Welteislehre
Encyclopedia
Welteislehre also known as Glazial-Kosmogonie (Glacial Cosmogony
) is a pseudoscientific
cosmological theory proposed by Hans Hörbiger
, an Austria
n engineer and inventor and respected steam engine designer, whose invention of the Hörbiger valve made him a wealthy man.
Hörbiger did not arrive at his theory through research, but said that he had received it in a "vision" in 1894. According to his theory, ice was the basic substance of all cosmic processes, and ice moons, ice planets, and the "global ether
" (also made of ice) had determined the entire development of the universe.
It did not receive a great deal of attention at the time, but following World War I
Hörbiger decided to change his strategy by promoting the new "cosmic truth" not only to people at universities and academies, but also to the general public. Hörbiger thought that if "the masses" accepted his ideas then they might put enough pressure on the academic establishment to force his theory into the mainstream. No effort was spared in popularising the theory: "cosmotechnical" societies were founded, which offered public lectures that attracted large audiences, there were cosmic ice movies and radio programs, and even cosmic ice journals and novels.
The followers of the theory exerted a great deal of public pressure on behalf of the theory. The movement published posters, pamphlets, and books, and even a newspaper, The Key to World Events. A company owned by an adherent would only hire people who declared themselves convinced of the theory's truth. Some followers even attended astronomical meetings to heckle, shouting, "Out with astronomical orthodoxy! Give us Hörbiger!" During this period, the name was changed from the Graeco-Latin Glazial-Kosmogonie to the more Germanic Welteislehre ("World ice theory").
One of the early supporters of Hörbiger's theories was Houston Stewart Chamberlain
, the leading theorist behind the early development of the National Socialist Party
in Germany in 1923.
Two organizations were set up in Vienna concerned with the theory, the Kosmotechnische Gesellschaft and the Hörbiger Institute. The first was formed in 1921 by a group of enthusiastic adherents of the Theory, which included engineers, physicians, civil servants, and businessmen. Most had been personally acquainted with Hörbiger, and had attended his many lectures. Among Hörbiger's followers was Viennese author Egon Friedell
, who explained the World Ice Theory in his 1930 Cultural History of the Modern Age.
Heinrich Himmler
, one of the most powerful Nazi
leaders, became a strong proponent of the theory and he stated that if it were corrected and adjusted with new scientific findings it could very well be accepted as scientific work. However, the Propaganda Ministry
felt obliged to state that "one can be a good National Socialist without believing in the WEL."
Adolf Hitler, an enthusiastic follower of the WEL theory, adopted it as the Nazi party's official cosmology. He claimed that Hörbiger was not accepted by the scientific establishment because "the fact is, men do not wish to know." The World Ice Theory was intended to form part of a planetarium Hitler planned to build on Linz
's Mount Pöstling. According to the structure's plans, the ground floor was to centre around Ptolemey's universe, the middle floor Copernicus' theory, and the top floor, Hörbiger's theory.
It has been said that the real reason both Hitler and Himmler favored the theory was to counterbalance the perceived Jewish influence on the sciences, similar to the Deutsche Physik
movement. Hörbiger's theory was for instance opposed to Albert Einstein
's theory of relativity
. Dozens of scientific journals, books, and even novels were published on this topic. Hörbiger's theories became generally accepted among the population of Nazi Germany
and a German Hörbiger Organization had thousands of members.
The Nazis also considered the World Ice Theory valuable because of its supposed value in weather forecasting. The 1938 Zur Welteismeteorologie ("On World Ice Meteorology") by Dr. E. Dinies, published by the Reichs Office for Weather Service quotes from Hörbiger's Glazial-Kosmogonie and provided tables of data comparing ice and air temperatures for relative humidity values.
A growing group of 'believing scientists' expanded the theory during the last years of World War II
.
Following the Anschluss
of March 1938, the Kosmotechnische Gesellschaft was liquidated by the Nazis and its funds seized. The Hörbiger Institute, which was a small association which collected funds for research, was left in possession of all Hörbiger's scientific material, including a library and a large collection of valuable drawings covering astronomy, meteorology, and geology as they related to the Hörbiger Theory. The Nazis wanted to close the Institute down as well, but Hörbiger's son Alfred and the Chairman avoided this by having a Nazi Commission appointed. They also managed to prevent the archives being taken to Berlin and absorbed in Himmler’s Ahnenerbe
organization, and established that the Institute was the private property of Hörbiger's sons.
