The Ahnenerbe Forschungs und Lehrgemeinschaft


The Ancestral Heritage Division (Reichs-SS Amt. 10) always used to be the the least understood department of the Reichs-SS. In fact, in the past, its detractors were known to comment (very quietly) that the main purpose for its existence is for the amusement of the Reichsführer-SS. While this might be true of some of its operations, it certainly isn’t true of the whole. It receives most of its funding from the SS coffers and therefore counts as a full department of the Reichs-SS.

Its has several areas of responsibility, including: operation of the Race and Settlement Office; administration and operation of the Lebensborn Eingetragener Verein; overseeing such areas as the SS medical and eugenics programmes; the Ancient Mysteries department, whose main purpose is to define the Reich’s place in the historical scheme of things, often funding archaeological or exploratory expeditions, as well as pursuing studies of an anthropological, magical or occult nature; and the Exotic Technologies section of the Ancient Mysteries department, which analyses unusual equipment and technologies recovered from the various Ahnenerbe dig sites, both Inside and Outside.

Since the appointment of Oberstgruppenführer Dirk Weber as commander of the Ahnenerbe, the latter section has risen to prominence as an R&D powerhouse for the Reich, especially with respect to using novel technologies discovered by its agents, and works closely with the Waffen-SS’s Advanced Weapons and Energy Research Institute. Much as Weber would like to add the AWERI to the Ahnenerbe’s portfolio, thus far it has remained stubbornly independent.

The Ahnenerbe is based in the grounds of the Wewelsburg, the Order Castle of the Knights of SS.

Oberstgruppenführer Dirk Weber, KSS (W)

Born in RY030, he was quickly identified as Talented, and chose not to undertake State Service. Instead, he was encouraged to enrol at the SS Schule Haus as a direct applicant. By RY069 he was one of the rising stars within the Forstapo, working closely with senior members of the organisation, and in the confidence of the Reichsführer-SS. When Johan Hartwin was appointed commander of the Forstapo in RY094, Weber became his official deputy and became a Knight of the SS in June RY097.

He remained with the Forstapo for many years, but after Dominik Gerlinde was promoted over his head to command that organisation in June RY118, there was significant friction between the two. Weber was given command of the Ahnenerbe in RY121, some say in compensation for losing the Forstapo appointment, and others say to stop Weber and Gerlinde from murdering each other.

Until his appointment, the Ahnenerbe had always been run by a woman. Weber has proven to be very successful in the position, however. His particular specialities and areas of interest are within the medical and eugenics fields, and he is a very experienced geneticist. Perhaps because of his bias in this direction, under his command the Ahnenerbe has prioritised medicine, genetics, eugenics, the Lebensborn System, and Race and Settlement, and moved its focus away from the more vague area of Ancient Mysteries, with the exception of its archaeological activities.

The Race and Settlement Office (RuSHA)

The Race and Settlement Main Office (Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt der SS) is the organisation responsible for safeguarding the racial purity and beliefs of the SS organisation within the Reich. It carries out detailed background investigations into lineage and suitability of potential marriage partners within the SS, and between SS officers and non-SS members, and oversees such marriages. It acts as the registrar for all births, marriages, divorces (rare though they are) and deaths within the SS “family”, and organising naming ceremonies for children of SS officers and soldiers. It also co-ordinates with the Forstapo on the registration of shapeshifters.

Its secondary function is to organise the settlement of Reich personnel in the conquered territories, establishing Reich-approved national bodies, united within a settlement area, and arranging for the relocation of the indigenous population, if they are considered unsuitable or inferior. Additionally, it arranges for retiring SS personnel to be given land and opportunities in the rural areas of the Reich, as well as the occupied territories, forming idealised communities to counter the urban lifestyle.

In addition, the RuSHA is the department of the Ahnenerbe responsible for overseeing the Lebensborn Eingetragener Verein.

