Estet...Este...Eszet...SZ...SS...oh, bugger it

So who the hell are all these people? And what do they want? We have very few cues to go on, but these are my best guesses. If you want the lowdown on their name, ß, pronounced Ess-tzet, check the details page.

First off, let me say that I'm not convinced that any significant number of influential Nazis were actually particularly steeped in occultism. If you want a good rundown of genuinely well-researched sources as well as nimnoes in print who examine just what place mysticism did likely have in Nazi-ism, check this site. It's delightfully snide.

What I am convinced of is that the tale of the darkly occult Nazis has made such a good story that it has found its way firmly into popular consciousness and was almost certainly used to give Weiß Kreuz a good batch of villains. Thus, I am evaluating the textual clues both in light of the story's appeal and with an eye to what the surviving historical record seems to actually indicate.

ß does rather look like some survival of the Nazi occult types, however fringe or central you think they were. We first see the three geezers who appear to be in charge of the organization in some mountains somewhere, and the castle-like building they're in does have a rather Alpine feeling to it. As opposed to, for instance, to someplace in Tibet or the Rockys. The dog herding sheep is a fairly cliché scene setter (16).

They talk about having come to Japan once before, some time back. More specifically, during their ritual they talk about achieving the empire they didn't manage to fifty years ago. If we allow that the show takes place more or less at the time it was written, that would be round about WWII.

They also talk about meeting a man with green gloves. This is, I believe, a reference to an alleged group of Tibetan monks (speaking of clichés), the Adepts of Agarthi or the Society of Green Men, contacted by the Nazis, who supposedly agreed to relocate to Germany and teach undefined secrets. The head of this order was supposed to be called the Monk with Green Gloves (or Hands). The fact that our WK threesome talk about meeting green-glove boy in Japan, rather than Tibet, may be an alternative version of this rumor or a deliberate rewriting so as to add local color to an identifiable reference. At any rate, it's the solidest indication we get of who these three oldsters are supposed to be. (You will find references to this supposed society in several of the books that Dr. Dyson pans most nastily at the link above.)

This, of course, is where Schwarz diverges from ß. ß wants to call one person into Aya-chan's body, Schwarz wants to call a different one. Schwarz says up front that they want to raise elemental chaos--more or less because they can, as far as I can tell. The old geezers want to raise a person who died, though we never get a name and they only refer to this individual as "the one", adding only in the last episode that he was "conscientious" and "cautious" in sending parties searching for the "tablet of regeneration" they intend to use for their ritual.

Both these goals certainly ring alongside Nazi occult sentiments (such as Himmler promulgated in order to sway the gullible) such as you find in the essays posted at this (informative, not political, and totally undocumented) site. Due to Crawford's comments about ß wanting to raise the short term past (fifty years ago) I think they may be trying to call Hitler into Aya-chan.

This possibility had me laughing rather hysterically when it occurred to me. Think about it for a moment: call the original Nazi into the body of an Asian girl. If it weren't such a gruesome idea I would call it cosmic justice.

Schwarz, on the other hand, seems to want something a little closer to the original occult goals of the yo-yos in question: to raise an incarnation of utter destructiveness and/or enlightenment, depending on which version they're fishing for, and bring about the end (and possibly rebirth) of the world in chaos. (Note that the page linked above is on an archive rather given to arm-waving, but this summary of the supposed occult influences on Nazi philosophy does accurately portray the mythos in question.) The fact that Schwarz expects to survive this chaos smacks of the whole super-man idea; apparently Crawford considers his team übermenschen. This would explain his abrupt u-turns in apparent loyalty. They guard Takatori for ß until the man has produced sufficient chaos to make ß happy, then drop him like a hot potato. They play along with ß until they are set up to take advantage of the Sakura/Aya-chan mix-up and, presumably, the power generated by the deaths of ß in order to meet their own goals. But Crawford isn't committed to anyone but his own team, because, if I'm reading this right, he considers everyone else inferior beings. The idea that Schwarz has been playing a long game with ß is supported by the final confrontation between them and the bearded geezer, wherein Schuldig says that they will wake Aya-chan (prophetic statement from the telepath), the geezer says they don't have enough power, Nagi calls him ridiculous, Geezer tries to blow them away and finds that he can't. At which point Crawford tells him that Schwarz is not what ß thought they were. The man's got discipline, you've got to admit, considering that he (apparently) let the bearded geezer give him the start of a heart attack when they speak about having the host ready.

Oh, yes, that reminds me. Schwarz's actions during the second half of the series do also fit into the mold of occultism of the type in question. The concept that usable, if immaterial, power is given off as a result of human pain and death was something people like Aleister Crowley held forth on with what I can only call sick glee. Thus Schwarz's assignments to cause death and disruption make internal sense. This is, at least, the best explanaition I can come up with for Crawford's comment that "The goals don't concern us, only the process" (17) when Nagi asks whether a new world/age/dawn can really be brought about by a bunch of nutcases spraying young adults with extremely flammable chemicals. The fact that they connive at ß's deaths makes even more internal sense, since one of the associated ideas in the danker and ranker corners of occult belief is that the pain and death of an occultist generates even more power than usual.

Who's in?

So now we have the question of just who is a part of ß. The three oldsters are obviously the executive board. Schwarz is, supposedly, working for them all the way along, given that Takatori senior says he knew all along that they were keeping an eye on him at ß's behest. In the last third of the series, Schreiend may also have joined up. At their first group re-appearence, when Omi asks if they are with ß, Tot merely respones "Who cares, anyway?" (19). Yet, Crawford suggests two episodes later that Schreiend and Schwarz are allies, all part of the same happy family...well, almost. The fact that ß has just ordered Schwarz to take Aya-chan away from Schreiend, and Crawford is setting them up to distract Weiß with their deaths rather detracts from that.

But recruiting and/or reorganization has, after all, allegedly gone on. In Episode 16 the geezers say that the Japanese branch needs reinforcing, and the she-geezer says that she has appointed (or possibly sent in) people who should be strong enough to run the show better than Reiji. Just who she means is never quite made clear. That episode features the trio of masked occult-looking types who kidnap pretty girls to crucify and burn. They are identified with ß. If it was them the geezeress meant, I don't think they do very well. She may mean Schwarz. After all, the mad composer is also identified with ß, and Crawford seems to be his handler rather as Schuldig is the interface with the YMCA types gone round the twist (17). The slimy lawyer does get a call directly from the geezers, but he seems to be a utility for Schwarz's good rather than the other way around; Crawford sure doesn't bother to have him protected.

I do note that there appear to also be other branches in the organization. When the three geezers arrive in Japan and are shown through their concert hall cum cathedral, their flunky mentions that the "other executive divisions" think the ritual has gotten too glitzy. The bearded geezer promptly gives the flunky a heart attack. Whether ß is an organization that the three geezers are only in charge of one branch of, or whether ß itself is part of a larger group is unclear at this point, but a bit later Crawford refers to the geezers as the leaders of ß. This rather makes me think that ß is part of a larger organization, though we should keep in mind that it could just be Crawford doing a little CYA brown-nosing.