(XI.) HISTORY - Into the Twentieth Century

Although the German police from time to time prosecuted individual astrologers for fortune-telling, interest grew, and annual conferences of astrologers were held between 1923 and 1936, only internecine rows hindering ambitious plans for scientific study.

The Germans have the distinction of recognizing the putative importance of astrology in the developing art of psychoanalysis, and one of Jung's admirers, 0. A. H. Schmitz (1873-1931) led the way in proposing how this could best be done, though Herbert Freiherr von Kloeckler (1896-1950) was the pioneer in dragging astroanalysis into the psychology-conscious 20th century, with his Grundlagen fur die astrologische Deutung (Foundations of astrological interpretation), 1926.

Interest in astrology being as intense, in Germany, as it was - Ellic Howe, in Urania's children, 1967, estimates that during the twenty years after 1921 at least four hundred specialist books and pamphlets were published in that country - it was inevitable that it should be suspected that Hitler and the Nazi party made use of astrology for their own purposes.

As with other homogenous groups, some astrologers supported the Nazis, some did not; on both sides, there were unhappy consequences. Dr Karl-Gunther Heimoth, for instance, a doctor and psychologist who published an astrological study of homosexuality and through it became a friend of Ernst Rohm, the chief of the Sturm-Abteilung (Hitler's private army), was murdered by the Fuhrer with Rohm and others in June 1934.

The Astrological Society in Germany, on the other hand, managed to stay out of trouble, integrating with the establishment and providing a certain amount of protection for astrologers even after 1934, when the Nazis banned all 'fortune-telling', making the publication of almanacs and astrological journals illegal.

There is no evidence that Hitler himself was interested in astrology, and some evidence that he positively mistrusted it. He is often accused of having a personal astrologer, and the name most often connected with the accusation is that of Karl Ernst Krafft (1900-45).

Krafft was born in Switzerland, of German descent, and became a very competent astrologer. He also became a fervent admirer of Hitler, and on 2 November 1939, wrote to a Dr Fosel (then working for the RSHA, Himmler's secret intelligence service) warning that between 7 and 10 November Hitler's life would be in danger because of 'the possibility of an attempt at assassination by the use of explosive material'.