Nazi archaeology

The search for an inspirational, nationalistic, Aryan-centric national prehistory of Germany began after the German Empire suffered defeat in World War I in 1918.

"According to Nazi doctrine, the Germanic culture of northern Europe was responsible for virtually all major intellectual and technological achievements of Western civilization.

These included people like Herman Wirth, co-founder of the Ahnenerbe, who attempted to prove that Northern Europe was the cradle of Western civilization.

"[3] The Ahnenerbe had difficulty finding scientists to work on the projects and was run largely by scholars from branches of the humanities, which made their research both unskilled and less professional.

The sites chosen for excavations were limited to those of Germanic superiority such as Erdenburg, where the Ahnenerbe claimed to have clear evidence of the victorious campaign of the Germani against the Romans.

Hence, he advocated 'race materialism', stating that only the fittest race (Aryans) should survive, a tenet that would later shape the Nazi policy on the Final Solution.

[citation needed] Nazi archaeology was rarely conducted with an eye to pure research but was instead used as a propaganda tool designed to generate nationalistic pride in the German people and provide scientific excuses for hostile takeovers.

For instance, the membership flyer of one amateur organization of the Amt Rosenberg stated, "Responsibility with respect to our indigenous prehistory must again fill every German with pride!"

In addition to appealing to public patriotism, open-air museums were established that reconstructed Neolithic and Bronze Age lake settlements at Unteruhldingen.

Once archaeology started gaining popularity, scholars were able to partake in much grander projects, such as the excavation of castles, old ruins, and bring back pieces for display in museums.

[3] (Note the difference between the original "Römisch-Germanisch" which denotes a historical period, and "deutsche", implying a continuous history of a united group of people.

[6] In 1938, Ahnenerbe head Heinrich Himmler would send an archeological team to Iceland in hopes an ancient place of worship for Nordic gods like Thor and Odin.

[6] Despite finding a cave which the Ahnenebre-led expedition team claimed was the location of the mystic place of worship, known as the hof, it was proven that the site was uninhabited before the 18th century.

This project, originally headed by Herman Wirth and later taken over by Heinrich Himmler, was a search that lasted for nearly the entire reign of the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler's regime.

Soon after his rise to popularity, some members of the highest echelons in Nazi Germany began to acknowledge the supposed "truth" behind his bizarre pseudoscientific ideas.

In the year 1935, Heinrich Himmler began a joint effort with Wirth to establish the Ahnenerbe, an elite team of Schutzstaffel (SS) archeologists, scientists, and historians gathered to search sacred archeological sites around the globe for evidence that the Aryans of Atlantis were not a mere work of Nazi propaganda.

After the Ahnenerbe was formed, they began work on excavation and research into ancient archeological sites, paying especially close attention to those that were believed to be of sacred significance to their ancestors.

The goal of this excursion to the Externsteine was to find evidence that it had been used for sacred ritualistic practices by the ancient Aryan people of Germany thousands of years before it became a significant site to Christianity.

Shortly after the Externsteine was sealed off to the public for archeological research, rumors began to surface that the people of Germany were not, in fact, of Aryan descent.

Faced with this, Himmler began to send teams of his Ahnenerbe researchers across the world to hunt for proof that such claims were false, although he and his expeditions ultimately failed to provide such further evidence.

The façade of the building was originally adorned by a carved wooden feature depicting the Nordic God Odin (also referred to as "The Atlantis Survivor") crucified on the tree of life.

The nationalistic theories of Gustaf Kossinna about the origins and racial superiority of Germanic peoples influenced many aspects of Nazi ideology and politics.

Kossinna also published books for a general audience which were useful tools to spread German propaganda and created archaeological expeditions that allowed the Nazis to use Kulturkreis theory as an excuse for territorial expansion.

[1] Alfred Rosenberg was a Nazi Party ideologist who supported archeological excavations and the study of provincial Roman Germany.