Registered association under Schutzstaffel control
Purpose
Propaganda Pseudoscientific research
Official language
German
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The Ahnenerbe (German:[ˈaːnənˌʔɛʁbə], "Ancestral Heritage") was a Schutzstaffel (SS) pseudo-scientific organization which was active in Nazi Germany between 1935 and 1945. It was established by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler in July 1935 as an SS appendage devoted to the task of promoting the racial doctrines espoused by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. The Ahnenerbe was composed of scholars and scientists from a broad range of academic disciplines and fostered the idea that the German people descended from an Aryan race which was racially superior to other racial groups.
Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, and transformed the country into a one-party state governed as a dictatorship under the control of the Nazi Party. He espoused the idea that the German people were descended from the Aryan race which, Hitler claimed in contrast to established academic understandings, had invented most major developments in human history, such as agriculture, art, and writing. The majority of the world's scholarly community did not accept this, and the Nazis established the Ahnenerbe in order to provide evidence for Nazi racial theories and to promote these ideas to the German public. Ahnenerbe scholars interpreted evidence to fit Hitler's beliefs, and some consciously fabricated evidence in order to do so. The organisation sent expeditions to other parts of the world, intent on finding evidence of historical Aryan expansion.
The government of Nazi Germany used the organization's research to justify many of their policies, including the Holocaust. Nazi propaganda also cited Ahnenerbe claims that archaeological evidence indicated that the Aryan race had historically resided in eastern Europe to justify German expansion into the region. In 1937, the Ahnenerbe became an official branch of the SS and was renamed the "Research and Teaching Community in Ancestral Heritage" (Forschungs und Lehrgemeinschaft das Ahnenerbe). Many of their investigations were placed on hold after the outbreak of World War II in 1939, though they continued to carry out new research in areas under German occupation after Operation Barbarossa was launched in 1941.
Towards the end of World War II in Europe, Ahnenerbe members destroyed much of the organisation's paperwork to avoid being incriminated in forthcoming war crimes trials. Numerous members escaped Allied denazification policies and remained active in West Germany's archaeological establishment in the postwar era. This stifled scholarly research into the Ahnenerbe, which only intensified after German reunification in 1990. Ideas promoted by the Ahnenerbe have retained an appeal for some neo-Nazi and far-right circles and have also influenced later pseudoarchaeologists.
The Ahnenerbe (German: [ˈaːnənˌʔɛʁbə], "Ancestral Heritage") was a Schutzstaffel (SS) pseudo-scientific organization which was active in Nazi Germany...
field of pseudoarcheology led and encouraged by various Nazi leaders and Ahnenerbe figures, such as Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, which directed archaeologists...
carried out while he was managing director (Reichsgeschäftsführer) of the Ahnenerbe from 1935–1945. He was convicted of war crimes in the Doctors' Trial in...
of the various institutes set up as subsidiary bodies of the German "Ahnenerbe" organization. Indogermanisch-arische Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft (Indogermanic-Aryan...
scholar of ancient religions and symbols. He co-founded the SS-organization Ahnenerbe but was later pushed out by Heinrich Himmler. Born in Utrecht on 6 May...
medical experiments and for their role in gas chamber selections. The Ahnenerbe (Ancestral Heritage Organisation) was founded in 1935 by Himmler and became...
v t e Nazism Organisation Ahnenerbe Geheime Staatspolizei Deutsches Jungvolk Hitler Youth League of German Girls NSDÄB NSDStB NSRL NSFK NSKK NSF Nationalsozialistische...
Institutional Ahnenerbe Chamber of Fasces and Corporations Grand Council of Fascism Imperial Way Faction Italian Nationalist Association National Socialist...
theories concerning Nazi Germany, due to its occult background (like the Ahnenerbe section of the SS). Such theories include the creation of vril-powered...
Institutional Ahnenerbe Chamber of Fasces and Corporations Grand Council of Fascism Imperial Way Faction Italian Nationalist Association National Socialist...
Institutional Ahnenerbe Chamber of Fasces and Corporations Grand Council of Fascism Imperial Way Faction Italian Nationalist Association National Socialist...
Institutional Ahnenerbe Chamber of Fasces and Corporations Grand Council of Fascism Imperial Way Faction Italian Nationalist Association National Socialist...
Institutional Ahnenerbe Chamber of Fasces and Corporations Grand Council of Fascism Imperial Way Faction Italian Nationalist Association National Socialist...
petroglyphs, and the migration of Indo-Germanic peoples. They joined the Ahnenerbe and received funding for more research at Val Camonica and in the Middle...
Part of a series on Nazism Organizations Ahnenerbe Geheime Staatspolizei Deutsches Jungvolk Hitler Youth League of German Girls NSDÄB NSDStB NSRL NSFK...
v t e Nazism Organisation Ahnenerbe Geheime Staatspolizei Deutsches Jungvolk Hitler Youth League of German Girls NSDÄB NSDStB NSRL NSFK NSKK NSF Nationalsozialistische...
Part of a series on Nazism Organizations Ahnenerbe Geheime Staatspolizei Deutsches Jungvolk Hitler Youth League of German Girls NSDÄB NSDStB NSRL NSFK...
camps. Units of the Wehrmacht used insignia including the Wolfsangel The Ahnenerbe research unit of the SS also used Wilhelm Teudt's neo-heathen Irminsul...
v t e Nazism Organisation Ahnenerbe Geheime Staatspolizei Deutsches Jungvolk Hitler Youth League of German Girls NSDÄB NSDStB NSRL NSFK NSKK NSF Nationalsozialistische...
Part of a series on Nazism Organizations Ahnenerbe Geheime Staatspolizei Deutsches Jungvolk Hitler Youth League of German Girls NSDÄB NSDStB NSRL NSFK...
v t e Nazism Organisation Ahnenerbe Geheime Staatspolizei Deutsches Jungvolk Hitler Youth League of German Girls NSDÄB NSDStB NSRL NSFK NSKK NSF Nationalsozialistische...
settlement archaeology, and founded the SS organization Ahnenerbe (German: Deutsches Ahnenerbe) for conducting archaeological investigations of a presumed...
Reinhard Greve's 1995 article Tibetforschung im SS Ahnenerbe (Tibet Research Within the SS Ahnenerbe), although the latter does mention the occult thesis...
Oera Linda" by the Nazi ideologist Herman Wirth, the first head of the Ahnenerbe. Aleksey Dobrovolsky introduced the eight-beam "kolovrat" as a symbol...
Institutional Ahnenerbe Chamber of Fasces and Corporations Grand Council of Fascism Imperial Way Faction Italian Nationalist Association National Socialist...
Institutional Ahnenerbe Chamber of Fasces and Corporations Grand Council of Fascism Imperial Way Faction Italian Nationalist Association National Socialist...
government office, not a party office. Germany portal Politics portal Ahnenerbe Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Nazi loot Nazi propaganda...