Nearly half a century after the defeat of the Third Reich, Nazism remains a subject of historical inquiry, general interest and, alarmingly, a source of inspiration for resurgent facism in Europe. This book traces the intellectual roots of Nazism back to a number of influential occult and millenarian sects in the Hapsburg Empire during its waning years. These sects combined notions of popular nationalism with an advocacy of "Aryan" racism and a proclaimed need for German world-rule.