In May 2008, Poland and Sweden created The Eastern Partnership, represented by Radoslaw Sikorski and Carl Bildt, formed through the EU’s European Neighbourhood Policy, and representing the countries of Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, and with Russia and Belarus as participants, and from which Russia later withdrew and later also Belarus. The first meeting of foreign ministers was held on 8 December 2009 and the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (CSF) was also created, which is involved in “developments regarding democracy building and human rights development”. Since these countries were former Soviet states, this was also seen as a way to counter Russia’s influence in the area and the EU considered this region to be of “strategic importance”. (wiki)
In 2015, the East StratCom Task Force was created as a response to what they believe is Russian revisionist and disinformation campaigns in the media and this was also in cooperation with the Eastern Partnership and with the countries of Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia and they also publish the weekly Disinformation Review. A representative on the East StratCom Task Force on the swedish side is Ida Eklund Lindwall who collaborates with the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap (MSB)) which is under the Department of Defense. This agency came from the former Psychological Defense Board which came from the even earlier Psychological Defense Emergency Preparedness Board where we had Gunnar Heckscher and Gunnar Dahlander as early directors.
Through the older psychological defense agency there were connections to Interdoc and its anti-communist network and there we find the British Brian Crozier (1918-2012) who was a journalist, historian and propagandist. Brian was connected to the Information Research Department (IRD), a Cold War and anti-communist department attached to the British Foreign Office, and he set up the Congress for Cultural Freedom in 1966 and the Institute for the Study of Conflict in 1970. This think tank merged with the Research Foundation for the Study of Terrorism to form the Research Institute for the Study of Conflict and Terrorism (RISCT) in 1989. Paul Wilkinson, who was behind the Research Foundation for the Study of Terrorism, founded the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence in 1994. At this centre we find the former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt and the Swedish expert on terrorism Magnus Ranstorp, who was involved in several similar think tanks and who received funding from the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap, MSB).
In England in 2015, the Integrity Initiative was created with its connection to the Institute for Statecraft, which was founded in 2006 by Christopher Nigel Donnelly and which has previously acted as an advisor to NATO. The Integrity Initiative was involved in the East StratCom Task Force and acted with a similar response to Russia’s alleged revisionist and disinformation campaigns. Connected to the Integrity Initiative is Ida Eklund-Lindwall together with Martin Kragh and Patrik Oksanen. Mats Johansson was also involved but he passed away in 2017 before any involvement could take place.
Mats Johansson (1951-2017) was a politician in the Right Party (Moderaterna) and a journalist and author and wrote about the Cold War in the books The New Cold War. Where is Russia Going? – (2008), Defending the Baltic Sea. Sweden’s Role in NATO Cooperation – (ed., 2013), Cold War 2.0. Russia is getting ready – (2013) and Cold War 2.1 – The Return of the Evil Empire (2015) etc. Mats was a journalist for several newspapers and has been editor-in-chief of Svenska Dagbladet, editor-in-chief of Business Press Service and managing director of the think tank Timbro. He was also editor of Svensk Tidskrift which was founded by Eli Heckscher (1879-1952) and whose son Gunnar Heckscher (1909-1987) became a head of the Psychological Defense Emergency Preparedness Board between 1954–1959.
Mats, who studied Russia, became a member of the Society for Russian Studies (Sällskapet för Rysslandsstudier) and he was also a member of the swedish Foundation Management for SR, SVT and UR (Swedish Public Service). This foundation is a buffer between the state and SVT and according to this ownership it should be neither owned by the state nor commercial interests and operate as an independent public service company. This foundation has nevertheless been criticized for its connection to the state and for not being “independent” from political bias through this form of foundation ownership.