Gruppenführer Marin Adler, KSS (W)

Marin Adler was born in May RY089, and is the daughter of Jürgen Kessler and Irma Adler (a former head of the Ahnenerbe). She studied magic at Berlin Mage College, before going to the SS-Junkerschule. After graduating as a junior officer, she interned with a number of departments, before settling on the Ahnenerbe as her department of choice. She worked on a number of archaeological digs, and quickly proved to have a flair at deciphering the purpose of unusual technologies, as well as having a strong interest in racial theory.

She furthered her magical studies at the SS-Schule Haus, and gained a doctorate with a speciality in investigative magic in RY125. She took a leave of absence following her mother’s death in SY130, but returned to the SS on active duty a year later. Since then, she has been based at Ahnenerbe headquarters , running the Race and Settlement office. She became a Companion of the Order of the Knights of the SS in RY132, and was made a full Knight of the Winter Circle in December RY137.

The Lebensborn Eingetragener Verein

The Lebensborn Eingetragener Verein acts as the orphanage system for children of Citizens who have lost their parents, and it has been known for Citizen couples to give children into the Society’s care, so that they can have a proper upbringing and get the advantages that being brought up within the Society can offer. This includes a comprehensive academic education, as well as a strong emphasis on the military and military procedures and discipline, plus team sports and martial pursuits such as riding, hunting, fencing and shooting. There is also a significant element of political education, with the unsurprising result that Lebensborn children are often the most outspoken adherents of the Reich system as they enter adulthood, and over half of them end up being recruited into either the Reichs-SS or the Waffen-SS. There are exceptions, of course, but in general, Lebensborn children have better opportunities and slightly more freedom to serve the Reich as they choose.

The Lebensborn Society also exists to give young, female, unmarried, patriotic Reich Citizens the chance to serve their country in a more unusual way: by bearing a child for the Fatherland, without it having the stigma of illegitimacy, or the woman having to have the responsibility of bringing the child up beyond its second year. Such children are born within special enclaves and are either brought up by their mothers within those for the first two years, or the mothers are allowed in assigned housing outside them.

On the child’s second birthday, the mother is given the choice of staying within the enclave, possibly to bear more children if she wishes, or surrendering her child and returning to her previous life, but with the additional privileges which having served the Reich in this way grants her, including a substantial pension. The children are then brought up within the care of the Society, which is in charge of their education and development until such time as they leave its auspices: either by reaching their majority or, less commonly (about 20%), by being adopted by suitable Citizen families.

In addition, their upbringing within the Society also confers legitimacy upon them, thus if a Lebensborn child can later prove his or her parentage, he or she can enter into noble succession. Very detailed records are maintained of the lineage of children who have passed through the Lebensborn system, and the Society’s Keeper of the Lineage, Brigadeführer Adam Cornelius , is himself a child of the Society.

Education within the Lebensborn Society

Lebensborn children are undertake their kindergarten and primary level schooling within the centres in which they were brought up. The Ahnenerbe also runs a nationwide network of secondary schools with boarding facilities, known as the Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten (officially abbreviated to NPEA, but also commonly abbreviated Napola for Nationalpolitische Lehranstalt, meaning National Political Teaching). These are modelled on such schools as Eton and Harrow, within Sable, but with an emphasis on training future Reich leaders, and are open to all children of the Reich, whether or not they were brought up within the Lebensborn Society.

Brigadeführer Adam Cornelius, Keeper of the Lineage, KSS (S)

Born in RY075, Cornelius is one of the best geneticists within the Reich, from both the magical and mundane perspectives. As Keeper of the Lineage, he is the Commander of record for the Lebensborn Eingetragener Verein as a whole, a position to which he succeeded after his predecessor, Silke von Halle, moved to Eboracum, the Aurellian Capital, as High Priestess of Protection in RY137, and later the Emissary of Protection to the Outside. He was inducted into the Summer Circle of Knights of the SS in June RY138.

