This study explores the prevalence in German culture of myths about ancient matriarchal societies, tracing their presence in left and right wing politics, feminist and antifeminist writing, sociology, psychoanalysis and literary production. The work of the Swiss theorist of matriarchy, Johann Jakob Bachofen (1815 1887), has been highly influential, and this book shows how the interpretation of his legacy became a battleground for conflicts about modernity, myth, race and nation, sex and gender, and ultimately the struggle between National Socialism and its opponents.