Deutsches Ahnenerbe

The Ahnenerbe began its activity in 1935 at Brüderstraße 29 in Berlin-Mitte, expanded to Raupachstraße 9 in Berlin in 1937 and in 1939 took over the Aryanized property from Rudolf Löb at Pücklerstraße 16 in Berlin-Dahlem. While maintaining this address, the management level around Wolfram Sievers moved in August 1943 to the less bomb-prone Waischenfeld in Upper Franconia, where it took over the former rent office building from the "SS-Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle".

In October 1936, the "Pflegstätte für Germanenkunde or Care Center for Germanic Studies" in Detmold (Hermannsdenkmal) was taken over.

The so-called “Führungsdienst Externsteine”, supervised by Wilhelm Teudt, also belonged to the care facility. These sandstone rock formations were revered as the "place of worship of the ancestors". It was also assumed that there was an Irminsul or pillar of Irmin there, which was destroyed by Charlemagne.

According to Himmler's order of August 11, 1938, at the end of October of the same year all employees dealing with scientific research questions left the Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt or RuSHA (Race and Settlement Main Office). The department heads were transferred to the personal staff of the Reichsführer-SS. Some employees worked part-time for the Ahnenerbe. With the amendment of the statutes of the Ahnenerbe on March 20, 1937, Himmler succeeded in eliminating the influence of Walther Darré on the Ahnenerbe. In the first few years he had helped to finance the Ahnenerbe through the Reichsnährstand and placed George Ebrecht, Richard Hintmann and Erwin Metzner in the Ahnenerbe as influential founding members.

In the statutes, Herman Wirth was also ousted from the management level of the association. His speculative and bizarre ideas were in contradiction to the desired ideal of genuine science. Under the leadership of Wolfram Sievers as Reichsgeschäftsführer or Reich Managing Director (until his death) and Walther Wüst as President (until January 1, 1939), the Ahnenerbe expanded considerably.

It soon comprised several dozen research departments. There were also photo laboratories, a museum, a sculpture workshop and several libraries and archives in Munich, Salzburg and Detmold. The association took on the financing of excavations (including in the Quedlinburg Cathedral, where the remains of Heinrich I were searched for, and the excavations of Haithabu by Herbert Jankuhn) and the evaluation of expeditions (including Ernst Schäfer's privately financed Tibet expedition in 1938) as well as the organization of meetings and congresses.

Realized "natural science teaching and research facilities":

• Abteilung für angewandte Geologie
  (Applied geology department)
  Departmenthead: Josef Wimmer
• Abteilung für Astronomie - Sternwarte Grünwald
  (Department of Astronomy - Grünwald Observatory)
  Departmenthead: Philipp Fauth
• Abteilung für Biologie
  (Biology Department)
  Departmenthead: Walter Greite
• Abteilung für Botanik
  (Botany Department)
  Departmenthead: Philipp von Lützelburg
• Abteilung für darstellende und angewandte Naturkunde - Haus der Natur
  (Department of Performing and Applied Natural History - House of Nature)
  Departmenthead: Eduard Paul Tratz
• Forschungsstätte Innerasien und Expeditionen
  (Research center Inner Asia and Expeditions)
  Departmenthead: Ernst Schäfer
• Forschungsstätte für Karst- und Höhlenkunde
  (Research center for karst and speleology)
  Departmenthead: Hans Brand, successor of Walther Steinhäuser
• Abteilung für naturwissenschaftliche Vorgeschichte
  (Department of Natural Science Prehistory)
  Departmenthead: Rudolf Schütrumpf
• Forschungsstätte für Pflanzengenetik
  (Plant genetics research center)
  Departmenthead: Heinz Brücher
• Abteilung Provinzialstelle für Wurtenforschung
  (Provincial department for hill research)
  Departmenthead: Werner Haarnagel
• Abteilung für Wetterkunde (Geophysik)
  (Department of Meteorology - Geophysics)
  Departmenthead: Hans Robert Scultetus

Sections that emerged from the Ahnenerbe:

• Entomologisches Institut der Waffen-SS (1942 integriert in das Institut für wehrwissenschaftliche Zweckforschung)
  Entomological Institute of the Waffen-SS (integrated into the Institute for Defense Scientific Research in 1942)
  Departmenthead: Eduard May
• Institut für Wehrwissenschaftliche Zweckforschung der Waffen-SS
  Institute for Defense Scientific Purpose Research of the Waffen-SS
  Director: Wolfram Sievers

Working departments:

