Considered one of Hitler's mentors: Who is Rudolf von Sebottendorf?

Rudolf Freiherr von Sebottendorff, real name Adam Alfred Rudolf Glauer, is one of the pioneers of the Nazi Party and Hitler's mentor. He lived in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey for decades and was said to be involved in witchcraft and various mystical fields.

Birth and education

Rudolf von Sebottendorf (1875-1965) was born on 9 November 1875 in the city of Hoyerswerda in the eastern German state of Saxony, to a family from the Sorben tribe, a largely Germanized Slavic minority of East Germany.

Allegedly, Rudolf von Sebottendorf's family had been interested in magic, astrology, and occultism for centuries, so he grew up with this knowledge.

Adam Alfred Rudolf Glauer (9 November 1875 – 8 May 1945) also known as Rudolf Freiherr von Sebottendorff (or Sebottendorf) was a German occultist, writer, intelligence agent and political activist. He was the founder of the Thule Society, a post-World War I German occultist organization where he played a key role, and that influenced many members of the Nazi Party. He was a Freemason, a Sufi of the Bektashi order - after his conversion to Islam - and a practitioner of meditation, astrology, numerology, and alchemy.

Rudolf von Sebottendorf, who received a technical education, went to work as a technician in Egypt in 1897, which was legally under the Ottoman Empire at the time but was actually under British occupation. Rudolf von Sebottendorf, whose work period in Egypt ended in 1901, chose to settle in the Ottoman Empire and work as a technician, instead of returning to Germany and learning Turkish.

Ottoman citizenship

Rudolf von Sebottendorf, who returned to Germany in 1905, got married there, but later divorced and returned to the Ottoman Empire in 1909. Rudolf von Sebottendorf, who lived between Istanbul and Bursa, became an Ottoman citizen in 1911 and fought as a volunteer Ottoman soldier in the Balkan Wars that started in 1912. Because he was seriously injured in this battle, he would be exempt from the large-scale mobilization declared by the Ottoman Empire for World War I in 1914.

Rudolf von Sebottendorf, who was interested in mystical structures and knowledge, intensively studied magicians, mysterious events, and Sufi groups in Egypt, Istanbul, Anatolia, and Iraq. The book 'Die Praxis der alten Türkischen Freimaurerei' (Practices of Ancient Turkish Masons), published in 1924, was a product of this period and focused on the claims of similarity between Bektashis and Freemasons.

In 1913, Rudolf von Sebottendorf returned to Germany as an Ottoman citizen with an Ottoman passport. In 1918, World War I ended with Germany's defeat. Due to this war, the imperial regime in Germany ended, the country first fell into political turmoil, and then a republic was established in the country.

German nationalism and Nazism

In August 1918, at a time when Germany's defeat was certain, Rudolf von Sebottendorf founded the German nationalist Thule Society. This society would later be known as the founding school of Nazi ideology. Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) also took part in this society. As the founder and instructor of the Society, Rudolf von Sebottendorf would later be known as "Hitler's mentor".

During the political turmoil in Germany in 1918-1919, Rudolf von Sebottendorf and the Thule Society took an anti-Communist stance. However, Rudolf von Sebottendorf, who was not against Socialism, presented Socialism synthesized with German nationalism as the solution to Germany's liberation.

Thus, the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party) was founded under the theoretical leadership of Rudolf von Sebottendorf. With the support of Rudolf von Sebottendorf, Adolf Hitler, who was only 32 years old, became the leader of the party in 1921.

Settlement in Turkey and the crisis with Hitler

However, during this period, Rudolf von Sebottendorf settled in Turkey again due to the pressure exerted on him by the German administration. Taking Turkey as a base, Rudolf von Sebottendorf continued his remote activities towards Germany.

In the parliamentary elections held in Germany in July 1932, the National Socialist German Workers' Party, led by Hitler, came first. After Hitler became prime minister in January 1933, Rudolf von Sebottendorf returned to Germany from Turkey.

While Rudolf von Sebottendorf thought that Hitler would be the mentor of the government in the new era because he was his student, Hitler did not agree to share the power. Tensions between the two increased in late 1933. In January 1934, Rudolf von Sebottendorf was arrested on Hitler's orders. However, Rudolf von Sebottendorf was released and returned to Turkey because he was a Turkish citizen and carried a Turkish passport.

It is claimed that Rudolf von Sebottendorf, who was very angry with Hitler, cast curse spells on Hitler that he had learned while in Iraq during this period. When Rudolf von Sebottendorf returned to Turkey, he began to follow the developments in Germany from afar.

Hitler destroyed the party and the opposition around it with a massacre on the night of June 30-July 1, 1934. Since Rudolf von Sebottendorf was in Turkey at the time, he survived this massacre, which was called the 'Night of the Long Knives'. However, he began to live in extreme security, fearing that Hitler might assassinate him in Turkey.

In 1939, World War II started. In 1944, Germany's defeat became certain. Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, after the Soviet armies entered Berlin. Germany officially surrendered on May 9, 1945.

Allegations about his death

On May 8, 1945, news appeared in the Turkish press that 70-year-old Rudolf von Sebottendorf committed suicide by jumping into the sea off the coast of Üsküdar. This news, originating from the Turkish press, was also published in the US and European press.

However, 20 years later, on the morning of December 10, 1965, the body of an old man found lying on a bench in Doğancılar Park in Üsküdar proved that this information was incorrect.

After World War II, Rudolf von Sebottendorf, who was afraid of being tried for being Hitler's mentor and the founder of the Nazi Party, published fake news in the Turkish press that he had committed suicide on May 8, 1945, and continued his life in Turkey under the name Şefik Hüsnü. Rudolf von Sebottendorf, who had no difficulty in living like a Turk in Turkey because he could speak Turkish like his mother tongue, was able to do all this thanks to his Turkish friends in Turkey, some of whom were in the government.

It was later revealed that Rudolf von Sebottendorf was an antique dealer and merchant around Adana and Antalya in the 1950s. It was also documented that he stayed at the Cumhuriyet Hotel in Adana on April 17, 1957.

What Rudolf von Sebottendorf did in Turkey for 20 years remained largely a mystery. Rudolf von Sebottendorf, who was estimated to have been left alone and lost all his wealth, laid down on a bank in Doğancılar Park in Üsküdar on the night of December 9, 1965, at the age of 90, and passed away that night.

Rudolf von Sebottendorf, who had a brief marriage while in Germany, never remarried. Rudolf von Sebottendorf, who did not marry during the period between 1934 and 1965, when he lived uninterruptedly in Turkey, had no known children.