Emblem

Founded by Heinrich Himmler, Herman Wirth, and Richard Walther Darré on July 1, 1935, as Studiengesellschaft für Geistesurgeschichte‚ Deutsches Ahnenerbe´ e.V. ("Study society for primordial intellectual science "German Ancestral Heritage" (registered society)"), in 1937 renamed in Forschungs- und Lehrgemeinschaft das Ahnenerbe e.V. ("Research and Teaching Community the Ancestral Heritage (registered society)") was a Nazi-era government study group that billed itself as a "study society for Intellectual Ancient History". Image File history File links Ahnenerbe. ... Image File history File links Ahnenerbe. ... Himmler redirects here. ... Herman Wirth, (alternatively referred to as Herman Wirth Roeper Bosch, or Herman Felix Wirthor Hermann) was a Dutch-German lay historian and scholar of ancient religions and symbols. ... R. Walther Darré in a 1939 calendar Richard Oscar Walther Darré (14 July 1895 - 5 September 1953), SS-Obergruppenführer, was one of the Nazi leading ‘blood and soil’ ideologists. ... is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ... Nazism in history Nazi ideology Nazism and race Outside Germany Related subjects Lists Politics Portal         Nazism or National Socialism (German: Nationalsozialismus), refers primarily to the ideology and practices of the Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers Party, German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) under Adolf Hitler. ... This article is about the institution. ...

It was developed to research the anthropological and cultural history of the Aryan race, and later lent itself to experimentation and voyages intent on proving that prehistoric and mythological Nordic populations had once ruled the world. The Aryan race is a concept in European culture that was influential in the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. ... A Nazi illustration of the perceived Nordic master race. ...

[edit] History and Development

Chart of the hierarchies of the Ahnenerbe

In January 1929, Heinrich Himmler was appointed the leader of the fledgling Schutzstaffel (SS). He launched a massive recruitment campaign that took the SS from less than three hundred members in 1929 to ten thousand in 1931. ^[1] Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2425x1683, 1241 KB) This work is copyrighted and unlicensed. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2425x1683, 1241 KB) This work is copyrighted and unlicensed. ... Himmler redirects here. ... SS redirects here. ...

Once the SS had grown, Himmler began its transformation into a "racial elite" of young Nordic males. This was to be accomplished by a new bureaucracy in the SS, the Race and Settlement Office of the SS known as RuSHA. He named Richard Walther Darré to lead the organisation, which determined if applicants were racially fit to be in the SS. A Nazi illustration of the perceived Nordic master race. ... R. Walther Darré in a 1939 calendar Richard Oscar Walther Darré (14 July 1895 - 5 September 1953), SS-Obergruppenführer, was one of the Nazi leading ‘blood and soil’ ideologists. ...

This brought about a sudden campaign meant to educate the new applicants about their Nordic past through weekly classes taught by senior RuSHA graduates using the periodical SS-Leitheft. SS-Leitheft was a nazi periodical 1934 to 1945. ...

On July 1, 1935 at Berlin’s SS headquarters, Himmler met with five racial experts representing Darré and with Dr. Herman Wirth, one of Germany’s most famous pre-historians. Together they came up with an organization called “Deutsches Ahnenerbe--Studiengesellschaft für Geistesurgeschichte” (German Ancestral Heritage--Society for the Study of the History of Primeval Ideas) - later shortened to its better-known form in 1937. This article is about the capital of Germany. ... Herman Wirth, (alternatively referred to as Herman Wirth Roeper Bosch, or Herman Felix Wirthor Hermann) was a Dutch-German lay historian and scholar of ancient religions and symbols. ...

At the meeting they designated the official goal “to promote the science of ancient intellectual history” and appointed Himmler as the superintendent with Wirth serving as the president.

A class studying runes

Wirth left the project at the beginning of 1937. On February 1 of that year, Dr. Walther Wüst was appointed the new president of the Ahnenerbe. Wüst was an expert on India and a dean at Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, working on the side as a Vertrauensmann for the SS Security Service. Referred to as “The Orientalist” by Sievers, Wüst had been recruited by him in May 1936 because of his ability to simplify science for the common man.^[1] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Main building of the Ludwig Maximilians University Main staircase of the university, Munich The Atrium at the main building The Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (German: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), also known as LMU or simply University of Munich, is a university in the heart of Munich. ... These are terms, concepts and ideas that are useful to understanding the political situation in the Weimar Republic. ...

After being appointed president, Wüst began improving the Ahnenerbe: moving the office to a new headquarters that had cost 300,000 Reichsmark, in the Dahlem neighborhood of Berlin. He also worked to limit the influence of “those he deemed scholarly upstarts,” which included cutting communication with the RuSHA office of Karl Maria Wiligut.^[1] User(s) Germany Subunit 1/100 Reichspfennig Symbol RM Reichspfennig Rpf. ... The location of Steglitz-Zehlendorf in Berlin. ... Karl Maria Wiligut (alias Weisthor) (December 10, 1866 - January 3, 1946) was also known as Himmlers Rasputin. He was born in Vienna in what was then Austria-Hungary. ...

