“Nazi Bears”: auf Deutsch
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 26th, 2008
For those interested in the “polar bear” links, bear costumes and related bear items shown with so-called “Nazis” and World War II German soldiers (see here and here), there is a new resource for all German-reading Cryptomundians:
I have been opening a thread in a German Wehrmacht-forum about the topic, there you can find some more pics with soldiers and “bears” [auf Deutsch]. gtx/steelcut
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
lol
You know I never quite understood why the Germans were so crazy about baby Knut (other than the obvious “cute” factor, it seemed a little nuts), but obviously the fascination with polar bears strikes a deep chord with the German people. Facinating.
While I’ll leave the specifics to the Saxonphiles, the ‘nazi bear’ pictures strike me as being yet another incarnation of the Wildman archetype that shows up throughout German (and European) folklore and folkritual.
My favorite book on this character is Phyllis Siefker’s ‘Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men.’ Siefker’s thesis would suggest that this Nazi Polar Bear is both closely related to the German Pelznichol (Furry Nichalos) – the immediate forerunner to the North American Santa Claus – and has its deepest roots in the neolithic bear cults suggested by the (possible) ceremonial arrangement of cave bear skulls in caves near Velden, Germany.
Maybe the bears explicit whiteness is influenced by the German focus on Nordic and Aryan mythology at this point.
Sometimes I even believe most of the public fascination with all variety of ‘Furry Forest Men’ to be a modern expression of our love for this ancient archetype…
PAX