Ahnenerbe – “ancestral heritage”? Ahnenerbe: what the most secret organization of the Ahnenerbe did and the high technologies of the Third Reich read

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"Ahnenerbe" translated from German - "The legacy of ancestors",- one of the most mysterious organizations of Nazi Germany. The true essence of this SS “scientific society” has long been eclipsed by myths.

Most of our contemporaries imagine his activities based on films "The Last Crusade" And "Ark of the Covenant" from the Hollywood saga of Indiana Jones. Or - according to newspaper gossip.

"Is it true", for example, she wrote at one time that a burial place of SS soldiers and officers was found in Ukraine, on which doctors performed lethal experiments, trying to find "third Eye" and understand the psychophysical capabilities of true Aryans.

There was nothing like that. But, unfortunately, the true story is even worse.

Three men met at SS headquarters on Prinz Albrechtstrasse in Berlin on July 1, 1935.

Two were dressed in smart black uniforms, designed for “security squads” Hugo Bossom, and one - in something between the cassock of a priest and the robe of an academician.

The head of the Prussian Gestapo, Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler and Reichsbauernfuehrer came in ominous uniforms ("imperial leader of the peasants"), German Food Minister Richard Darre.

The name of a man in a robe, similar to an elf from fairy tales, was then no less famous: philologist and ethnographer Dr. Herman Wirth became famous as an expert in the secrets of the ancient Germans.

In 1933, he stated that he had read the so-called runic writings, which allegedly tell the story of one Frisian family - through all generations, from the Stone Age.

Monthly magazines 1939, official organ of the Ahnenerbe

This German "Veles's book" serious scientists have always considered it a fake of the 19th century, but our mystical-minded hero risked his reputation and recognized it as the original.

Ahnenerbe founder Hermann Wirth

In the atmosphere of nationalistic frenzy that gripped the country after Hitler came to power, “reading the oldest German text” brought Wirth great fame. Soon he wrote a book "The Sacred Proto-Language of Humanity" and organized a traveling exhibition "Blessed Bearer" The main exhibit of which he himself became.

Dressed in "ritual clothes" The philologist, showing remarkable acting talent, demonstrated to the public the rituals of “Siegfried’s” paganism that “revealed to him.”

The audience again liked the “Show in the Temple”.

It is not surprising that when Heinrich Himmler came up with the idea of putting “Aryan science” at the service of his security detachment - the “Black Order”, he remembered the charismatic scientist - a member of the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party) since 1925.

Here is the ideal candidate for the role of head of a “truly German” research institute!

The Reichsfuehrer shared his idea with a colleague who, in the Third Reich, in addition to the Ministry of Food, also headed the SS Main Directorate for Race and Resettlement - RuSHA Rasse und Siedlungs Hauptamt (not to be confused with the RSHA - RSHA Reichssicherheitshauptamt - Main Directorate for Imperial Security!).

In addition, he was considered one of the leading ideologists of Nazism, the creator of the well-known doctrine of SS Gruppenführer Darre understood Himmler at a glance.

Wirth and his “science” will help them raise a new breed of people: Aryan superhuman SS men!

Himmler's close friend, agronomist Richard Walter Darre, developed the nationalist concept of "Blood and Soil" as a youth.

There was no need to ask the “client”. He immediately appreciated the opportunities opening up to him. The meeting on Albrechtstrasse culminated in the signing of a protocol on the creation of the Society for the Study of Ancient German History, Ideology and the Heritage of German Ancestors,” since 1937 simply "The legacy of ancestors", Ahnenerbe.

Wirth became its president, Darre became its main sponsor, and Himmler became its curator.

SS breeders

The Third Reich was by its very nature a racist state, and the “problem of kinship” was very acute in it. But still, why did the SS leaders need to delve so deeply into the past, and even the spiritual one?

Here we come across an unexpected conclusion. Contrary to popular misconception, the ideology of Hitler and his henchmen had more “international” than narrowly nationalistic features.

These people believed that there once existed an Aryan proto-race, to which humanity owes all its victories and discoveries.

Nazi propaganda exhibition "The Eternal Jew" (Munich, November 1937). In 1940, a film with the same name was made in Germany.

Due to natural and social disasters, the Aryans scattered throughout the world, and their “noble blood” mixed with "plebeian blood of inferior peoples."

So, in order to build an ideal state, it is necessary not only to destroy all the main “blood poisoners” - Jews and Gypsies.

It is necessary to gather all the owners under his banner "pure" blood- in whose veins it flows: German or suppose Tibetan.

The “nationalism” of the Nazis, in particular, consisted in the fact that they considered Germany to be the place of residence of the largest number of “true Aryans.”

But the rest of the Indo-European peoples also shared a certain percentage of “supermen” - and not only "racially close" the Scandinavians and the British, but also everyone else, right down to the Slavs (the latter are scanty, naturally).

However, Himmler, whom the Fuhrer appointed leader of the SS in 1929, planned to turn his order into the prototype of an even more perfect racist power than Germany itself, as such.

Into the experimental retort, where the reconstruction of the “master race” will begin.

Through the efforts of the Reichsführer, over the course of six years, the security company of Hitler and other Nazi leaders grew to a 200,000-strong army of blond and blue-eyed “beasts.”

From an insignificant unit within the “assault troops” of the SA (Sturm Abteilung), it turned into an independent paramilitary organization within the Nazi party. The entire Reich was divided into special areas - “abschnitte”, each of which supplied several “standards”, that is, SS regiments.

In everyday life, the SS men continued to remain mechanics, peasants or, say, journalists, but in their second and henceforth main life they became “Führers” of various ranks - members of the “black order” personally subordinate to Himmler and Hitler. Its main task was the selection of the “purebred elite”.

The search for the “chosen ones” could be carried out in two directions: sifting everyone through a sieve of “racial characteristics” or, having studied the history of the Aryans, detecting them selectively, thereby speeding up the process.

There was, however, another reason for delving into the past, which brought the Ahnenerbe to life.

Certified agronomists Himmler and Darre considered themselves professional “breeders” and initially focused exclusively on “racial technology.”

They were going to raise superhumans like elite wheat or breeding bulls.

The RuSHA has long been working on mechanical methods for selecting “true Aryans”: measuring skulls, compiling tables of eye and hair color, and the like. But it was still clear that something was missing here. Not enough geist - spirit...

None of the leaders of the Reich fit truly Aryan parameters. Strong, tall, blue-eyed blondes with golden skin, a “long skull” and thin lips were absent from them.

Just look at the photograph of Himmler himself, whom his former boss Gregor Strasser ingeniously dubbed the “half-dead shrew.”

So, one day, during a social event, the Berlin beauty Frau Best directly asked the Reichsführer how he and other party “comrades” explain such a paradox of the discrepancy between the standards of the “breed” and reality.

The SS chief replied:

“Appearance is not the main thing. I, like the Fuhrer, have a truly Aryan brain and spirit.” The secrets of the “spirit and brain”, capable of “producing” Himmler’s “shrew” and Goebbels’ “monkey” into the heirs of Odin and Siegfried, were to be dealt with by Hermann Wirth and like-minded people.

Noble race

Back in 1808, Friedrich Schlegel wrote that, obviously, many thousands of years ago, a certain proto-people, whose homeland was the Himalayas, conquered India, Persia, all of Europe and created great ancient civilizations everywhere.

The famous philologist gave him the name “Aryans”, or “Aryans”, which means “noble” in Sanskrit. In addition, he argued that it was the Germans who most of all had the right to be called the heirs of these “nobles.”

Walter Wüst (1901-1991), Indologist and dean of the University of Munich, was appointed president of the Ahnenerbe in 1937

However, in essence, a harmless romantic who adored his Jewish wife, could not even in a nightmare imagine where the logic of his studies would lead.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, the “Aryan theory”, having absorbed the teachings of the Frenchman Gobineau and the Englishman Chamberlain, turned into the “Nordic theory”. German philology now argued that Schlegel had made one mistake: the Indo-European languages did not come from India to Europe, but, on the contrary, from Europe to India.

The homeland of the Aryans is not the Himalayas, but Scandinavia and Northern Germany, which is why they should be called the “Nordic race”.

Of course, the Dutchman, who was inflamed with love for Germany and fought on its side in the First World War, declared himself an ardent “Nordicist”; he firmly believed that “light came to the world from the North.”

Himmler, who since childhood was fond of ancient Germanic as well as Scandinavian epics and considered "Song of the Nibelungs" and the Edda, “repositories of ancient wisdom,” listened with delight to the eloquent scientist.

As a contemporary wrote, “A true magician who hears the beating of ancient hearts across millennia and makes stones speak.”

And this was a most valuable skill. After all, only stones, or rather, rock writings, could tell about the mythical ancient race.

If the Egyptian or Sumerian civilizations left behind majestic ruins and a huge number of texts, then nothing remained of the “Empire of the North” that the Nazis talked so much about.

The building in the prestigious Dahlem district of Berlin became the headquarters of Ancestral Heritage in 1938

The leader said that the answer to this mystery lies at the bottom of the sea. The ancestral home of the Aryans is the mythical Atlantis, which Plato wrote about, and it was located in the North Atlantic.

Only Iceland, Greenland, the Canary Islands and the Azores survived from the continent that went under water. The remnants of the “Nordic race” scattered throughout the world.

However, in Sweden, fortunately, rock runic inscriptions have been preserved. By deciphering this “world’s oldest writing,” you can learn the secrets of the Atlantean Aryans. It is natural, therefore, that Ahnenerbe’s first research division was "Department for the Study of Letters and Symbols" and the priority project is an expedition to the Boguslän region in Sweden.

Herman Wirth decided to take casts of the writings carved into the rocks on the shores of the picturesque fjords.

The instructions for maintaining the strictest secrecy of the work were written personally by the Reichsführer SS: no swastikas, no talk about politics. Himmler did not want to draw attention to the first event of his “scientists”. However, you can’t hide an awl in a bag: rumors have already spread across Europe that the Nazis were busy “searching for roots”...

Wirth himself turned out to be a useless organizer, but a tireless field researcher. Working day and night, he created the world's finest collection of casts of Scandinavian cave paintings.

However... instead of a triumphant meeting in the fall of 1936 in Berlin, disgrace awaited him. It turned out that while he was climbing the rocks, Hitler gave a speech at the September party congress in Nuremberg:

“We have nothing in common with those elements who perceive National Socialism only in terms of medieval heresies and ancient sagas, with those who hide behind vague “Nordic” phraseology and base their research on the theory of the mythical culture of Atlantis.

National Socialism resolutely dissociates itself from this “science” of Bruderstrasse!” Well, and so on.

Darre's brainchild is the model village of Riedrode in Hesse, Germany. July 1931

He not only removed the romantic Dutchman from the presidential post and removed his supporters from the “Ancestral Heritage”, but also changed even the “compromised” address of the society.

The SS “quartermasters” confiscated a suitable estate from a Jewish family, and the Ahnenerbe moved to the fashionable Berlin district of Dahlem, on Pücklerstrasse, closer to the mansion of the curator himself.

After the “Atlantic” pogrom (that very accusatory speech of the Fuhrer), only Sievers survived, who betrayed his patron in time and urgently found a new candidate for such. In February 1937, the organization was headed by Walter Wüst, a professor at the University of Munich.

Battles of the “heirs”

The respectable and pedantic Nazi orientalist was ideally suited to the role of the “serious scientist” who replaced the “charlatan.” The romantic period in the history of the “Heritage of Ancestors” has ended, and the bureaucratic period has begun.

