Home :: DVD :: Boxed Sets :: Military & War  

Action & Adventure
Anime
Art House & International
Classics
Comedy
Documentary
Drama
Fitness & Yoga
Horror
Kids & Family
Military & War

Music Video & Concerts
Musicals & Performing Arts
Mystery & Suspense
Religion & Spirituality
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Special Interests
Sports
Television
Westerns
The Occult History of the Third Reich

The Occult History of the Third Reich

List Price: $29.98
Your Price:
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 >>

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Research is thin, but...
Review: Although the research on this series of DVDs is rather thin, it should not be dismissed out of hand as some have done. The names of some of the occultists that are thrown around are monumental individuals. Did they influence Hitler, Himmler, etc...? Maybe...maybe not, but to dismiss wholesale is not the way to find answers to difficult questions about a period when it is easier to just villify and condemn. While the research on these DVDs is thin, it could prove an interesting starting place to find more about occult influences from the Fin-de-Siecle to the Second World War.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not worth the price
Review: As others here have stated before, this is basically narration over stock-footage. Nothing remotely original here. Everything you hear (you do not get to see much), you can read better in THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH and there it's being put into perspective - an interesting aspect of Nazim, but not all it's about. I would not buy this DVD again. Sorry, missed opportunity.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: an important work to understand the background
Review: First off there is some overlap of material, secondly the quality of the duplication is not that good (it is on extended play)

But for the price these tapes present a lot of material , that although doesn't get too in depth, presents a broad picture of some "occult" influences on the history of this era.

some interesting footage includes views of Wewelsburg castle, including the inside and out; views of Exersteine, where von Liebenfels had his castle, and some old archival footage of some Tibetan monks dancing.

although the information won't be anything new if a person has read Goodrich-Clarke, the packaging and fact that there is not much out there about this sort of stuff makes this worthwhile.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Absurdity abounds
Review: Hitler and the occult... a nonexistent collaboration (...) Consult Hitler's own words, where he slammed the occult as "Jewish and Bolshevik."

This is a difficult video to review because its premise is flawed from the get go: there is no occult associated with Hitler and there never was. The people chosen to be interviewed in this unintentionally amusing documentary are (...) of the first order. None are respected, noted or competent historians, they are pop writers who believe in errant nonsense. What types of nonsense, you ask? I shall tell you: they believe that when Hitler was a young man living in Vienna, he stumbled upon a spear located in a local museum. The spear infused the young artist with mythical and evil "powers." Yeah, right... and I was abucted yesterday by Martians and taken to outer space.

Only the most gullible [viewer] could believe anything in this childish video. Errors of the most fundamental nature abound: Hitler did not emigrate to Munich in 1912, but in 1913; Dietrich Eckart did not die in 1945, Hitler did not meet Eva Braun in 1933... the list is endless. As a laugh this might be useful, as history it is unreliable and puerile in the extreme.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Absurdity abounds
Review: Hitler and the occult... a nonexistent collaboration (...) Consult Hitler's own words, where he slammed the occult as "Jewish and Bolshevik."

This is a difficult video to review because its premise is flawed from the get go: there is no occult associated with Hitler and there never was. The people chosen to be interviewed in this unintentionally amusing documentary are (...) of the first order. None are respected, noted or competent historians, they are pop writers who believe in errant nonsense. What types of nonsense, you ask? I shall tell you: they believe that when Hitler was a young man living in Vienna, he stumbled upon a spear located in a local museum. The spear infused the young artist with mythical and evil "powers." Yeah, right... and I was abucted yesterday by Martians and taken to outer space.

Only the most gullible [viewer] could believe anything in this childish video. Errors of the most fundamental nature abound: Hitler did not emigrate to Munich in 1912, but in 1913; Dietrich Eckart did not die in 1945, Hitler did not meet Eva Braun in 1933... the list is endless. As a laugh this might be useful, as history it is unreliable and puerile in the extreme.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Ran a bit thin.
Review: I believe the ppl who were responsible for putting this last DVD in the 3 part series ran out of matieral since they basically spend the most of it restating the Occult roots of Nazism thats in the first two DVDs. Beyond that there is good info on the formation of the SS and its purpose to provide a stream of pure white aryan blood, but most of whats here u can find in a better source.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: What the heck is this?
Review: I got this as a gift. What the heck? Somewhat interesting, but also quite goofy. I'm amazed that someone made this, and even more amazed that someone bought it! It does have a niche market, I assume, and probably is quite good to those who favor Nazi Occult mythology.

I only wish they had a section on Nazi UFO/Spaceship technology. They went to the moon in '44, you know. Really!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: a new perspective....
Review: I have seen these 3 videos (plus the 4th one only available on vhs tape-on himmler) and feel they provide a unique perspective. So few people today truly understand how German National Socialism came to fruition. Watching the videos forced me to look deeper into the subject. I suggest the same for others. If you'd like to discuss this some more, please feel free to email me in Hawaii.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent series on an obscure topic
Review: Nazi Germany had many influences. The influence of the occult on the formation of the Third Reich has occasionally been greatly overstated. But it did exist, and this series is as good an examination of this rather esoteric topic as I've ever seen, certainly far better than the History Channel's recent effort.

The presentation is rather dry, and the video footage can be somewhat repetitive. But if you're interested in early 20th-century European occultism and its contribution, however slight, to the rise of Nazi Germany, this is as good a source of information as there is, apart from Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke's book The Occult Roots of Nazism.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Poorly Strung-together stock footage
Review: Seekers of something substantive or interesting are bound to be disappointed by this cheap and poorly edited series. Someone stumbled upon a lot of public-domain footage and tried to make something ominous from it. Innaccuracies of occult references are profound and misleading (e.g., that H.P. Blavatsky was the source of the "master race" idea as Hitler envisioned it, etc.). As a student of the occult, I was at first bored (there IS, in fact, MUCH to say about the relationship between the Nazi's and occultism which this series completely avoids) and then disturbed (the insinuations are not only inaccurate, but wrong. Ariosophy and Thesophy are two VERY DIFFERENT strands of belief, and the videos make no distinctions). There is an excellent documentary waiting to be made out there, but these thingies are not it (as much as the subject matter is interesting, I must stress that most viewers will be disappointed. It really IS stock-footage with voice-overs). An infinately better, more reliable source on the topic is Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke's stimulating book, _The Occult Roots of Nazism_ (NYU Press, 1992). There is ample "occultism" to be found, but seekers of racial purity and demons will be disappointed in both book and movie (evil is human--occult or not). All but the most fanatical weirdos should avoid.


<< 1 2 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates