SOURCE

Founded by

Heinrich Himmler, Herman Wirth, and Richard Walther Darré on July 1, 1935,

as Studiengesellschaft für Geistesurgeschichte‚ Deutsches Ahnenerbe´ e.V.

("Study society for primordial intellectual science "German Ancestral Heritage" (registered society)"),

in 1937 renamed in Forschungs- und Lehrgemeinschaft das Ahnenerbe e.V.

("Research and Teaching Community the Ancestral Heritage (registered society)")

was a Nazi-era government study group that billed itself

as a "study society for Intellectual Ancient History".

It was developed to research the anthropological and cultural history of the Aryan race,

and later lent itself to experimentation

and voyages intent on proving that prehistoric and mythological

Nordic populations had once ruled the world.

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 team’s 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 team’s anthropologist.