamus on a par with the
German Hanussen and the Italian Cagliostro, who both fooled their
contemporaries by pretending that they had occult gifts at their
disposal.[5]
According to Rehwaldt, Nostradamus was a prominent member of a
secret society, who in occult circles was considered to be one of the
greatest prophets and initiates. In order to make the clairvoyance of
Nostradamus acceptable, the network of helpers of secret societies
deliberately linked the decease in 1559 of the French king Henry II to
quatrain 01-35, while according to Rehwaldt there was not one single
clue that in this quatrain, the decease of Henry II was predicted.
Opposite to his assumption that the Centuries were published in
Nostradamus' lifetime and therefore did not contain predictions which
were composed next to the events which were described in them, Rehwaldt
stated that they were that gloomy that many people not know what to do
with them, except commentators like Kemmerich and Loog, who according to
him always found ways to link a quatrain to an event. Rehwaldt accused
them not to have translated the quatrains in an obvious way, but
attributed to Nostradamus neologisms and the use of anagrams in order to
force a link between a quatrain and an event. He contested the link by
Kemmerich and Loog of quatrain 01-35 to on the one hand the decease of
Henry II and on the other hand the end of the House of Valois. Further,
he contested Loog's link of quatrain 07-35 to the way in which in Poland
in the sixteenth century the succession to the throne was arranged and
his link of quatrain 09-20 to the flight in 1791 of the French king
Louis XVI and his arrest in Varennes. The reason why Rehwaldt has chosen
these three comments is that these were comments upon in his eyes famous
quatrains, in which Nostradamus predicted in the smallest detail.
Actually, Nostradamus instantly became famous due to quatrain 01-35.
Rehwaldt's criticism had to put an end to Nostradamus' reputation.
Quatrain
01-35
Rehwaldt contested the linking of quatrain 01-35 to the decease
of Henry II and the end of the House of Valois. According to him,
Kemmerich and Loog linked the fourth line of quatrain 01-35 to the end
of the House of Valois because of their translation of the word chasses in
this line in break. In the eyes of Rehwaldt, they made this
improbable translation because a translation into the more obvious word hunting-party
would not result in a link between quatrain 01-35 and an event.
Quatrain
07-35
Loog linked this quatrain to the coronation in 1573 of the Duke of
Anjou to king of Poland and the successive events, basing himself upon
an interpretation of the words La grande pesche in the first
line. According to Loog, Nostradamus made the word Pesche from
the Greek word pessikos (dice). By doing so,
Nostradamus was supposed to make an allusion to the way in which in
Poland the succession to the throne was arranged (elections, bribery).[6]
According to Rehwaldt, not a single word in quatrain 07-35 pointed
towards Poland or a kingship. He thought that a literal translation of
the text of this quatrain was impossible, since in modern French the
word Pesche is no longer present, but replaced by the word pêche
(fishery, fishing-tackle). the accent-circonflex above the
-e- indicates a contraction of the -e- and the -s- in pesche. A
translation of Pesche into fishery or fishing-tackle would not
result in linking quatrain 07-35 to an event, which for occultists like
in this case Loog was reason to drag in the phenomenon of word-creation
in order to link quatrain 07-35 to the events in Poland in 1573 and
onwards.
Quatrain
09-20
Loog had linked quatrain 09-20 to the flight in 1791 of the French
king Louis XVI to Varennes. According to hem, the French word Forest
in the first line of quatrain 09-20 was derived from the Latin word fores (door); the
word pars in the second line was an abbreviation of partes matrimonii (married
couple); the word vaultorte in the same line meant wrong
way and the word Herne was created from the word reine (queen);
the word moyne in the third line was derived from the Greek word monos (alone,
left alone); the word noir
in the same line a conversion of the word roi (king) and
the word Cap. in the fourth line an abbreviation of the House of Capet.[7]
According to Rehwaldt, Loog had adjusted his translation to the events
in 1791 he had in mind, by applying all kinds of findings (anagrams,
neologisms etc.) in order to prove that the old seer Nostradamus in the
case of this quatrain once again predicted even the smallest detail,
such as the grey cape which Louis XVI weared during his flight. A
alarming phenomenon, Rehwaldt joked, undoubtedly, the devoted occultists
would feel very uncomfortable.
