The “Action against Secret Teachings and so-called Secret Sciences” coordinated by the Reichssicherheitshauptamt of the SS in June 1941 in the wake of Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess’ flight to Great Britain – later also referred to as “Sonderaktion Hess” – can be regarded as an absolutely decisive event in the history of the development of parapsychology and so-called scientific occultism in the 20th century. The associated nationwide elimination of the representatives of scientific occultism and astrology in particular, as well as the confiscation of numerous private archives, private libraries, antiquarian bookshops and publishing houses, initially destroyed this entire “scene” with a few exceptions, which had far-reaching consequences. In many cases, those affected were subjected to further serious reprisals such as house searches, protective custody, imprisonment in concentration camps – and even deaths and murders.

In striking contrast to the significance of this event is the finding that it has been insufficiently researched. The current state of research dates back to 2012, when an overview-like summary was presented for the first time (Schellinger, 2012). The “Sonderaktion Heß” had previously been addressed to varying degrees in a number of publications (Hausmann, 2006; Howe, 1995; Staudenmaier, 2010; Treitel, 2004; Werner, 1999), but without any in-depth study having taken place. For more than a decade, therefore, no concrete research has been carried out on this important event.

There is therefore still no comprehensive account of this major Nazi raid of June 1941, which should above all take into account the local and regional procedures at the time. The operation was coordinated in the regions by the responsible SD, CID and Gestapo control centers, which in turn activated their field office staff. So far, there is no knowledge of the possibly different courses of events and procedures of the perpetrators, which could then be analyzed comparatively. There is also a lack of knowledge about which Nazi actors at the middle and lower levels were responsible for carrying out the raid and who was actually actively involved.

The documents of numerous restitution and compensation proceedings that were brought by victims in the immediate post-war period can be used as an important source basis for the victims’ side. As various spot checks have shown, a wide range of detailed information about the events of June 1941 can be found in the files relating to these proceedings. However, there are still no surveys of the number of documented cases. Initial estimates of the number of people affected (Howe, 1995) were made without any source evidence, and we are currently completely in the dark in this regard. The figure of up to 1000 astrologers, anthroposophists, “secret scientists”, occultists and parapsychologists involved seems to represent only a certain section of the overall campaign and needs to be verified by sources. It is known from earlier research that the Federal Archives (BArch) contain extensive lists of names of “suspects” compiled by the regional SS headquarters for the purpose of the raid. A cursory review of these lists in the BArch, which have not yet been analyzed, revealed that the number of persons concerned is likely to be well in excess of 1000.

Additional, mainly personal sources (usually from state and municipal archives) should be consulted in order to trace the biographies of victims and perpetrators for individual case studies. Archival documents would also help to investigate the effects of the “Sonderaktion Heß” on the numerous bookshops, second-hand bookshops and publishers affected, whose economic existence was threatened in June 1941 or who were even forced to close down. Finally, it is interesting to take a look at the history of research into this event, which began in the 1950s with research by the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich (IfZ) against the background of the reparation proceedings. The IfZ archive contains the documents relating to the first steps of a scientific investigation into the action, which have already been cursorily examined, but provide further clues. Questions need to be asked about who dealt with the topic at the time, why it was completely pushed into the background and why it only reappeared in research in the second half of the 1990s.