Several directors in the Swedish Public Service have family connections to the military and knighthoods, such as Countess Eva Hamilton (director of Swedish Television 2006–2014) and whose grandfather was Knut Gustaf Hamilton (1888-1973) who was a military man and knight of the Order of the Sword and the Order of Vasa. He is also listed as a member of the Swedish Opposition (1941) which was founded by Per Engdahl (1909-1994). Knut’s brother Gustaf Edvard Hugo Hamilton (1895-1971) was a knight of the Johanniterorden together with several others in the Hamilton family. Her mother was Gerd Hamilton (born Hammarskiöld) (1926-2018) whose grandfather was Carl Arvid Hammarskjöld (1869-1968) who was also a knight of the Johanniterorden. The Hamilton family is known for its many connections to Nazi organizations such as the Swedish Opposition, the National League of Sweden, the Swedish-German Association and the Carlberg Foundation. From this family we also find Count Walter Hugo Hamilton (1885-1968) who had a secondary profession as a priest in the Liberal Catholic Church. Hamilton, together with Sigfrid Fjellander (1899-1975), and some other priests, helped start the first church council in the Liberal Catholic Church in 1933.
The current director of Sveriges Television is Anne Lagercrantz who is married to David Lagercrantz whose grandparents also go to the Hamilton family through Countess Agnes Hamilton (1885-1972). In the Lagercrantz family we find Herman Ludvig Fabian Lagercrantz (1859-1945), Gustaf Herman Lagercrantz (1894-1981) and Carl Adolf Erik Lagercrantz (1898-1961) as knights of the Johanniterorden.
In 2011, Mats founded the think tank Free World Forum (Frivärld), which is dedicated to analysis and opinion-forming in four areas: “security policy, international legal order, free trade and European cooperation” and where the purpose was discussed, which was to “stimulate and influence the discussion about which ideas and perspectives should guide Swedish foreign and security policy” (wiki). We can also read that Free World Forum also runs the Center for Influence and Disinformation Analysis (CIDA) and conducts debates about Swedish NATO membership and Russian hybrid influence. At this think tank, we find several people connected to the Swedish Armed Forces and foreign think tanks and experts on Russian military strategy. At Free World Forum, we also find Patrik Oksanen, who had a connection to the Integrity Initiative. Martin Kragh, who was also connected to the Integrity Initiative, was head of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Swedish Institute for International Affairs and wrote about Russia in the book The Fallen Empire (2022) and the essay The Long Echoes of the Russian Revolution (2017).
After Mats’s death, Gunnar Hökmark took over as chairman of Free World Forum. Gunnar, who is a right-wing politician (Moderate), started meetings with the Monday Movement when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The Monday Movement was founded by Gunnar, Andres Küng (1945-2002), Peeter Luksep (1955-2015) and Håkan Holmberg (1951-2020) and worked for the independence of the Baltic states from the Soviet Union between 1990-91. Andres Küng was previously on Gustaf Petrén’s (1917-1990) Civil Rights Movement in Sweden and held the presidency of the Swedish section of the anti-communist Resistance International that existed between 1983 and 1988. The RI board included Joakim von Braun (1955-) who works with intelligence activities as he has worked with the Swedish Security Service and for the military intelligence service IB, now the Office for Special Collection (Kontoret för särskild inhämtning (KSI)). The predecessors to KSI were the C-Bureau (1939–1945) and the T-Office (1946–1964). Filip Lundberg, who was also on the board of Resistance International, can also be found on the editorial staff of the magazine Contra. The magazine Contra wrote an article about Andres Küng in 2003.
“For Andres Küng disliked communism, not only in the nearby Baltic states or in Eastern Europe, but everywhere where Marxist-Leninist ideas were put into practice with all the misery this entailed. It therefore seemed natural for Küng to run for chairman of the Swedish section of the international anti-communist organization Resistance International (RI), founded by Vladimir Bukovsky in the mid-1980s.” (Contra, 2003, no. 3)
Among the board members of the Civil Rights Movement we find Per Rudberg (1922-2010) who was a knight of the Order of the Sword and who gave lectures at the Order of St. Michael and who in 1984 became a member of the Moderate Party’s defense policy group and military policy advisor to Carl Bildt (source, Extremhögern, A-L Lodenius, Stieg Larsson, p104). Another member of the Civil Rights Movement was Hans Alarik von Hofsten (1931-1992) who was a Swedish military naval officer and friend of Per Rudberg. Hans came from the Swedish noble family ‘von Hofsten’ and his father Fritz Samuel von Hofsten (1895-1980) was married to Maud Elsa Margareta von Hofsten (Wachtmeister af Johannishus) (1908-1988). In this “naval officer family” and noble family (Wachtmeister af Johannishus) we find a large number who are members of the Johanniterorden. A brother of Hans is Gustaf von Hofsten (1942-) who is a Knight of the Johanniterorden and was in the Defence Staff between 1981 and 1984. Another knight was the chamberlain Carl Adolf Erland von Hofsten (1870-1956).
