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elfbiterHeather Pringle - The Master Plan; Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust
This is the story of Ahnenerbe nazi organization that tried to prove the existence of Aryans and rebuild the (nonexistent) Aryan world. In popular culture Ahnenerber has been turned into a nazi mad scientist or occultist organization, due to Himmler's interest to occult and his occult oriented castles.
Ahnenerbe was founded to find (and effective concoct and fake) proof of the Master Race. Himmler seemed to regard the Aryans as semi-divine beings from Northern Europe (an idea Hitler did not actually subscribe to). Agents of Ahneberbe travelled all over the world to find "proof".
Ahnenerbe members were convinced that everything worthwhile ever built anywhere in the world must have been the work of legendary Aryans - including buildings far from the northern Europe (In this respect it is no different to Däniken's claims that those same structures were erected by ancient space aliens).
In fact Himmler's ideas that the Thor's Hammer was actually a superweapon is not far from Däniken's claims that indian mythology describe warfare by nuclear weapons. Divine Aryans instead of space aliens.
Pringle, however, mainly concentrates on German nationalist comments when one could find similar contemporary attitudes in other countries as well, even if they often were in the paternalistic form elsewhere. Germany was hardly the only country with similar ideologies; some North American anthropologists were hardly any better. For decades in the 19th century, US archaeologist found it impossible to believe that various ancient structures like the Serpent Hill would have been built by ancestors of modern Amerindians because they were "obviously so primitive".
Various racial theories were popular after the war as well, especially in certain academic circles, in Apartheid-oriented Rhodesia and South Africa and in Swedish attitudes towards the Finns. In Sweden, these attitudes lead to sterilization of the poor as "undesirables" (which continued after the war). In the late 1970's there was a British encyclopedias that divided people according to dubious racial distinctions.
More modern scholars are more concerned about ethnic groups since there is very little genetic difference, aside from appearance and social background. This has not stopped the old racial groups from white supremacist gangs to "melanin theory" of black supremacists.
Yrjö Grönhagen (later Georg von Grönhagen) was the Finnish member of Ahnenerbe who tried to find Aryan magic fro Karelia (and claimed to have encountered clairvoyants), He was later let go when the new leader of Ahnenerbe demanded that he get some academic creedentials first.
Bruno Berner fooled TIbetans who believed that swastika had the same meaning in the different parts of the world.
This is the story of Ahnenerbe nazi organization that tried to prove the existence of Aryans and rebuild the (nonexistent) Aryan world. In popular culture Ahnenerber has been turned into a nazi mad scientist or occultist organization, due to Himmler's interest to occult and his occult oriented castles.
Ahnenerbe was founded to find (and effective concoct and fake) proof of the Master Race. Himmler seemed to regard the Aryans as semi-divine beings from Northern Europe (an idea Hitler did not actually subscribe to). Agents of Ahneberbe travelled all over the world to find "proof".
Ahnenerbe members were convinced that everything worthwhile ever built anywhere in the world must have been the work of legendary Aryans - including buildings far from the northern Europe (In this respect it is no different to Däniken's claims that those same structures were erected by ancient space aliens).
In fact Himmler's ideas that the Thor's Hammer was actually a superweapon is not far from Däniken's claims that indian mythology describe warfare by nuclear weapons. Divine Aryans instead of space aliens.
Pringle, however, mainly concentrates on German nationalist comments when one could find similar contemporary attitudes in other countries as well, even if they often were in the paternalistic form elsewhere. Germany was hardly the only country with similar ideologies; some North American anthropologists were hardly any better. For decades in the 19th century, US archaeologist found it impossible to believe that various ancient structures like the Serpent Hill would have been built by ancestors of modern Amerindians because they were "obviously so primitive".
Various racial theories were popular after the war as well, especially in certain academic circles, in Apartheid-oriented Rhodesia and South Africa and in Swedish attitudes towards the Finns. In Sweden, these attitudes lead to sterilization of the poor as "undesirables" (which continued after the war). In the late 1970's there was a British encyclopedias that divided people according to dubious racial distinctions.
More modern scholars are more concerned about ethnic groups since there is very little genetic difference, aside from appearance and social background. This has not stopped the old racial groups from white supremacist gangs to "melanin theory" of black supremacists.
Yrjö Grönhagen (later Georg von Grönhagen) was the Finnish member of Ahnenerbe who tried to find Aryan magic fro Karelia (and claimed to have encountered clairvoyants), He was later let go when the new leader of Ahnenerbe demanded that he get some academic creedentials first.
Bruno Berner fooled TIbetans who believed that swastika had the same meaning in the different parts of the world.