The organization was incorporated into the larger SS in January 1939.

[edit] Expeditions

[edit] Bohuslän

Scan from Wirth's 1931 book Was Heisst Deutsch?

After a slide show on February 19, 1936 of his trip to Bohuslän, 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 of petroglyph rock carvings, which Wirth believed were part of an ancient writing system, predating all other known systems. Himmler appointed Wolfram Sievers to be the managing director of the expedition, likely because of Wirth’s earlier troubles balancing finances.^[1] Image File history File linksMetadata WirthBookScan. ... Image File history File linksMetadata WirthBookScan. ... , (Latin: Bahusia; Norwegian: BÃ¥huslen) is a province (landskap) in West Sweden (Västsverige). ... For other uses, see Petroglyph (disambiguation). ... REDIRLink titleBold textItalic textECT Insert textMedia:Example. ...

On August 4, 1936 the expedition set off on a three month trip starting with the German island of Rügen then continuing to Backa, Sweden, the first recorded rock-art site in Sweden. Despite scenes showing warriors, animals and ships, Wirth focused on the lines and circles he thought made up a prehistoric alphabet. Map of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania highlighting the district Rügen Rügen (Polish: Rugia) is an island located off the coast of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in the Baltic Sea. ... Backa is a district in Gothenburg (population 22,000). ...

While his studies were largely based on personal belief, rather than objective scientific research, Wirth made interpretations about the meaning of ideograms 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.”^[1] 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 in Sweden, the team set out on a trek through Sweden, eventually reaching the Norwegian island of Rødøya. A Chinese character. ...

[edit] Middle East

In 1938, Dr. Franz Altheim and his research partner Erika Trautmann requested the Ahnenerbe sponsor their Middle East trek 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 a Nordic background, the Ahnenerbe agreed to match the 4,000RM put forward by Hermann Göring, an old friend of Trautmann who led the Reich’s Four-Year Plan.^[1] Franz Altheim (1898 - 1976) was a German historian, best known for his trip with Erika Trautmann funded by the Ahnenerbe and Hermann Görig. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ...   (January 12, 1893 – October 15, 1946) was a German politician and military leader, a leading member of the Nazi Party, second in command of the Third Reich, designated successor to Adolf Hitler, and commander of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force). ... The Four Year Plan was a series of alabama hot pokets ( the art of shitting in a womans vigina an then possibly having sex!!!! hard coreeconomic reforms created by the Nazi Party. ...

Altheim and Trautmann in 1936.

In August 1938, after spending a few days traveling through remote hills searching for ruins of Dacian kingdoms, the two researchers arrived at their first major stop in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Here Grigore Florescu, the director of the Municipal Museum, met with them and discussed both history and the politics of the day, including the activity of the Iron Guard, a fascist and anti-Semitic group. Image File history File links Franz_Altheim_with_Trautmann. ... Image File history File links Franz_Altheim_with_Trautmann. ... Dacian kingdom during the reign of Burebista, 82 BC The Dacians (Lat. ... Nickname: Motto: Patria si Dreptul Meu (My Country and My Right) Location of Bucharest within Romania (in red) Coordinates: , Country County Founded 1459 (first official record) Government  - Mayor Adriean Videanu Area  - City 228 km² (88 sq mi)  - Metro 238 km² (91. ... -1...

After traveling through Istanbul and Athens, the researchers went to Damascus. Here they were not welcomed by the French (who ruled over Syria as a colony at the time), but they were by the Syrian people, who saw Hitler as an ally to help combat the Jews who were flooding into their country, many fleeing persecution in Germany. Location of Istanbul on the Bosphorus Strait, Turkey Coordinates: , Country Turkey Region Province Istanbul Founded 667 BC as Byzantium Roman/Byzantine period AD 330 as Constantinople Ottoman period 1453 as Constantinople (internationally) and various other names in local languages Turkish Republic period 1923 as Constantinople, officially renamed as Istanbul in... This article is about the capital of Greece. ... For other uses, see Damascus (disambiguation). ...

The newly-sovereign Iraq was being courted for an alliance with Germany^[1], and Fritz Grobba, the German envoy to Baghdad, arranged for Altheim and Trautmann to meet with local researchers and be driven to Parthian and Persian ruins in southern Iraq, as well as Babylon. This article includes an overview from prehistory to the present in the region of the current state of Iraq in Mesopotamia. ... Parthia at its greatest extent under Mithridates II (123–88 BC) Capital Ctesiphon, Ecbatana Government Monarchy [[Category:Former monarchies}}|Parthia, 247 BC]] History  - Established 247 BC  - Disestablished 220 AD Parthian votive relief. ... Persia redirects here. ... For other uses, see Babylon (disambiguation). ...

