The Sons of Tannhäuser are a secret society whose origins date back to the 15th century, around the year 1430, and whose members, who are suspected of having included celebrities such as Richard Wagner or Ludwig Bechstein, follow in the footsteps of the legendary Tannhäuser.
Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser was a German poet and Minnesänger, born into a family of knights from the Salzburg area, the Knights of Thannhausen, who resided in their castle at Tannhausen, near Ellwangen and Dinkelsbühl.
Tannhäuser was an active member of the court of Frederick II of Austria, and according to the Codex Manesse he would have taken the habits of the Teutonic Order, and participated in the Fifth Crusade.
After this he would have led a life as a wandering poet in Germany, composing lyrical poetry and songs (Tanzlieder).
Upon his death, the legend was born according to which Tannhäuser would have found the Venusberg, the subterranean abode of the goddess Venus, where he would have spent seven years of his life given over to the pleasures of the goddess.
The Venusberg (in German, Venus Mountain), is the name of a mythical mountain in Germany located between Gotha and Eisenach. The mountain caverns house the court of Venus, goddess of love, who was supposed to be perfectly hidden from mortals: entering there meant eternal perdition, and the ultimate erotic adventure.
According to legend, after leaving the Venusberg, Tannhäuser felt remorse and traveled to Rome to ask Pope Urbano IV if it was possible for him to be absolved of his sins.
Urbano replied that forgiveness was as impossible as it would be for his cane to flourish. Three days after Tannhäuser left, Urbano's cane blossomed. Messengers were sent for the knight, but he had already returned to the Venusberg and was never seen again.
The Daughters of Venus
For the Children of Tannhäuser the legend is true, although hidden behind metaphors that obscure the real meaning of Tannhäuser's discovery.
For the members of this organization, what really happened is that by chance Tannhäuser discovered a group of what they call "Daughters of Venus", female secret societies that coexist daily with the world without being discovered, and who live according to certain principles among which are the impossibility of denying the desires of any man who demands obedience from them to fulfill their carnal desires, the permanent care of their physical beauty to be irresistible to the opposite sex, and the desire to search for perfection through male pleasure.
For the Sons of Tannhäuser there are groups, such as the White Ladies, who make up what they call the Daughters of Venus, and whose existence is protected exclusively by anonymity.
The Sons of Tannhäuser maintain that the Venusberg is nothing more than the discovery of the existence of one of these groups, and that the man who manages to identify one of its members will be at what they call the Gates of Tannhäuser.
The man who manages to discover one of these groups of women would find a virtually inexhaustible source of pleasure, since he would obtain from them pleasure and obedience in exchange for their silence, which would be what Tannhäuser would have discovered.
The oath of the Sons of Tannhäuser is to search for these "Venusberg" and share it exclusively with the other members of their brotherhood.
Although there is abundant evidence for the existence of the White Ladies, as well as abundant references to Tannhäuser and his followers, there are those who question the nature of the quest for the Sons of Tannhäuser, and while there are scholars who favor that the group maintains a metaphysical search, in pursuit of reaching the true Venusberg, others maintain that it is about more mundane and pragmatic objectives, the identification of the "Daughters of Venus" as a way to achieve physical pleasure, without other further goals.