Quatrain
03-01
Rehwaldt quoted Loog's translation of quatrain 03-01 and his comment
upon it. According to Loog, this quatrain undeniable deals with England
since the first line contains the word "Neptune". According to
Loog, England would be at the height of her power by the end of World
War I. He doubted, however, if the words Der rote Gegner wird vor
Furcht bleich werden wenn er das Weltmeer in Schrecken versetzt
would mean that the German social-democracy would be afraid for the
consequences of the submarine-war and the British blockade. In the eyes
of Rehwaldt, Loog's comment was strikingly simple.
Some
marginal notes to Rehwaldt's criticism
Rehwaldt is not the only one who characterized Nostradamus as an
impostor or a swindler and who criticized the links between a number of
quatrains and certain events. Contemporaries of Nostradamus such as Laurens
Videl, the author of Déclaration des abus ignorances et seditions
de Michel Nostradamus (Lyon, 1558 [1557]) not only accused him of
being an impostor, but also stated that he was deficient in astrological
skill. In 1863, the French Century-scholar Buget wrote that, as
far as he was concerned, not one word in quatrain 01-35 could be applied
to the decease of Henry II. Unlike the contents of this quatrain,
neither Henry II nor the Count of Montgomery, his opponent, used a lion
as an emblem and the helmet of Henry II was neither of gold nor gilded.[8] The
criticism of people like Buget and Videl deals with contents. The
criticism of Rehwaldt is founded upon the anti-Semitic idea that
Nostradamus was a half-Jew, which meant that he was an impostor and a
swindler. Pretending to be clairvoyant, this clever Jew published the
mysterious Centuries, a practical way to earn money. Rehwaldt's
anti-Semitic criticism is not valid. Someone's gift, integrity or talent
can not be jugded by means of race or religion. With such criticism, one
can not ascertain of the predictions in the Centuries will be
fulfilled or not.
According to Rehwaldt, Nostradamus was a prominent member of a
secret society and his friends did every possible thing to make him
famous. Rehwaldt did not mention the name of this secret society; in Weissagungen,
he launched a conspiracy theory without any proof.
Rehwaldt not only wanted to debunk the Centuries by categorizing
them as the product of an impostor, but also by describing the in his
eyes ridiculous daring exploits of Kemmerich and Loog to link quatrains
to events and to prove that Nostradamus predicted even the smallest
detail. In his eyes, their link between the fourth line of quatrain
01-35 and the end of the House of Valois was forced: they translated the
word chasses in this line into break instead of into hunting-party.
This argument does not make sense since the fourth line of quatrain
01-35 does not contain the word chasses, but the word classes. Kemmerich
copied the translation of the word classes into break from
the French Century-scholar Anatole le Pelletier, who referred to
the Greek word klasis (fracture, branching); Loog also wrote
about a break.[9]
Rehwaldt also contested Kemmerich's comment upon the prediction of
Nostradamus to Cathérine de' Medici dat three of her sons would become
a king. He wrote that Kemmerich - which he continously called a
professor although Kemmerich had a doctor's degree - committed himself
by writing that Nostradamus wisely not mentioned that the coronation of
the one brother would be preceded by the decease of the other brother;
Rehwaldt saw no reason to assume that Nostradamus had such a detailed
knowledge. In the eyes of Rehwaldt, this prediction differed from those
in the Centuries, since Nostradamus founded this prediction upon
horoscopes, while he wrote the Centuries under the pretence of
being clairvoyant.
Contrasts
In this article, it is assumed
that when Weissagungen was published in 1939, the German army not
yet invaded Poland. In other words: at the time of the publishing of Weissagungen,
there were no propagandistic Nostradamus-campaigns. Between these
Nostradamus-campaigns and the contents of Weissagungen in
connection with Nostradamus and the Centuries, there are a couple
of differences.
Rehwaldt's attack
on Nostradamus and the Centuries was not part of a crusade
against superstition, but part of a crusade against the international
networks of communists, freemasons, Jews and Roman-Catholics who wanted
to seize world-wide power. In November 1939, after the German invasion
in Poland and its link to quatrain 03-57, dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels, the
nazi-minister of Propaganda, developed the idea to used the Centuries
for psychological warfare. By doing so, he wanted to take advantage
of the superstition of his adversaries in order to demoralize them. The
gloomy words of the Centuries would enable the campaign-compilers
to explain them the way they wanted.