Through Baghdad the team went north to Assur where they met Sheikh Adjil el Yawar, a leader of the Shammar Bedouin tribe, and commander of the northern Camel Corps. He discussed German politics and his desire to duplicate the success of Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud who had recently ascended to power in Saudi Arabia.^[1] With his support, the team traveled to their final major stop--the ruins of Hatra on the border of the Roman and Persian empires. Assur (Assyrian: ܐܫܘܪ) also spelled Ashur, from Assyrian Aššur, was the capital of ancient Assyria. ... The tribe of Shammar (Arabic: Šammar) is one of the largest tribes of Arabia, with over six million people in the Middle East. ... A Bedouin man in Sinai Peninsula The Bedouin, (from the Arabic (), pl. ... `Abd al-`Azīz Āl Sa`ūd, King of Saudi Arabia, GCIE ( 1876 – November 9, 1953) (Arabic: عبدالعزيز آل سعود) was the first monarch of Saudi Arabia. ... Hatra (Arabic: ‎ ) is an ancient ruined city in the Ninawa Governorate and al-Jazira region of Iraq. ...

Grönhagen in his youth.

Image File history File links Yrjo_no_caption. ... Image File history File links Yrjo_no_caption. ...

[edit] Karelia

In 1935, Himmler contacted author Yrjö von Grönhagen, after seeing one of his articles about the Kalevala folklore, published in a Frankfurt newspaper. Grönhagen agreed to lead a voyage through the Karelia region of Finland, to record pagan sorcerers and witches. Because there was uncertainty about whether the Karelians would allow photography, Finnish illustrator Ola Forsell also accompanied the team. Musicologist Fritz Bose brought along a magnetophone hoping to record the pagan chants. Fritz Bose is unrelated to Amar Bose (1929- ), a Bengali-American who founded the Bose Corporation in 1964. The Kalevala is an epic poem which the Finn Elias Lönnrot compiled from Finnish and Karelian folklore in the 19th century. ... Map showing the parts Karelia is traditionally divided into. ... John Dee and Edward Kelley evoking a spirit: Elizabethans who claimed magical knowledge A magician is a person skilled in the mysterious and hidden art of magic, which can be described as either the act of entertaining with tricks that are in apparent violation of natural law, such as those... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Witchcraft. ... Name: Magnétophone Origin: Birmingham UK Genre(s): Electronic / Art-Rock Label(s): 4AD Static Caravan Earworm Spaceage Members: Matt Huish Saunders & John Hanson Magnétophone are an electronic / art-rock band originating from Birmingham UK, comprised of Matt Huish Saunders (b. ... Amar Gopal Bose (Bengali: অমর গোপাল বসু Ômor Gopal Boshu) (born November 2, 1929) is the chairman and founder of Bose Corporation. ...

The team departed for their expedition in June 1936. The team’s first success was with a traditional singer, Timo Lipitsä, who knew a song closely resembling one in the Kalevala although he was unaware of the book. Later, in Tolvajärvi, the team photographed and recorded Hannes Vornanen playing a traditional Finnish kantele. Koistinen concert kantele with 38 strings A kantele, Finnish (or kannel) in Estonian, is a traditional plucked string instrument. ...

One of the trip’s final successes was in finding Miron-Aku, a soothsayer believed to be a witch by locals. 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 could summon the spirits of ancestors and “divine future events.” A soothsayer is a person who claims to speak of sexual activities specifically one who predicts the future based upon personal, sexual, or religious beliefs rather than scientific facts. ...

The team also recorded information on Finnish saunas. For the modern global sauna variants, see sauna. ...

[edit] Germany

Current-day image of burial mounds No. 17

Gustav Riek at the excavation

Image File history File links Tumulus17. ... Image File history File links Tumulus17. ... Image File history File links GustavRiek. ... Image File history File links GustavRiek. ...

[edit] Murg Valley

In 1936, Wiligut and Gunther Kirchhoff undertook a study of the Murg Valley in the Black Forest, where there was a settlement described as consisting of old half-timbered houses, architectural ornament, crosses, inscriptions, and natural and man-made rock formations in the forest, which they theorized showed it to be an ancient Krist settlement.^[2] In 1937 and 1938, Gustav Riek led an excavation of the Grosse Heuneberg, where an ancient fortress had been discovered much earlier. They also studied the nearby Tumulus burial mounds, which continue to be excavated today.^[3] The Murg is a right tributary of the Rhine, located in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. ... A map of Germany, showing the Black Forest in red. ... Riek at the 1937 excavation of burial mounds Born in Stuttgart in 1900, Gustav Riek was an archaeologist from the University of Tübingen who worked with the SS Ahnenerbe in their excavactions, and led the team that excavated the Heuneburg Tumulus burial mounds in 1937. ...

[edit] Mauern

Quite likely the Ahnenerbe’s greatest discovery in Germany was in the southern Jura mountains of Bavaria. During an excavation of the Mauern caves, R.R. Schmidt had discovered red ochre, a common pigment for cave paintings made by the Cro-Magnon. Looking towards Lelex from near to Crêt de la Neige The Jura folds are located north of the main Alpine orogenic front and are being continually deformed, accommodating the northwards compression from Alpine folding. ... The Cro-Magnons (IPA: or anglicised IPA: ) form the earliest known European examples of Homo sapiens, the species to which modern humans belong. ...

