11-01-2007, 06:38 AM
Behistun
In 1938, Ahnenerbe president Walther Wüst proposed a trip to Iran to study the Behistun Inscription, which had been created by order of the Achaemenid Shah Darius I--who Wüst believed to have been of Nordic origin. The inscriptions were recorded atop steep cliffs using scaffolding that was removed after the inscriptions were made. Unable to afford the cost of erecting new scaffolds, Wüst proposed that he, his wife, an amanuensis, an Iranian student, a photographer, and an experienced mountaineer be sent with a balloon-mounted camera. The onset of the war however, saw the trip postponed indefinitely.
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Tibet
In 1937 Himmler decided he could increase the Ahnenerbeâs visibility by investigating Hans F.K. Güntherâs claims that early Aryans had conquered much of Asia, including attacks against China and Japan in approximately 2000 BC, and that Gautama Buddha was himself an Aryan offspring of the Nordic race. Walther Wüst would later expand upon this, stating in a public speech that Adolf Hitlerâs ideologies corresponded with those of Buddha, since the two shared a common heritage.
Members
Ernst Schäfer was a member of the SS when he showed up at the German consulate in Chung-King in 1935. Schäfer had just returned from a trip through parts of Asia, mainly India and China, in which the other two heads of the expedition had abandoned him in fear of native tribes.
Schäfer turned the expedition from a complete failure into a great success, and the SS took note, sending him a letter informing him of a promotion to SS-Untersturmführer and summoning him back to Germany from Philadelphia where he was organizing the collection from his voyage. In June 1936, Schäfer met with Himmler, who consequently informed Sievers and Galke to start organizing an expedition to Tibet.
Schäfer recruited young, fit men who would be well suited for an arduous journey. At age 24, Karl Wienert (an assistant of Wilhelm Filchner, a famous explorer) was the teamâs geologist. Also age 24, Edmund Geer was selected as the technical leader to organize the expedition. A relatively old teammate at the age of 38 was Ernst Krause (not to be confused with the German biologist of the same name) was to double as a filmmaker and entomologist. Bruno Beger was a 26 year old Rassekunde expert and student of Günther who was to be the teamâs anthropologist.
The Expedition
The first problem to come up for the Tibetan expedition occurred during a duck hunting accident on November 9, 1937 when Schäfer, his wife of four months, and two servants were in a rowboat. A sudden wave caused Schäfer to drop his gun which broke in two and discharged, mortally wounding his wife. Despite subsequent emotional problems, Schäfer was back to work on the expedition in eight weeks.
In July 1937 the team suffered another setback when Japan invaded China. ruining Schäferâs plans to use the Yangtze River to reach Tibet. Schäfer flew to London to seek permission to travel through India, but was turned down by the British government who feared an imminent war with Germany.
In a move that lost the Ahnenerbeâs support, Schäfer asked Himmler for permission to just show up in India and try to barge his way into Tibet. Himmler willingly accepted, even helping Schäfer by contacting influential people, including Germanyâs foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. On April 21, 1938 the team departed from Genoa, Italy on their way to Ceylon where they would then travel to Calcutta, India.
The day before the team left Europe the Völkischer Beobachter ran an article on the expedition, alerting English officials of their intentions. Schäfer and Himmler were both enraged: <b>Schäfer complained to the SS headquarters and Himmler in turn wrote to Admiral Barry Domvile. Domvile was a Nazi supporter and former head of British naval intelligence who gave the letter to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who allowed the SS team permission to enter Sikkim, a region bordering Tibet</b>.
In Sikkimâs capital of Gangtok, the team assembled a 50-mule caravan and searched for porters and Tibetan interpreters. Here, the British official, Sir Basil Gould observed them, describing Schäfer as âinteresting, forceful, volatile, scholarly, vain to the point of childishness, disregardful of social convention,â and noted that he was determined to enter Tibet regardless of permission.
The team began their journey June 21, 1938, traveling through the Teesta River valley and then heading north. Krause worked light traps to capture insects, Wienert toured the hills making measurements, Geer collected bird species and Beger offered locals medical help in exchange for allowing him to take measurements of them.
In August 1938, a high official of the Rajah Tering, a member of the Sikkimese royal family living in Tibet, entered the teamâs camp. Although Beger wished to ask the guestâs permission to measure him, he was dissuaded by the Tibetan porters who encouraged to wait for Schäfer to return from a hunting trip. Schäfer met with the official, and presented him with mule-loads of gifts.
