There was however no unified take on the contents of a Deutschgläubig religiosity, and approaches varied from a "national Christianity" based on the Arianism of the Goths, German mysticism, Humanism and free thought, as well as racialist ideas of a native Nordic or Aryan religion.
Krause et al. (1977:557) distinguish four basic types subsumed under Deutschgläubig: The Thule Society originated as an offshoot of the Germanenorden in 1917, and notoriously became associated with the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei in 1919 and thus involved in the formative phase of the Nazi Party.
By the rise of the Third Reich in 1933, the Thule society had been dissolved, and esoteric organisations (including völkisch occultists) were suppressed by the Nazi regime, many closed down by anti-Masonic legislation in 1935.
Nevertheless, some elements of Germanic mysticism found reflection in the symbolism employed by the Nazis, mostly due to Heinrich Himmler's interest in the occult and sponsorship of the Austrian Ariosophist Karl Wiligut.
As early as 1940, the occult scholar and folklorist Lewis Spence identified a neopagan undercurrent in Nazism,[1] for which he largely blamed Alfred Rosenberg, and which he equated with "satanism".
Members are urged to forgo racial and fascist ideals, to have a positive and respectful attitude towards the earth and nature, to participate in democracy instead of aiming for totalitarianism, to promote equality of the sexes, and to worship the gods whose existence underlies cultural tradition.
Von Neményi had been a member of the board of the Green Party in Berlin until 1985, when he was expelled together with his brother for alleged connections to the neo-Nazi milieu, an accusation which both men denied.
The large majority of German neopagans vehemently renounce all right extremist associations, especially since a 1996 case of a Sauerland neo-Nazi who had confessed to four murders which he claimed were inspired by the command of Odin.
The "folkish" concept of Metagenetics advocated in US Asatru by Stephen McNallen was introduced into German discourse by Volker "Stilkam" Wagner of Odinic Rite Deutschland, a position harshly attacked by the Rabenclan as völkisch or New Right ideology.