Nazi archaeology

Nazi archaeology was the movement led by various Nazi

leaders, such as Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, archaeologists and other scholars to research the German
past in order to strengthen nationalism.

3. Weltanschauungswissenschaften or World View Sciences, which stated that culture and science were as
one, and carried certain race-inherent values. The
theory suggested that older cultural models, such as
sagas, stories and legends, should be not only reincorporated into mainstream culture, but that the
guiding principle in Germany must be to emphasise the high cultural level and the cultural selfsuciency of the Germanic people. Examples were
the use of Aryan-styled regalia such as the swastika,
the use of German legends and runic symbols in the
SS, and the idea that German scientists and their
conclusions were more correct than the views of
lesser-race scientists.

Overview

The search for a strongly nationalistic, Aryan-centric national prehistory began after Germanys loss in World
War I in 1918, . At this point, the country faced a
severe economic crisis due in part to the terms of the
Treaty of Versailles. Later on, Hitler was behind the
Nazi Party's funding for German pre-historical research.
The rst inuential academic engaging in such research is
said to be Gustaf Kossinna. His ideas and theories were
picked up by the Nazi organisations Amt Rosenberg and
Ahnenerbe. Presenting Germany as the place where civilisation began, the Nazis added pseudoarchaeology as part
of its extensive propagandizing of the German people.[1]

4. Deutsche Reinheit, or Pure German Man, suggesting

that Germans were pure Aryans who had survived
a natural catastrophe and evolved a highly developed
culture during their long migration to Germany. It
also suggested that Greeks were 'Germanic', claiming evidence that certain Indogermanic artifacts
could be found in Greece. This theory supported the
Kulturkreise theory tangentally, in that archeologists
who did not approve of the uses of Kulturkreise theory (moderates) could support this theory.

Tenets
1. The Kulturkreis (culture circles) theory of Gustaf
Kossinna, which stated that recognition of an ethnic region is based on the material culture excavated
from an archeological site. This theory was used by
the Nazis to justify takeover of foreign lands such as
Poland and Czechoslovakia. For example, in his article The German Ostmark", Kossinna argued that
Poland should be a part of German Reich, since
any lands where an artifact was titled Germanic
were therefore ancient Germanic territory, wrongfully stolen by barbarians.[1]

5. The unspoken, unpublished point of Nazi archaeology was summed up in the actions and purpose
of the Ahnenerbe, which was the wholesale creation
of archaeology that would support the propaganda
machine of the Nazi regime.

3 Organisations and operations

3.1 Ahnenerbe

2. The Social Diusion theory, which stated that

cultural diusion occurred by a process whereby
inuences, ideas and models were passed on by
more advanced peoples to the less advanced whom
they came into contact with. Examples oered by
Kossinna and Alfred Rosenberg presented a history
of Germany equivalent to that of the Roman Empire, suggesting that Germanic people were never
destroyers of culturenot like the Romansand
the French in recent times. Combined with Nazi
ideology, this theory gave the perfect foundation for
the view of Germany as the locomotive of world
civilisation.[2]

Main article: Ahnenerbe

The Ahnenerbe Organisation, formally the Deutsches
Ahnenerbe Studiengesellschaft fr Geistesurgeschichte
(German Ancestry - Research Society for Ancient Intellectual History ) was an organisation started as the Research Institute for the Prehistory of Mind and was connected to the SS in 1935 by Walther Darre. In 1936 it
was attached to Hitlers Reichsfhrer-SS and led by chief
of police Heinrich Himmler. By 1937, it was the primary
instrument of Nazi archaeology and archaeological propaganda, subsuming smaller organisations like Reinerths
1