In December 1938 the Tibetan council of ministers invited Schäfer and his team to Tibet, although forbid them from killing any animals during their stay, citing religious concerns. After a supply trip back to Gangtok, where Schäfer learned he had been promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer, and the rest of the team had been promoted to SS-Obersturmführer.
During the trip to Tibetâs highlands, Beger began making facial casts of local people, including his personal servant, a Nepalese Sherpa named Passang. During the first casting, paste got into one of Passangâs nostrils and he panicked, tearing at the mask. Schäfer threatened the employment of the porters who had seen the incident, if they told anyone.
On January 19, 1939, the team reached Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Schäfer proceeded to pay his respects to the Tibetan ministers and a nobleman. <b>He also gave out Nazi pennants, explaining the shared symbolâs reverence in Germany.[1] His permission to remain in Lhasa was extended, and he was permitted to photograph and film the region</b>. The team spent two months in Lhasa, collecting information on agriculture, culture, and religion, even receiving a copy of the 108-volume encyclopedia of Lamaism (only three copies of which had been given to Europeans and had never been translated).
After leaving Lhasa, the team traveled to the Yarlung Valley--a region British officials had been denied entry into. The team observed the valley and the ancient stronghold of Yumbulagang, but the approaching war threatened their research, and they began preparing plans to return via a flight from Calcutta to Baghdad, and eventually back to Germany. <b>Their final inventory included nearly 2,000 photographs, 17 head casts and the measurements of 376 people, as well as having sent back specimens of three breeds of Tibetan dogs, rare feline species, wolves, badgers, foxes, animal and bird skins, and the seeds for 1,600 types of barley, 700 varieties of wheat, 700 varieties of oats and hundreds of other types of seeds. In addition, the team had been given a Tibetan mastiff, a gold coin and the robe of a lama( believed by Schäfer to have been worn by the Dalai Lama) to be gifted to Adolf Hitler</b>.
Schäfer arrived in Munich on August 4, 1939, and was greeted personally by Himmler, who presented him a Totenkopfring. Because of the war, Schäferâs writings about the trip were not published until 1950, under the title Festival of the White Gauze Scarves: A research expedition through Tibet to Lhasa, the holy city of the god realm.
Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/ahnenerbe
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In 1938, Ahnenerbe president Walther Wüst proposed a trip to Iran to study the Behistun Inscription, which had been created by order of the Achaemenid Shah Darius I--who Wüst believed to have been of Nordic origin. The inscriptions were recorded atop steep cliffs using scaffolding that was removed after the inscriptions were made. Unable to afford the cost of erecting new scaffolds, Wüst proposed that he, his wife, an amanuensis, an Iranian student, a photographer, and an experienced mountaineer be sent with a balloon-mounted camera. The onset of the war however, saw the trip postponed indefinitely.
_________________________
Tibet
In 1937 Himmler decided he could increase the Ahnenerbeâs visibility by investigating Hans F.K. Güntherâs claims that early Aryans had conquered much of Asia, including attacks against China and Japan in approximately 2000 BC, and that Gautama Buddha was himself an Aryan offspring of the Nordic race. Walther Wüst would later expand upon this, stating in a public speech that Adolf Hitlerâs ideologies corresponded with those of Buddha, since the two shared a common heritage.
Members
Ernst Schäfer was a member of the SS when he showed up at the German consulate in Chung-King in 1935. Schäfer had just returned from a trip through parts of Asia, mainly India and China, in which the other two heads of the expedition had abandoned him in fear of native tribes.
Schäfer turned the expedition from a complete failure into a great success, and the SS took note, sending him a letter informing him of a promotion to SS-Untersturmführer and summoning him back to Germany from Philadelphia where he was organizing the collection from his voyage. In June 1936, Schäfer met with Himmler, who consequently informed Sievers and Galke to start organizing an expedition to Tibet.
Schäfer recruited young, fit men who would be well suited for an arduous journey. At age 24, Karl Wienert (an assistant of Wilhelm Filchner, a famous explorer) was the teamâs geologist. Also age 24, Edmund Geer was selected as the technical leader to organize the expedition. A relatively old teammate at the age of 38 was Ernst Krause (not to be confused with the German biologist of the same name) was to double as a filmmaker and entomologist. Bruno Beger was a 26 year old Rassekunde expert and student of Günther who was to be the teamâs anthropologist.