Gunnar is the chairman of the Swedish Pan-European Movement where we also find Walburga Habsburg Douglas as a board member. Walburga was president “ad interim” of the Swedish Order of Malta in 2008 and there we also find Prince Andreas von und zu Liechtenstein as president between 2008-2014 and Kent Johansson between 2014 and 2017 and where we have Benedicta Lindberg as the current president. Benedicta, who was born a countess, is the daughter of Hunold Graf von Plettenberg (1934-) and a member of several right-wing Christian networks such as Agenda Europe, Respekt (pro-life) and “En av Oss” (pro-life).
Walburga, who is the daughter of Otto von Habsburg (1912-2011), sits on the board of directors of the Institute for Information on the Crimes of Communism (IICC) which was founded in 2008 and where we also find Carl Bildt, Gunnar Hökmark and several experts on the history and economic systems of Russia and the former Soviet Union. We also find the economist Stefan Hedlund who is also involved in the Liechtenstein-based ‘Geopolitical Intelligence Services’ which was founded by Prince Michael of Liechtenstein (1951-) in 2011. Walburga is married to Count Archibald Douglas (1949-) who comes from the Swedish part of the famous Scottish clan. A cousin of Archibald was Gustaf Douglas (1938-2023) who was an owner of the investment company Latour where we also find his sons and Henric Ankarcrona who previously led the Swedish Johanniterordern. Gustaf married Countess Elisabeth von Essen who is the daughter of Eric von Essen (1910-1986) who was a knight of the Johanniterordern and a member of the Swedish Opposition which was founded by the Nazi Per Engdahl (1909-1994).
The cousins’ grandfather was Count Archibald Douglas (1883-1960) who supported the “white” side in the Finnish Civil War during World War I and whose mother was Countess Anna Lovisa Dorotea Countess Ehrensvärd (1855-1939) and whose brother was Carl Augustin Ehrensvärd (1854-1934) who was a Knight of the Johanniterordern and Archibald’s cousin was Carl August Ehrensvärd (1892-1974) who was also a Knight of the Johanniterordern and was the military’s representative in the steering group for Stay Behind in Sweden and he was also Chief of the Defence Staff between 1945–1947. In 1933, Archibald was one of the founders of the National Socialist Bloc together with Eric von Rosen (1879-1948).
“In 1933, together with a number of other officers, Douglas was one of the initiators of the formation of the National Socialist Bloc. The project was an attempt to unite the many different Swedish Nazi organizations to join together in a common party.” (wiki)
The Pan-European Movement was founded in 1923 by Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi (1894-1972) who wrote his manifesto Pan-Europa (1923) in which he laid the foundation for a united European State and where Nicholas Murray Butler (1862-1947) wrote the foreword to the book (Butler was President of the Pilgrim Society between 1928 and 1946). Otto von Habsburg (1912-2011) became involved during its early years in the 1930s and became its President in 1957 and International President after Coudenhove-Kalergi’s death in 1973. The current President is Alain Terrenoire and Walburga Habsburg Douglas is Vice-President. The Paneuropean Union has also worked for a militarily united Europe with a European army and with a European Common Security and Defence Policy. The Swedish part was founded in 1992 and has as its current President Gunnar Hökmark and with Walburga Habsburg Douglas as a board member.