ORGANISATIONS AND OPERATIONS

branches of the humanities, which made their research

more amateurish. The group went on to be responsible
for pseudoarchaeology, illustrated by open-air displays
honouring Germanic heritage such as the Externsteine, a
sandstone formation that was thought to have been a key
Germanic cult site. Another example is the Sachsenhain,
where 4500 Saxons were executed as a punishment for
Widukinds uprising. This site was used as an idealised
shrine, considered sacred to the Germanic people and
highlighting their readiness for self-sacrice.
Many other sites were censored from the public since
they did not have the correct Germanic interpretations.
The sites chosen for excavations were limited to those
of Germanic superiority such as Erdenburg, were the
Ahnenerbe claimed to have clear evidence of the victorious campaign of the Germani against the Romans.
Some of the Ahnenerbes most extravagant activities include:

The emblem of the Ahnenerbe

Edmund Kiss tried to travel 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.

Archaeology Group, and lling its ranks with investigators. These included people like Herman Wirth, cofounder of the Ahnernerbe, who attempted to prove that
Northern Europe was the cradle of Western civilisation.
Although it included some real archaeologists with extreme views, such as Hans Reinerth and Oswald Meghin
(who became high-ranking party ocials due to their
cooperation), much of the membership of Ahnenerbe
were second-rate archaeologists or untrained researchers,
backed up by amateur enthusiasts.[3]

In 1938, 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.

The main goals of the organisation were:

They took a huge interest in the Bayeux Tapestry,

going so far as to attempt archaeological digs to nd
other contemporary artwork which would support
their assertion of Germanic might.[3]

1. To study the territory, ideas and achievements of the

Indo-Germanic people
2. To bring the research ndings to life and present
them to the German people
3. To encourage every German to get involved in the
organisation.
Although the organisation claimed to have a research
goal, Himmler had no ocial training in archaeology and
was known for his interest in mysticism and the occult.
Himmler dened the organisation as working towards a
prehistory which would prove the pre-eminence of the
Germans and their Germanic predecessors since the beginning of civilisation. He is quoted as saying, A nation
lives happily in the present and the future so long as it is
aware of its past and the greatness of its ancestors.[4]

In 1936 an Ahnenerbe expedition visited the German island of Rgen then Sweden, with the objective of examining rock-art which they concluded
was 'proto-Germanic'.

In 1938 the Ahnenerbe sent an expedition to Tibet with the intention of proving Aryan superiority
by conrming the Vril theory, which was based on
Edward Bulwer-Lytton's book Vril, the Power of the
Coming Race. Their study included measuring the
skulls of 376 people and comparing native feature
to those associated with Aryans. The expeditions
most scientic ndings are associated with biological nds.

3.2 Amt Rosenberg

A smaller, more professional group of archaeologists, at

least in their background and training, was led by Rosenberg and part of his Amt Rosenberg organisation, the
The Ahnenerbe had diculty nding scientists to work Reichsbund fr Deutsche Vorgeschichte. It was staed
on the projects and was run largely by scholars from with archaeologists who signed on to some of Rosenbergs

4.2

To archaeologists

later thinking and theory. Rosenberg saw world history

as shaped by the eternal ght between the 'Nordic Atlantic', the pure-blooded Nordic people of Atlantis, and
the 'Semites, or Jewish people. To him, only the Germanic people brought culture to the world, while Jews
brought evil. He speculated that the people of Germany
were survivors from Atlantis who had migrated to Germany. He saw Germans as a distinct race, not only in biological terms but in mental phenomena and in their 'will to
live'. Hence, he advocated 'race materialism', stating that
only the ttest race (Aryans) should survive, a tenet that
would later shape the Nazi policy on the Final Solution.
The Amt Rosenberg was dedicated to nding archaeological evidence of the superiority of Germanic culture and
of Atlantis, and in this it was much aided by (and in turn,
gave aid to) the Thule Society.