Despite the outbreak of World War II, Alfred Hörbiger managed to continue publishing the Institute's Proceedings, in spite of being cut off from all foreign publications and correspondents. Eventually they were contacted by the German Propaganda Ministry, who said they considered that the publications constituted high treason and ordered them to stop circulating their reports.
In February 1945 the Hörbiger engineering works were destroyed, and in March the Institute's premises were hit and were boarded up just before Soviet troops arrived. Alfred Hörbiger died in August 1945 but the Institute hoped to restart publication of its Proceedings by 1949.
, the WEL cult dropped out of sight. But it revived sometime afterwards, and continued to have members in both Germany and England for several years, even though it was quickly discredited again. In the 1950s, a pamphlet supporting the WEL stated that "proof of the theory awaits the conclusion of the first successful interplanetary flight, a matter in which the Institute is greatly interested." A survey conducted in 1953 showed that over a million people in Germany
, England
, and the U.S.
believed that Hörbiger was correct. More recently, some of its supporters have dropped the idea of an icy lunar surface, though they continue to support the view that it was captured and that its capture destroyed Atlantis.
, as well as a number of solar systems among which was our own, but with many more planets than currently exist.
Interplanetary space is filled with traces of hydrogen gas, which cause the planets to slowly spiral inwards, along with ice blocks. The outer planets are large mainly because they have swallowed a large number of ice blocks, but the inner planets have not swallowed nearly as many. One can see ice blocks on the move in the form of meteors, and when one collides with the Earth, it produces hailstorms over an area of many square kilometers, while when one falls into the Sun, it produces a sunspot and gets vaporized, making "fine ice," which covers the innermost planets.
It was also claimed that the Earth had had several satellites before it acquired the Moon; they began as planets in orbits of their own, but over long spans of time were captured one by one and slowly spiralled in towards the Earth until it disintegrated and its debris became part of the Earth's structure. One can supposedly identify the rock strata of several geological eras with the impacts of these satellites.
The last such impact, of the "Tertiary" or "Cenozoic Moon" and the capture of our present Moon, is supposedly remembered through myths and legends. This was worked out in detail by Hörbiger's English follower Hans Schindler Bellamy
; Bellamy recounted how as a child he would often dream about a large moon that would spiral closer and closer in until it burst, making the ground beneath roll and pitch, awakening him and giving him a very sick feeling. When he looked at the Moon's surface through a telescope, he found its surface looking troublingly familiar. When he learned of Hörbiger's theory in 1921, he found it a description of his dream. He explained the mythological support he found in such books as Moons, Myths, and Man, In the Beginning God, and The Book of Revelation is History. It was believed that our current Moon was the sixth since the Earth began and that a new collision was inevitable. Believers argued that the great flood described in the Bible and the destruction of Atlantis
were caused by the fall of previous moons.
Hörbiger had various responses to the criticism that he received. If it was pointed out to him that his assertions did not work mathematically, he responded: "Calculation can only lead you astray." If it was pointed out that there existed photographic evidence that the Milky Way was composed of millions of stars, he responded that the pictures had been faked by "reactionary" astronomers. He responded in a similar way when it was pointed out that the surface temperature of the Moon had been measured in excess of 100°C in the daytime, writing to rocket expert Willy Ley
: "Either you believe in me and learn, or you will be treated as the enemy."
Astronomers generally dismissed his views and the following they acquired as a "carnival". Although Hörbiger's theories have much in common with those of Immanuel Velikovsky
(parallels between the two were drawn by Martin Gardner
in Chapter Three of his Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science
), the scientific community had a much calmer reaction to Hörbiger's theories than to Velikovsky's, and his publisher was never boycotted.
Cosmogony
Cosmogony, or cosmogeny, is any scientific theory concerning the coming into existence or origin of the universe, or about how reality came to be. The word comes from the Greek κοσμογονία , from κόσμος "cosmos, the world", and the root of γίνομαι / γέγονα "to be born, come about"...