 

The Department of Ancient Mysteries

Originally, the main purpose of this department was to define the Reich’s place in the historical scheme of things, often funding archaeological or exploratory expeditions, as well as pursuing studies of an anthropological, magical or occult nature. Since Oberstgruppenführer Weber became commander of the Ahnenerbe, its focus has changed somewhat, but it still receives funding and still organises archaeological investigations, and studies the various artefacts recovered on such digs, either directly or via its Exotic Technologies section.

Gruppenführer Maria von Braun, CSS

Maria von Braun, head of the Deparment of Ancient Mysteries, is the daughter of Erwin von Braun, and the younger sister of Alexander, Grossherzog von Prague. Born in RY039, her time in the Ahnenerbe considerably pre-dates that of Oberstgruppenführer Weber, and she has been a close confidante of various previous commanders. She has a strong interest in eugenics and racial theory, but her speciality is in Germanic and Norse mythology. She is believed to have a strained relationship with Gruppenführer Marin Adler, which may result from the fact that Adler has beeninducted into the Knights of the SS, despite being rather younger than von Braun, and having served with the Ahnenerbe for a shorter time.

Brigadeführer Markus Lenzen

Lenzen is the Head of the Exotic Technologies division. He was Lebensborn, and was brought up at the Berlin Centre. Identified as Talented at a young age, he went to the Berlin Mage College, before undertaking his State Service with the SS. After completing his obligatory term, he was invited to take his magical studies further at the SS Schule Haus, where he specialised in Investigative and Mech-Tech magic. He spent about ten years with the police forces (first the Orpo and then the Kripo), before applying to work in the Exotic Technologies section. He became its commander in RY158.

The Arcane Defence Group

The Arcane Defence Group (ADG) was the brainchild of a young Sturmbannführer in the Gestapo by the name of Hans Luitpold, and was established under the auspices of the Ahnenerbe about fifteen years ago, over the objections of the Waffen-SS, which thought it should be administered by the military arm. After a series of security problems at a number of locations, Luitpold proposed a central group of key defensive mages to co-ordinate arcane defences at important Reich facilities to maintain a consistent high standard of arcane defences. As a reward for highlighting the subject, he was ordered to form such a group and put his money where his mouth is.

The early group was solely involved with facilities in Berlin, mainly police offices and the odd prison, but once the merits of the approach were demonstrated, its purview was extended first across the Fatherland, and into the Sudetenland, and the began to be incorporated into other containment facilities, as well as police stations and prisons. The group specialises in co-ordinating large-scale and defensive security magic, often incorporating ritual elements, as well as some method of recognising disembodied sentient entities, and maintaining a high and consistent standard of arcane protection across the Reich. It includes a number of ex-Forstapo personnel, who have brought in for their expertise in containment. The methods developed by the group weren’t particularly quick to implement, but by RY148, they been employed in all Reich territory on Magica Superior, and had began to be rolled out across the key Outer Reich.

ADG offices have now been established on all key OR worlds, each with a local district chief reporting directly to Berlin, and all police, penal and containment facilities on the key worlds are now protected by ADG methods and personnel. Each facility has a local co-ordinator who has been taught how to maintain the ADG protections on a day to day basis, but can expect to be visited by a full ADG member at least once every three months for more intensive refreshment and maintenance of the defences.

Brigadeführer Hans Luitpold, KSS (S)

Hans Luitpold is a comparatively young officer with a flair for defensive magic and systems. Born in RY102, he is the Lebensborn son of Sanguine Security Chief Maximillien Hauer. Like his father, he was discovered to be Talented relatively young, and went to Berlin Mage College, where he demonstrated a flair for defensive magic. He joined the SS after graduating with his Bachelors, interning with several departments before settling on the Gestapo. He later took his magical studies further on release from active duty and now holds a Doctorate in Defensive Magic, with a speciality in Security Magic. He is also a Priest of the Aurellian God of Protection, as are a number of his subordinates. He is based out of Berlin where he lives in the SS Village. He is currently unmarried. He was honoured as a Knight of the Summer Circle in RY158