Hitler's Monsters

Name: Hitler's Monsters
ISBN: 9787532792573

埃里克·柯兰德 / 张竝Shanghai Translation Publishing House · ChinaNov 2023

4.2

Word count: 460K words
Chapters: 18
ISBN: 9787532792573

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Summary

Captain America, Hellboy, the Indiana Jones series, The Keep, the Hydra faction in Wolfenstein, werewolf units... The exploration of the relationship between the Nazi Party and mysticism has a long history in popular culture. In reality, Nazi leaders were fascinated by the occult; from the party's earliest days to its seizure of power, the inseparable relationship between Nazi ideology and supernatural imagination is visible everywhere. The Nazi German Navy, Himmler's SS, and Goebbels's Propaganda Ministry all employed astrologers and pendulum dowsers to obtain military intelligence and wage psychological warfare.

Hitler, Himmler, and others sponsored astrological and cosmobiological theories and other fantastical doctrines, embraced fringe science, and encouraged research into the Holy Grail, sorcery, and medieval devil worship. They even cobbled together a Nazi "werewolf" unit for combat... The Gestapo forbade professional debunkers from exposing the secrets behind "magic," while Goebbels enlisted a famous Weimar-era horror novelist to assist with important propaganda tasks. In short, without understanding the relationship between the Nazis and supernatural imagination, one cannot fully understand the history of the Third Reich. Drawing on astrology, parapsychology, the supernatural, paganism, Aryan mythology, sorcery, wonder weapons, and the lost kingdom of Atlantis, the Third Reich reimagined Germany's politics and society, reshaped its science and religion, and pursued its racial utopia and imperial dream by confronting Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union while smoothly advancing racial cleansing.

Editor's review

This book tackles a subject often turned into a pop-culture spectacle but rarely examined seriously: the actual relationship between the Nazi Party and mysticism and fringe science. The author does not stop at anecdotes like "Hitler believed in astrology," but weaves together threads—astrologers employed by the navy, Himmler's sponsorship of cosmobiology, Goebbels's use of a horror novelist for propaganda, and the Gestapo's ban on exposing the "magic" behind the scenes—to show how supernatural imagination entered the Third Reich's intelligence, propaganda, science policy, and racial utopian vision. For readers, its value lies in clearing away a layer of cognitive fog: the Nazis' "rationalized" modern rule and their absurd mystical imagination were not contradictory; both served power and racial cleansing. The narrative has the readability of popular history writing and suits readers interested in WWII history, the history of pseudoscience, and propaganda mechanisms. Read with a critical eye, distinguishing between the presentation of historical sources and the author's interpretations.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers with a basic interest in WWII and Nazi German history
Researchers examining the relationship between pseudoscience, mysticism, and political propaganda
Film and game enthusiasts who enjoy approaching historical analysis through popular culture
Students of the history of science and communication studies seeking case-study supplementary reading

Not a good fit for

Professional readers expecting the rigorous argumentation and annotation of a serious academic monograph
Readers who are themselves averse to topics such as mysticism and astrology
Readers seeking a complete narrative of Nazi military campaigns or high-level politics

Reading tips

Read the introduction or conclusion first to clarify the author's basic judgment on the relationship between "Nazis and supernatural imagination," then move on to the case studies in each chapter.
When encountering fringe doctrines such as astrology and cosmobiology, note down their specific connections to Nazi propaganda and intelligence work.
Read alongside introductory works on Nazi propaganda history or the history of pseudoscience, to avoid treating individual cases in the book as an overall explanation.
Maintain an awareness of contrasting the Nazi-mysticism imagery in popular culture, and revisit related settings in films and games after finishing the book.

About the publisher

Shanghai Translation Publishing House China · Founded in 1978

Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.

版权信息
与魔鬼订立契约——不擅长政治的德意志民族的自画像
引言
第一部分
第一章纳粹主义的超自然根源
第二章从修黎社到纳粹党
第三章发掘希特勒的魔法
第二部分
第四章第三帝国向玄学开战
第五章星辰坠入冻土
第六章路西法的法庭
第三部分
第七章超自然和第二次世界大战
第八章恶魔的科学
第九章纳粹的黄昏
后记
致谢
参考文献

FAQ

Is this book saying the Nazis really believed in astrology?

Sources show that the Nazi leadership was indeed fascinated by the occult: the navy, the SS, and the Propaganda Ministry all employed astrologers and pendulum dowsers to obtain intelligence and wage psychological warfare, and Hitler, Himmler, and others sponsored fringe doctrines. But what the book presents is how this fascination was drawn into propaganda, intelligence, and racial politics. Readers should not reduce it to "the Nazis all devoutly believed," but should focus on the interweaving of its instrumental and ideological functions.

Can I read this book without a background in WWII history?

Yes, but it is advisable to first understand the basic background of the Nazi seizure of power, Himmler and the SS, and Goebbels's Propaganda Ministry; otherwise the names and institutions in the book can be confusing. The narrative leans toward popular history writing and the threshold is not high, but if one is entirely unfamiliar with Third Reich history, basic reference materials may be needed while reading.

Is the content too sensational?

The subject itself easily slides toward the sensational, but sources indicate that the author attempts to examine astrology, cosmobiology, sorcery research, and the like within the context of Nazi ideology, intelligence propaganda, and the racial utopian vision, emphasizing that without understanding this relationship one cannot fully understand Third Reich history. Readers should still read critically, distinguishing between historical facts and interpretive inferences in the narrative.

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About the author

埃里克·柯兰德 Author

Eric Kurlander is an author about whom publicly available information is currently limited; his nationality, dates of birth and death, and educational background are not clearly recorded in the available materials. The library holds one work by him, Hitler's Monsters, which is classified under world history. Judging from this representative work, Kurlander's writing interests center on twentieth-century world history, especially topics related to Nazi Germany and Hitler, following a path of popular history writing that takes historical figures and major historical events as its entry points. Because verifiable information is very limited, it is difficult to make a fuller judgment about his overall body of work, academic training, or writing style; it can only be confirmed that at least one of his works on Nazi history has been introduced to Chinese readers. Readers who wish to learn more about him and his scholarship will still need to rely on the disclosure of more public information; until then, no inferences or evaluations about Kurlander himself should go beyond his works.

张竝 Author

Zhang Bing is a freelance translator and a former editor at the travel magazines Private Geography and Travel+Leisure. Public information about him is limited, and few details of his life are documented. He has long translated works from French and English. His French translations Investigation and History of the Body (Volume I) were shortlisted for the 2013 Fu Lei Translation Prize, while The Decline of Democracy and the City-State and others were shortlisted in 2012. He has also translated Verne's The Mysterious Island, along with English-language works such as Blood in the Water, Hitler's Monsters, and A Visit from the Goon Squad. His translations span a wide range of subjects, including documentary writing, literary fiction, world history, and mystery fiction, covering themes such as prison uprisings, historical reflection, and science-fiction adventure, demonstrating a facility for moving between nonfiction and fiction.