Otto von Habsburg (1912-2011) was also a member of The Cercle Pinay (Le Cercle) founded in 1952-53, which was under the vision of a Catholic and conservative Europe and which was a network of politicians who worked in the military and intelligence services and who worked to counter the communist threat. A large number of organizations can be linked to its members such as the Pan-European Movement and the European Movement and also societies such as Opus Dei and the Moon Church and anti-communist networks such as the World Anti-Communist League and the Western Goals Institute and the European political Right. Le Cercle takes its name from Antoine Pinay (1891-1994) and some other members were Brian Crozier, Konrad Adenauer, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Henry Kissinger and Jean Monnet. Giulio Andreotti (1919-2013) who was a Prime Minister of Italy was a member and he was also a knight of the Catholic Knights of Malta where we also find Otto von Habsburg his daughter Walburga. (Rogue Agents, David Teacher)
Julian Amery (1919-1996) was president of “Le Cercle” between 1985 and 1993 and we also find him in the conservative Monday Club where we also find an interest among the members of esoteric orders and churches and in The International Monarchist League where the founder was Rev. John Edward Bazille-Corbin (1887–1964) who was involved in the Catholicate of the West within the Catholic Apostolic Church (Irvingite Church) and where he became a Bishop. Gregory Lauder-Frost and Merlin Hanbury-Tracy, 7th Baron Sudeley (1939-2022) were in the Monday Club and they became leaders in the later ‘Traditional Britain Group’ where we find John Kersey who is the current Primate and Presiding Bishop of The Apostolic Episcopal Church. Members of the Monday Club were also in anti-communist societies such as the Western Goals Institute.
Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories was a project that started in 2016 and lasted until 2020 and was funded by the EU and involved a large group of academic researchers who examined conspiracies from a variety of perspectives within different cultures, regions and history. This project has in its description a connection to various stakeholders described as journalists, policy makers, NGOs, science communicators and educators. One of these stakeholders is the East StratCom Task Force and its purpose is also seen as a defense against what they believe are false accusations of conspiracy directed against them.
“The Action aims at equipping the major stakeholders with robust knowledge and strategies to understand and counter accusations of conspiracy directed against them or others. It thus will reach out and collaborate with scientists, politicians, journalists, NGOs and educators.”
“The Action has by now established contacts to stakeholders across Europe. Among these are stakeholders that operate throughout Europe such as the East StratCom Task Force, national security agencies but also NGOs or journalists whose work concerns the regional level. Some stakeholders representing NGOs or Think Tanks have been to more than one Action meeting, some have even joined the Action.” (COST Action Progress Report at 24 months (01/04/2016 to 01/04/2018), pdf)
The East StratCom Task Force was created in 2015 through a meeting with the European Council and targeted Russia’s alleged “disinformation campaigns”. In response to these accusations of conspiracy directed against them, local authorities were also involved, such as the Swedish Psychological Defense Agency, which held a seminar together with the Department of Strategic Communication (Lund University), the East StratCom Task Force, the Free World Forum, the Swedish Institute and several journalists from various newspapers. The Psychological Defense Agency (MSB, Swedish Agency for Civil Protection and Emergency Preparedness) has also hired Andreas Önnerfors, who conducts research into radicalization and terrorism and who is also included in Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories, where he writes about conspiracy theories and information influence and its impact on people that can lead to a threat to democracy.
Andreas Önnerfors, a Swedish Freemason with the X degree, was also Grand Master of the British research lodge Quatour Coronati Lodge in 2019. This lodge is associated with several occult societies and where several early Grand Masters were members of societies such as the Theosophical Society, the Hermetic Order of the Golden and the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. One of the founders was Walter Besant (1836-1901) and his brother was married to Annie Besant (1847-1933) who was one of the leaders of the Theosophical Society. Annie founded the Order of the Temple of the Rosy Cross in 1912 together with theosophists Marie Russak (1865-1945) and James Ingall Wedgwood (1883-1951) where they channeled from “Ascended Masters”. James became a Freemason in The Order of Universal Co-Freemasonry in Great Britain and also a priest in the ‘Old Catholic Church’ and later a Bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church.
