A really good academic dive through romantic, pan-germanic occult groups affecting the milieu of pre-WWI through Third Reich German speaking Europe, the freaks and their goofball ideas and influences and a sober assessment of how deeply certain Nazi leaders (particularly Himmler and Hitler) decisions were shaped by Ariosophy and Armanism... the answer being somewhat and probably none, respectively. The appendix contains an essay "The Modern Mythology of Nazi Occultism" that traces the mystique and some possible motivations since the 1960's of this whole discourse that the book tries to put to rest, noting periods of incarceration of occult thinkers in the Nazi regime, the closing of presses and "sectarian" volkisch organizations like Germanenorden or the Thule Society. Also, some interesting history of ongoing occultic tendencies like Theosophy and Wotanism.