The Expedition
The first problem to come up for the Tibetan expedition occurred during a duck hunting accident on November 9, 1937 when Schäfer, his wife of four months, and two servants were in a rowboat. A sudden wave caused Schäfer to drop his gun which broke in two and discharged, mortally wounding his wife. Despite subsequent emotional problems, Schäfer was back to work on the expedition in eight weeks.
In July 1937 the team suffered another setback when Japan invaded China. ruining Schäferâs plans to use the Yangtze River to reach Tibet. Schäfer flew to London to seek permission to travel through India, but was turned down by the British government who feared an imminent war with Germany.
In a move that lost the Ahnenerbeâs support, Schäfer asked Himmler for permission to just show up in India and try to barge his way into Tibet. Himmler willingly accepted, even helping Schäfer by contacting influential people, including Germanyâs foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. On April 21, 1938 the team departed from Genoa, Italy on their way to Ceylon where they would then travel to Calcutta, India.
The day before the team left Europe the Völkischer Beobachter ran an article on the expedition, alerting English officials of their intentions. Schäfer and Himmler were both enraged: <b>Schäfer complained to the SS headquarters and Himmler in turn wrote to Admiral Barry Domvile. Domvile was a Nazi supporter and former head of British naval intelligence who gave the letter to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who allowed the SS team permission to enter Sikkim, a region bordering Tibet</b>.
In Sikkimâs capital of Gangtok, the team assembled a 50-mule caravan and searched for porters and Tibetan interpreters. Here, the British official, Sir Basil Gould observed them, describing Schäfer as âinteresting, forceful, volatile, scholarly, vain to the point of childishness, disregardful of social convention,â and noted that he was determined to enter Tibet regardless of permission.
The team began their journey June 21, 1938, traveling through the Teesta River valley and then heading north. Krause worked light traps to capture insects, Wienert toured the hills making measurements, Geer collected bird species and Beger offered locals medical help in exchange for allowing him to take measurements of them.
In August 1938, a high official of the Rajah Tering, a member of the Sikkimese royal family living in Tibet, entered the teamâs camp. Although Beger wished to ask the guestâs permission to measure him, he was dissuaded by the Tibetan porters who encouraged to wait for Schäfer to return from a hunting trip. Schäfer met with the official, and presented him with mule-loads of gifts.
In December 1938 the Tibetan council of ministers invited Schäfer and his team to Tibet, although forbid them from killing any animals during their stay, citing religious concerns. After a supply trip back to Gangtok, where Schäfer learned he had been promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer, and the rest of the team had been promoted to SS-Obersturmführer.
During the trip to Tibetâs highlands, Beger began making facial casts of local people, including his personal servant, a Nepalese Sherpa named Passang. During the first casting, paste got into one of Passangâs nostrils and he panicked, tearing at the mask. Schäfer threatened the employment of the porters who had seen the incident, if they told anyone.
On January 19, 1939, the team reached Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Schäfer proceeded to pay his respects to the Tibetan ministers and a nobleman. <b>He also gave out Nazi pennants, explaining the shared symbolâs reverence in Germany.[1] His permission to remain in Lhasa was extended, and he was permitted to photograph and film the region</b>. The team spent two months in Lhasa, collecting information on agriculture, culture, and religion, even receiving a copy of the 108-volume encyclopedia of Lamaism (only three copies of which had been given to Europeans and had never been translated).
After leaving Lhasa, the team traveled to the Yarlung Valley--a region British officials had been denied entry into. The team observed the valley and the ancient stronghold of Yumbulagang, but the approaching war threatened their research, and they began preparing plans to return via a flight from Calcutta to Baghdad, and eventually back to Germany. <b>Their final inventory included nearly 2,000 photographs, 17 head casts and the measurements of 376 people, as well as having sent back specimens of three breeds of Tibetan dogs, rare feline species, wolves, badgers, foxes, animal and bird skins, and the seeds for 1,600 types of barley, 700 varieties of wheat, 700 varieties of oats and hundreds of other types of seeds. In addition, the team had been given a Tibetan mastiff, a gold coin and the robe of a lama( believed by Schäfer to have been worn by the Dalai Lama) to be gifted to Adolf Hitler</b>.
Schäfer arrived in Munich on August 4, 1939, and was greeted personally by Himmler, who presented him a Totenkopfring. Because of the war, Schäferâs writings about the trip were not published until 1950, under the title Festival of the White Gauze Scarves: A research expedition through Tibet to Lhasa, the holy city of the god realm.
Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/ahnenerbe
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