Nazi occultism

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First as tragedy

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Then as farce

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Nazi occultism, also known as Nazi esotericism, Nazi mysticism and esoteric Hitlerism, refers to any of a number of mystical and/or semi-religious ideas linking the ideology of the Hitler-era German Nazi Party or modern Neonazis with belief in the occult, paganism (especially Teutonic pagan revivalism), satanism, Wicca, Magick, and other esoteric religions and traditions. It is interconnected with Nazi archaeology, as well as field of ariosophy, which refers to mystical theories about an Aryan race not necessarily associated with Nazism.

Occultism is associated with a few figures in and around the Party, some with important roles such as Heinrich Himmler, others like Herman Wirth being more fleeting party members. Many were connected to the Waffen-SS and its suborganisations such as the racist think-tank Ahnenerbe. Hitler occasionally mentioned the occult and paganism, but his spiritual beliefs despite being the subject of endless debate don't actually seem to have been very strong.

Most prominent Nazis, either back in the Third Reich or since, didn't believe in any particularly strange religious or occult ideas; most of Hitler's circle were more or less lapsed or unobservant Christians (see Positive Christianity).

The idea that the Nazis were all master black magicians looking for the Holy Grail has become a popular trope in fiction but is itself pseudohistorical nonsense. Similarly, there have been various people proposing the idea that Hitler or other Nazis were possessed by demons, in league with Satan, the actual literal Antichrist, etc.

Aside from the Nazis' own occasional writings, the first proponent of a Nazi occult link was the British folklorist and eccentric Lewis Spence. He associated the Teutonic with malign influences corrupting Celtic Britain (which was descended from Atlantis), and set out his ideas in the book Occult Causes of the Present War in 1940. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, an academic writer on history and occult traditions, set out a more scholarly account of Nazi links to the occult in The Occult Roots of Nazism: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany, 1890-1935 published in 1985.

How it arose

Thule Society emblem... have I seen that swastika somewhere else?

Nazism itself spawned from the völkisch movement with its ideological and theosophical roots. Hitler and other Nazi leaders often borrowed from the ideas of contemporaries (Conservative Revolution) and/or far-right precursors such as Arthur de Gobineau. In short, Nazi leaders were crackpot mystics. As in, "the hyperborean Aryans are real dammit! They came from the mystical land of Thule and were lost in the cosmic ice! I can totally prove it! I must prove it!"

In certain niche circles in the German-speaking world, there was a revival of interest in the occult in the late 19th and early 20th century, mixing widespread ideas like theosophy and interest in figures such as the Knights Templar, with more specifically Germanic ariosophy.

A guiding and nurturing role for National Socialist thought was formed by the Thule Society. A mystical society founded in 1910, it advocated anti-Semitism, the purity of blood and race, and the return to an ideal Germanic golden age that was not historically identifiable, as it would include a time span of several millennia, from the Bronze Age to the Late Middle Ages. The conception of this hypothetical ancient age was inspired by the ideas of Guido von List, Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels, and various other proponents of Theosophy. Guido von List was also the man behind the 1906 Armanen runes, a set of pseudo-runes seen as having mystical meaning and power, the ideas of von List being adopted for prominent symbols of the Nazi party.

Thule Society and mythical Aryans

The Thule Society was in constant contact with the British Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, founded in London in 1888. Both were supposed "Theosophical Societies", a movement of thought led by Helena Blavatsky, which aimed to reveal the oriental roots of thought and extend and share them with the Western world. It is precisely through the exchange of information between the speakers of these circles that some fixed points of the Nazi regime are explained.

The Golden Dawn Society, like the Ahnenerbe, was convinced of the existence of ancient races and civilizations - prior to the glaciations - which they believed possible to find traces of. Believing there is the common descent of all the Germanic peoples (British included) from the mythical Hyperboreans inhabitants of the island of Thule, as described by the navigator Pytheas of Massalia in 325 BC. One of the most convinced supporters of was the infamous spiritualist, magician, esotericist Aleister Crowley, who believed that the Orkney Islands was the seat of this mythical land.

Thus, although no archaeological evidence of its existence has ever been brought forward, Thule has become the mythical homeland of the Aryans, as the exasperated nationalism in vogue between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century appropriated the belief handed down by classical sources to explain the origins of the Germanic populations, their absolute originality and their presumed racial superiority.

