In classical and medieval literature, ultima Thule (Latin "furthermost Thule") acquired a metaphorical meaning of any distant place located beyond the "borders of the known world".[2]
Usage in Nazi ideology
In Germany, extreme right occultists believed in a historical Thule, or Hyperborea, as the ancient origin of the "Aryan race" (a term which they believed had been used by the Proto-Indo-European people). The Thule Society, which had close links to the Deutsche Arbeiter Partei (DAP), known later as the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP or Nazi party) was, according to its own account, founded on August 18, 1918.[50] In his biography of Lanz von Liebenfels (1874–1954), Der Mann, der Hitler die Ideen gab, Munich 1985 – The Man who Gave Hitler the Ideas, the Viennese psychologist and author Wilfried Daim claimed that the Thule Gesellschaft name originated from mythical Thule. In his history of the SA (Mit ruhig festem Schritt, 1998 – With Firm and Steady Step), Wilfred von Oven, Joseph Goebbels' press adjutant from 1943 to 1945, confirmed that Pytheas' Thule was the historical Thule for the Thule Gesellschaft.
Much of this fascination was due to rumours surrounding the Oera Linda Book, falsely claimed to have been found by Cornelis Over de Linden during the 19th century. The Oera Linda Book was translated into German in 1933 and was favored by Heinrich Himmler. The book has since been thoroughly discredited. Professor of Frisian Language and Literature Goffe Jensma wrote that the three authors of the translation intended it "to be a temporary hoax to fool some nationalist Frisians and orthodox Christians and as an experiential exemplary exercise in reading the Holy Bible in a non-fundamentalist, symbolical way".[51]