The Nazi Occultism Myth

A 1972 bestseller invented the story of the 'Spear of Destiny' outright. A 1985 scholarly history carefully separated the documented Ariosophist influence on early Nazi ideology from later legends: the Vril Society, built on a Berlin group Willy Ley described in 1947 and popularised in 1960, and the spear story, which came decades after the war.

Trevor Ravenscroft, The Spear of Destiny (1972); Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, The Occult Roots of Nazism (1985); Willy Ley, 'Pseudoscience in Naziland', Astounding Science Fiction (1947); Louis Pauwels & Jacques Bergier, Le Matin des magiciens (1960)