) is a pseudoscientific
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
cosmological theory proposed by Hans Hörbiger
Hans Hörbiger
Hanns Hörbiger was an Austrian engineer from Vienna with roots in Tyrol. He took part in the construction of the Budapest subway and in 1894 invented a new type of valve essential for compressors still in widespread use today.He is also remembered today for his pseudoscientific Welteislehre ...
, an Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n engineer and inventor and respected steam engine designer, whose invention of the Hörbiger valve made him a wealthy man.
Hörbiger did not arrive at his theory through research, but said that he had received it in a "vision" in 1894. According to his theory, ice was the basic substance of all cosmic processes, and ice moons, ice planets, and the "global ether
Luminiferous aether
In the late 19th century, luminiferous aether or ether, meaning light-bearing aether, was the term used to describe a medium for the propagation of light....
" (also made of ice) had determined the entire development of the universe.
History
By his own account, Hörbiger was observing the Moon when he was struck by the notion that the brightness and roughness of its surface was due to ice. Shortly after, he experienced a dream in which he was floating in space watching the swinging of a pendulum which grew longer and longer until it broke. "I knew that Newton had been wrong and that the sun's gravitational pull ceases to exist at three times the distance of Neptune," he concluded. He worked out his theory in collaboration with amateur astronomer and schoolteacher Philipp Fauth who he met in 1898, and published it as Glazial-Kosmogonie in 1912. Fauth had previously produced a large (if somewhat inaccurate) lunar map and had a considerable following, which lent Hörbiger's theory some respectability.It did not receive a great deal of attention at the time, but following World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Hörbiger decided to change his strategy by promoting the new "cosmic truth" not only to people at universities and academies, but also to the general public. Hörbiger thought that if "the masses" accepted his ideas then they might put enough pressure on the academic establishment to force his theory into the mainstream. No effort was spared in popularising the theory: "cosmotechnical" societies were founded, which offered public lectures that attracted large audiences, there were cosmic ice movies and radio programs, and even cosmic ice journals and novels.
The followers of the theory exerted a great deal of public pressure on behalf of the theory. The movement published posters, pamphlets, and books, and even a newspaper, The Key to World Events. A company owned by an adherent would only hire people who declared themselves convinced of the theory's truth. Some followers even attended astronomical meetings to heckle, shouting, "Out with astronomical orthodoxy! Give us Hörbiger!" During this period, the name was changed from the Graeco-Latin Glazial-Kosmogonie to the more Germanic Welteislehre ("World ice theory").
One of the early supporters of Hörbiger's theories was Houston Stewart Chamberlain
Houston Stewart Chamberlain
Houston Stewart Chamberlain was a British-born German author of books on political philosophy, natural science and the German composer Richard Wagner. He later became a German citizen. Chamberlain married Wagner's daughter, Eva, some years after Wagner's death...
, the leading theorist behind the early development of the National Socialist Party
National Socialist German Workers Party
The National Socialist German Workers' Party , commonly known in English as the Nazi Party, was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. Its predecessor, the German Workers' Party , existed from 1919 to 1920...
in Germany in 1923.
Two organizations were set up in Vienna concerned with the theory, the Kosmotechnische Gesellschaft and the Hörbiger Institute. The first was formed in 1921 by a group of enthusiastic adherents of the Theory, which included engineers, physicians, civil servants, and businessmen. Most had been personally acquainted with Hörbiger, and had attended his many lectures. Among Hörbiger's followers was Viennese author Egon Friedell
Egon Friedell
Egon Friedell born Egon Friedmann, 21 January 1878, in Vienna, died 16 March 1938, in Vienna, was a prominent Austrian philosopher, historian, journalist, actor, cabaret performer and theatre critic.- Early life :...
, who explained the World Ice Theory in his 1930 Cultural History of the Modern Age.