In fall 1937, Dr. Assien Bohmers, a Frisian nationalist who applied to the SS Excavations Department earlier that year, took over the excavation. His team proceeded to find artifacts such as burins, ivory pendants, and a woolly mammoth skeleton. They also discovered Neandertal remains buried with what appeared to be throwing spears and javelins, a technology thought to have been developed by the Cro-Magnons. Satellite view of the German Bight (the Frisian Coast). ... In lithic reduction, a burin is a special type of lithic flake with a chisel-like edge which prehistoric humans may have used for engraving or for carving wood or bone. ... For the rock band, see Wooly Mammoth (band). ...

Bohmers interpreted this to mean Cro-Magnons had left these stones in the caves over seventy thousand years before and this was therefore the oldest Cro-Magnon site in the world. To validate his claims, Bohmers travelled Europe speaking with colleagues and visiting exhibitions through the Netherlands, Belgium and France. ^[1]

[edit] France

At the Parisian Institute for Human Paleontology, Bohmers met with Abbé Henri Breuil, an expert on cave art. Breuil arranged for Bohmers to visit Les Trois-Frères, a site whose owners only allowed a small number of people to visit.^[1] First, however, Bohmers took a quick trip to London, followed by a tour of several other French points of interest: La Fond de Gaume (a site featuring Cro-Magnon cave paintings), Teyat, La Mouthe and the caves of Dordogne. Then Bohmers moved on to Les Trois-Frères, “where Himmler and where so many other Nazis had long dreamed of standing--in the shrine of the ancient dead, in the dark embrace of the ancestors.”^[1] Henri Breuil (February 28, 1877 - August 14, 1961), often referred to as Abbé Breuil was a French archaeologist. ... Cave or Rock Paintings are paintings on cave or rock walls and ceilings, usually dating to prehistoric times. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

[edit] Bayeux Tapestry

The Ahnenerbe took great interest in the 900-year-old Bayeux Tapestry, reportedly since it contained images of the Germanic Franks solidly defeating their enemies. In June of 1941, they oversaw the transport of the tapestry from its home in the Bayeux Cathedral, to an abbey at Juaye-Mondaye, and finally to the Chateau de Sourches. In August of 1944, after Paris was liberated by the Allies, two members of the SS were dispatched to Paris to retrieve the tapestry which had been moved into the basement of the Louvre. Contrary to Himmler’s orders, however, they chose not to attempt to enter the Louvre, most likely because of the strong presence of the French Resistance in the historic area. The Bayeux Tapestry (French: Tapisserie de Bayeux) is a 50 cm by 70 m (20 in by 230 ft) long embroidered cloth which depicts the events leading up to the 1066 Norman invasion of England as well as the events of the invasion itself. ... This article is about the Frankish people and society. ... Juaye-Mondaye is a commune of the département of Calvados, in the Basse-Normandie région, in France. ... This article is about the independent states that comprised the Allies. ... This article is about the museum. ... The Croix de Lorraine, chosen by General de Gaulle as the symbol of the resistance. ...

[edit] Tibet

In 1937 Himmler decided he could increase the Ahnenerbe’s visibility by investigating Hans F. K. Günther’s claims that early Aryans had conquered much of Asia, including attacks against China and Japan in approximately 2000 BC, and that Gautama Buddha was himself an Aryan offspring of the Nordic race. Walther Wüst would later expand upon this, stating in a public speech that Adolf Hitler’s ideologies corresponded with those of Buddha, since the two shared a common heritage. Hans Friedrich Karl Günther (born February 16, 1891 in Freiburg; died September 25, 1968 also in Freiburg) was a German race researcher and eugenicist in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. ... Siddhartha and Gautama redirect here. ...

[edit] Members

Schäfer (left) and Beger(right)

Ernst Schäfer was a member of the SS when he showed up at the German consulate in Chung-King in 1935. Schäfer had just returned from a trip through parts of Asia, mainly India and China, in which the other two heads of the expedition had abandoned him in fear of native tribes.^[1] Schäfer turned the expedition from a complete failure into a great success, and the SS took note, sending him a letter informing him of a promotion to SS-Untersturmführer and summoning him back to Germany from Philadelphia where he was organizing the collection from his voyage. In June 1936, Schäfer met with Himmler, who consequently informed Sievers and Galke to start organizing an expedition to Tibet. Image File history File links Schäfer-Berger. ... Image File history File links Schäfer-Berger. ... Ernst Schäfer (1910-1992) was a famous German hunter and zoologist in the 1930s, specializing in ornithology. ... Bruno Beger (1911 - 1998) was a German Rassenkunde expert who worked for the Ahnenerbe. ... Ernst Schäfer (1910-1992) was a famous German hunter and zoologist in the 1930s, specializing in ornithology. ... Chongqing (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Postal map spelling: Chungking; Wade-Giles: Chung-ching) is the largest and most populous of the Peoples Republic of Chinas four provincial-level municipalities, and the only one in the less densely populated western half of China. ... SS-Untersturmführer insignia Untersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the German Schutzstaffel first created in July 1934. ... Nickname: City of Brotherly Love, Philly, the Quaker City Motto: Philadelphia maneto (Let brotherly love continue) Location in Pennsylvania Coordinates: Country United States State Pennsylvania County Philadelphia Founded October 27, 1682 Incorporated October 25, 1701 Mayor John F. Street (D) Area    - City 369. ...

