Ahnenerbe Institute

Ahnenerbe Institute
Symbol of the Ahnenerbe Institute
General Information
Founded	July 1st, 1935
Founder	Heinrich Himmler
Affiliation	Greater Nazi Reich
Headquarters	Berlin, Nazi Reich
Language	German

Ahnenerbe Institute Headquarters in New York

The Ahnenerbe Institute, formerly known as just Ahnenerbe, is a research group of Greater Nazi Reich that delves in more esoteric forms of science. It is currently led by Dr. Josef Mengele, who is working on the top-secret Die Nebenwelt-project.

Original History

The Original Ahnenerbe Institute (also known as "Ancestral Heritage".) Was a pseudoscientific organisation founded by the Schutzstaffel (SS) in 1935, within Nazi Germany. It's main goal was to promote racial theories that reflected then Fuhrer Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party beliefs. It ended up fostering the belief of Germans being descendant of the "Aryan race" which had been racially superior to other racial groups.

The Ahnenerbe was proposed by Heinrich Himmler at a meeting in Berlin on July 1st, 1935. And was originally called, "Deutsches Ahnenerbe—Studiengesellschaft für Geistesurgeschichte" (German Ancestral Heritage—Society for the Study of the History of Primeval Ideas). Shortened to it's more well known name in 1937.

Himmler was the appointed "superintendent" of the organisation with Herman Wirth serving as the president. In March 1937, the Ahnenerbe was given a new mission, to implement a form of Fuhrerprinzip. And Wirth was eventually demoted to "honorary president". Allowing Himmler to gain more power inside the organisation.

During the second world war, the Ahnenerbe was given the order to head into Warsaw and reclaim items that were "of German origin" with planned expeditions to many other places, including but not limited to Iceland, Karelia, Tibet, Ukraine and other places in central Eurasia. Most notable of which was, "New Swabia" a German Antarctic expedition from 1938-1939, lead by Kriegsmarine captain Alfred Ritscher.

The Ahnenerbe was partially responsible for medical experiments conducted on victims of Dachau Concentration Camp (specifically of Jewish descent.) For the original conductors of said experiments "Institut für Wehrwissenschaftliche Zweckforschung" or "Institute for Military Scientific Research" was attached to the Ahnenerbe Institute managed by Wolfram Sievers on the orders of Himmler himself.

After the Second world war, it was dissolved in 1947, following with the execution of many high-ranking officials during the Nuremberg trials. And many of said "officials" turning into Mitläufer's after the war.

Alternate History (TMITHC)

In the universe of The Man in the High Castle, the Ahnenerbe institute was redirected from it's original historical focus of racial supremacy to the discovery of parallel universes (multiverse) lead by Josef Mengele. In the idea of spreading Nazi agenda and a plausible invasion to absorb and integrate other alternate forms of their current universe, furthering expanding the Greater Nazi Reich. Focusing it's main research output to Projekt 701 (Die Nebenwelt.)

While not much is disclosed about the Ahnenerbe, it is still assumed while they still work on Die Nebenwelt, they still supply research in small divisons about the ideals of Race purity and the Aryan race. But promote more of their own resources to the Projekt.

Appearances

WORK IN PROGRESS.

Gallery

John Smith and Josef Mengele

Projekt 701 aka Die Nebenwelt, the Institutes current main-project

Notes & Trivia

1. It seems like in the show, the symbol for the Ahnenerbe institute has been replaced with an Irminsul covering a Sun Cross Swastika on an angle.