Himmler looked for traces of the “most ancient German empire”, involving archaeologists

Not only did he get rid of the unpredictable “bohemian” philologist, whom at the beginning of 1936 he literally had to buy out of debt by paying 84,000 Reichsmarks to creditors from the SS treasury, but he also blamed all the “mistakes” on Darre, who by that time had disagreed with him in his views on the role of the "black order".

The Reichsbauernfuhrer was going to use the “purebred elite” to organize settlements of “armed peasants” inside Germany, living according to the customs of the ancient Germans. Himmler was both for customs and for “peasants,” but believed that they had nothing to do in Germany. They will form a “golden Aryan fund” for the colonization of Slavic lands in the East.

Unlike the peaceful Darre, “meek Henry” was eager to fight. In general, he saw in himself a new incarnation of the “conqueror of the Slavs,” the Saxon Duke Heinrich the Fowler and the true leader of the “Drang nach Osten,” the “throw to the East,” which Hitler promised in “Mein Kampf.” Darre and his people were removed from the “Heritage of Ancestors” and lost all influence in RuSKhA...

In 1935, the Ahnenerbe was created as a non-governmental scientific society (“verein”) and initially did not form part of the Nazi state machine.

It was, rather, a “club of interests” of a variety of people engaged in pseudo-scientific research in the field of German history and philology, and existed on private donations and “grants” from the Ministry of Food. Until 1937, in the “Heritage of the Ancestors” documents, the same Himmler, for example, was mentioned exclusively as a “certified agronomist” and not as Reichsführer SS. Now this “agronomist” began, step by step, to build “verein” into his “state within a state.”

Ahnenerbe excavations in Ukraine

In October 1937, he instructed the chief of his personal staff, Gruppenführer Karl Wolf (a popular character in Seventeen Moments of Spring), to ensure “uniformity in the understanding of scientific issues between the SS and Ahnenerbe.” Many employees of the company combined work there with service in the Russian Agricultural Academy, receiving officer ranks.

In November 1938, Himmler signed a secret directive “on the penetration of the Ahnenerbe into German higher educational institutions,” and in May 1939, Wüst organized a multi-day scientific conference in Kiel under the auspices of the “Heritage of the Ancestors”, in which he convinced many of the best German scientists to take part. , primarily humanists.

Wüst, a respectable dean from the University of Munich, truly managed to break the ice of mistrust in the academic community towards the “dilettantes and charlatans” of the “Ancestors' Heritage.” Himmler even promised venerable archaeologists, ethnographers, philologists and doctors protection from “soulless bureaucrats” from the Ministry of Education and “party dogmatists” from the ideological department of the NSDAP, which was headed by Rosenberg.

The same executive director Sievers was responsible for the administrative side of the matter, scientific leadership was provided by President Wüst, and the ideology of society and the main directions of research were determined by Himmler himself - now not just a curator, but “chairman of the board of curators.” He determined by drawing the basic ideas of his “new science” from the rich reservoir of the so-called “Völkischideology,” folk ideology.

This was the name in Reich jargon for an explosive mixture of the philosophy of German romantics, racial theory and occultism, where, in turn, the most important role was played by the mystical insights of the Russian Helena Blavatsky and the above-mentioned doctrine of the struggle of races by the Englishman Huston Chamberlain.

Lur and lyre

For example, the “department of German architecture” studied the structure of the villages of the ancient Germans, and the results were transferred to the Russian Agricultural Academy, where, on their basis, model settlements were designed for “peasant soldiers” in new lands. Around the “Führer's house,” built like a Scandinavian “thing” - a hall of public assembly, there was a shooting range, a gym and a cemetery with a sanctuary for the worship of ancestors.

The “Department of Topography and Landscape” explained how to choose the best places for “Aryan villages” - the patron demanded to summarize all the “Nordic experience” in this matter. The “Department of Legal History” carefully studied ancient German laws and customs, even to the point of court battles, so that the SS colonists could take advantage of the “wisdom of the ancients.”

German folk meeting (ting)

The “Department of Biology of Heredity” found out all the details of the sexual practices of the Germans, recommending, for example, actively conceiving children at the time of the winter and summer solstice - a lot of people would be needed to develop new territories.

The “Department of Traditional Medicine” studied the properties of medicinal herbs that traditional medicine did not recognize - and compiled a map of the growth of such “tops” and “roots” throughout Eurasia. The meteorology department tried to combine modern scientific methods and “folk signs” for long-term weather forecasting over the widest possible geographical areas.

Humanitarian units did not directly connect their activities with the upcoming expansion, but they also performed exciting tasks. The “Department of Folk Legends, Fairy Tales and Sagas” decided what and when “true Aryan” mothers should read to their babies at night. From morning to evening, the “Department of Music” proved to the German people that the “Nordic race” gave the world a “harmony of sounds” that opposed the “Jewish cacophony.” His collaborators reconstructed the ancient Germanic string instrument "luhr", claiming that it was older than the Greek lyre.

The sentimental Reichsführer SS himself played these “Nordic harps” in the evenings, dreaming of the times when they would sound in SS villages somewhere in the Crimea...

"Our people!"

However, despite the abundance of “applied research”, the main thing scrap “Ahnenerbe” still had to build an “Aryan picture of the world,” and the most large-scale event of the society before the war itself was field work in Tibet. Their inspiration was, following his main profession, Walter Wüst himself, who managed to literally infect Himmler with the East.

Naturally, with the right ideological sauce. Let's say he introduced the Reichsführer to the Rig Veda, claiming that in the 10th century BC. e. this great book was written not by the ancient Indians, but by the “Nordic bards” who came to the banks of the Ganges from the forests of Westphalia. The SS chief learned many of the poems from it by heart, and also took it with him everywhere "Bhagavad Gita" trying to comprehend the secrets of Indian (that is, excuse me, Aryan) philosophy, and became seriously interested in yoga.

Tibet expedition of Ernst Schaeffer

Then Wüst introduced the boss to the young zoologist Ernst Schaefer, already famous for his travels to the Pamirs, China and Siberia. After listening to his stories about the blue-eyed blond man from whom Genghis Khan descended, about the Aryan appearance of some tribes in Afghanistan and the ancient burial grounds of the “master race” in Tibet, Himmler exclaimed: “So these are our people!”

And now, in the summer of 1938, the newly minted Obersturmführer (senior lieutenant) Schäfer set out with a group of Ahnenerbe employees, whose pith helmets were decorated with double lightning (SS emblem), from Berlin to Lhasa. Six months later, they were the first Germans to see this holy city.

In the personal files of people like him, the personnel officers of the “Black Order” wrote: “A true Aryan. The character is Nordic." Schaefer, without much difficulty, managed to bypass the ban on visiting Tibet by the authorities of British India, who controlled the approaches to the Himalayas - he simply appeased the monks from the entourage of the young Dalailama with gifts and made his way across the border surrounded by them.

Throughout Lhasa itself, the Germans solemnly carried a banner with a swastika during a procession in honor of the Buddhist New Year.

Then they were received by the regent of the exotic theocratic Tibetan state, Reting Rimpoche, who gave them a letter for Hitler and even gave them 108 volumes of “Ganjur” - the ancient code of Lamaism. Outside the native mountains there were only three copies of this sacred book.

To make the “armed peasants” Himmler dreamed of happy, Schäfer obtained samples of highland Tibetan wheat that ripened in 60 days.

“Racial hygiene” specialist Bruno Beger not only measured hundreds of Tibetan skulls with his compasses, but also persuaded several dozen of their owners to provide him with faces for casts. The Ahnenerbe was looking for evidence of an anatomical connection between the local aristocracy and the “Nordic race.”

Finally, the persistent Obersturmführer even obtained permission to explore the Yarlung Valley, where, as legend says, the first Tibetan rulers descended from heaven by rope and where he expected to find traces of the notorious Shambhala. Whether he found it or not - history and the seeker himself are silent...

In the footsteps of the snowy Aryan

The Fuhrer, a man, oddly enough, very sober-minded in practical matters, believed that there was no point in messing with the legacy of the ancient Germans, who did not create anything significant. To convince him of all this SS “science fiction”, evidence was required.

In particular, Hitler was fascinated by the idea of collisions of our planet with icy meteorites that took place in ancient times and destroyed the Aryan civilization - it was this existence that Schaefer tried to support with his research in Tibet.

According to him, when icy meteorites entered the earth's atmosphere, the gravitational field created giant waves that washed away all life from the land. The last time such a catastrophe allegedly occurred was only 10 thousand years ago. The ancient flora and fauna, as well as the remnants of the Aryans, who had psychic abilities, could only survive in the highest mountainous regions, such as Tibet or the Bolivian Andes.

It was these that the figures from Ahnenerbe were looking for in the Himalayas. It’s just not clear who Schäfer and Himmler considered Bigfoot - a “true Aryan” or a prehistoric animal?..

In any case, the expedition returned to Berlin in triumph in August 1939 - the Reichsführer personally met it at the airfield, and the SS Obersturmführer became a national hero of Germany, something between Sheatherhand from the novels about Winneta and the same Indiana Jones.

However, the second big scientific trip - to Lake Titicaca, where Edmund Kiss, an employee of the Department of World Ice Theory, was supposed to, using aviation and bathyscaphes, conduct large-scale studies of the ruins of the ancient city of Tiahuanaco - did not take place. The Second World War took place.

Ahnenerbe employees no longer traveled to distant exotic countries, but only to territories occupied by the Wehrmacht.

Special teams of the “Heritage of Ancestors” slowly robbed museums and libraries in Poland, France, Yugoslavia, and the USSR. True, by agreement with Hitler and Goering, they left them works of fine art, but they had complete control over ethnographic and especially archaeological materials.

Artifacts of the “Department of Archeology”

Himmler was delirious with the idea of using the parapsychological abilities “dormant” in the “heirs” to serve Nazism.

Just as the Italian Renaissance, starting from antiquity, gave birth to the entire culture of the New Age, the Nazi “Renaissance” had to start from the ancient Aryan era. As always, Ahnenerbe is at the forefront of searches and experiments.

And at the beginning of 1937, the “Heritage of the Ancestors” took control of the main archaeological treasure of the country - Externsteine, a ridge of bizarre rocks on the shore of one of the lakes in the Teutoburg Forest.

Several generations of German nationalists believed that it was there that the sanctuary of the Cherusci tribe, led by their leader Arminius, defeated the best legions of Octavian Augustus nearby.

This victory was a turning point in European antiquity: in the fight against the Germans, Rome moved from attack to defense. In Externstein, supposedly until the 8th century, the Saxons and other descendants of the Cherusci worshiped the sacred Irminsul tree, which was cut down only by the Franks under Charlemagne.

Himler believed that the vertical sandstone cliffs of the Externsteine were witnesses to the pagan rituals of the ancient Germans

In 1939, the entire area, which had previously served as a favorite party place for Westphalian residents, was declared “forbidden.” It was taken under the protection of SS troops, and archaeologists from Ahnenerbe began large-scale excavations.

Naturally, this did not prevent the Reichsführer from continuing to consider the picturesque rocks a “sacred place”, the secrets of which are still inaccessible to understanding.

Moreover, it received the status of a “Sanctuary of the SS”, and the “Black Order” held its ritual ceremonies here on the day of the summer solstice, as well as fantastic theatrical mysteries like the “Triumph of the Germans over the Egyptians.”

The main “curator” believed that the archaeological pits were an ideal place for the “unity” of the SS men with their Aryan ancestors.

Hitler, although he ridiculed the “search for old pots,” also greatly appreciated the “paganism” of the SS, invented on the basis of the ancient German rites studied in the Ahnenerbe.