Dr William Bernard Crow (1895-1976) was a priest in the Liberal Catholic Church in 1935 and was later consecrated by Herbert James Monzani Heard (Mar Jacobus II) (1866-1947) who was a bishop within the Catholicate of the West and Crow was given the title Bishop Mar Basilius Abdullah III. Crow consecrated Hugh George de Willmott Newman (1905-1979) who later became a leader in the Catholicate of the West between 1944 and 1979. The Catholicate of the West came to an end in 1994 but was continued in the British Orthodox Church and through the San Luigi Orders under John Kersey (Edmond III) which we also find in the ‘Traditional Britain Group’ which was founded by Gregory Lauder-Frost who was previously vice-president of the Western Goals Institute (WGI). The Traditional Britain Group also included Merlin Hanbury-Tracy, 7th Baron Sudeley (1939-2022) as President and who was previously a President and Chairman of the Conservative Monday Club and Vice-Chancellor of the International Monarchist League.
The Freemason William Wynn Westcott (1848-1925) was Grand Master of the Quatour Coronati Lodge in 1893 and a Supreme Magus of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia of the Metropolitan College. He was one of the founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn along with Samuel MacGregor Mathers (1854-1918) and was a member of the Theosophical Society in the Blavatsky Lodge and he founded the Theosophical Adelphi Lodge in London. The Quatour Coronati has over the years had a large number of members of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and also of the Order of the Golden Dawn. There were also a large number of members of the Golden Dawn lodges such as the Amen-Ra Temple, Isis-Urania and Horus Temple who were also members of the Theosophical Society.
Andreas Önnerfors also conducts research into right-wing extremism, radicalization and terrorism and has been a member of the British research center The Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR) where he has contributed a number of articles on Swedish fascism and its connection to conspiracy theories, populism, the radical right and various protest movements against the state and its institutions. At CARR we find articles on the Order of the Nine Angles (ONA), eco-fascism, accelerationist ideas and on nature mystics such as Savitri Devi and the roots of the Swedish anti-immigration party Sweden Democrats.
Savitri Devi (1905-1982) was connected to the World Union of National Socialists (WUNS) founded in 1962, which was a collection of various neo-Nazi organizations around the world that had a swedish branch, including the National League of Sweden (Svenska Nationella Förbundet (SNF)) founded in 1915. After World War II, Rütger Essén (1890-1972) was a leader of the SNF between 1941 and 1972. Rütger’s parents were Hedvig Eleonora (Ellen) Wachtmeister af Johannishus (1856-1916) and Thure Adam Georg Essén (1839 – 1903). SNF members had connections to the Swedish-Chilean Society, the Order of St. Michael and the World Anti-Communist League. Between 1972 and 1977 Werner Öhrn became a leader in the SNF and his connections were also to the Swedish Swedenborg Church, the Order of St. Michael and the Swedish Stay Behind organization. Between 1978 and 1980 Åke Lindsten (1921-1994) was a leader and he was also secretary of the Swedish-Chilean Society and a swedish leader in the World Anti-Communist League.
The National League of Sweden (SNF) also had a connection to the League of Saint George in the United Kingdom which had international connections to the Belgian VMO and the Spanish CEDADE and also Column 88 and the Italian Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari whose members were previously in the Italian Social Movement (MSI). A member of the MSI was Licio Gelli (1919-2015) who fought during World War II in Spain for Mussolini’s Blackshirts and also acted as a liaison to Hermann Göring’s SS division. Göring had a connection to Sweden and married Eric von Rosen’s (1879-1948) sister-in-law Carin Göring (1888-1931), whose family was part of the spiritualist circle Edelweiss Society.
