 Emblem | |
 | |
| Formation | July 1, 1935 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Heinrich Himmler |
| Dissolved | 1947 |
| Legal status | Registered association underSchutzstaffel control |
| Purpose | Propaganda Pseudoscientific research |
Official language | German |
President | Walther Wüst |
| ||
|---|---|---|
Personal
4thReichsführer-SS Organizations Legacy   | ||
TheAhnenerbe (German:[ˈaːnənˌʔɛʁbə], "Ancestral Heritage") was apseudoscientific organization founded by theSchutzstaffel inNazi Germany in 1935. Established byReichsführer-SSHeinrich Himmler on July 1, 1935 as an SS appendage devoted to promotingracial theories espoused byAdolf Hitler and theNazi Party, theAhnenerbe consisted of academics and scientists from abroad range ofacademic disciplines who fostered the idea thatGermans descended from anAryan race which was racially superior to other racial groups.
Hitler becameChancellor of Germany in 1933, and transformed the country into aone-party state governed as adictatorship. He claimed that Germans were descended from an Aryan race which, in contrast to established academic understandings, had invented most major developments in human history, such asagriculture,art, andwriting. Most of the world's scholars did not accept this, and the Nazis established theAhnenerbe in order to provide evidence for their racial theories and to promote them to the German public.Ahnenerbe scholars interpreted evidence to fit Hitler's beliefs, and many consciously fabricated evidence to do so. The organisation sent expeditions to various parts of the world to find evidence to support their theories.
Thegovernment of Nazi Germany used the organization's research to justify many of their policies, includingthe Holocaust.Nazi propaganda also citedAhnenerbe claims that archaeological evidence indicated that the Aryan race had historically resided ineastern Europe to justify German expansion there. In 1937, theAhnenerbe became an official branch of the SS and was renamed theResearch and Teaching Community in Ancestral Heritage (Institute der Forschungsgemeinschaft Deutsches Ahnenerbe). Much of their research was placed on hold after the outbreak ofWorld War II in 1939, though they continued to carry out new research in areas under German occupation afterOperation Barbarossa began in 1941.
During theend of World War II in Europe in 1945,Ahnenerbe members destroyed much of the organization's paperwork to avoid being incriminated in forthcomingwar crimes trials. Numerous members escaped Allieddenazification policies and remained active inWest Germany's archaeological establishment in thepostwar era, which stifled scholarly research into theAhnenerbe untilGerman reunification in 1990. Ideas promoted by the organization have retained an appeal for someneo-Nazi andfar-right circles and have also influenced laterpseudoarchaeologists.
Adolf Hitler believed that one could divide humanity into three groups: "the founders of culture, the bearers of culture, the destroyers of culture".[1] The founders of culture, in Hitler's view, were a biologically distinctAryan race who (he believed) had been tall, blond, and originating in Northern Europe. He believed that in prehistory, the Aryan race had been responsible for all significant developments in human culture, including agriculture, architecture, music, literature, and the visual arts.[2] He believed that most modern Germans were the descendants of these Aryans and had genetically inherited the Aryans' biological superiority to other races.[3] The destroyers of culture, in Hitler's view, were theJews, whom he regarded not as a genetically diverse population sharing certain ethno-cultural and religious traits—as they were then widely recognized—but as a unified, biologically distinct race. He believed that wherever Jews went, they damaged and ultimately destroyed the cultures surrounding them.[3]
Hitler had promoted his ideas about the greatness of Germany's ancestors in his 1925 book,Mein Kampf.[4] Outside Germany, most scholars and scientists regarded Hitler's ideas about human evolution and prehistory as nonsense, in part due to the absence of any evidence that North European communities had ever originated major developments in prehistory, such as the development of agriculture and writing, all of which first appeared in the Near East and in Asia.[3]
In January 1929 Hitler appointed Nazi Party memberHeinrich Himmler to head theSchutzstaffel (SS), a paramilitary group founded in 1925 to serve as personal bodyguards to Hitler and other Nazis.[5] Himmler set out to re-organise the SS, introducing a better system of organisation, and gathering intelligence on prominent Jews andFreemasons, as well as on rival political groups.[6] In 1929, Himmler launched an SS recruitment campaign,[7] and by the end of 1931 the group had 10,000 members.[8] Himmler aimed to ensure that this membership was as raciallyNordic as possible, establishing theSS Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHA) to screen both applicants and the women whom SS members proposed to marry.[9] In believing in the existence of a "Nordic" racial type which was the purest survival of the ancient Aryans, Himmler was influenced by theNordicist ideas ofHans F. K. Günther (1891–1968), which had been popular inGerman nationalist circles over the preceding decades.[10]
Himmler had an abiding interest in the past, and in how it could provide a blueprint for the future.[11] However, his views of the ancient Germanic peoples differed from Hitler's in certain areas. Hitler was perplexed as to why ancient societies in southern Europe had developed more advanced technology and architecture than their contemporaries in northern Europe. Hitler stated that "People make a tremendous fuss about the excavations carried out in districts inhabited by our forebears of the pre-Christian era. I am afraid that I cannot share their enthusiasm, for I cannot help remembering that, while our ancestors were making these vessels out of stone and clay, over which our archaeologists rave, the Greeks had already built the Acropolis."[12] Hitler explained this by claiming that the Aryans must also have inhabited the south of the continent and that they were responsible for establishing the societies of ancient Greece and Rome. Specifically, he believed that it was the warmer climates of the south that enabled these Aryans to develop in ways that those living further north, in colder and wetter climates, did not.[13] Himmler was aware of these views but, unlike Hitler, admired what he believed was the fierceness and valour of the Germanic tribes of northern Europe.[14] He was particularly interested inTacitus'sGermania, an ethnographic and historical account of the Iron-Age Germanic tribes written by the Roman historian at the end of the first century CE.[11]
