The Little Book of the End of the World (18 page)

Although
Frankenstein
is Shelley’s best-known book, it is by no means her only contribution to Gothic horror: her 1826 novel
The Last Man
deals with the outbreak of a plague at the end of the twenty-first century, and is one of the earliest examples of this sort of End of the World or post-Apocalyptic literature.

BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA

Although written at the opposite end of the nineteenth century,
Dracula
has entered popular culture in a similar capacity to
Frankenstein
. It operates on as many levels as Shelley’s tale, requiring only the slightest scratch beneath the surface to see them.

Published in 1897 by Irish writer Bram Stoker,
Dracula
is commonly read as a struggle to reconcile Eastern and Western philosophies, with the titular vampire representing a superstitious and mythical Eastern tradition that threatens the rational thought – and the women – of modern England. Dracula is also a power that, like Victor Frankenstein, is capable of raising the dead.

The sympathies of
Dracula
lie not with the character himself, but with those that stand against him: they are educated, rational men of repute, representing the legal profession, the aristocracy and the sciences. These learned men are incapable of truly understanding the mythology that Dracula represents, but they are nonetheless successful in defeating him.

This triumph of rational thought is the key to understanding the shifting mindset of humanity during this period: the supernatural was no longer something to be feared. Even though it may not be wholly understood, it was nonetheless something that could be defeated and overcome.

DINOSAURS: THE MONSTERS OF SCIENCE

The nineteenth century also brought its fair share of scientific monsters, perhaps none more terrifying than the dinosaurs.

There are records of dinosaur bones and fossils being discovered throughout history, with the origins of these bones attributed according to local tradition: in China, they were the bones of ancient dragons, while in Europe they were creatures that had died out during the biblical great Flood.

During the nineteenth century, archaeologists and biologists began to look on these bones in a new light. There were similarities between the bones found and those of lizards and reptiles, and the word ‘dinosaur’ was coined in 1842 by Sir Richard Owen. ‘Dinosaur’ is a Greek word, literally translated as giant or fearsome lizard.

Based on their size, it was obvious that these dinosaurs weren’t some undiscovered species in hiding, but one that had been extinct for many millennia. But this raised another question: what had caused an entire species of that size to become extinct?

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Born in 1844 in Germany, the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche is an integral part of understanding how we react to the End of the World. Nietzsche’s philosophies are complex, but where the classical philosophers suggested that all of humanity worked towards an ideal, being intrinsically good, Nietzsche was not quite as idealistic.

Nietzsche’s philosophical novel
Thus Spake Zarathustra
is a semi-fictional account of the life of the same philosopher who founded Zoroastrianism. By voicing his own thoughts through this fictional Zoroaster, Nietzsche lends credence to some rather controversial ideas:

  Contemporary humanity is in a stage of evolution, moving from our ape-like ancestors towards an existence as the
Ubermensch
, or Supermen.

  The future of the
Ubermensch
lay on this Earth: there would be no spiritual redemption or ascension to a higher existence.

  There exists a ‘will to power’ by which all of humanity is being driven towards the possession of power.

A recurring motif and phrase of Nietzsche’s work is that ‘god is dead’: the efforts and purposes of any divinity have little or no bearing on our daily lives. And if any divine being ever did exist, humanity’s successes in their own right have proven this god irrelevant: we have become powerful in our own right and no longer need to worship.

Nietzsche’s philosophies have a clear and direct influence on some of the politics of the twentieth century and on what society is capable of doing to itself. Like the fallout of the French Revolution, Nietzsche envisions a society that is in danger of descending into chaos.

And in Nietzsche’s world, it is humanity who is directly responsible for its own destruction.

16

THE NAZI APOCALYPSE

THE VÖLKISCH MOVEMENT

Movies like the
Indiana Jones
series have embedded an interesting relationship into our popular consciousness: an association between Nazi Germany and occult practises. But this connection is not limited to Hollywood movies: the Germany of the early twentieth century saw a turnabout in thought and beliefs that harkened back to the older, larger empires that were already dying out.

