Germanenorden

The Germanenorden was a secret society in Germany early in the 20th century. Formed by several prominent German occultists in 1912, the order, whose symbol was a swastika, had a hierarchical fraternal structure similar to freemasonry. It taught to its initiates nationalist ideologies of nordic race superiority, antisemitism as well as occult, almost magical philosophies. Some say that the Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei (later the Nazi Party) when under the leadership of Adolf Hitler was a political front, and indeed the organisation reflected many ideologies of the party, including the swastika symbol. The Thule Society, another secret society with similar ideologies and symbols was also closely linked to this.