Davud Monshizadeh (Persian:داوود منشیزاده; 28 August 1914 – 13 July 1989[1]) was an IranianNazi politician, propagandist, and scholar ofIranian studies. He foundedSUMKA (the "Iranian National Socialist Workers Party") and supportedNazism in Germany duringWorld War II and in Iran after the war. He was a member of theSS and produced print and radio propaganda in Germany.[2] He ended up becoming a professor ofIranian languages forUppsala University, Sweden, a position he held until his death.
Monshizadeh was born inTehran, Iran. He is mainly remembered for his political life, most notably being the leader ofSUMKA, but he is also recognized for his contributions toIranian linguistics, particularly to the study of Modern and Middle Iranian languages.
Monshizadeh formed the SUMKA in 1951.[3] He had lived in Germany since 1937, and was a formerSS member who fought and was wounded in theBattle of Berlin. During the war, he worked as a translator for interrogations withSoviet prisoners of war on theEastern Front. Monshizadeh also wrote articles forDas Reich.[4] The Nazis regarded Monshizadeh as being an expert on theJewish Question in Nazi Germany.[5]
After the war, he was a professor atLudwig Maximilians University of Munich and was deeply influenced byJose Ortega y Gasset's philosophy, even translating many of his books (which he hoped would serve as founding principles for the party), from Spanish toPersian. He returned to Iran in 1950. Monshizadeh would later serve as a professor of Persian Studies atUppsala University andAlexandria University. Monshizadeh was known as an admirer ofHitler and imitated many of the ways of theNational Socialist German Workers Party (such as their militarism and salute), as well as attempting to approximate Hitler's physical appearance, including hismoustache.
1931 − Sent to France by Iranian government to study.
1937 − Moved to Germany, a year after theHitler Cabinet declared Iranians to be "pure−blooded Aryans" and immune to all Nuremberg laws, thus making them capable of becoming Reich citizens.[6]
1938 − Began his studies inNazi Germany. He studied withWalther Wüst, with whom he developed a close bond.[7]
1939 − Monshizadeh and Bahram Shahrokh (the future IranianPropaganda Director) started working for the Persian program of theThird Reich’sDeutsche Radio.
1940 − He started writing articles forDas Reich, the official newspaper of theNazi Party
1941 − He worked with various organizations in theThird Reich
1943 − Obtained his doctorate in philosophy and literature from Berlin University.[8]
1945 − During the Battle of Berlin, he fought as a member of the SS. He was injured and hospitalized (off and on) till 1947.
1951 − Along with Manouchehr Amir Mokri and Hussein Zarabi, he established the Iranian National Socialist Party (Sumka),[8] which played a role against oilnationalization in Iran.
1963 − He left Iran in 1963 and came to Sweden on the initiative of ProfessorStig Wikander. He spent the rest of his life in Sweden teachingIranology andPersian language atUppsala University, eventually becoming Professor in Iranian Languages.
Das Persische im Codex Cumanicus, Uppsala: Studia Indoeuropaea Upsaliensia, 1969.
Topographisch-historische Studien zum iranischen Nationalepos, Wiesbaden: Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 1975.
Wörter aus Xurāsān und ihre Herkunft, Leiden: Acta Iranica; Troisième série, Textes et mémoires, 1990.
Die Geschichte Zarēr's, ausführlich komment. von Davoud Monshi-Zadeh, Uppsala: Studia Indoeuropaea Upsaliensia, 1981.
Ta'ziya : das persische Passionsspiel / mit teilweiser Übersetzung der von Litten gesammelten Stücke von Davoud Monchi-Zadeh, Stockholm: Skrifter utgivna av K. Humanistiska vetenskapssamfundet, 1967.
Vihrūd va Arang : justārhā-yī dar jughrāfiy-̄yi asāṭīr ̄va tārīkh-̄i Īrān-i sharqī, pazhūhish-i Josef Markwart; tarjumah bā iz̤āfāt az Davūd Munshī-Zādah, Teheran: Majmūʻah-'i Intishārāt-i adabī va tārīkhī, 1989. (in Persian)
^Christian Pahlavi, Pierre Pahlavi (2023),Le pont de la victoire – L'Iran dans la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Paris: Éditions Perrin, pp. 352 f. und Fußnote 37, ebd,ISBN978-2-262-09919-0
^Mokhtari, Fariborz. "In The Lion's Shadow: The Iranian Schindler and his Homeland in the Second World War." The History Press: Stroud, 2011 p. 100.
Germany
Schutzstaffel
