The speculation that the Nazis searched for supernatural artifacts has long existed since World War II and was popularized by the films “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” I think characterizing these objects as “supernatural” is a bit of a stretch, but there is evidence that the Nazis were interested in occult objects and symbols as an expression of their “Volkish” mythology. According to Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke in his book, “The Occult Roots of Nazism” there are connections between Nazi ideology and Ariosophy, a late 19th Century esoteric philosophy that revitalized German paganism and connected it to Romanticism and Theosophy. The “Volkish” movement was a form of German populism that focused on folklore as the source of national unity and identity.

Unfortunately, there has been a lot of terrible pseudo history written on this topic and I’d approach any of it with a mountain of salt. The most influential books include “Morning of the Magicians” (1960) by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier and “The Spear of Destiny” (1972) by Trevor Ravenscroft. I do not recommend either book as serious historical explorations of the topic, but rather as a window into the speculation, conspiracy theories and mythology that has emerged regarding Nazi occultism.

One of the figures associated with the Nazi search for occult artifacts is Otto Rahn, a medievalist and SS lieutenant who researched and wrote about the Holy Grail. According to books he wrote in 1933 and 1937, Rahn connected the Grail with the Catharist movement and their massacre at the Montsegur fortress in France. Rahn argued that there was a direct connection between Wolfram von Eschenbach’s medieval “Parzival” and the Albigensian crusade. Rahn did research in the region in 1931 and there is speculation that he also searched for the Holy Grail.

Rahn was gay and eventually ran afoul of the SS. He died under suspicious circumstances in 1939.

Rahn has been cited as an inspiration for Indiana Jones.

Perhaps the most comprehensive biography is “Otto Rahn and the Quest For the Holy Grail” by Nigel Graddon. The book does a decent job for the most part, though Graddon unfortunately indulges in speculation regarding Rahn’s death.

One point of note is that many modern depictions of Nazi forces mixed up with the supernatural tend to link this to the Thule Society, this German occultist group formed in the wake of WWI and named after Thule, a mythical country found in Greek legend as the land farthest to the north. In the centuries since, it's believed that this was Greenland or Iceland, but speculation does also sit with Norway; altogether, a nice amount of mysticism linked to lands seen as Aryan in focus. In addition, the Thule Society held many members who later went on to become members of the Nazi Party (though Hitler himself never seemed to attend any of their meetings), and they sponsored the German Workers' Party, which later reorganized as the National Socialist German Workers' Party (or the Nazi Party, as they were colloquially known).

This combination of mystic and occult focus, as well as ties to the Nazi Party, has helped create a lot of the Nazi-supernatural connection, but that is looking at it from the pop culture angle and establishing a bit of the mythos that has sprung up around the topic.

For actual investigation for occult artifacts by the Nazis, this can possibly be seen with the Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, or ERR), an organization headed by Alfred Rosenberg, one of the chief ideologues of the Nazi Party and someone who held a few important positions in the party. The organization focused on appropriating and looting cultural property from it's enemies, Rosenberg wanting an institute built around the cultural material from enemies of the Nazi ideology. If you've ever heard of the art thefts in WWII, the plundering of Paris' art collections or the looting and burning of libraries during the war, it's likely that the ERR was connected to one degree or another.

This aspect of cultural artifacts being looted - many of which still have not been found - likely helped lead to the idea of Nazis searching for supernatural aid, especially when you keep in mind that Himmler was very much into the occult, even founding the Ahnenerbe, a think tank/archeological group which focused on supporting the idea of Germany being descended from a biologically superior Aryan race. They interpreted evidence to fit Hitler's ideology while also matching Himmler's occult fascination, and sent expeditions throughout the world intent on finding the evidence of Aryan existence and German descent. (Along with Rahn's link to Indiana Jones, the Ahnenerbe helped inspired the Nazi side of that exploration for mystical and religious items).

To sum up my post: while the Nazi Party was not, to my knowledge, searching for supernatural artifacts in order to weaponize them or use their aid in winning the war, they were searching for things which could help prove the existence of the Aryan race (Ahnenerbe) or otherwise just looting items other religions and ethnicities would see as culturally important and which possibly held mystic power according to legend (ERR). Thus, it likely wasn't a big leap to imagine the Nazis utilizing any mystical object they managed to come across to help them win the war, even as they were searching for and looting enough historically important items to make it seem as though they were looking for supernatural aid.

The Nazi-occult link has always interested me, how these subjects became linked both in actual history and in pop culture, so hopefully I gave it the proper analysis it deserves. Hope this helps.

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A Few Sources

• Mees, Bernard Thomas (2008). The Science of the Swastika. Central European University Press. - The Ahnenerbe's antics, as well as how they influenced the portrayal of Nazis in Indiana Jones, can be found here.

• Pringle, Heather (2006). The Master Plan: Himmler’s Scholars and the Holocaust. - Looks at Ahnenerbe expedition plans and why. One important thing this book notes is that a lot of the Ahnenerbe members managed to survive the denazificiation of Germany and held positions in West Germany, so until the fall of the Berlin Wall trying to dig up or piece together records of the Ahnenerbe's activities is somewhat difficult.

• Hale, Christopher (2003). Himmler's Crusade: The True Story of the 1938 Nazi expedition into Tibet.

• Simpson, Elizabeth (1997). The Spoils of War: World War II and Its Aftermath: the Loss, Reappearance, and Recovery of Cultural Property.