Karl Germer

Karl Johannes Germer (22 January 1885 – 25 October 1962), also known as Frater Saturnus, was a German and American businessman and occultist.

[2] Germer studied in a university, worked as a military intelligence officer in the First World War and received first and second class Iron Crosses for his service.

[3] In 1923 he sold his Vienna property and founded the publishing house Pansophia Verlag in Munich.

When Adolf Hitler came to power, Germer came under suspicion because of his association with Crowley and teaching Thelema in Germany.

However, soon after the start of World War II, Hitler banned it in Germany, as well as many books on religion, qabalah, astrology, esoteric studies and gematria.

[7] Since Hitler knew enough about Thelema to ban Liber AL in Germany, Germer became his enemy when his religious beliefs became known.

At around the same time, Cora contacted the American Consulate in Berlin who pleaded for Germer's return to the US as his wife was a US citizen.

Germer moved to Belgium where he took an apartment and started working as an exporter of heavy farm machinery in Brussels, making frequent trips to England and Ireland.

In Brussels, Germer had the means to store his personal belongings, his diaries and other things at a friend's house.

Between 1939 and 1940 he wrote 223 pages of his autobiographical book "Protective Prisoner No 303" about his experiences in the concentration camp, which he wanted to publish.

Its occupants, including Germer, were transferred to the Camp of Gurs where in October 1940 thousands of Jewish women, children, and the elderly, who had not gone to the Nazi concentration camps in Germany, were deported from the Baden region of Germany as per official Nazi policy which was overseen by Adolf Eichmann.

But French authorities made it almost impossible for Germer to obtain the permit quickly, despite all kinds of urgent steps undertaken by his wife and the American Ambassador and Consul.

French authorities only gave him permission to go to Marseille to see the American Consul four months after the visa was granted.

Upon release from the Nazi concentration camp in February 1941, Germer returned to the United States.

Securing a job as a merchant of machinery upon his return to New York, Germer continued his fundraising activities for Crowley who appointed him his personal representative in the United States.

Two months later, on 23 September 1942, Germer married Vienna piano teacher Sascha Ernestine Andre.

After about 2 years he found a house in West Point, California where he set up a Head Office of O.T.O and put together the Order's library containing Crowley works and O.T.O.