In 1933, following theNazi seizure of power, Heinrich Himmler initiated plans to establish a "Nordic Academy" to assist the instruction of the SS upper ranks.[15] He was assisted in this byKarl Maria Wiligut, anoccultist who was popular in German ultra-nationalist circles.[15] Himmler brought Wiligut into the SS—where he eventually rose to the rank ofBrigadeführer—and gave him a private villa in Berlin.[16] Using Wiligut's prophecies as his guide, Himmler selectedWewelsburg castle inWestphalia to serve as a base for many SS operations.[17] The architectHermann Bartels was employed to oversee renovations to the castle to make it fit for the SS's use.[18] As part of these alterations, one of the rooms in the building became known as "the Grail Room" with a rock crystal representing theHoly Grail being placed in a central position.[18] Himmler also established a private museum at the castle, employing the young archaeologistWilhelm Jordan to manage it.[18]
In 1934, Himmler met the Dutch prehistorianHerman Wirth, who was then living in Germany, at the home ofJohann von Leers, a Nazi propagandist.[19] Wirth was one of the most controversial prehistorians in Germany.[20] After examining symbols found in rural Frisianfolk art, he became convinced that they represented the survival of an ancient script used by a prehistoric Nordic civilisation. This script, Wirth believed, was the world's oldest written language and had been the basis for all other ancient scripts. Wirth also believed that if he could decipher it, he could then learn the nature of the ancient religion of the Aryan race.[21] This belief conflicted with established scholarly understandings of the past; by the 1930s, scholars were aware that the world's two oldest scripts were those of Mesopotamia and Egypt, and that northern Europe only developed its own form of literacy, that of therunes, under the influence ofEtruscan alphabet between 400 BCE to 50 CE. Attempting to explain the lack of any archaeological or historical evidence for an ancient advanced Nordic civilisation, Wirth claimed that the Aryans had evolved in an Arctic homeland two million years ago, before establishing their advanced society on a land in the North Atlantic, which had since sunken into the sea, giving rise to the stories aboutAtlantis.[22]
Wirth's ideas were rejected and ridiculed by the German archaeological establishment, although they had gained the support of several wealthy backers, which assisted him in promoting them.[23] Himmler was among those who liked Wirth's ideas. Himmler was interested in the pre-Christian religions of northern Europe, believing that amodern Pagan religion modelled on them could replace Christianity as the primary religion of the German people.[24] Himmler disliked Christianity because of its Semitic origins, its presentation ofJesus as a Jew, and its advocacy of charity and compassion.[24] Later, Himmler privately told his personal physician that after the Second World War, "the old Germanic gods will be restored".[24]
On July 1, 1935, Himmler organised a meeting at the Berlin headquarters of the SS where he discussed his desire to launch a prehistoric research institute.[25] Both Wirth and the agriculturalistRichard Walther Darré were present, and both responded with enthusiasm to the idea.[25] The group was launched as a department of RuSHA.[26] Wirth became the group's president, while Himmler took the role of superintendent, a position entailing considerable control by placing him in charge of its board of trustees.[26] Its formal goal was "to promote the science of ancient intellectual history".[26]
The organisation was initially named the "Deutsches Ahnenerbe Studiengesellschaft für Geistesurgeschichte" (Society for the Study of the History of Primeval Ideas), but this was soon shortened to Ahnenerbe.[26] This was a German term for "something inherited from the forefathers".[27] The Ahnenerbe's first premises were at number 29 and 30 of the Brüderstrasse, a thirteenth-century street in Berlin. These corner buildings were rented from the city'sdepartment store magnate Rudolf Herdzog.[28] Initially, it employed seven members of staff.[28] Reflecting Wirth's fixation on the idea of an ancient Aryan script, the organisation's early focus was upon what Wirth called "script and symbol studies".[20] One of its researchers,Yrjö von Grönhagen, was for instance tasked with collecting the Finnish wooden calendars which were engraved with various symbols.[20]
Starting in 1934, Himmler began financially supporting and visiting excavations in Germany. This brought him into contact with archaeologists likeAlexander Langsdorff [de],Hans Schleif,Werner Buttler [de] andWilhelm Unverzagt, director of theStaatliches Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte in Berlin. Initially, there were two departments within the SS engaged in archaeology: theAbteilung Ausgrabungen of thePersönlicher Stab des Reichsführers der SS and theAbteilung für Vor- und Frühgeschichte at the RuSHA. The latter ("RA IIIB") was established in 1934 and was supposed to serve as a "general staff" for all SS activities related to prehistory. It was responsible for archaeological research and related propaganda and led by Rolf Höhne, a geologist. Höhne was eventually replaced by Peter Paulsen, an archaeologist, in October 1937. The department did not conduct any excavations itself, but was intended to extend the influence of the SS over other institutions, especially those responsible for education/research and monument preservation. In fact, Langsdorff did this in Himmler's personal staff. The department also tried to make use of pre-history in the training and indoctrination of SS members. When the RuSHA was restructured, the department was dissolved with its responsibilities passing to theAhnenerbe. TheAbteilung Ausgrabung in Himmler's personal staff was established in 1935 on the initiative of Langsdorff. In March 1937, Höhne joined the leadership of this department. By 1937, it was responsible for SS excavations and maintained its own personnel for this activity.[29]
The organization's official mission was twofold. Its first purpose was to reveal new evidence for the accomplishments of the ancestors of the modern Germans "using exact scientific methods".[27] Its second purpose was to convey its findings to the German public through magazine articles, books, museum exhibits, and scholarly conferences.[30]According to Pringle, it was however "in the business of myth-making", repeatedly "distorting the truth and churning out carefully tailored evidence to support the racial ideas of Adolf Hitler."[1] Some members of the Ahnenerbe consciously altered their evidence and interpretations to match Hitler's beliefs; others appear to have been unaware of how their adherence to Nazi doctrine was shaping their interpretations.[1]
Himmler regarded the Ahnenerbe as an elitethink tank which would sweep away previous scholarship on the development of humanity and reveal that Hitler's ideas on the subject were true. Himmler also believed that the group's investigations might reveal ancient secrets about agriculture, medicine, and warfare which would benefit Nazi Germany. It employed scholars from a wide range of academic fields, includingarchaeology,anthropology,ethnology,folkloristics,runology,Classics,history,musicology,philology,biology,zoology,botany,astronomy, andmedicine. Himmler believed that scholars active in all of these different fields would piece together a view of the past that would revolutionise established interpretations; in his words, it would represent "hundreds of thousands of little mosaic stones, which portray the true picture of the origins of the world."
