Heinrich Himmler and the Externsteine

Last week I had a cool opportunity to make a couple of short side trips while I was on a business trip to Wallenhorst, which is right next to Osnabrück. My morning Autobahn journey took me right past the exit for Wewelsburg, which I had visited once in 1996. Wewelsburg is a small village just south of Paderborn with a castle with a plan in the shape of a triangle. This castle was taken over by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler in the 1930's, who intended to make it into the centerpiece of his new Germanic order. The north tower, which unfortunately was locked at this early morning hour of 08:00 a.m., contains his Grüppenführersaal, which has a black sun motif consisting of 12 sig runes on the marble floor, and a crypt below, where it is told that the coats of arms of dead SS generals would be cremated in a ceremony. At the apex of the crypt's dome is a swastika-form, which in 1996 was still extant. The SS guardhouse, still standing on the lane leading up to the bridge over the castle's dry moat, has a couple of SS runes on a keystone above the door, which have been mutilated, presumeably on order of the state, almost to beyond recognition. There is a nice museum next to it which documents the history of the castle, which Himmler ordered blown up at the end of the Second World War. Interestingly, Heinz Macher, an SS officer assigned with this task, is supposed to have blast- sealed Himmler's collection of returned SS Totenkopf, or Death's Head silver rings somewhere in the vicinity. That would be an truly cool find. The rings were to be returned to the Reichsführer-SS in the event of the owner's death or removal from the SS, and they were kept in a vault in the Wewelsburg. Very few such rings are available on the open market today, commanding prices in the $10,000 range and up, depending upon the original owner.

After my meeting in Wallenhorst, I made my way back home by way of the Externsteine, a 70-million year old rock formation near Detmold. The Externsteine are thought to be a primary holy site for Germanic heathenry; some even say that it was here that the legendary Irminsul, or representation of the world tree axis, connecting earth to heaven, stood. Charlemagne was to have had the Irminsul destoyed in his war against the heathens in 772. Due to this importance to the Germanic cults, Himmler, who had a passionate interest in the subject, ordered excavations here in the 1930's, searching for proof of the site's importance to the Germanic tribes. Little was found outside of a few spear tips and pottery shards, however. It is interesting that the Church found the site important enough to sanctify in the Middle Ages. There is a bas-relief carved in stone on the side of the rock formation of Christ with a broken or bent Irminsul, signifying the victory of Christianity over the heathen. The site was taken over by a monastery, and it is likely that mass was celebrated here, as a crypt was carved out of the stone. These signs are likely more evidence than Himmler found that the site was important to the pagan religion, as it was typical that the Church would build their holy sites directly upon the old pagan holy sites. This had a two-fold purpose. One, of course, it signified the victory of the Church over the "godless" pagans, and two, it was easier to convert the heathens if you took over their practices and "christianized" them. Other "christianized" practices overtaken from the pagans include Easter, whose name comes from Eostre, or Ostara, a Germanic goddess of fertility, whose symbols included (surprise!) eggs and the hare.

I spoke to a couple of gents who were working on the grounds. They said that they were expecting a large crowd this week for the summer solstice. There is an altar high atop the Externsteine with a circular window above it carved in the stone. On June 21st, the date of the summer solstice, the sun rises so as to be seen directly through this window. There is no proof, however, that the window existed during heathen times.