Ahnenerbe, which translates as ancestral heritage, was founded as an elite Nazi research institute. Primarily for archaeological and historical research, it expanded to encapsulate the majority of German academia until 1945.
Below are some profiles on the people and leadership of the Ahnenerbe.
Heinrich Himmler
Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel
Himmler used his position as the second most powerful man in the Nazi Reich to fund and organise archaeological endeavours. In 1935, he founded the Ahnenerbe to formally adopt academia under the SS. This allowed Himmler to guide academic study and investigations to his own end.
Committed suicide by cyanide poisoning in 1945
Wolfram Sievers
Reichsgeschäftsführer, or managing director, of the Ahnenerbe
Sievers first worked for Himmler as head of Externsteine Foundation, before joining the SS and being made director of the newly established Ahnenerbe in 1935. He also became director of the Institute for Military Scientific Research which performed extensive human experimentation.
Executed for his role in human experimentation in 1948.
Richard Walter Darré
Reich Minister of Food and Agriculture
A co-founder of the Ahnenerbe, Darré was instrumental in forming the ideology of Blood and Soil, grounding Nazi ancestry as an agricultural society. He also influenced Lebensraum or living space, which saw mass clearances in eastern Europe in favor of Nazi farms.
Sentenced to seven years imprisonment by the Ministries Trial; Died of liver cancer in 1953
August Hirt
Director of the Institute of anatomy at the Reichsuniversität Straßburg
Came to Himmler’s attention when Hirt sent a proposal for a Jewish Skeleton Collection. One of the worst crimes of the Ahnenerbe, Hirt saw the concentration camps as the perfect way to establish a wide range of Jewish skeletons for medical purposes.
Tried in absentia at the 1953 Military War Crimes Trial, he had already committed suicide in 1945
Ernst Schäfer
SS-Sturmbannführer and head of the Ahnenerbe Tibet Expedition
An established zoologist with experience from two american-led expeditions to Tibet, his desire to lead his own expedition saw him join the SS, through the Ahnenerbe. Adamant the expedition was his, he lost most Nazi funding and support by refusing Edmund Kiss a place on the expedition preferring to have genuine scientists only.
Cleared of war crimes in 1949, Schäfer died in 1992.
Bruno Beger
Anthropologist and Ethnologist
Trained by Hans F. K. Gunther in ethnology, an outdated study that compares physical characteristics as racial markers, specifically focusing on skull measuring. Beger took part in Schäfer’s expedition to Tibet, before assisting in the selection of prisoners for the Jewish Skeleton Collection.
Exonerated in 1948 of war crimes, two investigations in 1960 and 1970 saw him convicted in 1971 to three years of probation for his role in the Jewish skeleton collection. He died in 2009.
Walther Wüst
President of the Ahnenerbe from 1937
Wüst replaced Herman Wirth as president of the Ahnenerbe, due to his comparative commitment to the Nazi Party. Known by Sievers as The Orientalist, Wüst worked to improve the Ahnenerbe moving it into new offices, and removing ‘academic upstarts’.
Died in 1993.
Herman Wirth
Co-Founder of the Ahnenerbe
A Pagan-Volkisch professor of ancient religion and symbols, Wirth co-found the Ahnenerbe, however is lose association with the Nazi party saw him removed from the organisation. Wirth was a major component for encouraging pseudo interests in the Ahnenerbe, for example his belief in an Aryan utopia of Atlantis.
Removed from the Ahnenerbe by Himmler, Wirth entered exile, despite brief interrogation by American forces in 1945, and died in 1981.
Erika Trautmann
German archaeologist and illustrator
Trautmann took part in an Ahnenerbe expedition to the middle east, with her lover Franz Altheim, a Professor of Classical Philology. Whilst technically a study of a roman era conflict between Indogermanic and Semite people, it was primarily used by the Nazis as spy mission.
Survived war, but was banned from academic publishing due to her association with the Ahnenerbe. Died in 1968.
Nazi Mythmakers 