Licio Gelli is said to have been a member of the Rite of Memphis-Misraim, founded in 1881 and first led by Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882) and later under John Yarker (1902–1913) and Theodor Reuss (1913–1923), who was one of the founders of the Ordo Templi Orientis. Reuss was a friend of William Wynn Westcott (1848-1925), who was lodge master of the Quatour Coronati research lodge in 1893. Licio later led the Propaganda Due, a lodge under the Grand Orient of Italy, which was accused of being involved in the Strategy of Tension (terrorist bombings) in the 1980s. Investigators of the Bologna bombings suspected that the attacks had been carried out by NAR cells on behalf of Licio Gelli. Some members of the NAR cells were later said to have resided in England and were in apartments owned by members of the League of St George. (Extremhögern, p154)
The Order of the Nine Angles (ONA) has a shady past but is said to have been founded in the 1960s and where David Myatt is said to have taken over the leadership in 1974 (wiki). Myatt joined the British Movement (BM) which was part of the World Union of National Socialists (WUNS) which had also been founded by Colin Jordan (1923-2009). Myatt was also involved in Column 88 and Combat 18 which had a connection to the League of St George. The ONA is also said to be influenced by magical groups such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
The SNF split in 1941 and Per Engdahl (1909-1994) founded the Swedish Opposition instead and in 1951 he also founded the European Social Movement (ESB) (also called the Malmö Movement) which was a collection of European organizations such as the Italian Social Movement (MSI), the British Union Movement and organizations from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark and France. A follower of Per Engdahl was Henric Bogislaw von Schwerin (1932-1995) (NSR) and in this noble family there are several knights in the Johanniterorden such as Werner Gottlob von Schwerin (1851-1922), Henrik Werner von Schwerin (1874-1962), Hans Hugold Julius von Schwerin (1906-1957) and Carl Philip Wilhelm von Schwerin (1904-1966).
Free Words (Fria Ord) was a newspaper published by the The National League of Sweden between 1951 and 1989 and there we find Claes af Ugglas (1906-1995) as writer and editor-in-chief between 1971 and 1989. One of Claes’ brothers, Oscar Magnus af Ugglas (1901-1984), was a knight in the Johanniterorden and chamberlain. Through this family we enter Sweden’s financial elite as their mother Alfhild Laura Wallenberg (1877-1952) came from the famous Swedish banking family. Oscar’s son was Bertil af Ugglas (1934-1977) and a politician in the Right Wing Party (Moderates) and married to Margaretha af Ugglas (1939-) who was also a politician in the same political party. She was a daughter of Edvard Hugo Stenbeck (1890-1977) who was a founder of Investment AB Kinnevik together with Carl Wilhelm Orozco Klingspor (1880-1963), who was a knight in the Johanniterorden and also a Commander between the years 1950 and 1961, and Leopold Robert von Horn (1879-1947) whose sons Knut Raoul Leopold Robert von Horn (1907-1990) and Robert Carl-Fredrik Bohnstedt von Horn also became knights.
More supporters of Per Engdahl were Lili Hamilton (1893-1962) (SNF, Swedish Opposition) and her husband Wathier Percival (Percy) Hamilton (1891-1971) (C. E. Carlber’s Foundation).
“The “Silent Aid” had a second headquarters in Sweden, where the vice-chairwoman Countess Lili Hamilton and the neo-Nazi Per Engdahl held the strings. Via the “northern escape route” a large number of war criminals were smuggled from Sweden to Latin America or to the Middle East, among them SS chief ideologist Johann von Leers.” (Aftonbladet, Himmler’s daughter does not give up, 2002-05-05)