Schäfer recruited young, fit men who would be well suited for an arduous journey.^[1] At age 24, Karl Wienert (an assistant of Wilhelm Filchner, a famous explorer) was the team’s geologist. Also age 24, Edmund Geer was selected as the technical leader to organize the expedition. A relatively old teammate at the age of 38 was Ernst Krause (not to be confused with the German biologist of the same name) was to double as a filmmaker and entomologist. Bruno Beger was a 26 year old Rassekunde expert and student of Günther who was to be the team’s anthropologist. Wilhelm Filchner (September 13, 1877 - May 7, 1957) was a German explorer. ... Bruno Beger (1911 - 1998) was a German Rassenkunde expert who worked for the Ahnenerbe. ...

The entire 3rd expedition

Image File history File links Tibet-Expedition. ... Image File history File links Tibet-Expedition. ...

[edit] Expedition details

The first problem to come up for the Tibetan expedition occurred during a duck hunting accident on November 9, 1937 when Schäfer, his wife of four months, and two servants were in a rowboat. A sudden wave caused Schäfer to drop his gun which broke in two and discharged, mortally wounding his wife. Despite subsequent emotional problems, Schäfer was back to work on the expedition in eight weeks.^[1]

In July 1937 the team suffered another setback when Japan invaded China, ruining Schäfer’s plans to use the Yangtze River to reach Tibet. Schäfer flew to London to seek permission to travel through India, but was turned down by the British government who feared an imminent war with Germany. The Yangtze River or Chang Jiang (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: ), or Drichu in Tibetan (Tibetan: འབ; Wylie: bri chu) is the longest river in Asia and the third longest in the world, after the Nile in Africa, and the Amazon in South America. ...

In a move that lost the Ahnenerbe’s support, Schäfer asked Himmler for permission to just show up in India and try to barge his way into Tibet. Himmler willingly accepted, even helping Schäfer by contacting influential people, including Germany’s foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. On April 21, 1938 the team departed from Genoa, Italy on their way to Ceylon where they would then travel to Calcutta, India. Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (born Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim Ribbentrop) (April 30, 1893 – October 16, 1946) was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. ... For other uses, see Genoa (disambiguation). ... , “Calcutta” redirects here. ...

The day before the team left Europe the Völkischer Beobachter ran an article on the expedition, alerting British officials of their intentions. Schäfer and Himmler were both enraged: Schäfer complained to the SS headquarters and Himmler in turn wrote to Admiral Barry Domvile. Domvile was a Nazi supporter and former head of British naval intelligence who gave the letter to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who allowed the SS team permission to enter Sikkim, a region bordering Tibet.^[1] One of the last editions of the Völkischer Beobachter (April 20, 1945) hails Adolf Hitler as man of the century on the occasion of his 56th birthday, ten days before his suicide. ... Admiral Sir Barry Edward Domvile, KBE CB CMG, (1878-1971) was a distinguished Royal Navy officer who turned into a leading British fascist. ... This article is about the British Prime Minister. ... , Sikkim (Nepali:  , also Sikhim) is a landlocked Indian state nestled in the Himalayas. ...

Photograph of the expedition

In Sikkim’s capital of Gangtok, the team assembled a 50-mule caravan and searched for porters and Tibetan interpreters. Here, the British official, Sir Basil Gould observed them, describing Schäfer as “interesting, forceful, volatile, scholarly, vain to the point of childishness, disregardful of social convention,” and noted that he was determined to enter Tibet regardless of permission.^[1] Image File history File links Ss_tibet. ... Image File history File links Ss_tibet. ... Gangtok   (Nepali/Hindi: गंगटोक) is the capital and largest town of the Indian state of Sikkim. ... A porter carries objects. ... An interpreter is a practitioner of interpreting, an activity that consists of establishing, either simultaneously or consecutively, oral or gestural communications between two or more speakers who are not speaking (or signing) the same language. ... Sir Basil John Gould (1883 -1956) was a British Political Officer in Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet from 1935 to 1945. ...

The team began their journey June 21, 1938, traveling through the Teesta River valley and then heading north. Krause worked light traps to capture insects, Wienert toured the hills making measurements, Geer collected bird species and Beger offered locals medical help in exchange for allowing him to take measurements of them. The Teesta River is one of the most scenic rivers in Eastern India. ...

Video still

In August 1938, a high official of the Rajah Tering, a member of the Sikkimese royal family living in Tibet, entered the team’s camp. Although Beger wished to ask the guest’s permission to measure him, he was dissuaded by the Tibetan porters who encouraged to wait for Schäfer to return from a hunting trip. Schäfer met with the official, and presented him with mule-loads of gifts.^[1] Image File history File links Tibetahnenerbe1. ... Image File history File links Tibetahnenerbe1. ...