4
4.1

Goals of Nazi archaeology

To the public

Nazi archaeology was rarely conducted with an eye to

pure research, but was a propaganda tool designed to both
generate nationalistic pride in Germans and provide scientic excuses for conquest. The German people were
drawn to the idea of Germany as the site of the origins of
civilisation by several means. For one, there were a series
of lms put out by Lothar Zotz with titles like Threatened
by the Steam Plough, Germanys Bronze Age, The Flames
of Prehistory and On the Trail of the Eastern Germans.
These used the appeal of myths, olden times, and German triumph over change to reinforce the idea that German history was something to be proud of, while at the
same time taking advantage of the fact that since these
periods of history were little known to the general public,
they could include heavy doses of propaganda.
Additionally, public journals gained popularity such as
Die Kunde (The Message) and Germanen-Erbe (Germanic Heritage). With the journals and lms, Germans
thought they were being given good visuals and interpretations of dierent archaeological sites and learning more
about 'true' German prehistory.
The Nazis also pushed the public to get involved in the
search for the past, using the appeal of patriotism as a
tool. For example, the membership yer of one amateur
organisation of the Amt Rosenberg stated, Responsibility with respect to our indigenous prehistory must again
ll every German with pride! The goal of the organisation was also stated as, the interpretation and dissemination of unclassied knowledge regarding the history and
cultural achievements of our northern Germanic ancestors on German and foreign soil.

3
public museums also gained immense popularity and
pushed the people to believe in and search for their Germanic past.
All of this, gathered together, created a skein of Germanic pride that was used to reinforce the nationalistic, fascist message Adolf Hitler was crafting with his
speeches, open-air meetings, and public image.[5]

4.2 To archaeologists
Prior to the formation of the Ahnenerbe, there was little funding for or interest in Germanic archaeology. This
reality made it even easier for the Nazis to push their ethnocentric views onto the uninformed public, but the true
eect was felt in some scholarly circles. German scholars who specialised in archaeology had long been envious
of the advancements in archaeology their neighbors had
made during their excavations in the Middle East; however, such archaeologists could do little.
With Hitler that changed: funds were made available for
scholars to make great advancements beyond their neighboring countries. Under Nazi rule, archaeology went
from having one chair in prehistory in Marburg in 1933
to having nine chairs in the Reich in 1935. Once archaeology started gaining popularity, scholars were also able
to excavate castles, old ruins and the like, and bring back
pieces for display in museums.
One example of those changes was that the RmischGermanisches Zentralmuseum (Romano-Germanic Central Museum) in Mainz in 1939 became for a time
the Zentralmuseum fr deutsche Vor- und Frhgeschichte
(Central museum for German pre- and early history).[4]
(Note the dierence between the original RmischGermanisch which denotes a historical period, and
deutsche, implying a continuous history and one people. Anglo-Saxon and English would be rough analogies.)
In their enthusiasm for the Nazi regimes support of archaeology, many German archaeologists became pawns
and puppets of the real goals behind the movement. They
answered to the requests of the Ahnenerbe, and not always in the interests of pure archaeology.

5 Notable gures
5.1 Gustaf Kossinna

The nationalistic theories of Gustaf Kossinna about the

origins and racial superiority of Germanic peoples inuenced many aspects of Nazi ideology and politics. He
is also considered to be a precursor of Nazi archaeolAlong with appealing to public patriotism there were ogy. Kossinna was trained as a linguist at universities
open-air museums that reconstructed Neolithic and in Gttingen, Leipzig, Berlin, and Strasbourg but eventuBronze Age lake settlements at Unteruhldingen. These ally held the chair for Germanic Archeology at the Uni-

5 NOTABLE FIGURES

versity of Berlin. He laid the groundwork for an ethnocentric German prehistory. One of his theories, the
Kulturkreis theory, was a basis on which Nazi archaeology was founded. Kossinna also published books for
a general readership which were useful tools for German propaganda and created archaeological expeditions
which allowed the Nazis to use Kulturkreis theory as an
excuse for territorial expansion. In one of his most popular books, Die deutsche Vorgeschichte eine hervorragend nationale Wissenschaft (German Prehistory: a Preeminently National Discipline), Kossinna puts forward
the idea of an Aryan race superior to all peoples, the Germani, and shows Germany as the key to an unwritten history. The point of the book is clear from the beginning as
the dedication reads, To the German people, as a building block in the reconstruction of the externally as well
as internally disintegrated fatherland. Kossinna died in
1931, 13 months before Hitler seized power.[1]

