Ahnenerbe

Introduction

The Deutsches Ahnenerbe—Studiengesellschaft für Geistesurgeschichte (German Ancestral Heritage – Society for the Study of the History of Primeval Ideas), later shortened to simply Deutsches Ahnenerbe (Ancestral Heritage Society) was founded in 1935 under the direction of Heinrich Himmler. The organization became the mechanism for which Himmler could indulge his obsession with “unveil[ing] a new portrait of the ancient world, one in which Aryans would be seen coining civilization and bringing light to inferior to races.” The Ahnenerbe was eventually incorporated into the Excavations Department of the Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS) in 1938 as a tool dedicated to the scientific and archaeological research proving the superiority of the Aryan Race. The organization had three major overarching goals while it was in operation:

• To study the space, ideas, and achievements of the Indo-Germanic peoples.
• To bring the research findings to life and present them to the German people.
• To encourage every German to get involved in the process.