In 1913, Hanns Hörbiger hypothesizes the crank idea of "Cosmic Ice" (Welteislehre) started by that subsequently entered mainstream. This idea by Hörbiger, as well as his other insane racial theories, caught on with pseudoscientific esoteric circles, to the point of allegedly becoming the cornerstone of the Aryan racial supremacy concept.

Merged with the occult theories of the followers of the German and British groups, Hörbiger's vision ended up distorting not only what was reported in the Platonic dialogues, but also with the myth of Thule and the Hyperboreans and the millenary classical tradition about the populations living in the remote and inaccessible Nordic lands, as cited by many Greco-Roman sources.

In fact, the members of the Thule theory tried in every way to demonstrate that the ancient Romans - and all the Italics in general - were in reality belonging to the Germanic race and that their first settlement in Italy was in Val Camonica. This is a set of pseudohistorical speculations with very precarious foundations: their construction and diffusion is attributable to a syncretism due, specifically, mostly to a text, which modern philologists consider a fake written in the second half of the 19th century: the Oera Linda.

This manuscript, written in ancient Frisian, a now extinct language belonging to the Germanic language group - deals with the epic of the Frisians in a time span between 2194 BC and 803 AD, focusing specifically on the historical, mythological and religious past of the ancient Germanic tribes.

Translated into German in 1933, it played a decisive role in fueling Himmler's racist drift, through its message that the inhabitants of the mythical Thule were the wisest, most knowledgeable and civilized population among the peoples of that bygone era. Not only was the legendary island populated by a superior race of supermen and demigods of incomparable wisdom, but their physical features made them giants with pale skin, blond hair, and blue eyes: the typical physical appearance of the pure Aryan race.

Attitudes of Nazi leaders towards esotericism

Aerial image of the Wewelsburg castle, that Himmler and co. used to LARP around at.

Nazism was not just a simple political creed, as the movement also aimed to build "a new Germany", which "purged of all foreign influences, would return to its origins".

Most of the pseudo-scientific theories of Nazism were imported into the party by the highest ranking members, some of whom were also its earliest members. Lot of these theories came mostly from the "Thule Society", which spread in the pseudo-scientific environment described above, in addition to having sponsored the activities of the Ahnenerbe for the research of the so-called "ancestral heritage".

Nazi mysticism generally attributes a semi-religious meaning to Adolf Hitler's character and the Nazi mission, of him being "man of providence". Fair number of the high-ranking Nazis, such as Richard Walther Darré, Rudolf Hess, Heinrich Himmler and Alfred Rosenberg had been members/active attendants of the Thule Society.

Nazi mysticism was also used as a propaganda tool, which nevertheless it drew on the most varied traditions that had as their basis some line of connection with the idea of ​​a superior race invested with a salvific mission for the entire human race. Even though these ideas did not have real and exclusive roots in the pre-Nazi traditions of Germanic mysticism (typically in Ariosophy). With how many high-ranking members of Nazi Party (practically the entire ruling elite) were involved with esoterism, it really underscores the irrationalism of the entire political movement.

Hitler himself was inextricably linked to many aspects of the occult sciences, even though various mystical- and occult societies got outlawed once he came to power. Hitler always ended up tolerating the excesses of his subordinates, Goering and Himmler in particular, and the whole court of charlatans, seers, astrologers, fortune tellers and magicians who surrounded the party's general staff. Himmler's unconditional loyalty and the ruthless efficiency of his SS were probably highly valued, and Hitler considered them far more important than assuming any kind of rational approach to control.

Thanks to the unconditional support from Himmler, the Austrian occultist Karl Maria Wiligut, also known as "Weisthor" or "German Rasputin", had a powerful influence on the genesis of Nazi mysticism and in its neo-pagan connotation. It was thanks to Wiligut's prophecy that Himmler established the initiatory center of the SS at the castle of Wewelsburg, in Westphalia, where the adepts chosen to make a career in the SS performed rituals halfway between those of the Knights of the Round Table, the Teutonic Knights and the Templars.

