Like many Germans, Adolf Hitler neither had blonde hair nor was he particularly tall. This did not stop him and his Nazi Party from upholding the ideal of the so-called “Aryans” as a superior race with roots in Northern Europe. Desirable Aryan traits included blonde hair, blue eyes, and tall, athletic stature.
After Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the notion of dynasty became more important. From 1935, all German citizens had to provide what was known as “”.Arya Pramaan” or “Aryan Certificate” to prove that their ancestors did not include Jews or Romani people for at least three generations. Civil servants, doctors and lawyers already had to start providing “Arya Pramaan“In 1933. Time-consuming research was often required before citizens could submit their documents to the Reich Office for Genealogical Research (in German, Reach Office for Clan Research) for verification.
The Nazis considered Germans to be the “superior master race”. In contrast, he viewed the Jews as an inferior race whose members had no place in Nazi Germany.
In propaganda films, the Nazis claimed that Jews wanted to destroy the world order and seize control from the “master race”. Caricatured, especially in Nazi newspapers strikerJews were portrayed using grotesque and anti-Semitic tropes, for example hooked noses and greedy facial expressions. The Nazis used this racist ideology to first systematically exclude and then murder Jews.
However, there were other population groups that the Nazis associated with Aryans, including especially Nordic and Scandinavian peoples. When the Nazis encountered blonde and blue-eyed children in countries like Latvia or Poland, they no doubt wanted to kidnap them and send them to homes run as part of the “Lebensborn” eugenics program. About 200,000 of these “racially purified” children ended up in German children’s homes. These homes served the purpose of “Germanization” – a project developed by Heinrich Himmler, head of the Nazi regime’s elite SS Guard, who sought to promote the growth of a “racially valuable” population.
The term Aryan also became the basis of “Aryanization” – the confiscation and transfer of ownership of Jewish businesses and Jewish property to non-Jews.
True origin of ‘Aryans’
Although the term Aryan was common in colloquial speech, Nazi “race scientists” did not use it much. Instead, they would refer to “German or cognate blood”. They knew that the term was originally used to refer to linguistic similarities, not inherited physical traits.
Archaeological discoveries show that the term Aryan has been in existence for more than two millennia. The Persian king Darius I built a rock-cut mausoleum in Naqsh-e Rostam in modern Iran. The inscription reads: “I am Darius, the great king… a Persian, son of a Persian, an Aryan, of Aryan descent.” This word is also found in Sanskrit in the sacred texts of India.
Originally, the word “Aryan” was used to mean “noble” or “respectable” – as a self-designation by people in India and Iran. They are believed to be descendants of nomadic people who migrated from the area now comprising Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and southern Russia. After discovering similarities between most European languages and languages such as Persian or Sanskrit, scientists later classified the Aryans as members of a shared Indo-European linguistic family.
Racist reinterpretation of the word
Racist reinterpretation of the term Aryan began in the mid-19th century. In his four-volume work “An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races”, French writer and diplomat Joseph Arthur de Gobineau divided humanity into three groups, white, yellow, and black. His conclusion was that the white, Aryan root race was superior to others, characterized by its “immeasurable superior intelligence” and destined to rule over others. He also warned against “racial mixing”, as this would jeopardize both the quality of the Aryan original “race” and humanity as a whole.
Gobineau’s theory was largely ignored by his contemporaries, but later gained popularity after being appropriated and transformed to serve nationalist, far-right ideology. A large number of scientists and academics later used Gobineau’s racial theory as the basis for their writings on the subject.
One of them was the British writer Houston Stewart Chamberlain – who later became Richard Wagner’s son-in-law. In his 1899 book “The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century”, Chamberlain raised Gobineau’s racist theories to a new level.
Chamberlain glorified the “Germanic race”. However, he was aware that not all Germans matched the physical ideal Aryan type described by Gobineau, so he based his claims on so-called German virtues, which he believed were inherited through blood: honesty, loyalty, and diligence. He described the “Jewish race” as lacking creativity and idealism and motivated only by material interests, posing a threat to the “Germanic Aryans”. While Chamberlain described individual Jews as having a certain “noble nature”, he also emphasized their perceived “incompetence and inferiority” compared to the “Aryan race”.
Chamberlain’s work was well received in Germany. Among his admirers was Kaiser Wilhelm II, who repeatedly invited him to his imperial court.
Brothers in Soul: Chamberlain and Hitler
In 1917, Chamberlain joined the far-right, nationalist, and anti-Semitic German Fatherland Party. Adolf Hitler met him on September 30, 1923, and apparently made a strong impression. A few days after the meeting, Chamberlain wrote to the future Führer: “Germany in her hour of greatest need has given birth to a Hitler who is a proof of vitality.”
In turn, Hitler regarded Chamberlain as one of the philosophical “propagators” of his worldview. In his book “Mein Kampf” he repeatedly mentions Chamberlain and also praises the alleged superiority of the “Aryan race”.
It has long been scientifically established that “race” has no biological basis. The Nazis misused the term Aryan to further spread and legitimize their inhumane ideology. To this day, racists around the world still use this misinterpretation of the term.
This article was originally published in German.