In the Third Reich
After Hörbiger’s death in 1931, the followers of WEL came to the conclusion that given the changing political situation in Germany, aligning the theory with National Socialism would eventually lead to its acceptance; WEL had already been heavily and successfully promoted as the "German antithesis" of the "Jewish" theory of relativity in the late 1920s. And so the movement became more and more pro-Nazi, with WEL supporters saying things like: "Our Nordic ancestors grew strong in ice and snow; belief in the Cosmic Ice is consequently the natural heritage of Nordic Man.", "Just as it needed a child of Austrian culture - Hitler! - to put the Jewish politicians in their place, so it needed an Austrian to cleanse the world of Jewish science.", and "the Führer, by his very life, has proved how much a so-called 'amateur' can be superior to self-styled professionals; it needed another 'amateur' to give us a complete understanding of the Universe."Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
, one of the most powerful Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
leaders, became a strong proponent of the theory and he stated that if it were corrected and adjusted with new scientific findings it could very well be accepted as scientific work. However, the Propaganda Ministry
Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was Nazi Germany's ministry that enforced Nazi Party ideology in Germany and regulated its culture and society. Founded on March 13, 1933, by Adolf Hitler's new National Socialist government, the Ministry was headed by Dr...
felt obliged to state that "one can be a good National Socialist without believing in the WEL."
Adolf Hitler, an enthusiastic follower of the WEL theory, adopted it as the Nazi party's official cosmology. He claimed that Hörbiger was not accepted by the scientific establishment because "the fact is, men do not wish to know." The World Ice Theory was intended to form part of a planetarium Hitler planned to build on Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
's Mount Pöstling. According to the structure's plans, the ground floor was to centre around Ptolemey's universe, the middle floor Copernicus' theory, and the top floor, Hörbiger's theory.
It has been said that the real reason both Hitler and Himmler favored the theory was to counterbalance the perceived Jewish influence on the sciences, similar to the Deutsche Physik
Deutsche Physik
Deutsche Physik or Aryan Physics was a nationalist movement in the German physics community in the early 1930s against the work of Albert Einstein, labeled "Jewish Physics"...
movement. Hörbiger's theory was for instance opposed to Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
's theory of relativity
Theory of relativity
The theory of relativity, or simply relativity, encompasses two theories of Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity. However, the word relativity is sometimes used in reference to Galilean invariance....
. Dozens of scientific journals, books, and even novels were published on this topic. Hörbiger's theories became generally accepted among the population of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and a German Hörbiger Organization had thousands of members.
The Nazis also considered the World Ice Theory valuable because of its supposed value in weather forecasting. The 1938 Zur Welteismeteorologie ("On World Ice Meteorology") by Dr. E. Dinies, published by the Reichs Office for Weather Service quotes from Hörbiger's Glazial-Kosmogonie and provided tables of data comparing ice and air temperatures for relative humidity values.
A growing group of 'believing scientists' expanded the theory during the last years of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Following the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
of March 1938, the Kosmotechnische Gesellschaft was liquidated by the Nazis and its funds seized. The Hörbiger Institute, which was a small association which collected funds for research, was left in possession of all Hörbiger's scientific material, including a library and a large collection of valuable drawings covering astronomy, meteorology, and geology as they related to the Hörbiger Theory. The Nazis wanted to close the Institute down as well, but Hörbiger's son Alfred and the Chairman avoided this by having a Nazi Commission appointed. They also managed to prevent the archives being taken to Berlin and absorbed in Himmler’s Ahnenerbe
Ahnenerbe
The Ahnenerbe was a Nazi German think tank that promoted itself as a "study society for Intellectual Ancient History." Founded on July 1, 1935, by Heinrich Himmler, Herman Wirth, and Richard Walther Darré, the Ahnenerbe's goal was to research the anthropological and cultural history of the Aryan...
organization, and established that the Institute was the private property of Hörbiger's sons.
Despite the outbreak of World War II, Alfred Hörbiger managed to continue publishing the Institute's Proceedings, in spite of being cut off from all foreign publications and correspondents. Eventually they were contacted by the German Propaganda Ministry, who said they considered that the publications constituted high treason and ordered them to stop circulating their reports.
In February 1945 the Hörbiger engineering works were destroyed, and in March the Institute's premises were hit and were boarded up just before Soviet troops arrived. Alfred Hörbiger died in August 1945 but the Institute hoped to restart publication of its Proceedings by 1949.
Postwar
After World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the WEL cult dropped out of sight. But it revived sometime afterwards, and continued to have members in both Germany and England for several years, even though it was quickly discredited again. In the 1950s, a pamphlet supporting the WEL stated that "proof of the theory awaits the conclusion of the first successful interplanetary flight, a matter in which the Institute is greatly interested." A survey conducted in 1953 showed that over a million people in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
believed that Hörbiger was correct. More recently, some of its supporters have dropped the idea of an icy lunar surface, though they continue to support the view that it was captured and that its capture destroyed Atlantis.
