meet baron von sebottendorf—founder of the thule society and one of the most fascinating figures of early 20th-century` europe`.
born in 1875, he moved to istanbul in 1901 at age 26, became an ottoman citizen, and worked as a maritime merchant. while in turkey, he immersed himself in bektashi, sabbatean, and masonic circles, and studied sufism, kabbalah, and other eastern philosophies.
after world war i, he returned to germany with all that knowledge and started organizing nationalist socialist workers' movements to combat the rising threat of communism. one of the most notable was the thule society, often linked to the occult influences behind nazism. he had a reputation for machiavellian tactics—at times allowing high-ranking party members to fall into communist hands so he could frame them as "martyrs" for the nationalist cause.
although he founded the german national socialist workers' party, it eventually came under adolf hitler's control, and he and hitler began to drift apart. by the 1930s, he was exiled from germany by the gestapo and returned to turkey. during world war ii, he worked as a double agent for both germany and britain. in 1945, he tragically ended his life by throwing himself into the cold waters of the bosphorus.
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