On July 1, 1935, at SS headquarters inBerlin, Himmler met with five "racial experts" representing Darré and with Wirth. Together they established an organization called the "German Ancestral Heritage—Society for the Study of the History of Primeval Ideas" (Deutsches Ahnenerbe—Studiengesellschaft für Geistesurgeschichte), shortened to its better-known form in 1937. At the meeting they designated its official goal, “to promote the science of ancient intellectual history,” and appointed Himmler as its superintendent, with Wirth serving as its president. Himmler appointedWolfram SieversGeneralsekretär (General Secretary) of the Ahnenerbe.[citation needed]
Through 1937, the Ahnenerbe was essentially engaged in amateurvölkisch research. Financial and academic pressure caused Himmler to start looking for an alternative to Wirth as early as the spring of 1936. In September, Hitler negatively referred to Wirth's beliefs regardingAtlantis and their influence on "Böttcherstrasse architecture" in a speech at theReichsparteitag.[29]
In March 1937, the Ahnenerbe was given a new statute, implementing theFührerprinzip (leader principle) and giving Himmler extensive powers. Wirth was deposed as president and appointed honorary president, a powerless position. Himmler's position asKurator was given more power.[29]
Walther Wüst was appointed the new president of the Ahnenerbe. Wüst was an expert on India and a dean atLMU Munich, working on the side as aVertrauensmann for theSicherheitsdienst (SD, Security Service). Referred to asThe Orientalist by Wolfram Sievers, Wüst had been recruited by him in May 1936 because of his ability to simplify science for the common man.[31] After being appointed president, Wüst began improving the Ahnenerbe, moving the offices to a new headquarters that cost 300,000 ℛ︁ℳ︁ in theDahlem neighborhood of Berlin. He also worked to limit the influence of “those he deemed scholarly upstarts,” which included cutting communication with the RuSHA office ofKarl Maria Wiligut.[31]
TheGeneralsekretariat led by Sievers was turned into the institution'sReichsgeschäftsführung. The Ahnenerbe was renamedForschungs- und Lehrgemeinschaft Das Ahnenerbe e.V.. It was moved from the RuSHA to Himmlers's personal staff.[29][32]
Wirth andWilhelm Teudt lost their departments in Ahnenerbe in 1938. In 1939, the statutes were changed again and Wirth was deposed as honorary president. Himmler's and Wüsts' titles were switched with Himmler now the president. Next to Wüst, the academic with most influence in the institution after 1939 wasHerbert Jankuhn, who in 1937 still had categorically rejected cooperation with the "unscientific" Ahnenerbe.[29]
Ahnenerbe was a mix between an SS department and anEingetragener Verein. Membership was open to all natural and legal persons. Its staff were SS members, many also working in other SS positions, and thus subject to SS jurisdiction.[29]
In late 1936, Ahnenerbe took over the publication of Teudt's magazineGermanien, first in cooperation with Teudt, then without him. The monthly now became the official voice of Ahnenerbe and was aimed at a wider audience. From December 1936, the magazine was distributed free of charge to all SS leaders.[29]
Cooperation with other SS departments was initially limited, but improved after 1937. Contacts with the SD-HA and the editorial team of the SS weeklyDas schwarze Korps intensified. Ahnenerbe eventually had the scientific responsibility for theSS-Leithefte and in conjunction with theSS-HA, Ahnenerbe establishedGermanische Leitstelle andGermanischer Wissenschaftseinsatz.[29]
In 1939, the Ahnenerbe held its first independent annual convention, at Kiel. The event's success contributed to the trend that archaeologists were increasingly turning to the Ahnenerbe and away fromAlfred Rosenberg's rivalReichsbund für Deutsche Vorgeschichte [de].[29]
In fiscal year 1938–1939, the budget for the excavations department was 65,000 ℛ︁ℳ︁, about 12% of the Ahnenerbe's total budget. More than a third of that went to theHaithabu activities. Under Jankuhn's direction four more archaeological departments were set up: in April 1938 theForschungsstätte für naturwissenschaftliche Vorgeschichte (a laboratory for analyzing pollen) was established at Dahlem under the leadership ofRudolf Schütrumpf [de]. TheForschungsstätte für Wurtenforschung at Wilhelmshaven led byWerner Haarnagel [de], theForschungsstätte für germanisches Bauwesen led by Martin Rudolph and theForschungsstätte für Urgeschichte directed byAssien Bohmers [de] followed in 1939.[29]
As a gift for Hitler's fiftieth birthday, among the presents which Himmler procured for him was a set of leather bound books, one of which was on the subject of the Ahnenerbe's research.[27]
