How astrology helped us win the war!

[Mulder]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7276217.stm

[Legaleagle]

This story, or a version of it, has been doing the rounds for many years. Unfortunately, there is not a shred of evidence that Hitler was in the slightest bit superstitious (unlike a few of the other Nazi leaders) and certainly none exists that he used Horoscopes in his decision making process.

The acticle does make passing mention of this:

Historians now say that Hitler took no notice at all of astrological forecasts.

I love it; "Historians now say...". They have always said so as far as I am aware.

[Matt]

It is interesting that it offers a plausible way that astrology could be used to make predictions without validating the "science" of astrology one bit.

By replicating the self fullfilling prophesises being offered to a believer we might get an insight into their behavior.

In this instance it appears to have failed because the claim that Hitler took heed of astrological advice was false.

In the second instance I suspect it would fail because the intuitive aspects of astrology would not be so easy to replicate as one might otherwise think. The vagueness of infomation provided by astrology leaves much open to interpretation and of course later post hoc revisions.

Get two readings from two different astomers and the level of agreement is minimal, they will agree on the positions of the planets and but will emphasise different supposed aspects of what any of it might mean.

To replicate the informration being supplied to Hitler, von Wohl would not only need the infomraiton required to construct Hitler chart but also an insight into the thought processes of his astronomer, Krafft.

Still, a curious idea. Thanks for bringing it up.

[Legaleagle]

There is a story about how during the "bunker" period Goebells showed Hitler a horoscope which predicted a change of fortunes for Germany during the middle of 1945. He showed him this prophecy after the death of Roosevelt (12th April 1945).

Now, there is no suggestion that Hitler took the astrology at all seriously, but the fact of Roosevelt's death did lift his hopes for a short while as he drew a parallel between the death of Roosevelt and the death of Czarina Elizabeth during the Seven Years War which had led to the break up of the coalition against Frederick the Great and a consequent reversal of fortunes for Prussia. This was a pet subject of Hitler's at the time as he recognised that by that stage nothing short of a catastrophic collapse of the alliance between Britain, America and the Soviet Union was going to save his bacon. So Goebells conveniently retrofitted this historical event (the death of Roosevelt) into the nebulous prediction of "a change of fortunes in mid 1945" and suggested to Hitler that this is what the prediction meant.

Matt wrote:

By replicating the self fullfilling prophesises being offered to a believer we might get an insight into their behavior.

In this instance you might get an insight into the behaviour of Dr Geobells. If we can surmise that this story is genuine and that Goebells genuinely believed in the prophecy of a "reversal of fortunes for Germany in mid 1945" this may explain his motivation for sticking with Hitler until the bitter end and encouraging him to carry the war on. In contrast, the other Nazi leaders wereacting much more realisticly, trying to make peace with the allies, trying to salvage some of Germany's industry and infrastructure or trying to escape.

[Julia]

In contrast, the other Nazi leaders wereacting much more realisticly, trying to make peace with the allies..

Most notably the ultra-woo Himmler!

[dashwood]

of course there is the simple fact that germany acted alone, if the astrology thing was right then thousends of virgos would have invaded poland. esspesialy the sun readers.

[ZERO]

of course there is the simple fact that germany acted alone, if the astrology thing was right then thousends of virgos would have invaded poland. esspesialy the sun readers.

Just picture it.