Nowadays scholars agree that the only historically acceptable result brought by pre-Nazi mysticism - through the Ahnenerbe - to the international community is having identified for the first time that the mummies of the Tarim Basin, the Taklamakan Desert, the Talas Basin and the Altai mountains are actually of Indo-European lineage, perhaps belonging to the extinct population of the Tocharians.

Conversely, peace without reparations - which Rudolf Hess was secretly negotiating with the "Aristocratic Peace Party", an exclusive, politically very influential London circle - was in good harmony with Nazi mysticism, aimed at emphasizing the common stock of populations of Germanic origin.

Origin and development of occultism within the Third Reich

The founder of Nazi occultism/esoteric Hitlerism was Heinrich Himmler, who, much more than any other high-ranking official of the Third Reich, including Hitler himself, was fascinated by the racial theories regarding the Aryans (and not only the Germans) and by certain forms of German neo-paganism that served his totalitarian theory.

Himmler was said to consider himself the spiritual successor (and even as a reincarnation) of King Henry the Fowler (other say Duke Henry the Lion), since he established special SS rituals regarding this king and returned his bones to the crypt of Quedlinburg Cathedral. He even decorated his home in Wewelsburg with a commemoration of him.

Ahnenerbe

Ahnenerbe organizational logo

The Forschungsgemeinschaft Deutsches Ahnenerbe e. V. (the Society for Research and Teaching of Ancestral Heritage) was founded in July 1935 as an institute dedicated to research into the anthropological and cultural history of the Germanic race. Founded by Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Wirth, and Walter Darré; the initial goals of the society were to rediscover the greatness of the ancient German populations, giving ample space to popularization purposes; its activities gradually began to expand thanks to the growing push given by the theories around the myth of the superior race, of which the Germans would be the direct descendants.

Its leadership was entrusted to Wirth himself. Much time and resources were devoted to devising a “historical”, “cultural” and “scientific” background to allow the idea of ​​a superior Aryan race to flourish in German society. Mystical organizations were created, usually linked to the elite SS corps, with specific beliefs and rituals. In 1939 it was incorporated into the Persönlicher Stab Reichsführer-SS (Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS).

Like many other organizations in Nazi Germany, the Ahnenerbe was involved in camp activities, especially in the experiments conducted there. The members of the Ahnenerbe included SS-Sturmbannführer, doctors August Hirt, and the Luftwaffe's medical major, Sigmund Rascher. The former, a professor of anatomy at the University of Strasbourg, was responsible for collecting thousands of human skulls in Auschwitz for anthropometric measurements and comparisons; the latter organized the decompression experiments in the Dachau concentration camp.

Although the Ahnenerbe was the driving force behind the archaeological and research activities on ancient German history, its archaeological expeditions represent one of the most easily identifiable elements of the esoteric side of Nazism in popular culture. In particular, the figure of the "Nazi archaeologists" searching for ancient artifacts, brought to the attention of the general public with the film Raiders of the Lost Ark in the early 1980s, has become a narrative stereotype over time.

Pseudoscientific expeditions

Always in connection with the myth of the "Ancestral Ancestors", the Nazis financed a research also aimed at finding their residence, the mythical Agartha; among them being the followers of the pseudoscientific theory according to which there existed a kind of world within Earth, an underground world compared to ours accessible only in some regions. Between 1937 and 1938, therefore, an expedition was organized in Tibet in search of the origins of the Aryan race. In this regard, the leader of the expedition, Ernst Schäfer, had his face, skull and nose measured by the expedition's anthropologist Bruno Beger. Another expedition set off for the Andes. Similar expeditions were also organized in search of mythical or semi-mythical objects believed to grant extraordinary power and abilities to their possessor: for example, the Holy Grail and the Spear of Longinus.

In addition to the aforementioned Tibetan expedition, there were other notable geographical expeditions, which had the aim of identifying the starting point of the Indo-European migrations. For this purpose, in the midst of the World War II, on 17 August 1942, mountaineers belonging to the SS climbed the peak of Mount Elbrus, planting the Nazi flag there, because that mountain was believed to be the seat of the ancient progenitor population of the Aryans. In the winter of 1938 - spring of 1939, an expedition to Antarctica was also organized, in search of the access point to the underground world fabled by the "Hollow Earth Theory". On that occasion, it was rumored that a "colony at the end of the world" had been founded, with an annexed base for submarine operations, called "Neu Schwabenland" ("New Swabia").