The Ahnenerbe sought to cultivate an air of professional integrity.[33] The Ahnenerbe became an integral part of the SS.[1] By 1939, the Ahnenerbe employed 137 scholars and scientists, as well as 82 support workers, including artists, photographers, laboratory technicians, librarians, accountants, and secretaries.[1]
Himmler used the Ahnenerbe's research to fuel and justify the Holocaust.[34] In a 1937 speech atBad Tölz, Himmler announced that thebog bodies of northwestern Europe, which testified to an Iron Age tradition in which individuals were deliberately killed and deposited in bogs, must have represented the eradication of homosexuals.[35] This was an idea that he had adopted from Ahnenerbe archaeologistHerbert Jankuhn.[36] His adoption of this suggestion was linked to hishomophobic fear that male homosexuality was transmittable and that it could spread within the ranks of the SS and other spaces of male bonding unless strong measures were implemented to prevent it.[37] Himmler then claimed this alleged ancient tradition as legitimation for the extermination of homosexuals within his own society.[36] As many as 15,000 gay men wererounded up and imprisoned in concentration camps, where up to 60 percent died.[36]
Amid theGerman invasion of Poland in 1939, the Ahnenerbe sent a team intoWarsaw to remove any items from its museums which they believed to be German in origin.[33] In 1939, the Ahnenerbe's further four planned expeditions—to Iran, the Canary Islands, the Andes, and Iceland—were indefinitely postponed.[38] At the end of the war in Europe, members of the Ahnenerbe destroyed much of the organisation's paperwork lest it incriminate them during future war crime tribunals.[39]
The Ahnenerbe had several different institutes or sections for its departments of research. Most of these were archeological but others included the Pflegestätte für Wetterkunde (Meteorology Section) headed by Obersturmführer DrHans Robert Scultetus, founded on the basis thatHanns Hörbiger'sWelteislehre could be used to provide accurate long-range weather forecasts,[40] and a section devoted tomusicology, whose aim was to determine "the essence" of German music. It recorded folk music on expeditions to Finland and the Faroe Islands, from ethnic Germans of the occupied territories, and in South Tyrol. The section made sound recordings, transcribed manuscripts and songbooks, and photographed and filmed instrument use and folk dances. Thelur, a Bronze Age musical instrument, became central to this research, which concluded that Germanicconsonance was in direct conflict to Jewishatonalism.
The country ofIceland was of particular interest to Hitler and Himmler due to their belief that the country was theThule area which served as the birthplace of the Aryan race.[41] In 1938, Himmler would sendan archeological team to Iceland in hopes of finding an ancient place of worship for Nordic gods like Thor and Odin.[41] A total of three Nazi-led trips would occur to Iceland in 1938.[31] However, the three Ahnenerbe expeditions were limited due to restrictions enacted by the Iceland government.[41] Despite finding a cave which the Ahnenerbe-led expedition team claimed was the location of the mystic place of worship, known as the hof, it would be proven that the site was in fact uninhabited before the 18th century.[41]
In 1935, Himmler contacted a Finnish nobleman and author,Yrjö von Grönhagen, after seeing one of his articles about theKalevala folklore in a Frankfurt newspaper. Grönhagen agreed to lead an expedition through theKarelia region ofFinland to record pagansorcerers andwitches. Because there was uncertainty about whether the Karelians would allow photography, the Finnish illustrator Ola Forsell also accompanied the team. MusicologistFritz Bose [de] brought along amagnetophon, hoping to record pagan chants.
The team departed on their expedition in June 1936. Their first success was with a traditional singer,Timo Lipitsä [fi], who knew a song closely resembling one in theKalevala although he was unaware of the book. Later, inTolvajärvi, the team photographed and recorded Hannes Vornanen playing a traditional Finnishkantele.
One of the team's final successes was in finding Miron-Aku, asoothsayer believed to be a witch by locals.[42] Upon meeting the group, she claimed to have foreseen their arrival. The team persuaded her to perform a ritual for the camera and tape recorder in which she summoned the spirits of ancestors[43] and "divine[d] future events." The team also recorded information onFinnish saunas.