5.2

Alfred Rosenberg

tieth Century) gave support to the concept of a new

Germanic religion. Rosenbergs theory, Weltanschauungswissenschaften, was implicit in the idea that Germany had the right to crush other nations - or even exterminate them - since German culture was superior.
He also tried to prove that the Nordic-Aryans originated
on a lost landmass identied with Atlantis, and that Jesus
was not a Jew but an Aryan Amorite.[4]

5.3 Hans Reinerth

Hans Reinerth was the main archaeologist Rosenberg
used. Reinerth is famous for his excavations at the
Federsee and he saw the Nazi Party as a tool he could use
to work his way up in society. This is just what occurred,
and in 1934 Rosenberg appointed him to the position of
Reich Deputy of German Prehistory. This made him
the spokesman for the purication and Germanisation
of the German prehistory. Reinerth was an adherent of
Hitlers theory of German racial purity. Though this theory never really came into full eect, Reinerth pushed
it heavily as Reich Deputy, and encouraged archaeological exploration. His archaeological group, along with the
Ahnenerbe organisation, was used to the Nazis full advantage since it was professional.[6]

5.4 Other Nazi archaeologists

Erika Trautmann
Yrj von Grnhagen
Assien Bohmers
Hans-Jrgen Eggers
Herbert Jankuhn
Gero von Merhart
Gotthard Neumann
Gustav Schwantes
Alfred Rosenberg in 1939

Alfred Rosenberg was a Nazi Party ideologist who supported excavation and the study of provincial Roman
Germany. He stated, as a summary of his research and
thoughts, that An individual to whom the tradition of
his people and the honor of his people is not a supreme
value, has forfeited the right to be protected by that people. Rosenbergs perspective on German prehistory led
mainly to racist distortion of data which did not directly
apply to the Germanic people. Rosenbergs book Der
Mythos des 20. Jahrhunderts (The Myth of the Twen-

Ernst Sprockho
Ernst Wahle
Wilhelm Unverzagt
Joachim Werner
Hans Zei
Werner Radig
Albert Funk

See also
Nazi propaganda
Nationalism and archaeology
Ahnenerbe
List of topics characterized as pseudoscience

References

[1] Arnold, Bettina The past as propaganda: How Hitlers

archaeologists distorted European prehistory to justify
racist and territorial goals. Archaeology July/Aug 1992:
30-37
[2] Hale, Christopher. Himmlers Crusade: The Nazi Expedition to Find the Origins of the Aryan Race, Hoboken, N.J.:
John Wiley & Sons, 2003, ISBN 0-471-26292-7, p. 200
[3] Kater, Michael, Das Ahnenerbe der SS 19351945. Ein
Beitrag zur Kultur-politik des Dritten Reiches, Munich
1997
[4] Arnold, Bettina The past as propaganda: totalitarian archaeology in Nazi Germany. Antiquity Sept/Dec 1990:
464-478
[5] Heim, Susanne. Autarkie und Ostexpansion. Panzenzucht und Agrarforschung im Nationalsozialismus. 2002
[6] Hrke, Heinrich. Archaeology, Ideology, and Society: The
German Experience. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2002

External links
Archaeological Organisations
Hitlers Willing Archaeologists (How the SS perverted the Paleolithic record to support Nazi ideology) by Heather Pringle in Archaeology, Volume 59,
Number 2, March/April 2006.
A Nordic civilisation on the lost continent of Atlantis
in The Daily Telegraph, May 3, 2006.

9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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