As is known, the Fuhrer considered Christianity, which was the worst enemy of Nazism after communism, which he called “pre-Bolshevism” (he clarified, however, that Jesus, the son of a Roman legionnaire and a “true Aryan,” said and did everything correctly, but the evil Jew Apostle Paul perverted his teaching).

The “faith of savages who worship the forces of nature”, revived by “faithful Henry,” is better than the “shameful, softening religiosity of the Germans.” “Not one of the SS men goes to church, and yet they go to their death with a calm soul,” the Reich leader stated with satisfaction.

In the castle (Westphalia), with the blessing of Hitler, the construction of the “Vatican” of a new faith even began. And the role of the “Heritage of the Ancestors” in this belief of the “true Aryans”, deprived not only of faith in God, but also of the “chimera of morality”, was enormous...

One of the halls of Wewelsburg Castle

Every SS man was required to be taught the Edda and rune reading. The Ahnenerbe hastily developed rituals for weddings, “blessing” of newborns (instead of baptism), presenting weapons to recruits, and funerals. By the way, at the front, the dead members of the “order” were buried in special cemeteries and instead of a cross, a death rune was depicted on the graves.

Sonderkommando fighters and concentration camp guards were given lectures that “scientifically” substantiated the total destruction of the enemies of the Reich.

Referring to the results of excavations, the same doctor Yankun, for example, argued that the ancient Germans mercilessly drowned traitors in the swamps with all their households, as well as homosexuals and apostates.

And by 1942, having previously searched for traces of the mythical Gothic Empire in the Crimea (unsuccessfully), he became so “inflamed” that he asked to enlist himself as an intelligence officer in the SS Viking division, where he had previously conducted “cultural and political education.”

In fact, when allowing his gallant archaeologist to remain at the front, Himmler made an exception.

The smart heads from the “Heritage of Ancestors” had to forge victory in the rear. In 1941, the company was included in the personal headquarters of the Reichsführer SS, and all its activities finally switched to a military footing.

Many projects, such as the “Role of the Forest in the Life of the Ancient Germans,” were discontinued, and in their place the “Institute of Military Research” appeared. It was headed by the same unsinkable executive director Wolfram Sievers.

Nazi "Vatican"

Back in 1934, 30 kilometers from Externsteine, in the Teutoburg Forest, Heinrich Himmler rented the ancient Wewelsburg castle for a nominal fee.

There he was going to set up the center of the Nazi “new religion”, which was created in the depths of the SS as a synthesis of the paganism of the ancient Germans, true Christianity, not yet “poisoned by the Jews”, and the occultism of the 19th century.

The location for the SS “Vatican” was chosen by Brigadeführer (Major General) Karl Maria Wiligut, who called himself by the ancient German name Weistor. This elderly retired colonel of the Austro-Hungarian army claimed to come from a family of magicians and trace his ancestry back to the leader Arminius himself, the conqueror of the Romans.

The castle has exactly the same triangular shape as the legendary Montsegur fortress in France, where the last Cathars took refuge, taking the secret of the “Holy Grail” with them to the grave. It was restored by prisoners of a concentration camp created nearby specifically for this purpose.

The castle houses an archaeological museum and the SS Nordic Academy.

One of the corner towers of the triangular Wewelsburg Castle (bombed by order of Himmler in 1945, rebuilt in the 1950s)

In July 1940, Hitler approved the state plan for the reconstruction of Wewelsburg. It was supposed to last twenty years and cost 250 million Reichsmarks - 1 billion 250 million dollars at today's exchange rate.

According to the plan of the architect Hermann Bartels, the triangle of the castle fit into a gigantic ring of buildings surrounded by a triple fortress wall 15 meters high. Weistor pointed out that all this symbolizes the “Spear of Destiny” inscribed in the “Grail” cup, and exactly corresponds to the shape of the silver Death’s Head ring, which was given to each member of the SS.

The complex of buildings next to the “Star Temple” of “new paganism” housed the Library of Occultism and the Institute of Ancient History. The castle itself had apartments for all twelve (!) Obergruppenführers (top generals) of the SS. In Himmler’s rune-painted office there was kept a copy of the “Spear of Destiny” itself, which was used to pierce the “true Aryan” Christ.

The original of this relic was in the Habsburg treasury in Vienna, but had to be transferred to Wewelsburg after its reconstruction. The semantic center of the SS “Vatican” was supposed to be the northern tower of the triangle castle, aimed at the mystical island of Thule in the Arctic.

They managed to build the lower hall “Valhalla” (in honor of the place where the Scandinavian gods and heroes feasted) with an eternal fire in the middle and a crypt-tomb designed according to the type of ancient Mycenaean tombs. She represented Niflheim - the world of the dead from the ancient sagas.

Here the deceased Obergruppenführers and the rings of all members of the “black order” were supposed to rest after their owners left for another world. And on the floor above they erected a twelve-column Midgard - the world of the living.

Sitting at the round table, twelve Obergruppenführers, knights of the “black order”, would decide the destinies of humanity here. The northern tower was to be crowned by the “Hall of the Grail”, which at the same time symbolized the ancient Germanic world of the gods - Asgard.

The search for the legendary bowl for this “sanctuary” was carried out by Weistor’s student and Ahnenerbe employee Otto Rahn. Covered by a huge dome cut through by 48 windows, the “Grail Hall” was intended for religious meditation of the SS Reichsführer and his immediate circle. The unfinished Wewelsburg Castle was set on fire by a special SS team in April 1945.

But “Valhalla” and “The Hall of the Knights of the Round Table” have survived to this day. On the floor there you can still see the “Black Sun”, woven from 12 runes of victory - a symbol of the “new order”, which, fortunately, was not established on Earth by the “supermen” from the SS.

Rusher Conveyor

With its help, it was necessary to “cut down” all the enemy’s electrical appliances in the front-line zone. This project, however, was considered technically unfeasible by physicists from the Imperial Research Committee.

Attempts to use telepathy as a new means of communication, as well as to extract gold from the waters of the Rhine using the methods of “Aryan chemistry” also ended in nothing.

The exact sciences did not want to succumb to the “scientific” magicians from “The Heritage of Ancestors”.

The only area in which the Sievers Institute managed to “please” Himmler with success was medicine, or more precisely, experiments on people.

The experiments of Ahnenerbe employees in Dachau began even before the war. In April 1939, a Munich doctor began testing his cancer cure on prisoners.

However, this fanatic really took off in February 1942, when a high-pressure chamber was built in his “favorite” concentration camp. Rascher conducted experiments there in order to develop means of protection and treatment for pilots and submariners.

The prisoners were “tested for strength” by calmly observing their suffering through a special window. Many times the Reichsführer himself “admired” the experiments in company with Sievers.

And when it occurred to Rusher to look for the best antiseptic, they began to shoot at people at point-blank range, and then treat the wounds with various means, including apple syrup.

The conveyor belt of torture, of which thousands of prisoners became victims, was stopped in 1944 only by the unexpected arrest of the SS experimenter himself.

Allegedly, the miracle pills he developed inspired the old woman Caroline Rusher to give birth to twins and triplets of “true Aryan” boys! By order of Himmler, the heroine mother was hanged in Ravensbrück, and the pioneering father received a bullet in the back of the head in the very Dachau where he tortured prisoners.

Another “hero of the medical front” was the Strasbourg surgeon August Hirt, who was looking for an antidote to poisonous gases, condemning hundreds of people to painful death.

But the Reichsführer’s special favor was brought to him by the fact that, together with the “racial specialist” Bruno Beger, who became famous in Tibet, he created a collection of Jewish skeletons.

Beger selected, measured and subjected Auschwitz prisoners to various studies, and Hirt then killed them in a gas chamber and dissected the corpses using his own methods. Such a terrible “catalog” was supposed to become an ideal indicator of “signs of Jewishness” - even in the third and fourth generations...

When the Americans captured Strasbourg at the end of 1944, they found the corpses of 86 men, women and children floating in formaldehyde, not yet fully “processed”, in the Hirt clinic. Together with the Ahnenerbe documents found after the war in one of the caves in the Bavarian Alps, this terrible find became the main evidence for the prosecution in the cases of the murderous doctors from the “Legacy of the Ancestors”.

Wolfram Sievers

The executive director of the society, Wolfram Sievers, was sentenced to hanging by the Nuremberg Military Tribunal. Hirt (like Himmler, in fact) managed to commit suicide before the trial.

However, the myths they created about this past, unfortunately, turned into a threat to humanity, arming the “black order” with a “new religion.” Therefore, the Nuremberg Tribunal declared Ancestral Heritage a criminal organization. History has pronounced its verdict on Ahnenerbe.

magazine "Around the World"

The short history of the Third Reich still occupies the minds of modern researchers and historians in connection with a number of unparalleled studies in the field of physics, chemistry, biology and even the occult. And here we cannot do without mentioning one of the most mysterious organizations in modern history.- Ahnenerbe.

It is perhaps very difficult to even characterize this structure due to the fact that it had no analogues in other countries. Created in 1935 year by personal order of the Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler, Ahnenerbe oversaw almost all scientific research carried out on the territory of Nazi Germany.

Officially Ahnenerbe, which had the status of a German society for the study of ancient Gemran history and the heritage of ancestors (in fact, the name itself translates as “ The legacy of ancestors ") was intended to study the historical roots of the German people. Of course, since the beginning of World War II, most of the units, of which there were more than fifty, pursued exclusively military goals in their research.

German trace. SS Division Ahnenerbe

Creation of Ahnenerbe

At the origins of the creation of the Ahnenerbe was the German scientist Hermann Wirth, who developed the theory of racial superiority based on the ancient teachings of the two proto-races. In his research, Wirth was largely based on the teachings of the Thule secret society, which had a significant influence on many leaders of the Third Reich, including the Reichsführer SS. As a matter of fact, it was the latter who became the ideologist of the organization’s emergence and its immediate leader. Wirth formally headed the new brainchild. However, already in 1937 Herman Wirth was dismissed and his place was taken by Wolfram Zivvers, who continued the administrative control of the Ahnenerbe until 1945 of the year.

Initially, the Ahnenerbe was part of the Main Directorate of Race and Settlements, but after the resignation of Wirth it became part of the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps. Thanks to this, the department received unlimited opportunities to conduct experiments on prisoners. However, in 1942 The Ahnenerbe became part of the Personal Staff of the Reichsführer SS, which meant an almost complete departure from civilian research topics.

In search of Shambhala. Hitler, Kailash and New Swabia

Activities during the war

It is with this period in the activities of the Ahnenerbe that many legends and the most incredible speculations are associated. Some of them are based on real facts, others do not stand up to criticism. However, one thing is clear - by the time the Second World War began, the Ahnenerbe was an organization that had no analogues in world history. She almost completely took control of all advanced research, which was smoothly redirected into a military direction.

Ahnenerbe oversaw a number of expeditions, within which the search for sacred knowledge of ancient civilizations was carried out. The essence of such research was to find ancient weapons that had enormous destructive power. In particular, the organization showed great interest in Indian legends about vimanas. According to some reports, German researchers managed to find information about some of the technical details of these devices, which resulted in the creation of experimental disc planes, work on which continued until the very end of the war. However, the Ahnenerbe itself, in the person of its immediate leader Wolfram Zivvers, had an indirect relation to these researches. Most likely, the development of disc planes was completely transferred to the SS in the person of Obergruppenführer Hans Kammler, and the Sonderstaff under his personal leadership was responsible for the implementation of the project. According to some evidence, a working sample of a disc-shaped aircraft was tested in 1945 year near Prague, after which all information about this project, including its immediate leader, disappeared. Nothing is known about Kammler's fate to this day.