After a slide show on February 19, 1936 of his trip toBohuslän, a region in southwestern Sweden, Wirth convinced Himmler to launch an expedition to the region, the first official expedition financed by the Ahnenerbe. Bohuslän was known for its massive quantity ofpetroglyph rock carvings, which Wirth believed were evidence of an ancient writing system predating all known systems. Himmler appointed Wolfram Sievers to be the managing director of the expedition, likely because of Wirth's earlier troubles balancing finances.[31][page needed]
On August 4, 1936, the expedition set off on a three-month trip, starting at the German island ofRügen, then continuing toBacka visiting therock carvings in Backa, the first recorded rock-art site in Sweden. Despite the existence of scenes showing warriors, animals and ships, Wirth focused on the lines and circles that he thought made up a prehistoric alphabet. While his studies were largely based on personal belief, rather than objective scientific research, Wirth made interpretations of the meanings ofideograms carved in the rock, such as a circle bisected by a vertical line representing a year and a man standing with raised arms representing what Wirth called "the Son of God."[31][page needed] His team proceeded to make casts of what Wirth deemed the most important carvings and then carried the casts to camp, where they were crated and sent back to Germany. Once satisfied with their work at the site, the team set out on a trek through Sweden, eventually reaching the Norwegian island ofLauvøylandet.
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In 1937, the Ahnenerbe sent the archaeologistFranz Altheim and his wife, the photographer Erika Trautmann, toVal Camonica, to studyprehistoric rock inscriptions. The two returned to Germany claiming that they had found traces of Nordic runes on the rocks, supposedly confirming that ancient Rome was founded by Nordic incomers.Also, an expedition toSardinia was planned in the 1930s, but the reasons for it still remain unknown.[44] An expedition would have focused on the village ofSanta Sofia d'Epiro and the vaults of someArbëreshë families like Baffa Trasci, Miracco andMasci.
In 1938,Franz Altheim and his research partner Erika Trautmann requested the Ahnenerbe sponsor their expedition fromCentral Europe throughWestern Asia to study an internal power struggle of the Roman Empire, which they believed was fought between the Nordic and Semitic peoples. Eager to credit the vast success of the Roman Empire to people of a Nordic background, the Ahnenerbe agreed to match the 4,000 ℛ︁ℳ︁ put forward byHermann Göring, an old friend of Trautmann's.[31][page needed]
In August 1938, after spending a few days traveling through remote hills searching for ruins ofDacian kingdoms, the two researchers arrived at their first major stop inBucharest, the capital ofRomania. There Grigore Florescu, the director of the Municipal Museum, met with them, and discussed both history and the politics of the day, including the activities of theIron Guard.
After traveling throughIstanbul,Athens, andLebanon, the researchers went toDamascus. They were not welcomed by theFrench, who ruledSyria as a colony at the time. Thenewly-sovereignKingdom of Iraq was being courted for an alliance with Germany,[31][page needed] andFritz Grobba, the German envoy to Baghdad, arranged for Altheim and Trautmann to meet with local researchers and be driven toParthian andPersian ruins in southern Iraq, as well asBabylon.
Through Baghdad, the team went north toAssur where they met Sheikh Adjil el Yawar, a leader of theShammarBedouin tribe and commander of the northern Camel Corps. He discussed German politics and his desire to duplicate the success ofAbd al-Aziz ibn Saud who had recently ascended to power in Saudi Arabia.[31][page needed] With his support, the team traveled to their final major stop, the ruins ofHatra on the former border between the Roman and Persian empires.
The third German Antarctic Expedition took place between 1938 and 1939. It was led byAlfred Ritscher (1879–1963).
Excavations that had been ongoing atHedeby since 1930 were formally put under the aegis of Ahnenerbe in 1938 by Jankuhn.[45]
In 1937–1938,Gustav Riek led an excavation at theHeuneburg on theDanube inBaden-Württemberg, where an ancient fortress had been discovered much earlier. The Ahnenerbe thus won out overHans Reinerth of theReichsbund für Deutsche Vorgeschichte [de] who had competed for the excavation. Riek focused on the burial mound known asHohmichele [de] where he found the main burial chamber to have been plundered in antiquity. In its direct vicinity another grave was discovered, however, that included rich grave furnishings. Due to the outbreak of war in 1939 the excavations were discontinued.[46]: 24–25 [47]
A private expedition by Richard Anders and Wiligut into the Murg Valley of northwestern Baden-Württemberg had nothing to do with the Ahnenerbe.
The Ahnenerbe also was active in theMauerner Höhlen [de] (Mauern caves) in theFranconian Jura. R.R. Schmidt discovered red ochre, a common pigment for cave paintings made by theCro-Magnon.
In autumn 1937,Assien Bohmers [de], aFrisian nationalist who had applied to the SS Excavations Department earlier that year, took over the excavation. His team proceeded to find artifacts such asburins, ivory pendants, and awoolly mammoth skeleton. They also discoveredNeanderthal remains buried with what appeared to be throwing spears and javelins, a technology thought to have been developed by the Cro-Magnons.