Archaeologist Otto Rahn, as well as Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg, searched for the Holy Grail in Montségur, near the Pyrenees. It was perhaps believed that the sacred chalice, which had held the blood of Christ, could make the Third Reich omnipotent and immortal. Rahn ended up dead at a a hilltop in Tyrol, Austria in 1939, with there being confusion regarding his cause of death.

In any case, the Ahnenerbe organization was not involved in the transfer of the spear from Vienna to Nuremberg after the Anschluss. As for the Holy Grail, in June 1944 the II SS Division "Das Reich" razed the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, massacring a large part of the population, guilty of having hidden, according to them, the relic that Hitler was desperately seeking throughout half of Europe.

"The Pendulum Institute" and Astrology

During the Second World War, occult practices, astrology and the like were used in Germany and Great Britain, in the belief that they could be utilized for war. In Germany, the SS hired numerous astrologers and occultists. The best known, who worked during the war for Walter Schellenberg and essentially also for Himmler himself (who, as already mentioned, had developed a real fanaticism for the subject), were Ludwig Straniak and Dr. Wilhelm Gutberlet (both experts in the use of the pendulum), as well as astrologers Wilhelm Wulff and Karl Ernst Krafft.

Apparently, after Hitler lost contact with Mussolini circa 1943, the former ordered the latter to be located by any means, with the "power of the pendulum" being put to use. In his book, "The Zodiac and the Swastika", Wulff claims that one of his first important assignments after being arrested by the Nazis was to locate Il Duce, who disappeared after his fall from grace in July 1943. Wulff also claims to have discovered the exact answer - about fifty miles southeast of Rome - when no one yet knew about it.

The architect Ludwig Straniak was also used by the Germans. He apparently had a special gift for locating objects on maps using a pendulum. As a test, the German Navy's top brass ordered him to find the Prinz Eugen, then at sea. They were apparently particularly surprised to see the warship located, even though it was at the time engaged in a top secret mission off the coast of Norway. This episode seemed to have impressed them so much that it also convinced the SS to rely much more on the sciences of the occult.

Prominent figures

Heinrich Himmler

See the main article on this topic: Heinrich Himmler

Himmler is the most famous "occult Nazi," having been interested in the subject for most of his life. He was also the patron of almost all other occultists in the Nazi ranks. The SS symbol was derived from the Armanen runes, and the organization itself was run like a warrior-monastic order in the vein of the Teutonic Knights (popular with German nationalists for their eastward campaigns against the Slavs which Hitler would rather unsuccessfully attempt to replicate), just with the catholic symbolism rejected in favor of Neo-pagan rituals, even going so far as to have their own baptism and funeral ceremonies. He also thought getting rid of Christianity would eventually be necessary to the successful implementation of Nazism. His ideas were not necessarily mainstream Nazi doctrine, and according to his political foe within the party, Albert Speer, Hitler himself called this sort of mysticism "nonsense."

Herman Wirth

A co-founder of the SS-backed "think tank" Ahnenerbe, dedicated to promoting pseudo-science about the "racial history of the Aryans" and "ancestral German heritage", Wirth was a Dutch-German historian who fell in with German nationalism. This led him to work with the Nazis, becoming an associate of Himmler who was a fan of his "research" for obvious reasons. He claimed in his book Prehistory of the Atlantic Nordic Race that European civilization could be traced back to the lost continent of Atlantis, and that the Abrahamic faiths were "perversions" of the Atlantean religion. He would promote these ideas even after the fall of Nazism. He even nearly got a museum dedicated to his work, though public backlash quickly shut it down.

Karl Wiligut

One of the kookier Nazis (and oh boy is that saying something), Wiligut was a Brigadeführer in the SS. His worldview, Irminism, claims that Germany is the heir to a civilization founded in 228,000 BC when the earth had three suns and was inhabited by magical creatures. His ancestors were wizard-kings who fought in a great religious war between the followers of Krist and Wotan (From whom Christ and Odin are supposedly derived). Once again, this was not mainstream Nazi thought, though that it makes a similar amount of sense (none). His ideas were only influential in the strange microcosm of the SS, where he convinced Himmler that the 17th century castle Wewelsburg was an "ancient cult site" and helped design the infamous Totenkopfring.

