Otto Rahn and the search for Holy Grail

The article presents the person of Otto Rahn, an explorer and adherent of the myth of the Holy Grail, and also a collaborator of the SS under the aegis of Heinrich Himmler. Rahn’s case illustrates how the culture-creating tendency characteristic of Nazism was able to acquire quasi-religious forms given conducive conditions. The circumstances in which the protagonist established his contacts with Nazi functionaries are described first; then the development of the Grail motive and its reception in a certain milieu of German nationalism are sketched; further I analyze the content of the book "Luzifers Hofgesind. Eine Reise zu Europas guten Geistern" (1937, Leipzig) signed by Rahn, in relation to the synthesis of gnosticism and racism that are discernable there; finally, potentially conflictogenic differences between Nazism and gnosticism are suggested, possibly working against serious attempts at their fusion.