Lanz was born in Vienna, Austria on July 19 1874 as the son of Adolf Joseph Lanz; he later on claimed to be the son of a sicilian baron as well as possessing a doctor's degree, although neither was true.
Lanz became a monk in the cistercian order in 1893, assuming the name Georg and living in the Heiligenkreuz monastery. In 1894, he claimed to have been "enlightened" after finding the tombstone of a knight of a temple, and began developing his theories of "blue-blond aryanism" and "lower races". He left the monastery in 1899; although Lanz himself that this was due to "growing nervousness", the official documents recorded "carnal love" as the reason, something that may have contributed to his later anti-feminism.
In 1904, he published his book "Theozoologie" ("theozoology") in which he advocated sterilization of the sick and the "lower races" as well as forced labour for "castrated chandals", and glorified the "aryan race" as "Gottmenschen" ("god men"). Lanz justified his neognostic racial ideology by attempting to give it a biblical foundation; according to him, Eve, which he described as initially being divine, involved herself with a demon and gave birth to the "lower races" in the process. Furthermore, he claimed that this led to blonde women being attracted primarily to "dark men", something that only could be stopped by "racial demixing" so that the "aryan-christian master humans" could "once again rule the dark-skinned beastmen" and ultimately achieve "divinity".
A copy of this book was sent to Swedish poet August Strindberg, from who Lanz received an enthusiastic reply in which he was described as a "prophetic voice".
One year later, in 1905, he founded the magazine "Ostara, Briefbücherei der Blonden und Mannesrechtler", of which he became the sole author and editor in 1908. Readers of this publication included Adolf Hitler and Dietrich Eckart, among others; Lanz himself claimed to have up to 100,000 subscribers, but it is generally agreed on that this figure is vastly exagerated.
Lanz also founded the "Guido-von-List-Gesellschaft" ("Guido von List society") in 1905 and the "Ordo novi templi" ("order of the new temple") in 1907, which were supposed to "further the racial self-confidence by doing pedigree and racial research, beauty contests and the founding of racist future sites in underdeveloped parts of the Earth" ("das Rassebewusstsein durch Stammbaum- und Rassekundeforschung, Schönheitswettbewerbe und die Gründung rassistischer Zukunftsstätten in unterentwickelten Teilen der Erde zu fördern") and for which he bought the Werfenstein castle ruins in Austria.
Neither organization really managed to attract a large member base, though; it is estimated that the order had around 300 members, the most prominent of which was the poet Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando. Lanz' claim that the organization was already founded prior to 1900 and that he met with August Strindberg in 1896 and managed to convince him to join the order has been shown to be fabricated.
As a student of Guido List, Lanz further expanded his theories; other influences included Otto Weininger and Karl Kraus, of who Lanz was a fervent follower. During the 1920s, he tried to be recognized as one of the ideological precursors to Adolf Hitler without success, and later one dedicated himself to writing several more essays and books, including various astrological prophecies and works with titles such as "Sexualphysik" ("sexual physics"), "Liebe als odische Energie" ("love as odic energy") and "Rassenmystik" ("racial mysticism").
In his publications, Lanz mixed völkisch and anti-semitic ideas with aryanism, racism and esotericism; nevertheless, he was prohibited to write in 1938. The following is a partial list of Lanz' publications: