Otto Wilhelm Rahn (February 18, 1904?March 13, 1939) was a German medievalist and a Obersturmf?hrer 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 Baron Von Gall to study the Albigensian (Catharism) movement, and the massacre that occurred at Monts?gur. Rahn is quoted as saying that "It was a subject that completely captivated me''".
WorkIn 1931 he traveled to the Pyrenees region of southern France where he conducted most of his research. Aided by Antonin Gadal, Rahn claimed that there was a direct link between Wolfram Von Eschenbach's Parzival and the Cathar Grail mystery. He believed, that the Cathars held the answer to this sacred mystery and that the keys to unlock their secrets lay somewhere beneath the mountain pog where the fortress of Monts?gur still stands, the last Cathar fortress to fall during the Albigensian Crusade.
Rahn believed it was possible to trace the Cathars, who guarded the Holy Grail in their castle at Montsegur, back to Druids who converted to Gnostic Manichaeism. The Druids in Britain were forerunners of the Celtic Christian Church. He saw that the culture of the medieval Cathar stronghold of Languedoc bore strong a resemblance to the ancient Druids. Their priests were akin to the Cathar Parfaits. The Cathar secret wisdom being preserved by the later Troubadours, the travelling poets and singers of the medieval courts of France-M. Sabeheddin, [Countermedia][1].
The SS and deathRahn wrote two books linking Monts?gur and Cathars with the Holy Grail: Kreuzzug gegen den Gral ("Crusade Against the Grail") in 1933 and Luzifers Hofgesind ("Lucifer's Court") in 1937. After the publication of his first book, Kreuzzug gegen den Gral, Rahn's work came to the attention of Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS who was fascinated by the occult.
Rahn joined his staff as a junior NCO and became a full member of the SS in 1936. Openly homosexual, he was assigned guard duty at the Dachau concentration camp in 1937 as punishment for a drunken homosexual scrape[1]. He resigned from the SS the following year. He wrote "There is much sorrow in my country. Impossible for a tolerant, liberal man like me to live in the nation that my native country has become." On March 13, 1939 nearly on the anniversary of the fall of Monts?gur, he was found frozen to death on a mountainside near S?ll (Kufstein, Tyrol) in Austria. His death was officially ruled suicide.
LegacyOtto Rahn is considered by some to be the inspiration behind the Indiana Jones movie[2] Raiders of the Lost Ark, although George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have never mentioned anything about him being an inspiration to their character. Nazi interest in the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail coincided with the life of this German archaeologist and researcher. Otto Rahn has been the object of many rumors and strange stories including that his death had been faked although all such rumors and stories have been proven false.[2]
Works
* Kreuzzug gegen den Gral. Die Geschichte der Albigenser (Broschiert) (In German), 1934, ISBN 3934291279; ISBN 978-3934291270.
* Croisade contre le Graal: Grandeur et Chute des Albigeois (Broch?) (French Translation), 1934, ISBN 2867141842; ISBN 978-2867141843.
* Crusade Against the Grail: The Struggle between the Cathars, the Templars, and the Church of Rome (First English Translation by Christopher Jones), 1934/2006, ISBN 1594771359; ISBN 978-1594771354.
* Luzifers Hofgesind, eine Reise zu den guten Geistern Europas (Rahn's book on Luciferism), 1937, ISBN 3934291198; ISBN 978-3934291195.
Notes1. ^ Preston, John. "The original Indiana Jones: Otto Rahn and the temple of doom", telegraph.co.uk, Telegraph Media Group Limited, 2008-05-22. Retrieved on 2008-05-25. "What would have been far more of a problem to Himmler was that Rahn was openly homosexual. In 1937, Rahn was punished for a drunken homosexual scrape by being assigned to a three-month tour of duty as a guard at Dachau concentration camp"
2. ^ Preston, John. "The original Indiana Jones: Otto Rahn and the temple of doom", telegraph.co.uk, Telegraph Media Group Limited, 2008-05-22. Retrieved on 2008-05-25. "As Indiana Jones returns to our screens, John Preston looks at the Nazi archaeologist who inspired Spielberg's hero"
References- Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. 1985. The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany, 1890-1935; p.188-189
- Otto Rahn and the Quest for the Holy Grail
- Sabeheddin, M. "Otto Rahn & the Quest for the Holy Grail (New Dawn No. 43)", New Dawn Magazine, New Dawn International News Service, July-August 1997.
- Biography at Jones' Celtic Encyclopedia
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