Theory
According to the theory, the solar system had its origin in a gigantic star into which a smaller, dead, waterlogged star fell. This impact caused a huge explosion which flung fragments of the smaller star out into interstellar space where the water condensed and froze into giant blocks of ice. A ring of such blocks formed, which we now call the Milky WayMilky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...
, as well as a number of solar systems among which was our own, but with many more planets than currently exist.
Interplanetary space is filled with traces of hydrogen gas, which cause the planets to slowly spiral inwards, along with ice blocks. The outer planets are large mainly because they have swallowed a large number of ice blocks, but the inner planets have not swallowed nearly as many. One can see ice blocks on the move in the form of meteors, and when one collides with the Earth, it produces hailstorms over an area of many square kilometers, while when one falls into the Sun, it produces a sunspot and gets vaporized, making "fine ice," which covers the innermost planets.
It was also claimed that the Earth had had several satellites before it acquired the Moon; they began as planets in orbits of their own, but over long spans of time were captured one by one and slowly spiralled in towards the Earth until it disintegrated and its debris became part of the Earth's structure. One can supposedly identify the rock strata of several geological eras with the impacts of these satellites.
The last such impact, of the "Tertiary" or "Cenozoic Moon" and the capture of our present Moon, is supposedly remembered through myths and legends. This was worked out in detail by Hörbiger's English follower Hans Schindler Bellamy
Hans Schindler Bellamy
Hans Schindler Bellamy was a researcher and author. His books investigate the work of Austrian cosmologist, Hans Hoerbiger and German selenographer, Philipp Fauth, whose now-defunct Cosmic Ice Theory :Bellamy's first book, Moons, Myths and Man, describes Hoerbiger's theory in detail, and its...
; Bellamy recounted how as a child he would often dream about a large moon that would spiral closer and closer in until it burst, making the ground beneath roll and pitch, awakening him and giving him a very sick feeling. When he looked at the Moon's surface through a telescope, he found its surface looking troublingly familiar. When he learned of Hörbiger's theory in 1921, he found it a description of his dream. He explained the mythological support he found in such books as Moons, Myths, and Man, In the Beginning God, and The Book of Revelation is History. It was believed that our current Moon was the sixth since the Earth began and that a new collision was inevitable. Believers argued that the great flood described in the Bible and the destruction of Atlantis
Atlantis
Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
were caused by the fall of previous moons.
Hörbiger had various responses to the criticism that he received. If it was pointed out to him that his assertions did not work mathematically, he responded: "Calculation can only lead you astray." If it was pointed out that there existed photographic evidence that the Milky Way was composed of millions of stars, he responded that the pictures had been faked by "reactionary" astronomers. He responded in a similar way when it was pointed out that the surface temperature of the Moon had been measured in excess of 100°C in the daytime, writing to rocket expert Willy Ley
Willy Ley
Willy Ley was a German-American science writer and space advocate who helped popularize rocketry and spaceflight in both Germany and the United States. The crater Ley on the far side of the Moon is named in his honor.-Life:...
: "Either you believe in me and learn, or you will be treated as the enemy."
Astronomers generally dismissed his views and the following they acquired as a "carnival". Although Hörbiger's theories have much in common with those of Immanuel Velikovsky
Immanuel Velikovsky
Immanuel Velikovsky was a Russian-born American independent scholar of Jewish origins, best known as the author of a number of controversial books reinterpreting the events of ancient history, in particular the US bestseller Worlds in Collision, published in 1950...
(parallels between the two were drawn by Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner was an American mathematics and science writer specializing in recreational mathematics, but with interests encompassing micromagic, stage magic, literature , philosophy, scientific skepticism, and religion...
in Chapter Three of his Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science
Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science
Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, also known just as In the Name of Science, was Martin Gardner's second book, and has become a classic in the literature of entertaining scientific skepticism...
), the scientific community had a much calmer reaction to Hörbiger's theories than to Velikovsky's, and his publisher was never boycotted.
External links
- Essay on Cosmic Ice Theory (Christina Wessely at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science)