Ahnenerbe

The Ahnenerbe, also known as the Ahnenerbe Obskurakorps, was an organization that was part of Nazi Party, founded in 1935 by Heinrich Himmler himself.

Overview[]

Officially the organization was a think tank that studied and promoted the racial doctrines of the Third Reich. They were also the occult branch of the Nazi regime during World War II and the instigators of the Seventh Occult War, which ran concurrently with the former. They were enemies of the Allied Occult Initiative, the Hellsing Organization, and the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.

History[]

Origins[]

Between the years 1935 and 1945, the Ahnenerbe, in collaboration with other Nazi-organizations, funded countless projects and missions to retrieve, construct and/or use supernatural means. It was formed from the remnants the Thule Society, an occult group of German nobility. Under Heinrich Himmler himself the group would try to help Hitler's cause with occult and supernatural means. Each of the Ahnenerbe's projects contained members of the Nazi party who were comprised of some the most gifted researchers in both the occult and the scientific.

Konrad Weiss, director of the Ahnenerbe, found out about the “Rite of Solomon”, an ancient occult ritual that could be used to change the nature of thaumaturgy (magic), and how to distribute supernatural powers among to the human population. The Nazis hoped to rewrite magic in a way, that only Germans (more notably Hitler's regime and key-supporters) could perform magic, making them a true "master-race". The Rite of Solomon was labeled as Projekt Endstation. In order to perform the rite, seven keys were needed, and when complete would be compartmentalized into six divisions which would become the infamous projects that were being developed by the Ahnenerbe.

World War II[]

Over the course of the war, men such as Hermann Schmitz, Richard Wege and Werner Schuhmann were recruited for the search for these objects. The men captured and detained Gabriel Krafft, a demonologist from Miskatonic University. He would first be tasked with deciphering various documents seized at the Société Occulte's old headquarters, the Hotel Royal. Noticing that there were hastily written notes on the pages, Krafft came to recognize the handwriting of the notes - linking them back to a fellow occultist who was a patron at Miskatonic.

During this, the man revealed that he was a member of the Société Occulte, a centuries-old secret society who were responsible for compiling a spell-book of Dark Nexus rune magic known as the Tome of Kagistrilo. As it turns out, the pages discovered by Ahnenerbe were merely lost pages of this Tome. The man was responsible for safeguarding the locations of these pages, a task he would soon fail as he revealed the locations of many of the missing pages, and those who might possess them. The Ahnenerbe would soon travel the globe in search of these pages, with Krafft deducing the locations of seven keys using the Tome. Over time, six keys were found by the Nazis, and these six keys would be instrumental in the use of the purpose behind the respective projects they were responsible for. However, the seventh key, hidden inside a golem, was able to escape. Without this final key the ritual could not be completed.

As the war was slowly going against Germany's favor, Weiss decided to produce the seventh key himself. Unfortunately for them, the Ahnenerbe's plans were intercepted by the Allied forces, more specifically the OSR which consisted of the Hellsing Organization, the Order of the Silver Cross, and the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, were sent out by their respective superiors to locate and destabilize each of the projects, thereby also destroying the keys. Realizing their enemies are gaining an advantage over them in the supernatural aspect, Weiss had his scholars design nine new keys using the magic inscribed inside the Tome. This apparently proved to be successful, with both Weiss and Himmler gathering resources to perform the ritual.

Defeat[]

Luckily, in 1944, the Bureau managed to capture Weiss, along with key details of ritual itself. With the capture of Weiss, the High Command of the Nazis installed Wolfram Von List in place of Konrad Weiss to oversee and ensure the successful activation of the Rite of Solomon. Despite their efforts, the Ahnenerbe could not win the war for the Third Reich and were defeated due to Weiss providing intel for the OSR, even after his replacement Von List made a last desperate attempt with the nine keys.

The Allies achieved victory over the Axis powers, however rumors exist that some of its members like Von List escaped the clutches of the Allied Occult Initiative. Despite this, the OSR, which now goes by the moniker of the Global Occult Coalition, would send out some of its best sleeper agents that excel in espionage to flush out any of the surviving members of the organization as they continued their research and work in hiding around the world.

Projects of the Ahnenerbe[]

Projekt Bundeslade
Projekt Gral
Projekt Ragnarok
Projekt Vampir Sturm
Projekt Lanze
Projekt Antikythera
Projekt Endstation

Members[]

Oversight[]

Heinrich Himmler - Founder and Overseer
Konrad Weiss
Wilhelm Strasse
Herman von Klempt

Projekt Bundeslade[]

Herman Dietrich
Arnold Toht
René Belloq
Anton Gobler

Projekt Gral[]

Ernst Vogel
Walter Donovan
Elsa Schneider

Projekt Antikythera[]

Jürgen Voller
Thomas Weber
Bendt Klaber
Olivier Hauke

Projekt Ragnarok[]

Klaus Werner von Krupt
Grigori Rasputin
Karl Kroenen
Ilsa Haupstein
Leopold Kurtz