The nineteenth century saw the rise of a
völkisch
movement in Germany, an embrace of the Romantic ideals of nationalism and classical Germany. Many small movements and organisations sprung up around the country, with the aim of rediscovering this national pride. Although there was no specific goal of recreating an empire, this movement focused on the glory of the Germanic peoples, with their shared cultural and religious history.

Some of these movements embraced a specific
volk
or people, and by linking the nation, and its successes, with a specific bloodline or race, the roots of Aryanism were born.

One of these
völkisch
movements became known as the Thule Society, a Munich-based branch of the
Germanenordern
or Germanic Order. Not only did the Germanic Order embrace the national elements of the
völkisch
movement, but it looked further back in history, claiming power from the country’s prehistoric pagan practises. Meetings of the order would gather to read the Eddas and stories of Ragnarok and the Norse gods, with the Thule Society itself named after the missing island of Thule, a Nordic legend about a sunken island in the North Sea, similar to the Atlantis of Mediterranean myth.

By the 1930s, some familiar people had become members of the Thule Society: Rudolf Hess, Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler. In the wake of the First World War, the philosophies of the Thule Society moved from culture and religion to more practical ends. The mystical elements of the
völkisch
movement became diluted with racism, anti-Semitism and a resistance to communism, as those involved looked first to close Germany’s borders and then to affirm the cultural elements that were part of the nation.

The Thule Society as it stood was dissolved in the 1920s, but not before many of its members had already formed the
Deutsche Arbeitpartei
which would go on to become the NSDAP, or Nazi Party. However, the mythical elements of the Thule Society were not completely forgotten and played a large part in propaganda as the Nazi party preyed on, and made use of, its
völkisch
origins for its own ends.

While not a Germanic symbol, the swastika became intrinsically linked to Nazi Germany. This is a symbol found in many religious, although it is especially prominent in Hinduism. The word swastika is literally translated as ‘that which is good for the soul’. The symbol is still used for religious purposes with that meaning.

The symbol was originally adopted by the
Germanenordern
, claiming German historical lineage through some of the oldest cultures in the world. However, the activities of the Nazis led to the symbol being corrupted, and much of the original meaning is lost to modern audiences.

THE HOLOCAUST

As the Nazi party grew in power and popularity, so too did stories about its activities, none of which have proven darker and more disturbing than the Holocaust, the widespread oppression and execution of the Jewish peoples within Germany’s borders and beyond. Jews were not the sole focus of the Holocaust, with the Nazis also looking to eliminate homosexuals, the Gypsy community and other ethnic groups.

Some Jewish scholars suggest that the Holocaust was a tragedy that needed to be experienced in order for a greater event to happen, namely the founding of the state of Israel and the call for a subsequent salvation of the Jewish people; others believe that God’s absence from intervention in the Holocaust can never truly be understood until well after the End of Days.

Pope Benedict XVI, when he visited Auschwitz, suggested that the Holocaust had been caused by an excess of pride amongst the men and women of the Nazi regime: in killing people of the Jewish faith, they sought to act like God, and take His power for themselves.

There are also schools of thought that suggest that the Holocaust did not happen, or else that its scale and size were significantly smaller than reported. This belief, or Holocaust Denial, typically blames the reports of the Holocaust on a Jewish conspiracy – sometimes even linking it to the New World Order – and suggesting that Zionist organisations have orchestrated events for their own ends. In addition to being a ludicrous conspiracy theory, Holocaust Denial is explicitly a criminal offence throughout most of Europe.

NAZISM AND THE OCCULT

While the racist elements of Nazism have their origins in the
völkisch
movement, there is no known evidence that the Nazi Party was ever involved in any movement to either bring about – or resist – the End of the World. However, there are several semi-religious stories that are worthy of a mention.

The Ahnenerbe

Various works of fiction have called attention to the links between Hitler, the Nazi movement and the various occult and mystical practices that lie in the mythological origins of the Nazi party. Many of these stories focus on the
Ahnenerbe
, a sort of cultural/scientific wing of the
Schutztaffel
or SS.

The
Ahenenerbe
was set up to promote and investigate the concept of Aryan superiority. They conducted various scientific experiments on both Aryan and non-Aryan peoples, and on various excursions throughout Europe recorded instances of pagan beliefs and practises, some of which were then manipulated into pro-Nazi propaganda.