23 May 2010

Herman Wirth's Books of Wonders


In our search for the origins of what is now the Greek letter "Phi" ϕ, we earlier discovered "Die Heilige Urschrift der Menschheit" (rough trans: "Sacred Original Writings of Mankind"), a two volume symbolist opus by Herman Wirth, published in 1936, Leipzig. The Dutch symbolist Wirth's research was sponsored by the Nazi SS leader Heinrich Himmler during this period (1935-1938). Wirth is rather infamous for "advocated the Swastika as 'species-specific sign of salvation'" in 1925. A very difficult set of volumes to find, WorldCat shows about four sets in USA libraries and four in Germany - here is a sampling of the first 15 of 400 illustrated pages of the second volume, "Bilderatlas". Below, Wirth's earlier, 635 page, volume from 1928.


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