In a local branch of the SNF during the 1950s in Grödinge (Botkyrka municipality) we find Carl-Gustaf Landerholm who was a member of the SNF party board and had shares in the newspaper Dagsposten (it existed between 1941 and 1950 when it later continued through Free Words). Carl-Gustaf was the grandfather of Henrik Landerholm who was the first Director General of the Agency for Psychological Defense (Myndigheten för psykologiskt försvar (MPF)), which is an agency founded in 2022 and whose mission is to coordinate the psychological defense of various government agencies from influence from foreign powers. Henrik is a childhood friend of our current Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, whose grandfather Hjalmar Kristersson was a member of the Swedish-German Association until 1942 (source T. Hübinette). Magnus Hjort took over the MPF the year after as director and he has written about the history of the psychological defense agencies and also about the Swedish Stay Behind movement in his paper entitled “1949 – An embryo of an Underground Resistance Movement takes shape” which comes from a conference in Oslo in 2005. (Intelligence in Waging the Cold War: NATO, Warsaw Pact, and Neutrals, 1949-9029 April-1 May 2005, Oslo, Norway, Workshop on Stay Behind, Magnus Hjort)
“Among those appointed was the chief of the Swedish Army, Carl August Ehrensvärd and the director general of the Swedish Telegraph Agency, Håkan Sterky. Yet another was probably the cabinet minister for home affairs, Eije Mossberg. The man who over the years was to become the most deeply associated with Stay Behind was Alvar Lindencrona. Lindencrona was a trained lawyer and had in the 1930’s and 1940’s been a civil servant working in the ministries of defence and communications. In 1949 and until 1964, however, he was managing director for the insurance company Thule. Apparently he had very good connections in the political and military establishments as well as in the business community.” (Magnus Hjort)
After the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated in 1986, the police conducted an investigation into the swedish right-wing extremism and also the World Anti-Communist League and their connection to the murder. In documents from this time from the police we can find a EUROWACL Council meeting held in Copenhagen from 2nd-4th February in 1979. EUROWACL was a movement in Europe within WACL that is said to have been created by Roger Pearson and where mostly Nazi parties were represented. In these documents we find Wilhelm Landig (1909-1997) (Austria) as chairman and H. K. H. Prince Alfred of Liechtenstein as vice chairman (as it is difficult to know which of the princes this is, we can assume that this is Prince Karl Alfred of Liechtenstein (1910-1985) as he best fits the profile?) and Donald A Martin (United Kingdom) as secretary. Also present at this meeting were Baroness Jane Birdwood (1913-2000) and Åke Lindsten (1921-1994) from the The National League of Sweden (SNF) and several others from European countries.
Donald A Martin was a leader in the British League of Rights which was founded in the early 1970s and which also included Baroness Jane Birdwood as General Secretary. Donald also ran the British League for European Freedom which later merged into the World Anti-Communist League. Jane was also a member of The Conservative Monday Club.
The National League of Sweden celebrated its 70th anniversary on Thursday, 17 to 21 October 1985 in Stockholm, where Wilhelm Landig (Vienna) and H.R.H. Prince Alfred of Liechtenstein were present together with Åke Lindsten and Ulf Hamacher (1920-1993) from the Catholic Order of St. Michael. In documents from the police in 1986, Hamacher was questioned by the police.
“Hamacher states that one of his foreign friends, Wilhelm Landig, stated in a letter to him that “Swedish right-wing circles” had not been able to carry out the murder because they were too poorly organized. Landig instead points to left-wing forces in Europe, such as the Kurds, who have a very good organization. Landig is chairman of EUROWACL, to which the SNF is affiliated. In Vienna, Landig runs VOLKSTUM-VERLAG, a music company, which, according to Hamacher, is a cover for former SS officers and neo-Nazis, as Nazi organizations are banned in Austria. They still carry out their activities, including their own intelligence service, and keep a watchful eye on the danger from communism.” (Stockholm police, 1986, doc, wpu.nu)
Wilhelm Landig ran an occult group in the 1950s in Vienna called the Landig Group (Vienna Lodge) which inspired völkisch mysticism, ariosophical, Ario-Germanic mythology of Thule legends and he wrote the books Götzen gegen Thule (1971), Wolfszeit um Thule (1980) and Rebellen für Thule – Das Erbe von Atlantis (1991). He is said to have had friendships with people such as Miguel Serrano, Savitri Devi (WUNS) and Hans-Ulrich Rudel and others.