The Ahnenerbe also showed great interest in research in the field of magic. One of the founders of such studies and their secret inspirer was Karl Maria Willigut, who called himself a black magician and had great influence on Himmler. In addition, the Ahnenerbe oversaw the research of Antarctica, since it was believed that it was mythical. According to one version, the Germans even founded a military base there, which existed there in the post-war period.
Much more information is available about the medical research that the Ahnenerbe carried out in the Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps. Dr. August Hirt was responsible for Ahnenerbe's medical projects. In particular, the issues of curing cancer, the effects of chemical warfare agents were studied, and research was carried out in the field of anthropology. It is still not known for certain how many concentration camp prisoners died.

Medical and other experiments

Deserves to be carried out by a doctor Sigmund Rascher at the Dachau concentration camp. Most of them were carried out on instructions from the Luftwaffe and were designed to determine the effect of hypothermia on the body, as well as the effect on humans of ultra-low pressure at high altitudes. To do this, the subjects were placed in special pressure chambers, in which a decrease in pressure was simulated until an almost complete vacuum was created.

If the essence of the research regarding the cooling and subsequent warming of a person is clear (many Luftwaffe planes were shot down over the northern seas), then with the study of the influence of low pressure, not everything is clear. At that time, officially, none of the aircraft was capable of reaching altitudes in which such a strong rarefaction of the atmosphere took place. Rascher's experiments are indirect evidence that by the end of the war, Ahnenerbe had come close to mastering flights in the stratosphere. How they were to be carried out remains a mystery.

It is quite possible that we are talking about the notorious disc planes of the Third Reich, which were even planned to be launched into space. It is also possible that these studies were carried out within the framework of the A9 America project, in accordance with which a powerful ballistic missile was created that was capable of going into space and by the end of the war was practically ready for use. According to some information, pilots were in the missiles as part of the test launches. So it is likely that the first space flight took place much earlier than official history suggests.

Nikolai Subbotin. German expedition to Antarctica in search of the city of the gods

As a conclusion

Ahnenerbe's research has been of great interest to this day. The creation of such an organization with powerful funding and scientific potential is unique. Not a single country in the world has decided to replicate such a scientific center, which would unite so many universities, scientific laboratories and research sites. Alas, most of Ahnenerbe’s documents have disappeared or been destroyed, and we have yet to realize the real scope of the department’s research.

"Ahnenerbe", translated from German - "Heritage of the Ancestors", is one of the most mysterious organizations of Nazi Germany. The true essence of this SS “scientific society” has long been eclipsed by myths. Most of our contemporaries imagine his activities in the films “The Last Crusade” and “Ark of the Covenant” from the Hollywood saga about Indiana Jones. Or - according to newspaper gossip. “Pravda,” for example, wrote at one time that a burial place of SS soldiers and officers was found in Ukraine, on which doctors from the Ahnenerbe conducted lethal experiments, trying to find their “third eye” and understand the psychophysical capabilities of true Aryans. There was nothing like that. But, unfortunately, the true story is even worse.

Three men met at SS headquarters on Prinz Albrechtstrasse in Berlin on July 1, 1935. Two were dressed in the smart black uniform invented for the “security squads” by Hugo Boss, and one was dressed in something between a priest’s cassock and an academician’s robe. In ominous uniforms came the head of the Prussian Gestapo, Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler and Reichsbauernführer (“Imperial leader of the peasants”), German Minister of Food Richard Darre. The name of a man in a robe, similar to an elf from fairy tales, was then no less famous: philologist and ethnographer Dr. Hermann Wirth became famous as an expert in the secrets of the ancient Germans. In 1933, he claimed to have read the runic writings of the so-called Ura-Linda Chronicle, which supposedly tells the story of one Frisian family - through all generations, from the Stone Age. This German “Book of Veles” was always considered by serious scientists to be a fake of the 19th century, but our mystical-minded hero risked his reputation and recognized it as the original.

In the atmosphere of nationalistic frenzy that gripped the country after Hitler came to power, “reading the oldest German text” brought Wirth great fame. Soon he wrote the book “The Sacred Proto-Language of Humanity” and organized the traveling exhibition “Bearer of the Good,” of which he himself became the main exhibit. Dressed in “ritual clothes,” the philologist, showing remarkable acting talent, demonstrated to the public the rituals of “Siegfried’s” paganism that had “revealed to him.” The audience again liked the “Show in the Temple”.

It is not surprising that when Heinrich Himmler came up with the idea of putting “Aryan science” at the service of his security detachment - the “Black Order”, he remembered the charismatic scientist - a member of the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party) since 1925. Here is the ideal candidate for the role of head of a “truly German” research institute!

The Reichsführer shared his idea with a colleague who, in the Third Reich, in addition to the Ministry of Food, also headed the SS Main Directorate for Race and Resettlement - RuSHA Rasse und Siedlungs Hauptamt (not to be confused with the RSHA - RSHA Reichssicherheitshauptamt - Main Directorate for Imperial Security!). In addition, he was considered one of the leading ideologists of Nazism, the creator of the well-known doctrine of “Blood and Soil.” SS Gruppenführer Darre understood Himmler at a glance. Wirth and his “science” will help them raise a new breed of people: Aryan superhuman SS men!

There was no need to ask the “client”. He immediately appreciated the opportunities opening up to him. The meeting on Albrechtstrasse culminated in the signing of a protocol on the creation of the Society for the Study of Ancient German History, Ideology and the Heritage of German Ancestors”, since 1937 simply “The Heritage of the Ancestors”, Ahnenerbe. Wirth became its president, Darre became its main sponsor, and Himmler became its curator.

SS breeders

Here we come across an unexpected conclusion. Contrary to popular misconception, the ideology of Hitler and his henchmen had more “international” than narrowly nationalistic features. These people believed that there once existed an Aryan proto-race, to which humanity owes all its victories and discoveries. Due to natural and social disasters, the Aryans were scattered throughout the world, and their “noble blood” mixed with the “plebeian blood of inferior peoples.” So, in order to build an ideal state, it is necessary not only to destroy all the main “blood poisoners” - Jews and Gypsies. It is necessary to gather under his banner all those with “pure” blood - no matter in whose veins it flows: a German or, say, a Tibetan.

The “nationalism” of the Nazis, in particular, consisted in the fact that they considered Germany to be the place of residence of the largest number of “true Aryans.” But the rest of the Indo-European peoples also shared a certain percentage of “supermans” - not only the “racially close” Scandinavians and the British, but also everyone else, right down to the Slavs (these last ones are tiny, of course).

However, Himmler, whom the Fuhrer appointed leader of the SS in 1929, planned to turn his order into the prototype of an even more perfect racist power than Germany itself, as such. Into the experimental retort, where the reconstruction of the “master race” will begin. Through the efforts of the Reichsführer, over the course of six years, the security company of Hitler and other Nazi leaders grew to a 200,000-strong army of blond and blue-eyed “beasts.” From an insignificant unit within the “assault troops” of the SA (Sturm Abteilung), it turned into an independent paramilitary organization within the Nazi party. The entire Reich was divided into special areas - “abschnitte”, each of which supplied several “standards”, that is, SS regiments.

There was, however, another reason for delving into the past, which brought the Ahnenerbe to life. Certified agronomists Himmler and Darre considered themselves professional “breeders” and initially focused exclusively on “racial technology.” They were going to raise superhumans like elite wheat or breeding bulls. The RuSHA has long been working on mechanical methods for selecting “true Aryans”: measuring skulls, compiling tables of eye and hair color, and the like. But it was still clear that something was missing here. Not enough geist - spirit...

None of the leaders of the Reich fit truly Aryan parameters. Strong, tall, blue-eyed blondes with golden skin, a “long skull” and thin lips were absent from them. Just look at the photograph of Himmler himself, whom his former boss Gregor Strasser ingeniously dubbed the “half-dead shrew.” So, one day, during a social event, the Berlin beauty Frau Best directly asked the Reichsführer how he and other party “comrades” explain such a paradox of the discrepancy between the standards of the “breed” and reality. The SS chief replied: “Appearance is not the main thing. I, like the Fuhrer, have a truly Aryan brain and spirit.” The secrets of the “spirit and brain”, capable of “producing” Himmler’s “shrew” and Goebbels’ “monkey” into the heirs of Odin and Siegfried, were to be dealt with by Hermann Wirth and like-minded people.

Noble race

Since the late 18th century, scientists established the relationship of dozens of languages from Ireland to India with the same Sanskrit, they have been looking for a historical explanation for this phenomenon. Back in 1808, Friedrich Schlegel wrote that, obviously, many thousands of years ago, a certain proto-people, whose homeland was the Himalayas, conquered India, Persia, all of Europe and created great ancient civilizations everywhere. The famous philologist gave him the name “Aryans”, or “Aryans”, which means “noble” in Sanskrit. In addition, he argued that it was the Germans who most of all had the right to be called the heirs of these “nobles.” However, in essence, a harmless romantic who adored his Jewish wife, could not even in a nightmare imagine where the logic of his studies would lead.

Wirth, of course, also declared himself an ardent “Nordicist”. A Dutchman who was inflamed with love for Germany and fought on its side in the First World War, he firmly believed that “light came to the world from the North.” Himmler, who since childhood was fond of the ancient Germanic and Scandinavian epics and considered the “Song of the Nibelungs” and the “Edda” “repositories of ancient wisdom,” listened with delight to the eloquent scientist. As a contemporary wrote, “Wirth is a real magician who hears the beating of ancient hearts across millennia and makes stones speak.” And this was a most valuable skill. After all, only stones, or rather, rock writings, could tell about the mythical ancient race. If the Egyptian or Sumerian civilizations left behind majestic ruins and a huge number of texts, then nothing remained of the “Empire of the North” that the Nazis talked so much about.

The head of Ahnenerbe said that the answer to this mystery lies at the bottom of the sea. The ancestral home of the Aryans is the mythical Atlantis, which Plato wrote about, and it was located in the North Atlantic. Only Iceland, Greenland, the Canary Islands and the Azores survived from the continent that went under water. The remnants of the “Nordic race” scattered throughout the world. However, in Sweden, fortunately, rock runic inscriptions have been preserved. By deciphering this “world’s oldest writing,” you can learn the secrets of the Atlantean Aryans. Naturally, therefore, the first research unit of Ahnenerbe was the Department for the Study of Letters and Symbols, and the priority project was an expedition to the Boguslän region in Sweden. Herman Wirth decided to take casts of the writings carved into the rocks on the shores of the picturesque fjords.

The entire organizational side of the matter fell on the shoulders of Wolfram Sievers, the long-time secretary of the Dutch philologist, whom the patron appointed executive director of the Ancestors' Heritage. The instructions for maintaining the strictest secrecy of the work were written personally by the Reichsführer SS: no swastikas, no talk about politics. Himmler did not want to draw attention to the first event of his “scientists”. However, you can’t hide an awl in a bag: rumors have already spread across Europe that the Nazis were busy “searching for roots”...

Wirth himself turned out to be a poor organizer, but a tireless field researcher. Working day and night, he created the world's finest collection of casts of Scandinavian cave paintings. However... instead of a triumphant meeting in the fall of 1936 in Berlin, disgrace awaited him. It turned out that while he was climbing the rocks, Hitler made a speech at the September party congress in Nuremberg: “We have nothing in common with those elements who perceive National Socialism only in terms of medieval heresies and ancient sagas, with those who hide behind vague “ Nordic phraseology and bases his research on the theory of the mythical culture of Atlantis. National Socialism resolutely dissociates itself from this “science” of Bruderstrasse!” Well, and so on.

