Page "Völkisch movement" Paragraph 13

This connection can be overstated, however.

According to Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke an imaginative mythology has grown up around the supposed influence within the Nazi Party of a völkisch group, the Thule-Gesellschaft ( Thule Society ), which was founded on August 17, 1918 by Rudolf von Sebottendorff.

Its original name was Studiengruppe für Germanisches Altertum ( Study Group for Germanic Antiquity ), but it soon started to disseminate anti-republican and anti-Semitic propaganda.

In January 1919 the Thule Society was instrumental in the foundation of the Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei ( German Workers ' Party, or DAP ) which later became the NSDAP ( Nazi Party ).

Thule members that would later join the Nazi Party included Rudolf Hess, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Gottfried Feder, Dietrich Eckart and Karl Harrer, but notably not Adolf Hitler who never was a member of the Thule Society.

Furthermore the Münchener Beobachter ( Munich Observer ), owned by Sebottendorff, was the press organ of another small nationalist party and later became the Völkischer Beobachter ( People's Observer ).