“The Black Sun is a term coined by Wilhelm Landig for the symbol of a wheel of twelve sig runes found on the floor of the General’s at Wewelsburg Castle designed by Himmler’s SS, the original Black Order. Originally, the black sun, is a symbol for Lucifer, is the “nocturnal Sun” identified with Saturn, or Kronos, and worshipped as the malevolent aspect of the dying-god, like the lion-headed god of Mithraism.” (ordoabchao.ca, David Livingstone)
“Moreover, promoted by Haeckel and other early ecologists, Social Darwinism was opened up in order to include racial hierarchy and purity into concepts of a holistic natural harmony. In more occult circles, like the German Thule Society, racial supremacy, natural mysticism and ecological purity (re-connecting with nature) were merged into the ideology of ‘ariosophy’.” (CARR, Review of ‘Fascismens gröna rötter. Konspirationsteorier, kris och kollaps´, Önnerfors)
“After the Second World War, central concepts of green Nazi ideology were rebranded by Savitri Devi (1905–1982) who “combined the belief in a superior Aryan race with Anti-Semitism, Hinduism and social Darwinism while at the same time propagating for animal rights and biocentrism, the belief that all parts in nature are of the same value”” (CARR, Review of ‘Fascismens gröna rötter. Konspirationsteorier, kris och kollaps´, Önnerfors)
Andreas Önnerfors writes in Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories and on CARR about the Swedish anti-immigration party Sweden Democrats (Sverigemokraterna), which was founded in 1988. The party, which has its roots in several different political organizations, can be linked back to the Democratic Alliance (DA) party, which was founded as a youth organization in 1967 with an anti-communist side and which was in favor of the US war in Vietnam. The Democratic Alliance came from the Committee for a Free Asia (KFA) which had a connection to the World Anti-Communist League and the Baltic Committee (BA). The Democratic Alliance included Carl Göran Holm, Tommy Hansson (Moon Church, Liberal Catholic Church), Arvo Holm, Anders Larsson (Swedenborg Church) and Leif (Zeilon) Ericsson. Leif was active in the Democratic Alliance during the 1970s and later in Bevara Sverige Svenskt (BSS) and was later described as one of the “ideologists” of the Sweden Democrats party.
Another member of Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories is the professor of social anthropology Annika Rabo, who contributed with her text ‘Conspiracy theory as occult cosmology in anthropology’ (Routledge Handbook of Conspiracy Theories). Rabo explains how anthropological research on conspiracy theories is done together with research on witchcraft, sorcery and evil forces and the view of reality as various occult cosmologies and where spiritual forces are considered to be behind the events in life. In her research, she mentions the social anthropologist Edward E. Evans-Pritchard (1902-1973) who wrote the book Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (1937).
“The Azande, according to Evans-Pritchard, did not believe in coincidence and instead explained misfortunes, accidents and death by witchcraft. He explained, at great length, that the Azande did not deny that accidents happen. But witchcraft was the answer to the question of why a person was afflicted by misfortune, accidents, illness or death at a specific time, and in a specific place. This reasoning – connecting the dots so to speak and denying the possibility of coincidence – is quite similar to beliefs in conspiracies, as noted by many anthropologists.”
Rabo also addresses allegations of Satanism and ritual abuse that emerged in the 1980s, and mentions anthropologist Jean La Fontaine (1931-) and her research in these areas. She wrote the book Speak of the Devil (1998) in which she examined claims of ritual abuse.
“In the late 1980s, allegations appeared in the U.K. that a great many children were being abused, and even murdered, as part of witchcraft, or of satanic cults. Some towns in the Midlands seemed to be particularly stricken, and social services took a number of children from their parents to rescue them from the clutches of these cults. No evidence for these satanic cults was ever produced, yet the accusations persisted for quite some time.” (Conspiracy theory as occult cosmology in anthropology)
Andreas Önnerfors is a colleague of Henrik Bogdan, who is listed as secretary of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) led by William Breeze (1955-), and together they wrote ‘Mystical Brotherhood – Powerful Network: Studies in Swedish 18th Century Freemasonry’ (2006) in which Anders Simonsen and Jonas Andersson also participated. Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) was a leader in the OTO between 1925 and 1947 and he had a connection with William Bernard Crow (1895-1976) who was granted by him to administer rites such as the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis and Mizraim and priesthood within the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica. Crowley wrote in a letter to Crow that his followers who sought initiation into the OTO could be sent to Gerald Gardner (1884-1964) who was residing in London. W. B. Crow wrote the book A History of Magic, Witchcraft and Occultism (1968). (san-luigi.org)