The Ahnenerbe headquarters was located on Bruderstrasse in the capital of the Reich, and Wirth was easily discernible as a proponent of the Atlantis theory. Himmler, who was on a political rise and became head of the entire German police force in June of that year, did not want to risk his career. He not only removed the romantic Dutchman from the presidential post and removed his supporters from the “Ancestral Heritage”, but also changed even the “compromised” address of the society. The SS “quartermasters” confiscated a suitable estate from a Jewish family, and the Ahnenerbe moved to the fashionable Berlin district of Dahlem, on Pücklerstrasse, closer to the mansion of the curator himself. After the “Atlantic” pogrom (that very accusatory speech of the Fuhrer), only Sievers survived, who betrayed his patron in time and urgently found a new candidate for such. In February 1937, the organization was headed by Walter Wüst, a professor at the University of Munich.

Battles of the “heirs”

It is difficult to imagine a person more unlike Wirth than this Wüst. If the Dutchman was a “free scientist”, never held university chairs and did not tolerate any control over himself, then the Bavarian immediately showed himself to be an obedient academic careerist. The author of monographs on the problems of Iran and India, he “went to the top” by making a report on the topic “Mein Kampf” of the Fuhrer as a mirror of the Aryan worldview.” The respectable and pedantic Nazi orientalist was ideally suited to the role of the “serious scientist” who replaced the “charlatan.” The romantic period in the history of the “Heritage of Ancestors” has ended, and the bureaucratic period has begun.

It was not for nothing that Himmler was considered an unrivaled master of intrigue. Thus, Hitler’s Nuremberg speech, which the enemies of the Reichsführer (for example, the famous author of “The Myth of the 20th Century” Alfred Rosenberg) perceived as his defeat, he turned to his advantage. Not only did he get rid of the unpredictable “bohemian” philologist, whom at the beginning of 1936 he literally had to buy out of debt by paying 84,000 Reichsmarks to creditors from the SS treasury, but he also blamed all the “mistakes” on Darre, who by that time had disagreed with him in his views on the role of the "black order". The Reichsbauernfuhrer was going to use the “purebred elite” to organize settlements of “armed peasants” inside Germany, living according to the customs of the ancient Germans. Himmler was both for customs and for “peasants,” but believed that they had nothing to do in Germany. They will form a “golden Aryan fund” for the colonization of Slavic lands in the East. Unlike the peaceful Darre, “meek Henry” was eager to fight. In general, he saw in himself a new incarnation of the “conqueror of the Slavs,” the Saxon Duke Heinrich the Fowler and the true leader of the “Drang nach Osten,” the “throw to the East,” which Hitler promised in “Mein Kampf.” Darre and his people were removed from the “Heritage of Ancestors” and lost all influence in RuSKhA...

In 1935, the Ahnenerbe was created as a non-governmental scientific society (“verein”) and initially did not form part of the Nazi state machine. It was, rather, a “club of interests” of a variety of people engaged in pseudo-scientific research in the field of German history and philology, and existed on private donations and “grants” from the Ministry of Food. Until 1937, in the “Heritage of the Ancestors” documents, the same Himmler, for example, was mentioned exclusively as a “certified agronomist” and not as Reichsführer SS. Now this “agronomist” began, step by step, to build “verein” into his “state within a state.” In October 1937, he instructed the chief of his personal staff, Gruppenführer Karl Wolf (a popular character in Seventeen Moments of Spring), to ensure “uniformity in the understanding of scientific issues between the SS and Ahnenerbe.” Many employees of the company combined work there with service in the Russian Agricultural Academy, receiving officer ranks.

Having conquered the “Heritage” for himself, the Reichsführer began through it to spread the influence of the “black order” on German science in the same way as through the SS troops (Waffen) he tried to take control of the Wehrmacht, and through the SD (Sicherheitsdienst) - intelligence. In November 1938, Himmler signed a secret directive “on the penetration of the Ahnenerbe into German higher educational institutions,” and in May 1939, Wüst organized a multi-day scientific conference in Kiel under the auspices of the “Heritage of the Ancestors”, in which he convinced many of the best German scientists to take part. , primarily humanists. Wüst, a respectable dean from the University of Munich, truly managed to break the ice of mistrust in the academic community towards the “dilettantes and charlatans” of the “Ancestors' Heritage.” Himmler even promised venerable archaeologists, ethnographers, philologists and doctors protection from “soulless bureaucrats” from the Ministry of Education and “party dogmatists” from the ideological department of the NSDAP, which was headed by Rosenberg.

The new headquarters of the society on Pücklerstrasse in Berlin-Dahlem turned into something like the presidium of the SS Academy of Sciences, and “research departments” of various profiles were feverishly created throughout Germany. These were the prototypes of fifty institutes that were eventually to occupy a leading position in German science. In March 1937, a new Ahnenerbe charter was adopted. The same executive director Sievers was responsible for the administrative side of the matter, scientific leadership was provided by President Wüst, and the ideology of society and the main directions of research were determined by Himmler himself - now not just a curator, but “chairman of the board of curators.” He determined by drawing the basic ideas of his “new science” from the rich reservoir of the so-called “Völkischideology,” folk ideology. This was the name in Reich jargon for an explosive mixture of the philosophy of German romantics, racial theory and occultism, where, in turn, the most important role was played by the mystical insights of the Russian Helena Blavatsky and the above-mentioned doctrine of the struggle of races by the Englishman Huston Chamberlain.

Lur and lyre

After the reorganization of the "Ancestral Heritage", Himmler, in full accordance with his aspirations, made sure that most of the projects served the coming great migration of "true Aryans" to the East. For example, the “department of German architecture” studied the structure of the villages of the ancient Germans, and the results were transferred to the Russian Agricultural Academy, where, on their basis, model settlements were designed for “peasant soldiers” in new lands. Around the “Führer’s house,” built like a Scandinavian “thing” - a hall of public assembly, there was a shooting range, a gym and a cemetery with a sanctuary for the worship of ancestors. The “Department of Topography and Landscape” explained how to choose the best places for “Aryan villages” - the patron demanded that all “Nordic experience” in this matter be summarized. The “Department of Legal History” carefully studied ancient German laws and customs, even to the point of court battles, so that the SS colonists could take advantage of the “wisdom of the ancients.” The “Department of Biology of Heredity” found out all the details of the sexual practice of the Germans, recommending, for example, actively conceiving children at the time of the winter and summer solstice - a lot of people would be needed to develop new territories. The “Department of Traditional Medicine” studied the properties of medicinal herbs that traditional medicine did not recognize - and compiled a map of the growth of such “tops” and “roots” throughout Eurasia. The meteorology department tried to combine modern scientific methods and “folk signs” for long-term weather forecasting over the widest possible geographical areas.

"Our people!"

However, despite the abundance of “applied research”, the main business of the Ahnenerbe still remained building the “Aryan picture of the world”, and the most large-scale undertaking of the society before the war itself was field work in Tibet. Their inspiration was, following his main profession, Walter Wüst himself, who managed to literally infect Himmler with the East. Naturally, with the right ideological sauce. Let's say he introduced the Reichsführer to the Rig Veda, claiming that in the 10th century BC. e. this great book was written not by the ancient Indians, but by the “Nordic bards” who came to the banks of the Ganges from the forests of Westphalia. The SS chief learned many verses from it by heart, and also carried the Bhagavad Gita with him everywhere, trying to comprehend the secrets of Indian (that is, excuse me, Aryan) philosophy, and became seriously interested in yoga.

Then Wüst introduced the boss to the young zoologist Ernst Schaefer, already famous for his travels to the Pamirs, China and Siberia. After listening to his stories about the blue-eyed blond man from whom Genghis Khan descended, about the Aryan appearance of some tribes of Afghanistan and the ancient burial grounds of the “master race” in Tibet, Himmler exclaimed: “So these are our people!”

A fanatical scientist who later served as the prototype for Ian Fleming for James Bond's main enemy, Ernst Blofeld, the leader of the expedition was, as they say, a real "macho" who did not recognize any barriers. In the personal files of people like him, the personnel officers of the “Black Order” wrote: “A true Aryan. The character is Nordic." Schaefer, without much difficulty, managed to bypass the ban on visiting Tibet by the authorities of British India, who controlled the approaches to the Himalayas - he simply appeased the monks from the entourage of the young Dalailama with gifts and made his way across the border surrounded by them.

Throughout Lhasa itself, the Germans solemnly carried a banner with a swastika during a procession in honor of the Buddhist New Year. Then they were received by the regent of the exotic theocratic Tibetan state, Reting Rimpoche, who gave them a letter for Hitler and even gave them 108 volumes of “Ganjur” - the ancient code of Lamaism. Outside the native mountains there were only three copies of this sacred book.

Finally, the time came to get down to business, and the members of the expedition worked 20 hours a day: they filmed rituals in monasteries and simply the life of the holy capital, collected herbariums, purchased all kinds of living creatures (and the monks made it a condition that the animals should survive, so they had to carry take a whole zoo to the Reich). To make the “armed peasants” Himmler dreamed of happy, Schäfer obtained samples of highland Tibetan wheat that ripened in 60 days. “Racial hygiene” specialist Bruno Beger not only measured hundreds of Tibetan skulls with his compasses, but also persuaded several dozen of their owners to provide him with faces for casts. The Ahnenerbe was looking for evidence of an anatomical connection between the local aristocracy and the “Nordic race.” Finally, the persistent Obersturmführer even obtained permission to explore the Yarlung Valley, where, as legend says, the first Tibetan rulers descended from heaven by rope and where he expected to find traces of the notorious Shambhala. Whether he found it or not - history and the seeker himself are silent...

In the footsteps of the snowy Aryan

The only thing Schaefer failed to do was catch Bigfoot. Why did the SS need him? The fact is that the Tibetan journey was supposed to be only the first “geopolitical megaproject” of Wüst. After the failure of the “Atlantic theory,” Himmler really wanted to somehow please Hitler, who was skeptical about the “Nordic” leaps of his “faithful Heinrich.” The Fuhrer, a man, oddly enough, very sober-minded in practical matters, believed that there was no point in messing with the legacy of the ancient Germans, who did not create anything significant. To convince him of all this SS “science fiction”, evidence was required. In particular, Hitler was fascinated by the idea of collisions of our planet with icy meteorites that took place in ancient times and destroyed the Aryan civilization - it was this existence that Schaefer tried to support with his research in Tibet.

And this so-called “theory of world ice” was formulated by a certain Austrian refrigerator engineer Hans Herbiger (so Vladimir Sorokin with his novel “Ice” had a predecessor). Now the Nazis “officially” assigned him the role of the first physicist of the twentieth century (in the eyes of the rest of the world, this was the Jew Einstein). According to him, when icy meteorites entered the earth's atmosphere, the gravitational field created giant waves that washed away all life from the land. The last time such a catastrophe allegedly occurred was only 10 thousand years ago. The ancient flora and fauna, as well as the remnants of the Aryans, who had psychic abilities, could only survive in the highest mountainous regions, such as Tibet or the Bolivian Andes. It was these that the figures from Ahnenerbe were looking for in the Himalayas. It’s just not clear who Schaefer and Himmler considered Bigfoot - a “true Aryan” or a prehistoric animal?..

In any case, the expedition returned in triumph to Berlin in August 1939 - the Reichsführer personally met it at the airfield, and the SS Obersturmführer became a national hero of Germany, something between Sheatherhand from the novels about Winneta and the same Indiana Jones.

However, the second big scientific trip - to Lake Titicaca, where Edmund Kiss, an employee of the Department of World Ice Theory, was supposed to conduct large-scale studies of the ruins of the ancient city of Tiahuanaco, using aviation and bathyscaphes, did not take place. The Second World War took place.