In December 1938 the Tibetan council of ministers invited Schäfer and his team to Tibet, although forbid them from killing any animals during their stay, citing religious concerns. ^[4] After a supply trip back to Gangtok, where Schäfer learned he had been promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer, and the rest of the team had been promoted to SS-Obersturmführer.^[1] Hauptsturmführer was a Nazi rank of the SS which was used between the years of 1934 and 1945. ... Obersturmführer collar insignia Obersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi party that was used by the Schutzstaffel and also as a rank of the SA. Translated as “Senior Storm Leader”, the rank of Obersturmführer was first created in 1932 as the result of an expansion of...

During the trip to Tibet’s highlands, Beger began making facial casts of local people, including his personal servant, a Nepalese Sherpa named Passang. During the first casting, paste got into one of Passang’s nostrils and he panicked, tearing at the mask. Schäfer threatened the employment of the porters who had seen the incident, if they told anyone. However, most of the Tibetians had a much more friendly and light-hearted attitude, and a solid amount of photographic and film footage remains of smiling and laughing Tibetians undergoing facial and skull feature measurements. Selected ethnic groups of Nepal; Bhotia, Sherpa, Thakali Gurung Kiranti, Rai, Limbu Newari Pahari Tamang For other uses of the word Sherpa, see Sherpa (disambiguation). ...

On January 19, 1939, the team reached Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Schäfer proceeded to pay his respects to the Tibetan ministers and a nobleman. He also gave out Nazi pennants, explaining the shared symbol’s reverence in Germany.^[1] His permission to remain in Lhasa was extended, and he was permitted to photograph and film the region. The team spent two months in Lhasa, collecting information on agriculture, culture, and religion, even receiving a copy of the 108-volume encyclopedia of Lamaism (only three copies of which had been given to Europeans and had never been translated).^[1] For other uses, see Lhasa (disambiguation). ... Tibetan Buddhism[1] is the body of religious Buddhist doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and the Himalayan regions, which include northern Nepal, Bhutan, India (Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Sikkim), Mongolia, Russia (Kalmykia, Buryatia and Tuva) and northeastern China (Manchuria: Heilongjiang, Jilin). ...

A peak of the Himalayas, possibly Annapurna

Video still of an unknown, believed to be Beger in the foreground

After leaving Lhasa, the team traveled to the Yarlung Valley--a region British officials had been denied entry into. The team observed the valley and the ancient stronghold of Yumbulagang, but the approaching war threatened their research, and they began preparing plans to return via a flight from Calcutta to Baghdad, and eventually back to Germany. Their final inventory included nearly 2,000 photographs, 17 head casts and the measurements of 376 people, as well as having sent back specimens of three breeds of Tibetan dogs, rare feline species, wolves, badgers, foxes, animal and bird skins, and the seeds for 1,600 types of barley, 700 varieties of wheat, 700 varieties of oats and hundreds of other types of seeds. In addition, the team had been given a Tibetan mastiff, a gold coin and the robe of a lama (believed by Schäfer to have been worn by the Dalai Lama) to be gifted to Adolf Hitler.^[1] Image File history File links Ahnenerbe-Tibet. ... Image File history File links Ahnenerbe-Tibet. ... Annapurna (Sanskrit, Nepali, Nepal Bhasa: अन्नपूर्ण) is a series of peaks in the Himalaya, a 55-km-long massif whose highest point, Annapurna I, stands at 8,091 m (26,538 ft), making it the 10th-highest summit in the world and one of the 14 eight-thousanders. It is located... Image File history File links Tibetahnenerbe2. ... Image File history File links Tibetahnenerbe2. ... This article is about the Dalai Lama lineage. ... Hitler redirects here. ...

Schäfer arrived in Munich on August 4, 1939, and was greeted personally by Himmler, who presented him a Totenkopfring. Because of the war, Schäfer’s writings about the trip were not published until 1950, under the title Festival of the White Gauze Scarves: A research expedition through Tibet to Lhasa, the holy city of the god realm. The Totenkopfring (English Deaths head ring), officially the SS-Ehrenring (Honour Ring), was an award of Heinrich Himmlers Schutzstaffel (SS). ...

[edit] Poland

The altar of Wit Stwosz

After the invasion of Poland, Sievers wrote to Himmler about the need to appropriate exhibits from numerous museums.^[5] Image File history File links Size of this preview: 424 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (645 × 912 pixel, file size: 221 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Ahnenerbe Altar of... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 424 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (645 × 912 pixel, file size: 221 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Ahnenerbe Altar of... For the Soviet Unions military action against Poland under the same alliance, see Soviet invasion of Poland (1939). ...