• Abteilung R
  Departmenthead: Sigmund Rascher
• Abteilung P (emerged from the renaming and continuation of Abteilung R by Plötner)
  Departmenthead: Kurt Plötner
• Abteilung H
  Departmenthead: August Hirt
• Abteilung Entomologisches Institut (Entomological Institute)
  Departmenthead: Eduard May
• Abteilung M
  Departmenthead: Karl-Heinz Boseck
• Abteilung L
  Departmenthead: Philipp von Lützelburg

Departments not working and / or under construction until 1944:

• Abteilung für Züchtungsforschung
  (Breeding Research Department)
  Departmenthead: Ernst Schäfer
• Karstwissenschaftliche Abteilung
  (Karst science department)
  Departmenthead: Hans Brand
• Institut für Grenz- und Auslandsforschung
  (Institute for frontier and international research)
  Departmenthead: Karl Christian von Loesch
• Forschungsstätte für Pflanzengenetik
  (Plant genetics research center)
  Departmenthead: Heinz Brücher

Realized "humanities and cultural studies teaching and research facilities":

• Abteilung für angewandte Sprachsoziologie
  (Department of applied sociology of language)
  Departmenthead: Georg Schmidt-Rohr
• Abteilung für Ausgrabungen
  (Excavation department)
  Departmenthead: Herbert Jankuhn, successor of Hans Schleif
• Abteilung für den Vorderen Orient
  (Department for the Middle East)
  Departmenthead: Viktor Christian
• Abteilung für deutsche Volkskunde
  (Department of German Folklore)
  Departmenthead: Heinrich Harmjanz
• Abteilung für germanisch-deutsche Volkskunde
  (Department for Germanic-German folklore)
  Departmenthead: Richard Wolfram
• Abteilung für germanische Kulturwissenschaft und Landschaftskunde
  (Department for Germanic cultural and landscape studies)
  Departmenthead: Joseph Otto Plassmann
• Abteilung für germanische Sprachwissenschaft und Landschaftskunde
  (Department for Germanic liguistics and landscape studies)
  Departmenthead: Bruno Schweizer
• Abteilung für germanisches Bauwesen
  (Department for Germanic construction works)
  Departmenthead: Martin Rudolph
• Abteilung für Hausmarken und Sippenzeichen
  (Department of house brands and clan signs)
  Departmenthead: bis 1939 Karl Konrad Ruppel, danach vakant
• Abteilung Deutschrechtliches Institut der Universität Bonn
  (Department of German Law at the University of Bonn)
  Departmenthead: Karl August Eckhardt, Hauptmitarbeiter: Falk Zipperer
• Abteilung für indogermanisch-deutsche Rechtsgeschichte
  (Department for Indo-European-German legal history
  Departmenthead: first: Karl August Eckhardt; later: Wilhelm Ebel
• Abteilung für indogermanisch-finnische Kulturbeziehungen
  (Department for Indo-European-Finnish cultural relations)
  Departmenthead: Yrjö von Grönhagen
• Abteilung für indogermanische Glaubensgeschichte
  (Department for Indo-European religious history)
  Departmenthead: Otto Huth
• Abteilung für keltische Volksforschung
  (Department of Celtic folk studies)
  Departmenthead: Ludwig Mühlhausen
• Abteilung für Klassische Philologie und Altertumskunde (Klassische Altertumswissenschaft)
  (Department of Classical Philology and Antiquity)
  Departmenthead: Rudolf Till (Latin), Franz Dirlmeier (Greek)
• Abteilung für Märchen- und Sagenkunde
  (Department for fairy tales and legends)
  Departmenthead: Joseph Otto Plassmann
• Abteilung für Mittellatein
  (Department for Middle Latin)
  Departmenthead: Paul Lehmann
• Abteilung für nordafrikanische Kulturwissenschaft
  (Department of North African Cultural Studies)
  Departmenthead: Otto Rössler
• Abteilung für Ortung und Landschaftssinnbilder
  (Department for location and landscape symbols)
  Departmenthead: Werner Müller
• Abteilung für Schrift- und Sinnbildkunde (Runenkunde)
  (Department for writing and symbolism - Rune studies)
  Departmenthead: Wolfgang Krause
• Abteilung für indogermanisch-germanische Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft
  (Department for Indo-European-Germanic linguistics and cultural studies)
  Departmenthead: Richard von Kienle as successor of Walther Wüst

Departments that were dissolved or reorganized and re-integrated by 1944

• Abteilung für Alte Geschichte
  (Department of Ancient History)
  Departmenthead: Franz Altheim
• Abteilung für Geologie und Mineralogie
  (Department of geology and mineralogy)
  Departmenthead: Rolf Höhne
• Abteilung für Germanenkunde
  (Department of Germanic studies)
  Departmenthead: Wilhelm Teudt
• Abteilung für mittlere und neuere Geschichte
  (Department for Middle and Modern History)
  Departmenthead: Hermann Löffler