German Society for Celtic Studies

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The German Society for Celtic Studies (Deutsche Gesellschaft für keltische Studien DGKS) was a German institute founded in December 1936 for the research of Celtic studies.[1]

History[edit]

Founding[edit]

The DGKS belonged to the Indo-European Seminar of the University of Berlin. It was set up from the beginning as a contact point between the German Celtologists and the Schutzstaffel. Immediately after its founding, SS-Obergruppenführer Werner Best and Ahnenerbe became cooperative members. Best was at this time de facto Interior Minister of France and German national propaganda. In addition, the work of the Institute has been dressed up ideologically: It was said in reports from the Reich, "to supplement the old, merely linguistically oriented research with racial and folkloric research".[2] Important founding members were Helmut Bauersfeld, Gerhard von Tevenar [de], Hans Otto Wagner, Adolf Mahr, and Helmut Clissmann.[3]

World War II[edit]

After the start of World War II some members of the DGKS were assigned special tasks in the Abwehr and the Foreign Office, particularly in the Benelux countries, and in northern France. In the course of its existence, the cooperation between the DGKS and Ahnenerbe became ever closer. One of the central figures was Ludwig Mühlhausen [de] (1888-1956), who was a specialist in Welsh, had been honorary professor of Celtic Studies at the University of Hamburg from 1928-1936, was a Nazi party member and lead the politicization of Celtic studies in Germany after taking the Berlin Chair position for Celtic studies after Julius Pokorny was expelled for his Jewish ancestry.[4] Mühlhausen from the beginning of 1940 also worked with Leo Weisgerber for foreign broadcasting propaganda.[5] At a Celtic congress in Wernigerode at the beginning of September 1941, Mühlhausen spoke in favor of the continuation and "use of humanities in war".[6] In June 1942, Mühlhausen was leader of an "education and research center for Celtic people research" newly established in the Ahnenerbe.[7]

While working in collaboration with the SS-Ahnenerbe the DGKS was involved in espionage, as well as sabotage and encouraging Celtic ethnic minorities towards insurrection in Brittany and the British Isles.[8]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Bauersfeld, Helmut (1937). Die Entwicklung der keltischen Studien in Deutschland. Schriftenreihe der "Deutschen Gesellschaft für keltische Studien". Heft 1 [The development of Celtic studies in Germany. Series of publications of the "German Society for Celtic Studies". Booklet 1] (in German). Berlin: Deutsche Gesellschaft für keltische Studien.
  2. ^ Boberach, Heinz (1984). Meldungen aus dem Reich. Die geheimen Lageberichte des Sicherheitsdienstes der SS, Volume II [Messages from the realm. The secret situation reports of the security service of the SS, Volume II] (in German). Herrsching. p. 917.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ For the early connections of these scientists to the Abwehr and Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers SS (SD) see Lerchenmueller, Joachim (1997). "Keltischer Sprengstoff": eine wissenschaftsgeschichtliche Studie über die deutsche Keltologie von 1900 bis 1945 ["Celtic Sprengstoff": a study of the history of science on German Celtology from 1900 to 1945] (in German). Tübingen: Niemeyer. pp. 384–389, 395. ISBN 3484401427.
  4. ^ Hemprich. "Institutsgeschichte". Universität Bonn Abteilung für Keltologie. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  5. ^ Asmus, Sabine (2017). "Notes on the history of German Celtic Studies". Academia.edu. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  6. ^ Hutton, Christopher (2002). Linguistics and the Third Reich: Mother-tongue Fascism, Race and the Science of Language. Routledge. p. 128. ISBN 0415189543.
  7. ^ Hausmann, Frank-Rutger; Müller-Luckner, Elisabeth (2002). Die Rolle der Geisteswissenschaften im Dritten Reich [The role of the humanities in the Third Reich] (in German). Oldenburg: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag [de]. p. 149.
  8. ^ Socanac, Lelija; Ureland, Sture (2017). Glottogenesis and Language Conflicts in Europe. Berlin: Logos Verlag Berlin. ISBN 9783832544447.

External links[edit]

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