Two people we know are so enthousiastic about this author that my girlfriend wanted to read the famous book. Inspite being a controversial book, it proved not difficult or expensive to get a reprint of “High-Time Of Humanity”. Having heard of the man, but never read anything of him, I decided to read the book too. Well, the book is hard to read and even harder to review. Gorsleben (1883-1930) is one of these Teutonic enthousiasts and Ariosophists like Guido von List mixing Germanic lore with the Theosophy of Blavatsky and racial theories. Moreover, he is much of a blabla author, writing a lot, but saying just a little. That is to say, I often just cannot follow the man with his strange shortcuts. The fact that the book is in German and not interesting enough to keep me focussed does not help, so I do not remember all that much that I read in these 760 pages. Let me try to give you an idea of the book nonetheless. The first part is a bit of history, racial mostly, so that went fast, since most of this can be dismissed and skipped. Then Gorsleben moves more towards Germanic history, but there seems to always remain a Christian foundation. A long part is dedicated to the runes, with a chapter for each rune. I do not know how Gorsleben came to the strange Furtharc that he uses. Rune magic, Our Fathers in the Futharks and a few more interesting texts about specific subjects form the end of the massive work.
I said something about Christianity. As an example, also often used by the author, let me give Gorsleben’s trinity in which he equates Odin, Vili and Vé with God-Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar and for example creation, being and perishing. Very annoying is Gorsleben’s continuous playing with words. For example:
Es ist der Tyr-Kreis des germanischen Gottes Tyr und kommt nicht von Tier, denn nicht alle Zeichen sind nach Tieren benannt und hatten früher schon andere Namen. Dat Wort Tyr is mit Tri = Drie, Drehung, Dreier, verwandt und bedeutet hier den Drehkreus. Tyr is der Drie-Gott, der “treue” Gott, der “Druiden”-Gott, der oberste der Dreieinheit. Seine Söhne, die zwölf “Götter”, sind die einzelnen Tierkreiszeichen im “Glanzgefilde” des Himmels, in denen die einzelnen Asen regieren, herrschen, ihre Kraft entfalten, ihren Einflußen geltend machen.
Or in translation:
It’s Tyr-circle of the Germanic god Tyr and it does not come from animal (“Tier”), since not all the figures are named after animals, and previously had other names. The word Tyr is related to tri = Three, rotation, rotator, and here means turning cross. Tyr is the Three-God, the “faithful” God, “Druid” God, the highest of the trinity. His sons, the twelve “gods” are the zodiacal signs in the “shiny realms” of heaven, in which the individual Aesir rule and reign, their power raise their influence.
More annoying are jumps such as Hagal, Hag-All, All-Hag, Al-Krist, Kristall. In similar ways the author tries to connect verry different terms by writing the one into the other leaving all rules of etymology aside. There are more of these annoying elements in the book, so I really had to comb through the book for more interesting pieces of information, which are undoubtely there. Gorsleben has some unorthodox views which can make a start of a new line of thinking. At other times he nicely gathered information or images that nobody else would have connected. Therefor I will not say that “Hoch-Zeit Der Menschheit” is a bad and superfluous book, but you will have to read it critically and be prepared for a whole lot non-information.
1930 Koehler & Amelang, 1993 Faksimile-Verlag, isbn 3817900252