The Reich Main Security Administration’s Standartenführer Franz Six oversaw SS-Untersturmführer Peter Paulsen, who was commanding a small team’s foray into Kraków, with the intent of obtaining the 15th century Veit Stoss altar. Reinhard Heydrich - the first director of RSHA The RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office), was a subordinate organization of the SS created by Heinrich Himmler on September 22, 1939, through the merger of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD, or Security Agency), the Gestapo (Secret State Police) and the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police). ... Franz Six Dr. Franz Alfred Six (August 12, 1909 in Mannheim - July 9, 1975 in Bolzano) first rose to prominence as dean of the faculty of Economics of the University of Berlin. ... For other uses, see Krakow (disambiguation). ... The altar of Veit Stoss OÅ‚tarz Wita Stwosza or Veit Stoss altar (OÅ‚tarz Mariacki, Marys altar) is the biggest gothic altar in Europe, placed in St. ...

Because the Poles had foreseen the German interest in the altar, they had disassembled it into 32 pieces which were shipped to different locations--however Paulsen was able to locate 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 the Reichsbank.^[1] 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. A 100 Mark banknote issued by the German Reichsbank in 1908 (http://www. ...

Reinhard Heydrich, then head of RSHA, sent Paulsen back to Kraków in order to seize additional museum collections.^[1] But Göring had already sent a team of his own men, commanded by SS-Sturmbannführer Kajetan Mühlmann, to loot the museums. Mühlmann agreed to let Paulsen take the scientific items back to the Ahnenerbe, while keeping the artwork for Göring. Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich (7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was an SS-Obergruppenführer, chief of the Reich Security Main Office (including the Gestapo, SD and Kripo Nazi police agencies) and Reichsprotektor (Reich Protector) of Bohemia and Moravia. ...

During the looting however, Hans Frank--leader of the German-controlled Polish General Government--issued a November 22, 1939 order prohibiting the “unapproved export” of Polish items. Paulsen obeyed the order, but his colleague Hans Schleif arranged for five freightcars of loot from the Warsaw Archaeological Museum to be shipped to Poznań,which was outside Frank’s control. In return, Schleif was appointed as a trustee for Wartheland. Paulsen later tried to take credit for the freightcars contents in his report to RSHA, but was reassigned.^[1][6] Hans Frank (May 23, 1900 – October 16, 1946) was a lawyer for the Nazi party during the 1920s and a senior official in Nazi Germany. ... The General Government (in full General government for the occupied Polish areas, in German Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete) was the name given by Germany to the governing authority in Poland after its occupation by the Wehrmacht in September and October 1939. ... Coordinates: , Country Voivodeship Powiat city county Gmina PoznaÅ„ Established 8th century City Rights 1253 Government  - Mayor Ryszard Grobelny Area  - City 261. ... Reichsgau Wartheland (initially Reichsgau Posen) was the name given by Nazi German government to the largest subdivision of the territory of Greater Poland which was directly incorporated into the German Reich after defeating the Polish army in 1939. ...

[edit] Crimea

After the German army conquered the Crimea in early July 1942, Himmler sent Dr. Herbert Jankuhn, as well as Karl Kersten and Baron Wolf von Seefeld, to the region in search of artifacts to follow up the recent displaying of the Kerch “Gothic crown of the Crimea” in Berlin. Motto: ÐŸÑ€Ð¾Ñ†Ð²ÐµÑ‚ание в единстве(Russian) Protsvetanie v edinstve(transliteration) Prosperity in unity Anthem: ÐÐ¸Ð²Ñ‹ и горы твои волшебны, Родина(Russian) Nivy i gory tvoi volshebny, Rodina(transliteration) Your fields and mounts are wonderful, Motherland Location of Crimea (red) with respect to Ukraine (light blue). ... Kerch (Ukrainian: , Russian: , Crimean Tatar: , Old East Slavic: Кърчевъ) is a city (2001 pop 157,000) on the Kerch Peninsula of eastern Crimea, is an important industrial, transport and tourist centre of Ukraine. ...

Jankuhn met with senior officers of Einsatzkommando 11, part of Einsatzgruppe D while waiting at the field headquarters of the 5th SS Panzer Division. Commander Otto Ohlendorf gave Jankuhn information about the Crimean museums.^[7] A member of Einsatzgruppe D is just about to shoot a Jewish man kneeling before a filled mass grave in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, in 1942. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Otto Ohlendorf. ...

Traveling with the 5th SS Panzer, Jankuhn’s team eventually reached Maikop, where they received a message from Sievers that Himmler wanted an investigation of Manhup-Kale, an ancient mountain fortress. Jankuhn sent Kersten to follow up on Manhup-Kale, while the rest of the team continued trying to secure artifacts that hadn’t already been taken by the Red Army. Einsatzkommando 11b’s commander Werner Braune aided the team in their efforts. Maykop (Майко́п), capital of the Republic of Adygea, Russia. ... For other organizations known as the Red Army, see Red Army (disambiguation). ...