Ahnenerbe employees no longer traveled to distant exotic countries, but only to territories occupied by the Wehrmacht. Special teams of the “Heritage of Ancestors” slowly robbed museums and libraries in Poland, France, Yugoslavia, and the USSR. True, by agreement with Hitler and Goering, they left them works of fine art, but they had complete control over ethnographic and especially archaeological materials.

Artifacts of the “Department of Archeology”

This science remained one of the priority areas for the Society from its founding until its dissolution. After all, there was a hunt for the secrets of the “Nordic race”, and any clay shard that the Aryan ancestors could touch was paganly considered as a “key” to their secrets and a shrine. Himmler was delirious with the idea of using the parapsychological abilities “dormant” in the “heirs” to serve Nazism. Just as the Italian Renaissance, starting from antiquity, gave birth to the entire culture of the New Age, the Nazi “Renaissance” had to start from the ancient Aryan era. As always, Ahnenerbe is at the forefront of searches and experiments.

Most of the excavation of ancient settlements in the territory of the Reich was the responsibility of its "Department of Archaeology", which was headed by one of the world's best specialists in Gothic and Viking cultures, Dr. Herbert Jankuhn. And at the beginning of 1937, the “Heritage of the Ancestors” took control of the main archaeological treasure of the country - Externsteine, a ridge of bizarre rocks on the shore of one of the lakes in the Teutoburg Forest. Several generations of German nationalists believed that it was there that the sanctuary of the Cherusci tribe, led by their leader Arminius, defeated the best legions of Octavian Augustus nearby. This victory was a turning point in European antiquity: in the fight against the Germans, Rome moved from attack to defense. In Externstein, supposedly until the 8th century, the Saxons and other descendants of the Cherusci worshiped the sacred Irminsul tree, which was cut down only by the Franks under Charlemagne.

Himmler was “secret” for good reason. Although Julius Andre, a professor at the University of Münster, claimed to have found “traces of sacrificial fires,” he was unable to find convincing evidence of the existence of any pagan sanctuary at Externstein. Naturally, this did not prevent the Reichsführer from continuing to consider the picturesque rocks a “sacred place”, the secrets of which are still inaccessible to understanding. Moreover, it received the status of a “Sanctuary of the SS”, and the “Black Order” held its ritual ceremonies here on the day of the summer solstice, as well as fantastic theatrical mysteries like the “Triumph of the Germans over the Egyptians.”

The main “curator” believed that the archaeological pits were an ideal place for the “unity” of the SS men with their Aryan ancestors. Hitler, although he ridiculed the “search for old pots,” also greatly appreciated the “paganism” of the SS, invented on the basis of the ancient German rites studied in the Ahnenerbe. As is known, the Fuhrer considered Christianity, which was the worst enemy of Nazism after communism, which he called “pre-Bolshevism” (he clarified, however, that Jesus, the son of a Roman legionnaire and a “true Aryan,” said and did everything correctly, but the evil Jew Apostle Paul perverted his teaching). The “faith of savages who worship the forces of nature”, revived by “faithful Henry,” is better than the “shameful, softening religiosity of the Germans.” “Not one of the SS men goes to church, and yet they go to their death with a calm soul,” the Reich leader stated with satisfaction.

In Wewelsburg Castle (Westphalia), with the blessing of Hitler, the construction of the “Vatican” of a new faith even began. And the role of the “Heritage of the Ancestors” in this belief of the “true Aryans”, deprived not only of faith in God, but also of the “chimera of morality”, was enormous...

From the first days of the Society’s existence, philologists, archaeologists, ethnographers and historians who served in it wrote educational programs for the SS, prepared slide shows and made “scientific propaganda” films. Every SS man was required to be taught the Edda and rune reading. The Ahnenerbe hastily developed rituals for weddings, “blessing” of newborns (instead of baptism), presenting weapons to recruits, and funerals. By the way, at the front, the dead members of the “order” were buried in special cemeteries and instead of a cross, a death rune was depicted on the graves. Sonderkommando fighters and concentration camp guards were given lectures that “scientifically” substantiated the total destruction of the enemies of the Reich. Referring to the results of excavations, the same doctor Yankun, for example, argued that the ancient Germans mercilessly drowned traitors in the swamps with all their households, as well as homosexuals and apostates. And by 1942, having previously searched for traces of the mythical Gothic Empire in the Crimea (unsuccessfully), he became so “inflamed” that he asked to enlist himself as an intelligence officer in the SS Viking division, where he had previously conducted “cultural and political education.”

In fact, when allowing his gallant archaeologist to remain at the front, Himmler made an exception. The smart heads from the “Heritage of Ancestors” had to forge victory in the rear. In 1941, the company was included in the personal headquarters of the Reichsführer SS, and all its activities finally switched to a military footing. Many projects, such as the “Role of the Forest in the Life of the Ancient Germans,” were discontinued, and in their place the “Institute of Military Research” appeared. It was headed by the same unsinkable executive director Wolfram Sievers.

Nazi "Vatican"
Back in 1934, 30 kilometers from Externsteine, in the Teutoburg Forest, Heinrich Himmler rented the ancient Wewelsburg castle for a nominal fee. There he was going to set up the center of the Nazi “new religion”, which was created in the depths of the SS as a synthesis of the paganism of the ancient Germans, true Christianity, not yet “poisoned by the Jews”, and the occultism of the 19th century. The location for the SS “Vatican” was chosen by Brigadeführer (Major General) Karl Maria Wiligut, who called himself by the ancient German name Weistor. This elderly retired colonel of the Austro-Hungarian army claimed to come from a family of magicians and trace his ancestry back to the leader Arminius himself, the conqueror of the Romans. The castle has exactly the same triangular shape as the legendary Montsegur fortress in France, where the last Cathars took refuge, taking the secret of the “Holy Grail” with them to the grave. It was restored by prisoners of a concentration camp created nearby specifically for this purpose. The castle houses an archaeological museum and the SS Nordic Academy. In July 1940, Hitler approved the state plan for the reconstruction of Wewelsburg. It was supposed to last twenty years and cost 250 million Reichsmarks - 1 billion 250 million dollars at today's exchange rate. According to the plan of the architect Hermann Bartels, the triangle of the castle fit into a gigantic ring of buildings surrounded by a triple fortress wall 15 meters high. Weistor pointed out that all this symbolizes the “Spear of Destiny” inscribed in the “Grail” cup, and exactly corresponds to the shape of the silver Death’s Head ring, which was given to each member of the SS. The complex of buildings next to the “Star Temple” of “new paganism” housed the Library of Occultism and the Institute of Ancient History. The castle itself had apartments for all twelve (!) Obergruppenführers (top generals) of the SS. In Himmler’s rune-painted office there was kept a copy of the “Spear of Destiny” itself, which was used to pierce the “true Aryan” Christ. The original of this relic was in the Habsburg treasury in Vienna, but had to be transferred to Wewelsburg after its reconstruction. The semantic center of the SS “Vatican” was supposed to be the northern tower of the triangle castle, aimed at the mystical island of Thule in the Arctic. They managed to build the lower hall “Valhalla” (in honor of the place where the Scandinavian gods and heroes feasted) with an eternal fire in the middle and a crypt-tomb designed according to the type of ancient Mycenaean tombs. She represented Niflheim - the world of the dead from the ancient sagas. Here the deceased Obergruppenführers and the rings of all members of the “black order” were supposed to rest after their owners left for another world. And on the floor above they built the twelve-column Midgard - the world of the living. Sitting at the round table, twelve Obergruppenführers, knights of the “black order”, would decide the destinies of humanity here. The northern tower was to be crowned by the “Hall of the Grail”, which at the same time symbolized the ancient Germanic world of the gods - Asgard. The search for the legendary bowl for this “sanctuary” was carried out by Weistor’s student and Ahnenerbe employee Otto Rahn. Covered by a huge dome cut through by 48 windows, the “Grail Hall” was intended for religious meditation of the SS Reichsführer and his immediate circle. The unfinished Wewelsburg Castle was set on fire by a special SS team in April 1945. But “Valhalla” and “The Hall of the Knights of the Round Table” have survived to this day. On the floor there you can still see the “Black Sun”, woven from 12 runes of victory - a symbol of the “new order”, which, fortunately, was not established on Earth by the “supermen” from the SS.

Rusher Conveyor

The Reichsführer's demand to reveal the secret of the striking fire hammer of the Scandinavian god Thor gave rise to the project of the “electric gun”. Ahnenerbe, together with the Elemag company, began preparing drawings of a giant lightning rod that collects lightning energy. With its help, it was necessary to “cut down” all the enemy’s electrical appliances in the front-line zone. This project, however, was considered technically unfeasible by physicists from the Imperial Research Committee.

Attempts to use telepathy as a new means of communication, as well as to extract gold from the waters of the Rhine using the methods of “Aryan chemistry” also ended in nothing.

The exact sciences did not want to succumb to the “scientific” magicians from “The Heritage of Ancestors”. The only area in which the Sievers Institute managed to “please” Himmler with success was medicine, or more precisely, experiments on people. The experiments of Ahnenerbe employees in Dachau began even before the war. In April 1939, Munich doctor Sigmund Rascher began testing his cancer cure on prisoners. However, this fanatic really took off in February 1942, when a high-pressure chamber was built in his “favorite” concentration camp. Rascher conducted experiments there in order to develop means of protection and treatment for pilots and submariners. The prisoners were “tested for strength” by calmly observing their suffering through a special window. Many times the Reichsführer himself “admired” the experiments in company with Sievers.

Even later, the terrible doctor took up the problem of hypothermia. Now the unfortunate people were placed in baths with ice water, brought to a half-dead state, and then they tried to “bring them back to life” in various ways (for example, they even used prostitutes from a brothel to warm them up). And when it occurred to Rusher to look for the best antiseptic, they began to shoot at people at point-blank range, and then treat the wounds with various means, including apple syrup. The conveyor belt of torture, of which thousands of prisoners became victims, was stopped in 1944 only by the unexpected arrest of the SS experimenter himself.

Himmler was infuriated by the news that in his free time, an SS Hauptsturmführer (captain) was abducting children on the streets of Munich. The doctor passed off the eight babies he stole as children from his 52-year-old wife. Allegedly, the miracle pills he developed inspired the old woman Caroline Rusher to give birth to twins and triplets of “true Aryan” boys! By order of Himmler, the heroine mother was hanged in Ravensbrück, and the pioneering father received a bullet in the back of the head in the very Dachau where he tortured prisoners.

Another “hero of the medical front” was the Strasbourg surgeon August Hirt, who was looking for an antidote to poisonous gases, condemning hundreds of people to painful death. But the Reichsführer’s special favor was brought to him by the fact that, together with the “racial specialist” Bruno Beger, who became famous in Tibet, he created a collection of Jewish skeletons. Beger selected, measured and subjected Auschwitz prisoners to various studies, and Hirt then killed them in a gas chamber and dissected the corpses using his own methods. Such a terrible “catalogue” was supposed to become an ideal indicator of “signs of Jewishness” - even in the third and fourth generations...

The executive director of the society, Wolfram Sievers, was sentenced to hanging by the Nuremberg Military Tribunal. Hirt (like Himmler, in fact) managed to commit suicide before the trial.

However, hundreds of philologists and historians from the Ahnenerbe escaped with only a temporary ban on professional activities. Foaming at the mouth, they argued that they were romantics deceived by the Nazi regime and were simply carried away by the ancient German past. However, the myths they created about this past, unfortunately, turned into a threat to humanity, arming the “black order” with a “new religion.” Therefore, the Nuremberg Tribunal declared Ancestral Heritage a criminal organization. History has pronounced its verdict on Ahnenerbe.