Bohmers interpreted this to mean that Cro-Magnons had left these stones in the caves over 70,000 years before, and this was therefore the oldest Cro-Magnon site in the world. To validate his claims, Bohmers traveled around Europe speaking with colleagues and organizing exhibitions, notably in the Netherlands, Belgium and France.[31][page needed]
At the Parisian Institute for Human Paleontology, Bohmers met withAbbé Henri Breuil, an expert oncave art. Breuil arranged for Bohmers to visitTrois Frères, a site whose owners allowed only a small number of visitors.[31][page needed] First, however, Bohmers took a quick trip toLondon, followed by a tour of several other French points of interest:Font-de-Gaume (a site featuringCro-Magnon cave paintings), Teyat, La Mouthe and the caves ofDordogne. Then Bohmers moved on to Les Trois-Frères.[31][page needed]
The Ahnenerbe took great interest in the 900-year-oldBayeux Tapestry. In June 1941, its staff oversaw the transport of the tapestry from its home inBayeux Cathedral to an abbey atJuaye-Mondaye, and finally to theChâteau de Sourches. In August 1944, after Paris was liberated by theAllies, two members of the SS were dispatched to Paris to retrieve the tapestry, which had been moved into the basement of theLouvre. Contrary to Himmler's orders, however, they chose not to attempt to enter the Louvre, most likely because of the strong presence of theFrench Resistance in the historic area.[citation needed]
In 1937, Himmler decided that he could increase the Ahnenerbe's visibility by investigatingHans F. K. Günther’s claims that early Aryans had conquered much of Asia, including attacks againstChina andJapan in approximately 2000 BC, and thatGautama Buddha was himself an Aryan offshoot of the Nordic race. Walther Wüst later expanded on this theory, stating in a public speech that Adolf Hitler's ideology corresponded with that of the Buddha, since the two shared a common heritage.[citation needed] However, according to contemporary research Hitler himself was not interested in Buddhism or Tibet.[48]
_Altar_(1489_by_Veit_Stoss)%2c_5_Mariacki_square%2c_Old_Town%2c_Krak%25C3%25B3w%2c_Poland.jpg)
After the invasion of Poland in September 1939, Wolfram Sievers wrote to Himmler stressing the need to appropriate exhibits from numerous museums.[49]Reich Security Main Office (RSHA)StandartenführerFranz Six oversawSS-UntersturmführerPeter Paulsen [de], who was commanding a small team that enteredKraków to obtain the 15th-centuryVeit Stoss altar. Because the Poles had foreseen the German interest in the altar, they had disassembled it into 32 pieces, which were shipped to different locations, but Paulsen located each piece, and on October 14, 1939, he returned to Berlin with the altar in three small trucks and had it stored in the locked treasury of theReichsbank.[31][page needed] After conferring with Hitler, who had not initially been told of the operation to capture it, it was decided to send the altar to an underground vault in Nuremberg, for safety.
Reinhard Heydrich, then head of RSHA, sent Paulsen back to Kraków in order to seize additional museum collections,[31][page needed] but Göring had already sent a team of his own men, commanded bySS-SturmbannführerKajetan Mühlmann under the supervision ofDagobert Frey, to loot the museums. Mühlmann agreed to let Paulsen take items of scholarly interest back to the Ahnenerbe, while keeping artworks for Göring. During the looting,Hans Frank, the head of the GermanGeneral Government in occupied Poland, issued an order dated November 22, 1939 prohibiting the “unapproved export” of Polish items. Paulsen obeyed the order, but his colleague Hans Schleif arranged for fivefreightcars of loot from the Warsaw Archaeological Museum[50] to be shipped toPoznań, which was outside Frank's control. In return, Schleif was appointed as a trustee forWartheland. Paulsen later tried to take credit for the freightcars' contents in his report to RuSHA, but was reassigned.[31][page needed][51]
Eduard Paul Tratz of the Ahnenerbe also removed some exhibits from the State Zoological Museum inWarsaw to the Haus der Natur, the museum inSalzburg of which he was founder and director.[52]
After the German Army conquered theCrimea in early July 1942, Himmler sent Herbert Jankuhn, as well asKarl Kersten [de] and Baron Wolf von Seefeld, to the region in search of artifacts to follow up the recent display of theKerch “Gothic crown of the Crimea” in Berlin.
Jankuhn met with senior officers ofEinsatzkommando 11, part ofEinsatzgruppe D, while waiting at the field headquarters of the5th SS Panzer Division. CommanderOtto Ohlendorf gave Jankuhn information about the Crimean museums.[53] Traveling with the 5th SS Panzer, Jankuhn's team eventually reachedMaykop, where they received a message from Sievers that Himmler wanted an investigation ofMangup Kale, an ancient mountain fortress. Jankuhn sent Kersten to follow up on Mangup Kale, while the rest of the team continued trying to secure artifacts that had not already been taken by theRed Army.Einsatzkommando 11b's commanderWerner Braune aided the team.
Jankuhn was ultimately unable to find Gothic artifacts denoting a German ancestry, even after intelligence about a shipment of 72 crates of artifacts shipped to a medical warehouse. The area had been ravaged by the time the team arrived and only 20 crates remained, but they contained Greek and stone-age artifacts, rather than Gothic.[31][page needed]
In June 1943, 27-year-old SS-UntersturmführerHeinz Brücher, who held aPhD fromTübingen inbotany, was tasked with an expedition to Ukraine and Crimea.SS-Hauptsturmführer Konrad von Rauch and an interpreter identified as Steinbrecher were also involved in the expedition.
In February 1945, Brücher was ordered to destroy the Ahnenerbe's 18 active research facilities to avoid their capture by advancingSoviet forces. He refused, and after the war continued his work as a botanist inArgentina andTrinidad.[54]
After winning 20,000 ℛ︁ℳ︁ in a writing contest,Edmund Kiss traveled to Bolivia in 1928 to study the ruins of temples in theAndes. He claimed that their apparent similarity to ancient European structures indicated that they had been designed by Nordic migrants millions of years earlier.[55] He also claimed that his findings supported theWorld Ice Theory, which held that the universe originated from a cataclysmic clash between gigantic balls of ice and glowing mass.Arthur Posnansky had been studying a local site calledTiwanaku, which he also believed supported the theory. (In reality, Tiwanuku was built in the 1st millennium AD byAmerindian peoples.)
