Biography
Wiligut was baptised as a Roman Catholic in Vienna. At the age of 14, he joined the Kadettenschule there. Aged 17, he was conscripted to the k.u.k. infantry regiment of Milan I king of Serbia. At 17 December 1883 he was appointed as an infantryman, four days later he became a Gefreiter (private). In 1888, he was promoted to lieutenant. In 1906 he married Malwine Leuts von Teuringen of Bozen, with whom he had two daughters, Gertrud and Lotte. A twin brother of one of the girls died as an infant, a devastating tragedy for Wiligut, who was desperate for a male heir to which he could pass on his "secret knowledge", which estranged him from his wife.
In 1889, he joined the quasi-masonic "Schlaraffia-Loge". He published his first book, Seyfrieds Runen, in 1903, under his real name, as "Karl Maria Wiligut (Lobesam)", mentioning his real and additional artist name. 1908 followed the Neun Gebote Gots, where Wiligut first claimed to be heir to an ancient tradition of Irminism. Both List and Wiligut were influenced by Friedrich Fischbach's 1900 Die Buchstaben Gutenbergs.
During World War I, Wiligut served at the southern and eastern fronts and he was decorated for gallantry. On 1 August 1917, he was promoted to colonel. In May 1918, he was retired from the front and commanded a convalescents' camp near Lviv.
After almost forty years in military service, he retired on 1 January 1919 with an impeccable record, and moved to Morzg near Salzburg and dedicated his time to occult studies. He renewed his acquaintance with Theodor Czepl of the Ordo Novi Templi, who in winter 1920/21 spent seven weeks in Wiligut's house. Czepl compiled a report for the archive of the O.N.T., where he describes Wiligut as "a man martial in aspect, who revealed himself as bearer of a secret line of German kingship".
Wiligut supposedly founded the postwar newspaper Der Eiserne Besen, although no evidence for such a newspaper could be found as of today.
Wiligut's wife remained unimpressed by her husband's claim to kingship, and blaming him for their destitution she pushed for his hospitalisation in a mental institution. At 29 November 1924, Wiligut was, while in a cafe with some friends, arrested by the police and taken to the local mental institution where he stayed a couple of years.
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