Scientific neo‐paganism and the extreme right then and today: From Ludendorff ‘sGotterkenntnisto Sigrid Hunke'sEuropas Eigene religion

During the Weimar Republic, flourishing new religions were harnessed to usher in the cultural revolution from the right that was soon dominated by the Nazis. J. William Hauer's Deutsche Glaubensbewegung, an umbrella group for numerous new religions whose teachings ranged from versions of Hinduism to Nordic Neo‐Paganism, all collaborated, at some point, with Hitler and his party. This paper shows the continuity of core ideas from Mathilde Ludendorff's Gotterkenntnis to Hauer's Glaubensbewegung and, importantly, Sigrid Hunke's Unitarier. It shows, further, the close connections between these forms of neo‐paganism and the present‐day European New Right. The paradoxical co‐occurrence in fascism of a religious populism and a meta‐political elitism, philosophical vitalism, and dreams of national or European rebirth has its roots in these French and German forms of neo‐paganism.