Various Nazi figures of the first half of the 20th century established quite a few other organizations where esotericism, in particular runes, was also in use.

History tells us about a certain Theodor Hageen, abbot Benedictian monastery in the Austrian city of Lamba, and about his journey to the Middle East and the Caucasus for some esoteric knowledge. There he obtained and brought to Austria, to the monastery, mysterious ancient manuscripts.

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Later, based on this knowledge, Hagen created his own order. Even those in the order did not know what was in the manuscripts. Subsequently, this knowledge will be lost, but then, probably, on the basis of it, the abbot decided to remake the bas-reliefs of the abbey, introducing into them such an image element as a swastika.

It was at the time when swastikas appeared, while still a boy, Adolf Gitler was a member of the church choir at the Lambakh Monastery. When he grows up, he becomes the leader of the National Socialist Workers' Party (abbreviated NSDAP) in Germany.

In 1898, Theodor Hagen died. But a little later a Cistercian monk arrived at the monastery Jörg Lans von Liebenfels and without any problems took possession of the manuscripts brought by Hagen.

Studying mysterious ancient texts for a long time, Liebenfels He had almost no contact with anyone and kept the knowledge he received secret. The materials obtained by Liebenfels allowed him to found a spiritual secret society - "Order of the New Temple" In the Order of the New Temple, the occult movement “Vienai” (in Old German “initiates”) arose. Thus, they learned about the swastika first in Austria, then it migrated to Germany.

The order also belonged to the teachings of the above-mentioned Vienai Guido von Lista, established in Vienna in 1908. And in order to continue the chain of centuries-long transmission of secret knowledge, which allegedly belonged to the king-priests of the Wotan cult, a special inner circle was created in the Liszt society in 1911. It was called Armanenorden(Order of Armans).

In his work “The Mysterious Language of the Indo-Germans,” in addition to various other studies, Guido von List provided a map of the legendary land of Arctogea, where the ancestors of the Germans lived, whose capital was called Thule (Greek: Θουλη). According to the work, humanity allegedly originated in this cold northern region.

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Hitler picked up von List's ideas in his youth. Those. he adopted the teachings of the Order of the new temple. It is not surprising that Armanenorden’s documents speak of the spread of the idea of “wienai” in the German generals.

In 1912, the so-called Hermanenorden was created. It included societies and structures that preached the ideas of “Vienai”. The order created by von List also ended up there.

And in 1918, a branch appeared in Munich Hermanenorden- society Thule (German: Thule-Gesellschaft), named after the mythical capital of the same name. The full name of this German occult and political society is (German: Studiengruppe fur germanisches Altertum). And its official goal is the study of ancient Germanic culture, the origin of the “Aryan race”, etc.

Members of the society contributed to the creation of Hitler's German Workers' Party and influenced its course.

Moreover, in Germany there were other, even more closed organizations. An example is the Order of the “Brothers of Light”, founded by Haushofer in 1919, which later became known as And then this society, in turn, united various structures and organizations, such as DHvSS (Lords of the Black Stone), “Black Knights” "from Thule and the "Black Sun", which was the elite of the SS.

Karl Haushofer green dragon

In general, the Vril Society was very closely involved in mysticism and magic.

The author of this work draws the reader's attention to an important thing. Namely, in a number of Nazi and modern movements, belonging to runes is attributed to various symbols and signs that are not runes. Such signs will be considered along with runes, incl. Wolfsangel and swastika.

In this work they are called runes only in the context of German-Nazi runological teachings. This allows us to cover the topic of such movements more broadly and more clearly show the views of their leaders, but should not mislead the reader.

Ancient non-runic symbols, as well as recently invented signs, are often confused these days, sometimes making up dubious alphabets from them. And the impetus for such practices was the research of German occultists at the beginning of the 20th century. Such pseudo-runes were not included in any historically reliable rune series, except for those developed during the 20th–21st centuries, therefore, from the point of view of the northern runic tradition, calling them runes would be incorrect.

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Ahnenerbe and SS

We now come close to organizations such as the Ahnenerbe and the SS, which made extensive use of the materials of Karl Maria Wiligut and Guido von List. We’ll look at their symbolism a little later, but for now here’s a brief historical background.

As you know, the abbreviations SS or SS meant "Schutzstaffel"- “security detachments”, they were a collection of paramilitary forces of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. They began their activities in 1933. Himmler took the position of Reichsführer in the SS. In 1945, security detachments ceased to exist.

In 1935, on the initiative of Himmler, the Ahnenerbe department and the Institute of Runic Writing were created.

Ahnenerbe (German: Ahnenerbe - “Heritage of the Ancestors”) can be described as an organization that existed in the Third Reich and was created to study the traditions, history and heritage of the German race, its full name is “The German Society for the Study of Ancient German History and the Heritage of Ancestors.” “The Heritage of Ancestors” existed until 1945.

The symbolism of this organization, as eloquently evidenced by the runic inscriptions along the perimeter.

Runic magic, being the main direction of work "German Order" retained its significance in Ahnenerbe. Active work was carried out here to collect and study ancient runic signs, as well as create new ones.

All state and military Nazi symbols were based on runic symbols. In 1933, it was here that the infamous SS symbol was adopted - the double rune Sieg (Soulu), the rune of Victory. Each rune had its own magical meaning. In the Third Reich, various colors were used almost everywhere - on government buildings, standards of military units and formations.

Mages from Annenerbe even developed special amulets runes (security runes) based on ancient Germanic ones. Such runes were applied to military equipment and even to the helmets of soldiers, trying to make them “invulnerable.”

A clear example of the prevalence of runes under Hitler’s rule in Germany is the SS award rings with runic symbols.

Each SS man was taught the manuscript, the epic Edda, ancient German rites and magical practices. People who were high-ranking in the SS were members of all sorts of esoteric societies.

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Runes for security units (SS)

Let's take a closer look at the runic set from which emblems for various units were formed Schutzstaffel.

Runes on the emblems of the Schutzstaffel (SS)

Let's look at each of them.

Swastika (Hakenkreuz) - rune of infinity of being, a sign of strength, power, luck. In the Scandinavian tradition, the swastika is not a rune and, among its other meanings, symbolized the god of war Thor. In Hitler's Germany, it also became a symbol of the Nazi party.

Sonnenrad - “sun wheel”. Symbol of the Sun, thunder, fire, fertility.

Sig-Rune - rune of the god of war Thor. Denotes strength, power, energy, lightning, fight.

Ger-Rune - rune of collectivism, mutual assistance, spiritual unity.

Wolfsangel - “wolf hook” is a rune-amulet against dark forces and a symbol of independence.

Opfer-Rune - a symbol of self-sacrifice.

Aif-rune (Eif-rune, Eif-Rune) - the rune of enthusiasm, diligence and determination.

Leben-Rune - rune of life. Scandinavian rune Algiz.

Toten-Rune - rune of death, inverted Algiz.

Tyr-Rune - rune of intransigence in battle.

Heilszeichen - rune of success and good luck.

Hagall-Rune - rune of invincible faith.

Odal-Rune - the rune of family, consanguinity, and return to the earth. It takes its name from the ancient German term Odal - “family land ownership”.

As already mentioned, runes became widespread on the emblems of German security forces during the period of Hitler's rule. More about them below, incl. and with illustrative examples.

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The most famous sign of the Third Reich is the square swastika, the Hakenkreuz, which undeservedly received notoriety due to the actions of the Nazis.

Nazi swastika symbol - Hakenkreuz in a white circle on a red background

On this occasion, interesting documents were found from Ahnenerbe. They talk about the work of the order with symbols at the initial stage. The results of these works were not yet included in the official and public symbols of the Nazis. But the papers show that the swastika is depicted only on the right side. The swastika, which was adopted by the Nazi government, is a revised one, left-handed, i.e. an inverted version of the original one.

Sonnenrad, "solar swastika" the rounded shape, used along with the square Hackenkreuz, is less known, but is present on German emblems of the pre-war and wartime of the Second World War.

In general, all kinds of swastikas are common in religions, teachings, cultures, organizations and movements around the world - among Indians, Arabs, Proto-Slavs, ancient peoples of the Caucasus, Siberia, etc., the swastika symbol has a huge number of meanings and the vast majority are positive. Unfortunately, many people who are not well-versed in this issue attribute exclusively negative associations with Nazism and fascism to swastikas.

By the way, there is a common misconception that fascism originated in Germany along with Nazism and the swastika is also its symbol. In fact the word " fascism" comes from the Italian fascio (fasho) - “union" (the name of B. Mussolini’s radical political organization sounded like Fascio di combattimento- “Union of Struggle”) and fascist symbolism can be attributed to the so-called. - a bundle of rods tied with an axe, but not a swastika.

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But let's return to our topic and namely to the runic row of security detachments presented earlier.

Thus, Ger-Rune was depicted on the division standard of the 11th Motorized Volunteer Division of the SS Northland, and was also found on the uniform of the soldiers of this division.

And the Opfer rune was used by the Association of German SS Veterans and Disabled Persons. The commemorative sign with the Opfer rune was issued in honor of the so-called “martyrs of November 9th” - 16 Hitler supporters killed by police during the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923.

In turn, the Eif rune was a distinctive sign of Hitler’s adjutants and his closest associates, in particular - Rudolf Hess.

Runa Leben- used as a symbol of society « » who dealt with racial issues, and Ahnenerbe(the latter will be discussed in more detail). Placed to mark the date of birth. In our time, it is used by racist organizations: the American National Alliance and the Arian Press.

Rune Toten- she is the rune of death. Used on tombstones, slabs and on documents before the date of death.

Tyr-rune(Rune Tyr) denoted luck in battle. Initially, it is an ancient Germanic symbol of the god of war and military valor, bearing the name Tyr or Tyr. It was often used on the graves of SS men instead of a cross, and was also worn on the left hand, symbolizing the completion of a special school for SS officers, gradually transforming into the breastplate of the SS personnel training department. This rune was also worn by the teaching staff of the organization.

Heilsechen- this rune was depicted on the personal rings of SS men.

Hagal- a symbol of faith in the truth of the Nazi worldview. Found on SS rings and on the uniforms of SS police divisions. The rune was also widely used during SS ceremonies, in particular at weddings.

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It is known that by decree Himmler In SS symbolism, runes were used to indicate the main stages of career advancement and personal characteristics of members of the organization. In SS rituals, various objects decorated with runes were used: rings, Yule lamps, daggers, etc.

However, runic symbolism in Germany before and during World War II is by no means limited to the above. Let's go further and see many other emblems of Nazi formations.

Here is a symbol familiar to many of the SS security detachments - two white runes s on a black background, it was also used on the emblem of the Nazi SS police (Stosstruppe).

Symbol SS - double Zig rune

An interesting fact is known that for the opportunity to use the Sieg rune, the SS budget and finance department paid Heck a royalty in the amount of 2.5 Reichsmarks. For comparison, 1 Reischmark (the monetary unit of Germany in 1924-1948) was equivalent to 1 trillion. papermarks (paper marks that became worthless during the then hyperinflation in Germany).

Within the SS, where runes gained popularity, there were many different structures. Accordingly, there were many other emblems consisting of runes, which were signs of various SS units, which are brought to the attention of the reader.

So, the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich". Created on October 10, 1938 by the union of “SS reserve troops” and part of the SS “Totenkopf” formations. The first commander is SS Gruppenführer Paul Hausser. Its emblem is the “wolfsangel” symbol (in German - wolf hook), variants of which are shown in the figure.