After contacting Posnansky, Kiss approached Wüst for help planning an expedition to excavate Tiwanaku and a nearby site, Siminake. The team would consist of 20 scientists, who would excavate for a year and also exploreLake Titicaca, and take aerial photographs of ancientIncan roads they believed had Nordic roots. By late August 1939, the expedition was nearly set to embark, but theinvasion of Poland caused the expedition to be postponed indefinitely.
In 1938, the Ahnenerbe's president, Walther Wüst, proposed a trip toIran to study theBehistun Inscription, which had been created by order of theAchaemenidShahDarius I, who had declared himself to have been of Aryan origin in his inscriptions.[31] The inscriptions were recorded atop steep cliffs usingscaffolding that was removed after the inscriptions were made. Unable to afford the cost of erecting new scaffolds, Wüst proposed that he, his wife, anamanuensis, an Iranian student (Davud Monshizadeh), a photographer and an experiencedmountaineer be sent with a balloon-mounted camera. The onset of the war, however, saw the trip postponed indefinitely.
Early travelers to theCanary Islands had described theGuanche natives as having golden-blond hair and white skin, and mummies had been found with blond tresses—facts which Wirth believed indicated that the islands had once been inhabited byNordics. His colleagueOtto Huth proposed an autumn of 1939 expedition to study the ancient islanders’ racial origins, artifacts and religious rites. At the time, the Canary Islands were part ofFrancisco Franco’s fascistSpanish State (Estado Español). Because Franco refused to side with the Axis when the war started, however, the trip was cancelled.
Bruno Schweizer had already traveled toIceland three times in 1938 when he proposed an Ahnenerbe expedition with seven others to the country in order to learn about their ancient farming practices and architecture, record folksongs and dances, and also collect soil samples for pollen analysis.[31]
The first setback for the expedition was the ridicule of the Scandinavian press, publishing stories in February 1939 claiming the expedition was based on false ideas about Icelandic heritage and sought old church records that did not even exist. An enraged Himmler publicly shut down the trip, but after calming down he allowed the planning of the trip to be secretly continued. The final setback occurred when Himmler's personal staff was unable to get enoughIcelandic crowns—Iceland's currency. Not being able to quickly solve this problem, the trip was rescheduled for the summer of 1940.[31] In May 1940, the Britishinvaded neutral Iceland, but when the war had started the expedition had already been shelved.
In 1940, following theAllied occupation of Iceland, the Ahnenerbe-funded Bruno Kress, a German researcher who was in the country at the time, was rounded up along with other German nationals present on the island. Kress was interned inRamsey on theIsle of Man, but was allowed to correspond with Sievers through letters.[56] Kress'sGrammar of Icelandic was eventually published inEast Germany in 1955. Kress later worked for the East GermanStaatssicherheit (Stasi).
After being appointed Commissioner for the Strengthening of the German Race, Himmler set to work withKonrad Meyer on developing a plan for three large German colonies in the eastern occupied territories.Leningrad, northern Poland and theCrimea would be the focal points of these colonies intended to spread the Aryan race. The Crimean colony was calledGotengau, "Goth district", in honor of theCrimean Goths who had settled there and were believed to be Aryan ancestors of theGermans.[31]
Himmler estimated that Aryanization of the region would take twenty years, first expelling all the undesirable populations, then re-distributing the territory to appropriate Aryan populations. In addition to changing the demographics of the region, Himmler also intended to plantoak andbeech trees to replicate traditional German forests, as well as plant new crops brought back fromTibet. To achieve the latter end, Himmler ordered a new institution set up by the Ahnenerbe and headed by Schäfer. A station was then set up near the Austrian town ofGraz where Schäfer set to work with seven other scientists to develop new crops for the Reich.
The final piece of the puzzle fell into place after Hitler read a work byAlfred Frauenfeld which suggested resettling inhabitants ofSouth Tyrol, believed by some to be descendants of the Goths, to Crimea. In 1939 the South Tyroleans were ordered by Hitler andBenito Mussolini to vote on whether they wanted to remain in Italy and accept assimilation or emigrate to Germany. Over 80% chose the latter (for details seeSouth Tyrol Option Agreement). Himmler presented theGeneralplan Ost,'Master Plan East' to Hitler and received approval in July 1942.
Full implementation of the plan was not feasible because of the war, but a small colony was founded around Himmler's field headquarters atHegewald,[57] nearKiev. Starting on October 10, 1942, Himmler's troops deported 10,623 Ukrainians from the area in cattle cars before bringing in trains of ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) from northern Ukraine.[31] The SS authorities gave families supplies as well as land, but also informed them ofquotas of food they would be required to produce for the SS.