Hitler and woo

During World War I

In 1915, while serving on the Western Front with the German army, Hitler wrote, mentioning the pre-Christian Germanic deity Wotan, this esoteric poem:

“” «Sometimes on rough nights I go To the Wotan oak in the quiet grove, To weave a bond with dark powers - The moonlight conjures up the runes for me. And all those who dare during the day, They become small before the magic formula! They strip naked - but instead of fighting the battle, They freeze into stalagmite rock. This is how the false ones are separated from the real ones - I reach into the nest of fibulae And then give the good and the just Blessing and prosperity with my formula.»

—Adolf Hitler (1915)

Hitler claimed that while fighting in World War I, he had a religious awakening, especially while he was hospitalized and temporarily blinded by an enemy gas attack (October 1918). During this time, a famous event also occurred: a mysterious "voice" told him to leave a crowded shelter during a barrage of fire, and he did so. Moments later, a grenade fell on that spot. Hitler saw this experience as a message that made him believe he was a unique, enlightened individual, destined for a special "mission."

On September 28, 1918, Hitler came under fire from a British soldier, Henry Tandey, who chose not to shoot him because he saw that he was wounded. Ironically, Tandey became the most decorated conscript in the British Army in World War I, receiving a Victoria Cross for bravery at the Battle of Marcoing, where this encounter took place. The fact is known because Hitler later recognized Tandey in a newspaper photograph and kept it. In 1937 Hitler requested and received a copy of a Tandey painting from his regiment, along with a copy of his service file. The painting was noticed by Neville Chamberlain in Hitler's Berghof apartment when he went there for the Munich Conference.

Hitler's Mystical or Esoteric Experiences

Hitler was inclined to reading prophecies and frequenting seers. From the first years of his entry into politics, Hitler surrounded himself with magicians, astrologers, seers, occultists, whom he did not hesitate - once he had risen to power - to eliminate from the public scene. After 1933, in fact, any divinatory and astrological activity was no longer tolerated, as it was the exclusive prerogative of the SS. The episodes of the Fuhrer's continuous dedication to mysticism were however various and, below, the main ones are listed:

• Already in 1924 a list of more or less secret societies of an esoteric nature had been published ("Verschwörer. Zur Geschichte und Soziologie der deutschen nationalistischen Geheimbünde 1918 - 1924" by Emil Julius Gumbel) and among them we also find the Nazi Party mentioned.
• Paradoxically, the occultist most followed by Hitler was a Jewish contemporary of his, one Erik Jan Hanussen, who not only gave him lessons in oratory, but also took care of the theatricality of the gestures of the future dictator. Starting in 1932 (although other future Nazi high-ranking officials had recourse to the medium since 1924), Hitler repeatedly resorted to Hanussen's "treatments" whenever he had to make important decisions or felt disappointed by the election results, so much so that, in 1932, the esotericist, at that time second only to Harry Houdini in fame, predicted that he would gain power the following year, which actually occurred on the scheduled date, since "... This is what the celestial powers have decided and nothing can change this verdict if it is written in destiny".
• Hitler had given the order to purge the Gospel and the Bible from the slightest trace of "Judaism". He had also given the mandate to find - in the sacred texts - every minimal trace that could lead Christ "back to his Aryan origins".

Mystical BS about Hitler

As in life, also in death legends and mysteries surround the figure of the German dictator. Some of these are listed below:

• Hitler having been possessed by a demon or even satan is a common crank idea (even as good as it sounds on paper), which is believed to have been started by Hermann Rauschning and his (now thoroughly debunked) book "Hitler Speaks", which statements are also backed by Sepp Dietrich.
• The start date of the Second World War coincides with Hitler's fiftieth birthday and with the beginning of the autumn season, Hitler's favorite, the one that has as its epicenter the commemoration of the dead at the beginning of November, when, according to the pre-Christian pagan religion, the dead return to visit the living and to reward or punish them in relation to the behavior of the living themselves.
• Above all, his suicide, which occurred not by chance during Walpurgis Night, that is, during the hours in which the spirits and forces of evil are supposedly released.
• The fact that no remains of Hitler's body remain, not even the dental prostheses with which the Soviets in 1945 were able to identify his body (a fact communicated posthumously only in 1968, as his ashes were scattered in 1970 in the Elbe River by the Red Army) is considered strange because of the pressure exerted by Stalin himself to be able to get his hands on the body of his arch enemy.

