Otto Wilhelm Rahn was a German writer, medievalist, Ariosophist, and an officer of the SS and researcher into the Grail myths. He was born in Michelstadt, Germany, and died in Söll in Austria. Speculation still surrounds Otto Rahn and his research.
Early life and work
From an early age, Rahn became interested in the legends of Parzival, the Holy Grail, Lohengrin and the Nibelungenlied. While attending the University of Giessen, he was inspired by his professor, Baron von Gall, to study the Albigensian movement and the massacre that occurred at Montségur. In 1931, he travelled to the Pyrenees region of southern France where he conducted most of his research. Aided by the French mystic and historian Antonin Gadal, Rahn argued that there was a direct link between Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and the Cathar Grail mystery. He believed that the Cathars held the answer to this sacred mystery and that the keys to their secrets lay somewhere beneath the mountain peak where the fortress of Montségur remains, the last Cathar fortress to fall during the Albigensian Crusade.
SS service and death
Rahn wrote two books linking Montségur and Cathars with the Holy Grail: Kreuzzug gegen den Gral in 1933 and Luzifers Hofgesind in 1937. After the publication of his first book, Rahn's work came to the attention of Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, who was fascinated by the occult and had already initiated research in the south of France. Rahn joined his staff as a junior non-commissioned officer and became a full member of the SS in 1936, achieving the rank of Obersturmführer. It was an uneasy partnership for Otto Rahn; later, he explained his SS membership to friends in the following way: "A man has to eat. What was I supposed to do? Turn Himmler down?" Journeys for his second book led Rahn to places in Germany, France, Italy and Iceland. Openly homosexual, frequenting anti-Nazi circles, and having fallen out of favour with the Nazi leadership, Rahn was assigned guard duty at the Dachau concentration camp in 1937 as punishment for a drunken homosexual scrape. He resigned from the SS in 1939. But the SS would not allow anyone to resign without consequences. Soon, Rahn found out the Gestapo was after him, and he was even offered the option of committing suicide. He vanished. On 13 March 1939, nearly on the anniversary of the fall of Montségur, Rahn was found frozen to death on a mountainside near Söll in Austria. His death was officially ruled a suicide.
Rahn has been the object of many rumours and strange stories, including that his death had been faked, although all such speculation has failed to be substantiated. Richard Stanley made a documentary about Rahn and his fixation on the Holy Grail called The Secret Glory in 2001.
He features as a character in the 2008 novel The Judas Apocalypse by Dan McNeil. In the novel, Rahn helps a fellow German archaeologist search for the lost treasure of the Cathars.
Sorcerer's Feud by Katharine Kerr is another novel that has Rahn as a character.
