Free Top Nazi by Jochen von Lang Page B

and farmer Heinrich Himmler was, he always felt somewhat unsure in their company. But having the cosmopolitan officer’s club conversationalist Wolff at his side increased his self-confidence.
    Chief of the Personal Staff Wolff also felt his self-importance rise through his frequent contacts with university graduates who were among the first-rate German scientists, and even more so since he was being courted by them. Of course, he did have money at his disposal, for research grants and stipends. He adapted to his new environment and in 1936 information was added to his personal file that he studied law and political economics, even though the diplomas were “not yet” obtained. The question remains open as to where the bank official, officer, advertising expert and SS Führer could have more or less regularly attended lectures. Wolff did not name his universities, but he did state the years of study: “1920–1923 and since 1935.” This would mean that, as a bank apprentice in Frankfurt, he attended the university there; during his work as an employee in Kehl, he attended Freiburg University, which was about 80 kilometers away; and then as SS Führer, he attended Berlin University. Given his constant complaint of being overworked, this would be a remarkably energetic commitment.
    Due to Himmler’s tastes for the bizarre, the “Ahnenerbe” quickly developed into a grocery and general store, where, except for the cultural achievements of the Nordic Indo-Teutonism, one could find a selection of rare items and, finally, even crime. Because Austrian engineer Paul Hörbiger’s Cosmic Ice Theory was rejected by serious scientists, but still promoted by the Ahnenerbe, it is, at worst, laughable as an amateurish bad investment. The same held true for the Ura-Linda-Chronik, which wastrumpeted for years as a valuable cultural document from pre-Christian Teutonic times, despite the fact that experts in the field had proven to its discoverer and translator, the Dutch scholar Hermann Wirth, that he was dealing with a forgery from the 1900s. There were, however, several cabinets at the Ahnenerbe whose access was restricted (marked “Secret”) the content of which was only made public after 1945 through the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. It shall be discussed further, along with the issue of how much Wolff knew about criminal experiments on humans.
    This cultivation of science and art reminded Wolff of the spiritual orders during the Middle Ages. This was the reason why he viewed it as an especially favorable sign of his destiny when, upon visiting the Brown House in October 1931, he was met by the SS, the Guard of the Movement, and not by the mass organization of the SA. That he, as a former officer of the only Hessian Guard Regiment, could begin his second officer’s career with the oldest SS Standarte was further evidence that Providence had been assigned to nurture the German elite. To Himmler and to the Führer of his SS, the unit was far more than a simple militant division of the NSDAP; they considered themselves the successors of the German knights who conquered the East for the Germans centuries before. At the same time they admired the Jesuits, who with strict discipline and unlimited obedience fulfilled their tasks. When Himmler referred to them as a “soldierly order,” the two images became one in his imagination. The SS should “be bound by discipline and by blood” to the Nordic blood, a family community…people used to say a community of nobility.” That feeling of nobility was exactly what Wolff was striving for.
    The Ahnenerbe was to develop a type of religion for that aristocratic community. During the first half of 1937 Wolff made an effort to hurry along a plan from his department that would develop the Teutonic heritage.” This religion was expected to give the SS “a non-Christian character, the ideological basis for the lifestyle and structure of life as a type of religion and ethics.” Himmler