The Ahnenerbe had tried to gain possession of theCodex Aesinas, a famous medieval copy ofTacitus'Germania. AlthoughMussolini had originally promised it as a gift in 1936, it remained in the possession of the Count Aurelio Baldeschi Guglielmi Balleani outsideAncona, from where the Ahnenerbe tried to obtain it after Mussolini was deposed.[58][59]
On July 29, 1943, theRoyal Air Force'sfirebombing of Hamburg led Himmler to order the immediate evacuation of the main Ahnenerbe headquarters in Berlin. The extensive library was moved to Schloss Oberkirchberg nearUlm while the staff was moved to the tiny village of Waischenfeld nearBayreuth,Bavaria. The building selected was the 17th centurySteinhaus. While much of the staff was not ecstatic about the primitive conditions, Sievers seemed to have embraced the isolation.[31]
Financially, the Ahnenerbe was separate from the Nazi Party treasury and had to find funding from other sources including membership dues and donations. After 1938, it received funds from theDeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. In addition, a foundation (Ahnenerbe-Stifterverband) was established, set up with funds from business leaders.[29] One of the largest donations, approximately 50,000 ℛ︁ℳ︁, came fromDeutsche Bank boardmemberEmil Georg von Stauß associates, includingBMW andDaimler-Benz.[31] The foundation also received royalties from patents partially held by the SS (see below). During the war, Ahnenerbe also received money from other SS departments and profited from theArisierung of Jewish property—its headquarters in Dahlem had been purchased at half its market value. In 1940, another estate in Munich was added.[29]
In 1936, the SS formed a joint company withAnton Loibl, a machinist and driving instructor. The SS had heard about reflector pedals for bicycles, that Loibl and others had been developing. Assuring that Loibl got the patent himself, Himmler then used his political weight to ensure the passing of a 1939 law requiring the use of the new reflective pedals—of which the Ahnenerbe received a share of the profits, 77,740 ℛ︁ℳ︁ in 1938.[31]
TheInstitut für Wehrwissenschaftliche Zweckforschung ("Institute for Military Scientific Research"), which conducted extensive medical experiments using human subjects, became attached to the Ahnenerbe during World War II. It was managed byWolfram Sievers.[60] Sievers had founded the organization on the orders of Himmler, who appointed him director with two divisions headed bySigmund Rascher andAugust Hirt, and funded by theWaffen-SS.
Sigmund Rascher was tasked with helping theLuftwaffe determine what was safe for their pilots—because aircraft were being built to fly higher than ever before. He applied for and received permission from Himmler to requisition camp prisoners to place in vacuum chambers to simulate the high altitude conditions that pilots might face.[31]
Rascher was also tasked with discovering how long German airmen would be able to survive if shot down above freezing water. His victims were forced to remain out of doors naked in freezing weather for up to 14 hours, or kept in a tank of icewater for 3 hours, their pulse and internal temperature measured through a series of electrodes. Warming of the victim was then attempted by different methods, most usually and successfully by immersion in very hot water, and also less conventional methods such as placing the subject in bed with women who would try to sexually stimulate him, a method suggested by Himmler.[61][62]
Rascher experimented with the effects of Polygal, a substance made frombeets and applepectin, oncoagulating blood flow to help withgunshot wounds. Subjects were given a Polygal tablet, and shot through the neck or chest, or their limbs amputated without anaesthesia. Rascher published an article on his experience of using Polygal, without detailing the nature of the human trials, and also set up a company to manufacture the substance, staffed by prisoners.[63]
Similar experiments were conducted from July to September 1944, as the Ahnenerbe provided space and materials to doctors atDachau concentration camp to undertake “seawater experiments”, chiefly through Sievers. Sievers is known to have visited Dachau on July 20, to speak with Ploetner and the non-AhnenerbeWilhelm Beiglboeck, who ultimately carried out the experiments.
Walter Greite rose to leadership of the Ahnenerbe'sApplied Nature Studies division in January 1939, and began taking detailed measurements of 2,000 Jews at the Vienna emigration office—but scientists were unable to use the data. On December 10, 1941,Bruno Beger met with Sievers and convinced him of the need for 120 Jewish skulls.[64] During the laterNuremberg Trials,Friedrich Hielscher testified that Sievers had initially been repulsed at the idea of expanding the Ahnenerbe to human experimentation, and that he had “no desire whatsoever to participate in these.”[65]
During the 20th century, little scholarly research into the Ahnenerbe took place.[66] Many scholars had likely been dissuaded from exploring the subject because ex-Ahnenerbe members held prominent academic positions in West Germany and did not want younger historians or archaeologists investigating their links with the SS.[66] The main scholar to explore the subject in this period was a Canadian historian,Michael Kater, who conducted his research while in Germany.[66] As theUniversity of Heidelberg sought to publish Kater's thesis on the subject in 1966, Walther Wüst unsuccessfully tried to legally prevent it from doing so.[67] Kater's research was then published in 1974 asDas "Ahnenerbe" der SS 1935–1945.[66]
FollowingGerman unification in 1990,Achim Leube began an examination of the surviving historical evidence on the Ahnenerbe, much of which had been based in West Germany.[66] In November 1998, Leube oversaw an international academic conference in Berlin on the Nazis' relationship with prehistory.[66]
Many of the ideas inherited or developed by the Ahnenerbe remain influential. Canadian author Heather Pringle has particularly drawn attention to the influence ofEdmund Kiss' various "crackpot theories" concerning such matters as the World Ice Theory and the origins of Tiwanaku upon subsequent writers such as H.S. Bellamy, Denis Saurat and, later,Graham Hancock.[68]
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Much misinformation about the Ahnenerbe has circulated, due in part to adaptations of the group in fiction, and historically dubiousconspiracy theories that sometimes confuse the Ahnenerbe with the roughly contemporaneousThule Society, or the historically unverifiedVril society.
The Ahnenerbe formed the basis for the depiction in theIndiana Jones franchise of Nazis searching for religious artifacts.[69][70]
On 9 August 1937, the Ahnenerbe became an official division of the SS, renamed Forschungs und Lehrgemeinschaft das Ahnenerbe (Research and Teaching Community in Ancestral Heritage).
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