Karl Maria Wiligut

Karl Maria Wiligut (1866–1946) was an Austrian occultist and SS-Brigadeführer who advised Heinrich Himmler on esoteric matters within Nazi Germany. Himmler, fascinated with the occult since his college days, hired Wiligut in 1925 to advise him on these subjects¹.

Wiligut was an expert in runes and Teutonic symbols, and he designed the SS death's-head ring, Totenkopfring. He claimed to be a seer, or medium, who could channel a tribe of ancient Aryans from AD 1200¹.

Elevated to the position of SS-Brigadeführer, Wiligut remained on Himmler's personal staff until SS intelligence officers discovered that he had been committed to a mental institution in 1923 and declared legally insane. In 1936, he was removed from the SS command structure, but Himmler continued to meet with him privately until at least 1941, as indicated in Himmler's diaries¹.

Wiligut's influence on Himmler contributed to the promotion of quasi-science projects within the Third Reich, particularly through organizations like Das Ahnenerbe, which sought to prove the superiority of Nazi ideology through mystical and occult means¹.