Born just outside Vienna, Austria in November 1860, Hanns Hörbiger was an engineer by trade. He invented a steel valve for a blast furnace blowing engine which changed the game for efficient steel production. He also played a key role in the design and construction of the Budapest subway, the third in the world at the time. He was obviously a clever man. A real thinker. And some might say, a complete nut job.  A keen astronomer, one evening Hörbiger pointed his telescope at the moon and suddenly realised, it was all made of ice. It was so shiny! How could it not be ice? He looked at Mars. He looked at Neptune. He looked at the Milky Way…Everything in the cosmos was ice. And not only was it made of ice, but ice was the driving force of the entire universe. Strangely, the German scientific community at the time thought Hörbiger was bonkers and didn’t pay attention to anything he said. World War I was happening so, you know, people had other things to think about. But Hörbiger was not dissuaded. He became a total zealot and decided that all he needed to do was convince the masses of his ideas. Then the academic scientists would be pressured to agree.  SOURCES: Willy Ley: Pseudoscience in Naziland Christina Wessely: Cosmic Ice Theory—Science, Fiction and the Public, 1894–1945.  Eric Kurlander: Hitler’s Monsters Eric Kurlander: A Song of Ice and Fire  Philip Ball: How 2 Pro-Nazi Nobelists Attacked Einstein’s "Jewish Science" The Occult History of the Third Reich: Horbiger CHAPTERS: 00:00 The Dark Side of the German Students Union 03:12 Hans Hörbiger: Engineer & Inventor 05:35 Hörbiger's Cosmic Ice Theory 06:25 A Prophetic Dream and Pendulum Science 11:09 The Origin of the Solar System According to Hörbiger 17:23 Cults and Cosmic Theories 19:14 Hobiger's Zeal and Post-War Tactics 20:16 The Rise of the World Ice Movement 22:38 Hitler Embraces World Ice Theory 29:52 The Pseudoscience Impact on Nazi Germany 33:39 The Downfall and Legacy of the World Ice TheorySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.