Aryan paragraph

An Aryan paragraph (German: Arierparagraph) was a clause in the statutes of an organisation, corporation, or real estate deed that reserved membership or right of residence solely for members of the "Aryan race" and excluded from such rights any non-Aryans, particularly those of Jewish and Slavic descent.

One of the first documented examples of such a paragraph was written by the Austrian nationalist leader and anti-Semite Georg von Schönerer in his nationalistic Linz Program of 1882, and countless German national sports-clubs, song societies, school clubs, harvest circles and fraternities followed suit.

[3] The Aryan Paragraph was extended to education on 25 April 1933, in the Law against the Overcrowding of German Schools and Universities.

[4] On June 30 of the same year, it was broadened to include even marriage to a "non-Aryan" as sufficient cause for exclusion from a civil service career.

Prior to this, there were exceptions, such as combat veterans, service in the National Rising [Erhebung], honorary Aryans, and so on, but now Jews and "Jewish mixed-breeds" (Mischlinge) were banned from practically all professions.

An Aryan certificate during the Nazi era, 1943.