Later, this sign belonged to the 4th SS Police Grenadier Division, the 23rd SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division "Nederland", the 34th Volunteer Grenadier Brigade "Landstorm Nederland", which consisted of Dutch volunteers.

Following the Wehrmacht soldiers, Ukrainian nationalists began to honor a symbol similar to the Wolfsangel. Some of them see in the emblem a combination of the first letters of the words “Idea of a Nation” transliterated into Latin (I and N). It should be noted that in the name Wolfsangel, written with a capital letter, it means the rune, and with a small letter, the actual symbol.

In general, the wolfsangel, “wolf hook”, is a symbol that was originally a pagan amulet that protected the owner from the machinations of “dark forces” and gave power over the werewolf (werewolf in German). It was also used in medieval heraldry. Currently preserved on the coat of arms of the German city of Wolfstein. In the political history of the 20th century, the Wolfsangel was originally the emblem of Adolf Hitler’s NSDAP, and was also found on the emblems of other organizations and formations. This symbolism is popular among modern nationalists in a number of countries.

Next on our list is the 90 degree rotated Wolfsangel.

This is the badge that the 4th SS Police Panzergrenadier Division received. Founded on October 1, 1939, as a Police Division made up of employees of the German police. On February 10, 1942, it passed to the Waffen-SS, to which it belonged informally.

An emblem that includes the Sonnenrad rune, a type of swastika. Belonged to the SS Viking division.

5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking". It was founded in April 1941 from the SS regiments Nordland and Westland. In the Viking division, along with the Germans, foreign volunteers from “racially acceptable peoples” fought.

Another variation of the Sonnenrad emblem. Sonnerad

11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division " Nordland"was created in July 1943 and fought on the Eastern Front, and in May 1945 it was destroyed in Berlin.

Members of the Norwegian and Danish SS also wore the Sonnenrad in their buttonhole.

Next emblem with Hagal-Rune- badge of the 6th SS Mountain Division "Nord".

Originally founded in the fall of 1942 in Finland as the SS Mountain Division Nord from the SS Division Nord. On October 22, 1943 it received the 6th number, and later in April 1945 the remaining forces of the division were attached to the 38th Nibelungen Division.

This is what one of the emblems looks like: Odal-Rune.

Emblem of Odal-rune

Rune "Odal"- the badge of the SS Main Directorate for Race and Settlement (RuSHA), as well as the emblem of the 7th SS Mountain Division “Prinz Eugen” (also known as Prinz Eugen), which showed particular cruelty to civilians. Among other things, it was their lapel badge.

And here is a peculiarly stylized Odal-Rune on another emblem that belonged to the 23rd SS Mountain Division "Kama".

The Kama Division was formed on June 10, 1944 in eastern Croatia from Croatian, Bosnian and Herzegovinian Muslims. The formation was not completed due to the threat to the division's training camp from the advancing Red Army. The personnel were included in the 13th SS Mountain Division "Handschar".

This is an infantry division, formed in January 1945 at the Kurmark training ground from German Reichsdeutsche and Volksdeutsche conscripts (volunteers and mobilized), teachers of the SS Junker Schools, instructors and cadets of SS tank and infantry schools.

The emblem, combining the crossed Sig-Rune and key, belonged to the 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitler Youth".

On February 10, 1943, an order was signed to form a division from conscripts born in 1926. This is how more than 16 thousand members of the Hitler Youth were conscripted.

Also, the Jungfolk organization had a single Zig rune as its symbol.

Jungfolk was a division of the Hitler Youth, which consisted of young men from 10 to 14 years old; members of the organization were called pimpfs.

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Totenkopf - death's head

And long before that, in 1933, Sturmgaupführer Walter Heck created the so-called. Totenkopf, another notorious symbol of the Schutzstaffeln security forces. This emblem used a skull (Totenkopf - “death's head”, borrowed from the Rosicrucian Order) and two zig runes - symbols of victory.

Award ring “Death's Head” and signs on it

An excerpt from the text passed along with the ring when presenting it tells about the symbolism of the ring:

“...This ring symbolizes loyalty to the Fuhrer, our unyielding obedience and our brotherhood and friendship.

The Death's Head reminds us that we must always be ready to give our lives for the good of the German people.

The runes opposite the death's head symbolize our glorious past, which will be restored through National Socialism.

The two zig runes symbolize the abbreviation SS. The swastika and hagall rune signify our unbending faith in the inevitable victory of our philosophy. The ring encircles an oak wreath, oak is a traditional German tree...” The inscription says nothing about the meaning of the Heilszeichen sign.

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Assault Troops Symbol

The figure shows an even more obscure symbol, formerly Sturmabteilung(abbreviated as SA), - assault troops of the NSDAP.

There is an interpretation of the sign as the letter A and the rune Zig connected. At the same time, the elements of the symbol that cannot be attributed to either the letter A or the Zig-rune say that such an interpretation of the sign is incorrect or at least incomplete, and therefore needs further study.

As we have already been able to see more than once, the Nazis made extremely wide use of it, distorting the Scandinavian futhark runes.

It is obvious that they hoped for the magical properties of these runes. During the Nazi rule in Germany, everywhere - on emblems, banners, on equipment, in the interiors of buildings, etc. - one could find symbols created on the basis of runes.

The history of the Ahnenerbe secret society begins in 1933. At that time, a traveling exhibition called “The Heritage of Ancestors”, translated from German “Ahnenerbe”, was held in Munich. Its organizer is a specialist in ancient religions, Herman Wirth. He was interested in the history of ancient Germanic tribes and studied their beliefs. The leadership of the Third Reich approved such activities.

Founding Fathers of the Ahnenerbe

Three people - Hermann Wirth, Richard Walter and Henry Himmler founded a public organization, which was called “German Heritage”, “Deutsche Ananerbe”. Over time, the charter of the society was changed, Hermann Wirth became a separately practicing researcher, and many SS officers appeared in the structure of the society. Soon the Ahnenerbe became a structure of the SS and received the status of “main directorate A”, and carried out its activities under the patronage of Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler and under the personal control of the Fuhrer.

Some researchers believe that Hitler spent more money on the Ahnenerbe and on research in the field of occultism than the Americans did on creating the atomic bomb.

At the end of the 1930s, all Ahnenerbe occult research was classified as “secret”. Their results are reported to the top leadership of the Third Reich. At the same time, the “ancestral heritage” has a new symbol - “Irminsu” or “Irmin pillar”. According to Andrei Vasilchenko, candidate of historical sciences, “this is a kind of shrine that was destroyed by Charlemagne in the 8th century. This is a tree, a Germanic deity, a symbol of the relationship between heaven and earth.”

Some of Ahnenerbe's secret projects are puzzling. The patrons of this organization, Heinrich Himmler, were interested in everything related to the occult.

One of the dubious “responsible tasks” was assigned to Ernst Schaeffer, who returned from the Tibet expedition. He had to search for a miraculous drink, the secret of which was allegedly kept by the gypsies. Himmler believed and hoped to receive a recipe for a healing drink.

Another of Himmler’s occult passions, the practice of the sidereal pendulum, led to the emergence of an entire unit in the SS, which was called the “closed structure SP.” Using a sidereal pendulum, they tried to trace the routes of American convoys to the Soviet Union.

How were you taught dowsing?

Anyone who had a knack for paranormal abilities was immediately taken note of by the SS. Under Ahnenerbe, “dowsing courses” operated. These were search engines armed only with a rotating frame, or, in other words, a vine.

Konstantin Zalessky, a historian, notes: “dowsers were brought in to explore minerals, in particular gold, in Bavaria.” Before the fall of the Ahnenerbe, they managed to prepare 3 issues of “dowsers”. They could find sources of drinking water, mineral deposits, and also served as scouts during hostilities.

But how can you teach a person paranormal abilities? The Ahnenerbe believed that they could be developed by awakening a person’s internal energy, the power of ods. Scientists of the Third Reich were looking for a way to achieve this. Wolfram Sievers will talk about these experiments later at the Nuremberg trials. According to him, in Ahnenerbe he held the position of manager of the affairs of this organization. It was Sievers who authorized the experiments that were carried out on people, so he was sentenced to death. Experiments were conducted on finding people in a rarefied atmosphere and on hypothermia. Officially, this was done by order of the Luftwaffe, supposedly in order to bring back to life German pilots who found themselves in the waters of the northern seas. But methods for combating hypothermia already existed at that time, which means that the occult scientists of the Third Reich conducted their experiments for a different purpose.

The Nazis showed interest in the northern territories for a long time. Back in 1937, Otto Rahn organized an expedition to the north - he went first to Iceland, then to Greenland. Vadim Telitsyn, a candidate of historical sciences, claims that in Greenland he is trying to find evidence of the existence of a castle, material about which he finds in Russian chronicles. These chronicles are still stored in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. He didn’t find the castle, but he found some inscriptions on the rocks and drawings.”

What were the Nazis looking for in Greenland?

Maybe, ancestral home of the ancient Nordic race. In the hands of Otto Rahn was a map that he had compiled Gerard Mercator. In the 16th century, a cartographer had surprisingly accurate information about the position of the continents and their outlines. But Greenland on Mercator's maps was located in the area of the North Pole. In ancient times, Greenland was inhabited by the “white race” - tall, fairly strong people, blue-eyed. But the results of the expedition to Greenland disappointed the leadership of the Third Reich. In 1939, Otto Rahn wrote a letter of resignation from the SS. In the same 1939, Otto Rahn goes to Austria - and tragically dies in the Alps.

On the Kola Peninsula, the SS sheep found dungeons that were formed 26 thousand years ago. Scientists suggest that this heritage of the ancient Hyperboreans– their cities once existed in the North. Traces of the Hyperboreans found and SS, but they did not want to share their discoveries with the world scientific community. The order was given to blow up the entrances to the dungeon cities. What did the Ahnenerbe scientists want to hide? According to one version, scientists managed not only to find ancient cities, but also to “establish contact” with those who lived there. The ancient Hyperboreans had paranormal abilities, communicated through telepathy, and could even live outside the physical body.

German expeditions to Antarctica

In the notes of Wehrmacht Colonel Wilhelm Wolf, an order was found to form detachments to be sent to Antarctica. Notes were found by participants SMERSH Oh, and Stalin became interested in this expedition. After the war, on the orders of Stalin, a Soviet expedition was sent, led by Navy General Nikolai Kuznetsov. The results of the expedition were classified, but Nazi bases were found.

According to available archival documents, the entrance to the base is located at a depth of 450 meters, and the base is located under Lake Vostok. It is known that back in 1938, German ships began to regularly sail to Antarctica; in 1940, at the direction of the Fuhrer, they began building military bases. The site chosen was Queen Maud's land. On the land of Queen Maud there are thermal springs, huge grottoes where German submarines were based.

Why did Hitler choose Antarctica? Hitler set up real temples there for the worship of heavenly powers, since he believed that the main sources of energy were concentrated around the poles. Therefore, he created temples there to perform occult actions in order to seize dominion over the world.

Occult capital of the Third Reich

The leadership of the Third Reich planned that Wewelsburg Castle would be the capital of the new empire. Only the chosen ones, SS-sheep, members will live in it Order of the Death's Head. It was planned to move the main SS department and the Ahnenerbe organization here.

Many historians suggest that the outline of the castle resembles the Holy Grail, into which a spear is lowered. The castle is located in northern Westphalia and is a sacred place for the SS. Here is the megalithic structure of Exterstein, which, according to legend, was built in one night.

A few days before the collapse of the Third Reich, Himmler ordered the bombing of Wewelsbrug. According to some reports, the rings of killed SS sheep were kept in Wewelsburg safes. But when the castle passed into the hands of the Americans, nothing was found in the Wewelsburg safes.

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