Herman Wirth
Herman Wirth (alternatively referred to as Herman Wirth Roeper Bosch, or Herman Felix Wirth or Hermann) (6 May 1885 Utrecht - 16 February 1981, Kusel) was a Dutch-German lay historian and scholar of ancient religions and symbols.
Wirth served as the leader of the Nazi research division Ahnenerbe until 1937 when he left the group entirely, succeeded by Walter Wüst. Since his works generally supported the historical folk religion of Germany, and not the state of Nazi Germany or the goals of Hitler's regime, he was forced into exile along with other German mystics that did not support National Socialism[citation needed].
Wirth claimed that civilization is a curse that only a simpler way of life, as documented in archaeological findings and historical records, could lift. He has been criticized for romantic nationalism and Germanomania.[1] He was also criticized by German scholars of his time, like Bolko von Richthofen, Gerhard Gloege, Arthur Hübner and Karl Hermann Jacob Friesen, for gullibly refusing to accept the scientific evidence that proved Ura Linda chronicle (a supposedly 6th-1st century BC chronicle of a Frisian family which he translated) a forgery.[2]
Wirth's primary interest was in the legends surrounding the legendary continent of Atlantis[citation needed].
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[edit] Written works
- Der Aufgang der Menschheit (Accession of Mankind), 1928
- Die Heilige Urschrift der Menschheit, 1931-1936
- Die Ura Linda Chronik (Ura Linda chronicle), Hrsg., 1933
In his landmark text Allmutter, professor Hermann Wirth painstakingly documented the emergence of runic symbols[citation needed].
[edit] Citations
- ^ Kater, M. (1974). Das Ahneherbe der SS 1935-1945: ein Beitrag zur Kulturpolitik Des Dritten Reiches, Studien zur Zeitgesichte/Institut für Zeitgesichte, Stuttgart, Deutche Verlags-Anstalt, pp.11-16 (as cited in Arnold, Bettina, Pseudoarchaeology and nationalism, a contribution in Archaeological Fantasies' (ed. Garrett G. Fagan), Routledge, 2006, ISBN 0-415-30593-4, p. 163
- ^ Kater (1974), p.16 (as cited in Arnold (2006), p. 163)
[edit] Further reading
- A full biography of Wirth exists in Joscelyn Godwin, Herman Wirth on Folksong, Tyr journal, Vol. 2.
- For further details of Wirth's life, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity.
[edit] External links
- Herman Wirth in the German National Library catalogue (German)
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