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perceived as arising from the influence of Jewish business and finance. These groups
were known as the Reichshammerbund and the Germanenorden (Order of Germans).
Born on 28 October 1852, Fritsch, the son of Saxon peasants, had trained as a milling
engineer, and had edited the Kleine Muhlen-Journal (Small-Mills Journal). In common
with other activists of the time, his anti-Semitism arose principally from a fear of rapid
industrialisation, technology and mass production, driven by international Jewish
influence, and the threat it posed to small tradesmen and craftsmen.
In spite of his political leanings, Fritsch decided against becoming a candidate for either
of the two German anti-Semitic parties, the Deutsch-Soziale Partei and the
Antisemitische Volkspartei, which had been established at Bochum in 1889, since he did
not believe that anti-Semitism would prove successful in parliament. As Goodrick-Clarke
notes, Fritsch's 'conviction in the ineffectiveness of parliamentary anti-Semitism proved
to be correct. When more than one party existed after the Bochum conference, their
competition led to a reduction in the number of successful anti-Semitic candidates at
the Reichstag elections.' (59) In addition, the merging of the two parties in 1894 as the
Deutsch-Soziale Reformpartei resulted in a significant reduction in anti-Semitism in
favour of 'an appeal to more conservative and middle-class economic interests'. (60)
At this time, in the mid-1860s, racist writers such as the French aristocrat Comte Vacher
de Lapouge and the Germanised Englishman Houston Stewart Chamberlain were
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influenced by biology and zoology, and were concentrating more on 'scientific' studies of
race (although they were, of course, nothing of the kind). It was these writers who
identified the Jews as the greatest threat to the supremacy of the Aryan race, and
attempted to back up their ideas with reference to physical characteristics such as hair
and eye colouring, and the shape of the skull. (61) For de Lapouge, Jews were more
pernicious than any other race because they had insinuated themselves so completely
into European society, (62) while Chamberlain in particular did much to popularise
mystical racism in Germany. According to Stanley G. Payne:
Beyond the Aryan racial stereotype (tall, blond, blue-eyed) [Chamberlain] affirmed the
existence of a special 'race soul' that created a more imaginative and profound spirit in
Aryans and produced a 'German religion', though the latter was still (in part) vaguely
related to Christianity. The ultimate anti-Aryan and most bitter racial foe was the Jew.
Chamberlain combined Social Darwinism with racism and thus emphasized an endless
racial struggle on behalf of the purity of Aryanism and against Jews and lesser peoples
[including Slavs and Latins], virtually creating a scenario for race war. (63)
In order to fulfil his ambition to create a powerful anti-Semitic movement outside the
ineffectual parliament, Fritsch founded a periodical called the Hammer in January 1902.
By 1905, its readership had reached 3,000. These readers formed themselves into
Hammer-Gemeinden (Hammer-Groups), changing their name in 1908 to Deutsche
Erneuerungs-Gemeinde (German Renewal Groups). '[T]heir membership was interested
in anti-capitalist forms of land reform designed to invigorate the peasantry, the garden
city movement, and Lebensreform.' (64)
The Reichstag elections of January 1912 saw a humiliating defeat for Conservatives and
anti-Semites, who lost 41 of their 109 seats, while the Social Democratic Party increased
their seats from 43 to 110. (65) In the Hammer, Fritsch favourably reviewed a violently
anti-Semitic book entitled Wenn ich der Kaiser war! (If I were Kaiser!) by the chairman
of the Pan-German League, Heinrich Class, and decided that the time was right to act in
the formation of an anti-Semitic organisation that would not be subject to the control or
influence of any party.
As already stated, at the meeting in Fritsch's Leipzig home on 24 May 1912 two groups
were established: the Reichshammerbund, which combined all existing Hammer-Groups,
and the Germanenorden, whose secret nature reflected the conviction of anti-Semites
that Jewish influence in public life could only be the result of a secret international
conspiracy and as such could only be combated by a quasi-Masonic lodge whose
members' names would be withheld to prevent enemy infiltration. (66)
Germanenorden lodges were established throughout Northern and Eastern Germany that
year, and called for the rebirth of a racially pure Germany from which the 'parasitic'
Jews would be deported. By July, lodges had been established at Breslau, Dresden,
Konigsberg, Berlin and Hamburg. By the end of 1912, the Germanenorden claimed 316
brothers. (67) The main purpose of these lodges was to monitor Jewish activities; in
addition, lodge members aided each other in business dealings and other matters.
The Germanenorden was heavily influenced by the doctrines of Ariosophy. Any German
wishing to join the order was required to supply details of hair, eye and skin colour, and
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also had to prove beyond any doubt that they were of pure Aryan descent. Anyone
suffering from a physical handicap - and for that matter, anyone who looked 'unpleasant'
- was barred from membership. Ariosophy also inspired the emblems used by the Order.
According to Goodrick-Clarke: 'From the middle of 1916 the official Order newsletter,
the Allgemeine Ordens-Nachrichten, began to display on its front cover a curved-armed
swastika superimposed upon a cross ... Although the swastika was current among several
contemporary volkisch associations in Germany, it was through the Germanenorden and
the Thule Society, its successor organization in post-war Munich, that this device came
to be adopted by the National Socialists.' (68)
The initiation rituals of the Germanenorden were somewhat bizarre, to say the least.
Initiation would take place in the ceremonial room of the lodge, where the blindfolded
novice would encounter the Master, two Knights in white robes and horned helmets, the
Treasurer and Secretary with white Masonic sashes, and the Herald, who stood at the
centre of the room. 'At the back of the room in the grove of the Grail stood the Bard in a
white gown, before him the Master of Ceremonies in a blue gown, while the other lodge
brothers stood in a semicircle around him as far as the tables of the Treasurer and
Secretary. Behind the grove of the Grail was a music room where a harmonium and
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