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Transcript

Deconstructing the

Ahnenerbe:

Research Progress

Cambriel Thomas

2 May 2022

Dr. Sharfman

.

What was the Ahnenerbe?

  • Himmler's pet project
  • Think Tank
  • ANA-NER-BAH - Ahnenerbe -> “Ancestral Heritage”
  • Nazi Research Institute was founded in 1935 by Heinrich Himmler.

  • It specialized in spinning pseudoscience rooted in Hitler’s infatuation with “national heritage” and Himmler’s utter obsession with race and the occult into propaganda in order to force the narrative of a superior Aryan race.

  • Accredited Archaeologists, Anthropologists, Scientists of many fields (microbio)
  • many continued working after the war

(extended) Thesis:

"Those who control the past control the future.”

George Orwell, 1984

When investigating the role of the Ahnenerbe institution within the Third Reich’s broader schemes, it becomes evident that it’s implementation of pseudoscience and widespread appropriation seizing the narrative of foreign folklore and heritage was in order to fuel its inevitably doomed quest of finding a prehistoric “Aryan heritage” and justifying the “Final Solution” to future generations.

Sources: Primary and Secondary, Frustrations

Source Notes

  • Finding primary sources for this topic was a little difficult. The Ahnenerbe infamously destroyed/covered up many of the actual discoveries they made and also reappropriated some into a different narrative, so separating fact from fiction without a secondary source to decipher it was honestly a bit confusing.

  • A lot of my primary sources are letters sent from Ahnenerbe members reporting their findings to SS officers, plus a few direct quotes from notable people

  • Heather Pringle!- Prolific science writer and archaeology researcher. She has several published pieces about the Ahnenerbe specifically, detailing Himmler’s involvement and the institute’s motivations.
  • Dr. Boris L. Bergen and Dr. Horst Junginger (Gender and Religion in Archaeology and Fascism)

What's something interesting I found?

Research

  • Himmler's supersitions!!
  • Dr. Ruth Kluger made me realize how much gender influences the way fascism operates, but through this research (and Dr. Junginger) I found the extent to how much religion fundamentally authorizes fascism superseded what I would have previously guessed. AND how much of those things intersect!
  • The Ahnenerbe was created in order to “discover Europe’s Aryan-Germanic past”, but ACTUALLY was to show soldiers and the world that the German people had "heritage rights" to take over Europe and kill anyone "inferior to them
  • Culture versus Heritage!!!

  • CRM!! Though Cultural Resource Management is an actual field of Archaeology, for some reason I did not account for how much of the Ahnenerbe would be dedicated to developing their own branch of this. In hindsight, it feels obvious: They were gathering all of this archaeological data to curate grand museums dedicated to the Third Reich and the SS
  • It would justify and explain the Final Solution and the war to future generations
  • This part has an overlap with the Nazi's infamously looting and pillaging of “degenerate” art/culture from other nations and Jewish citizens
  • Curators were planning to display the good side of culture vs the evil side: the BS the Ahnenerbe found/made up plus whatever art was created within the empire VS everything else
  • A testament to just how important and powerful the museum industry’s ability to control historical and cultural narratives

What did I not find??

  • I was initially pursuing the topic of Nazi Archaeology intending to look at specific instances of appropriation, such as Ancient Zimbabwe, and study sites and artifacts how they tried to change the narrative of history… was NOT expecting to find out how much of their OWN (actual germanic, not “Aryan”) history was covered up
  • Hitler's quote about Himmler

What did I not find?

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