Otto Sigfrid Reuter (2 September 1876 – 5 April 1945) was a German writer and organiser who was central in the neopagan current within the völkisch movement.
He founded some of the earliest organisations for Germanic neopaganism, which adhered to the racial ideologies of the völkisch movement.
Reuter promoted a decentralised version of pagan practice without priests, in contrast to the hierarchically structured Germanic Faith Community [de] of Ludwig Fahrenkrog.
Having passed a Verwaltungsprüfung in 1905, he worked in Berlin and Elberfeld, and from 1917 in Bremen as a telegraph director and head of the telephone system.
They were among the earliest formally organised groups within Germanic neopaganism and tied to the racial ideologies of the völkisch movement.
Members were required to show an Aryan certificate provided by Bernhard Koerner [de], editor of the Deutsches Geschlechterbuch.
A major difference was Reuter's promotion of a decentralised pagan practice, without priests and formalised rituals, in contrast to Fahrenkrog's preference for a hierarchical organisational structure.
Taking inspiration from Kossinna's work on astronomy and mythology, Reuter argued for the existence of an advanced and specifically Germanic star map.
He received an honorary doctorate from the Leipzig University in 1939 through the support of scholars such as Franz Josef Hopmann, Otto Reche, Konstantin Reichardt and Kurt Tackenberg [de].
[1] Puschner, a historian who specialises in the völkisch movement, describes Reuter as a major ideologue of the pagan faction within the völkisch-religious current, with continuing impact in contemporary times, and as one of the many who contributed to an ideologisation of science through his ability to create a bridge between a scientific and a völkisch worldview.