Subjects

Holy Lance and Holy Grail

There are various sensational theories associating relics of Christ, such as the Holy Lance and Holy Grail, with extraordinary amounts of mystical power, and from there it's a short step to the idea that as Nazis we should use those implements to enact a Thousand Year Reich. This is common in fiction but there have been some slightly more respectable writers on the topic. The Nazis did indeed take possession of one version of the alleged Holy Lance, the Reichskleinodien from Vienna, and had it moved to Nuremberg.

Oera Linda Book

See the main article on this topic: Oera Linda Book

Knights Templar

See the main article on this topic: Knights Templar

Nazi UFOs

See the main article on this topic: Nazi UFOs

The idea that the Nazis had leet UFO technology in itself isn't related to the occult but some of the wilder theories do link with other bizarre theories about hollow Earth, etc.

Nazi occultism after Nazis

Following its widespread presence during the war, after 1945 Germany's occult world was viewed as a legacy of the Nazi-era and was heavily demonized.

Nevertheless, it received new life through the work of Karl Spiesberger and from 1955 the Armanen runic system and the use of the pendulum became even more fashionable in German salons than they had been before the conflict.

Regarding post-war astrology in Germany, it is worth mentioning, alongside the more popular Western astrology, a school of thought that deals with the Germanic astrological system (based on runes) and its use in predictions in the Nordic tradition of Odinism.

Esoteric Neo-Nazism

Additionally, Esoteric Neo-Nazism became a thing. Appearing sometime after World War II, it was a movement that seeks to make Hitler and Nazism a religion and not a simple political movement. It is said to have its origins in the mysticism developed by Himmler and the SS.

Notably the Tempelhofgesellschaft group, which was founded in Vienna in the early 1990s by Norbert Jurgen-Ratthofer and Ralft Ettl. Their aim was teaching a form of Gnostic religion called Marcionism. The group identifies the "evil creator of this world", i.e. the demiurge, with Jehovah, the god of the Jews. They distribute leaflets saying for example that the Aryan race first settled on Atlantis, after its arrival from the star Aldebaran (information based on the reading of hypothetical "ancient Sumerian manuscripts"). They claim that from Aldebaran the Aryans are able to obtain the "Vril" energy of the Black Sun. The basis of their teaching is the certainty that, given the extraterrestrial origins of the Aryan race, its divine mission is to dominate all the others.

In fiction

“”You see, for the last two years, the Nazis have had teams of archaeologists running around the world looking for all sorts of religious artifacts. Hitler's a nut on the subject. He's crazy. He's obsessed with the occult. And right now, apparently, there is some kind of German archaeological dig going on in the desert outside Cairo.

—Major Eaton (William Hootkins), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

The Indiana Jones film series is probably the layman example. In the first film, the Nazis are after the Ark of the Covenant, and in the latter, the Holy Grail because of the objects' supposed magical powers.

Comic book series Hellboy by Mike Mignola, features occult Nazis in a major role as opponents of the titular hero. Nazis also appear in the movie adaptation based on that comic book, which premiered in 2004.

There is a 2000 PS1 FPS Medal of Honor: Underground, in which the 4th chapter of the game takes place in Wevelsburg and the player character, French resistance fighter Manon Batiste (based on real life Hélène Deschamps Adams), is sent to break in there. There she finds Himmler's occultist crap (including the apparent Knife of Abraham, which the player is to recover), as well as Nazis dressed as knights, who think they can take a fully-armed resistance fighter head on. The epilogue to the chapter recounts that "Himmler was a mentally unstable man who truly believed the crazy mythology that he and his fellow SS deviants created in their efforts to establish an independent state within Nazi Germany."

Superhumans or non-humans controlled by Nazis (or them controlling the Nazis) are a recurring trope, so much that they have a name of their own ("Ghostapo") on TV Tropes. One example is the comic book series Über by Kieron Gillen.

See also

• Pseudoarchaeology