Jankuhn was ultimately unable to find Gothic artifacts denoting a German ancestry, even after receiving intelligence about a shipment of seventy-two crates or artifacts shipped to a medical warehouse. Unfortunately, the area had been ravaged by the time the team arrived, and only twenty crates remained--but they contained Greek and stone-age artifacts, rather than Gothic.^[1]

[edit] Ukraine

In June 1943, 27-year-old Untersturmführer Heinz Brücher, who held a PhD from Tübingen in botany, was tasked with an expedition to the Ukraine and Crimea. Hauptsturmführer Konrad von Rauch and an interpreter identified as “Steinbrecher” were also involved in the expedition. Heinz Brücher (January 14, 1915 - December 17, 1991) was a member of special science unit SS Ahnenerbe, PhD (1938, Tübingen) in botany. ... PhD usually refers to the academic title Doctor of Philosophy PhD can also refer to the manga Phantasy Degree This is a disambiguation page — a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ... Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (German: Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen) is a state-supported university located on the Neckar river, in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. ... Pinguicula grandiflora commonly known as a Butterwort Example of a cross section of a stem [1] Botany is the scientific study of plant life. ... Hauptsturmführer was a Nazi rank of the SS which was used between the years of 1934 and 1945. ...

In February of 1945, Brücher was ordered to destroy the 18 research facilities that were being studied, to avoid their capture by advancing Soviet forces. He refused, and after the war continued his work as a botanist in Argentina and Trinidad.^[8] Soviet redirects here. ... For other uses, see Trinidad (disambiguation). ...

[edit] Italy

In 1937 the Ahnenerbe sent to Val Camonica the archaeologist Franz Altheim and his wife photographer Erika Trautnann to study prehistoric rock inscriptions. The two returned to Germany claiming they found traces of Nordic runes on the rocks confirming that ancient Rome was originally of Nordic descent. Val Camonica is a valley in the lower Alpine regions of Lombardy, Italy. ... Franz Altheim (1898 - 1976) was a German historian, best known for his trip with Erika Trautmann funded by the Ahnenerbe and Hermann Görig. ...

[edit] Cancelled expeditions

[edit] Bolivia

The Gateway to the Sun in Tiwanaku.

After winning 20,000 Reichsmark in a writing contest, Edmund Kiss traveled to Bolivia in 1928 to study the ruins of temples in the Andes mountains. He claimed their similarity to ancient European construction indicated they were designed by Nordic migrants, millions of years earlier.^[9] Gateway of the Sun at Tiahuanaco, as published by E.G.Squier, Peru Incidents of Travel, 1877 This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Gateway of the Sun at Tiahuanaco, as published by E.G.Squier, Peru Incidents of Travel, 1877 This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... User(s) Germany Subunit 1/100 Reichspfennig Symbol RM Reichspfennig Rpf. ... This article is about the mountain range in South America. ...

He also claimed that his findings supported the World Ice Theory, which claimed the universe originated from a cataclysmic clash between gigantic balls of ice and glowing mass. Arthur Posnansky had been studying a local site called Tiwanaku, which he also believed supported the theory. Welteislehre (also known as Glazial-Kosmogonie) is a theory first published by the Austrian Hanns Hörbiger, a refrigeration engineer, in 1913. ... Area of the Middle Horizon The Gate of the Sun Tiwanaku (Spanish spellings: Tiahuanaco and Tiahuanacu) is an important Pre-Columbian archaeological site in Bolivia. ...

After contacting Posnansky, Kiss approached Wüst for help planning an expedition to excavate Tiwanaku and a nearby site, Siminake. The team would consist of twenty scientists and would excavate for a year as well as explore Lake Titicaca, take aerial photographs of ancient Incan roads they believed had Nordic roots. By late August 1939, the expedition was nearly set to embark, however the September first invasion of Poland saw the trip postponed indefinitely. Lake Titicaca sits 3,812 m (12,507 feet) above sea level making it the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. ... Fall Weiss (Case White, German spelling Fall Weiß) was a German strategic plan for a war with Poland prepared before 1939 and put into action on 1 September 1939. ...

[edit] Behistun

In 1938, Ahnenerbe president Walther Wüst proposed a trip to Iran to study the Behistun Inscription, which had been created by order of the Achaemenid Shah Darius I--who Wüst believed to have been of Nordic origin.^[1] The inscriptions were recorded atop steep cliffs using scaffolding that was removed after the inscriptions were made. Unable to afford the cost of erecting new scaffolds, Wüst proposed that he, his wife, an amanuensis, an Iranian student, a photographer, and an experienced mountaineer be sent with a balloon-mounted camera. The onset of the war however, saw the trip postponed indefinitely. The Behistun Inscription, carved into a cliffside, gives the same text in three languages, telling the story of King Darius conquests, with the names of twenty-three provinces subject to him. ... The Persepolis Ruins The Achaemenid dynasty (Old Persian:Hakamanishiya, Persian: هخامنشیان) - was a dynasty in the ancient Persian Empire. ... Shah or Shahzad is a Persian term for a monarch (ruler) that has been adopted in many other languages. ... Darius I the Great (c. ... A Nazi illustration of the perceived Nordic master race. ... This article is about the temporary framework. ... A secretary is a person who performs routine, administrative, or personal tasks for a superior. ... An open crevasse. ...

[edit] Canary Islands

Early travelers to the Canary Islands had described the