For the national-socialist campaign-compilers, the Jewish descent of
Nostradamus was no impediment in the use of the Centuries for
psychological warfare. In a note which most likely dates from June 1940,
dr. Werner Wilmanns, who in May 1940 asked the Swiss
astrologer/statistician Karl Ernst Krafft to write a
Nostradamusbrochure, wrote that dr. Heinrich Fesel, in charge of Amt VII
of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, thought it efficacious to use
the Centuries for psychological warfare and that Nostradamus at
most was a half-Jew.[10]
To a version of Krafft's brochure Nostradamus
sieht die Zukunft Europas, a couple of lines should be added in
which it would be mentioned that Nostradamus was a half-Jew. As far as
known, this version was not brought into circulation. However, in the
translations of
Nostradamus sieht die Zukunft Europas which in 1941 were brought
into circulation, nothing was written about the Jewish descent of
Nostradamus.
In the translations of the German source text of a Nostradamusbrochure,
written in November-December 1939 by Hans Wolfgang Herwarth von
Bittenfeld, Leopold Gutterer and prof. dr. Karl Bömer, Nostradamus is
described as a Frenchman, as in dr. Alexander Max Centgraf's German
source text of Voorspellingen die
uitgekomen zijn... and the Nostradamusbrochures in the series Informations-Schriften.
De Meern, the
Netherlands, July 22, 2007
T.W.M. van Berkel
Notes
-
In
World War II, Rehwaldt not only used his own name as an author's
name, but also the pseudonym H. Janow. After World War II, he used
the pseudonym German Pinning. In 1999 and 2000, a number of his
publications, dating from 1938-1941, were reprinted, carrying the name German Pinning
as the author's name. [text]
-
The
Precessional or Astrological Ages last about 2150 years. Their
construction is based upon the "precession of the
Equinox", the backward movement in the Sidereal Zodiac of the
Vernal Equinox. In this construction, next to the Age of Pisces,
running until approximately 2100 AD, comes the Age of Aquarius. On the cover of Weissagungen, the
ages are moving forward in the Zodiac. Next to the Age of Pisces, running from
1950 BC to 150 AD, comes the Age of Aries, running from 150 AD to
2250 AD. [text]
-
See:
Wikipedia.
[text]
-
In the studies on this website, the sixth edition
of Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus is used.
Prophezeiungen - Alter Aberglaube oder neue
Wahrheit? had four editions. The first edition was published in
1911; the second in 1916; the third in 1924 and the fourth in 1925.
Rehwaldt did not specify which edition he used, he did mention,
however, that Kemmerich cautiously did not discuss World War I. This
means that Rehwaldt used the first edition of Prophezeiungen -
Alter Aberglaube oder neue Wahrheit; to the
second edition, Kemmerich had added the chapter Der Weltkrieg in
der Prophetie, which was also part of the third and
the fourth edition.
[text]
-
Hanussen:
Erik Jan Hanussen, pseudonym of Hermann Chajm Steinschneider, born
in Vienna on June 2, 1889, a swindler who later in his life
pretended to be gifted occultly. Although his predictions were not
fulfilled, he became well-known. He published his own weekly, the Hanussen
bonte Wochenschau, hided his jewish descent, supported
national-socialism and acquired the friendship of prominent nazi's
because of e.g. financing their gamble debts. On April 8, 1933, his
body was found in a wood in the south of Berlin. Recent
investigations pointed out that in the night of March 24, 1933, he
was murdered in a Berlin police station by three members of the SA
(source: Wikipedia).
Cagliostro: Alessandro Graf von Cagliostro, pseudonym of Giuseppe
Balsamo (1743-1795), an Italian adventurer who occupied himself with
the occult, pretended to be an alchemist and made a living with the
selling in Europe of cosmetics and elixers and with practicing
medicine. In 1776, he was initiated in a freemasonry lodge in London.
Later, he founded Egyptian freemasonry lodges in England, Germany,
Russia and France. When in 1791 he tried to found a freemasonry
lodge in Rome, he was arrested by the Italian Inquisition. During
their interrogations, he raised the impression that freemasons were
united in an international group of conspirators who wanted to
remove the governments throughout the world. In later years, this
conspiracy theory became included in antisemitic propaganda (source: Wikipedia).
[text]
-
Loog-1921
(1920), p.14-15. [text]
-
Loog-1921
(1920), p.31-32. [text]
-
Buget, 1863, p.455, in Leoni,
p.576. [text]
-
Kemmerich-1926,
p.355-356; Le Pelletier, vol. I, p.72; Loog-1921 (1920), p.13.
Brind'Amour observed that in a small number of publications it reads
playes instead of classes; he wrote nothing about the
word chasses (Brind'Amour
1996 [1994], p.99). [text]
-
Maichle: Die
Nostradamus-Propaganda der Nazis, 1939-1942. [text]
|
