The 1938–1939 German expedition to Tibet, a German scientific expedition, took place in Tibet between April 1938 and August 1939 under the leadership of the German zoologist and SS-officer Ernst Schäfer.
Origins Nazi Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler wished to use the reputation of the scientist and explorer Ernst Schäfer for Nazi propaganda after Schäfer's first two trips to China and Tibet in 1930 to 1931 and 1934 to 1936 came to Himmler's attention. Himmler asked about Schäfer's future plans. Schäfer responded that he wanted to lead another expedition to Tibet and requested that his expedition be under the patronage of the cultural department of the Foreign Affairs Department or of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ("German Research Foundation"). Detlev Rose, L'expédition allemande au Tibet de 1938–39. Voyage scientifique ou quête de traces à motivation idéologique ? , in Synergies européennes – Bruxelles-Munich-Tübingen, novembre 2006 (article tiré de la revue Deutschland in Geschichte und Gegenwart, No 3-2006). Himmler was fascinated by Asian mysticism and therefore wished to send such an expedition under the auspices of the SS Ahnenerbe (SS Ancestral Heritage Society), and he desired for Schäfer to perform research based on Hanns Hörbiger's pseudoscientific theory of "Glacial Cosmogony", promoted by the Ahnenerbe. Schäfer had scientific objectives and therefore refused to include Edmund Kiss, an adept of the theory, in his team and required 12 conditions to ensure scientific freedom. Wolfram Sievers, from the Ahnenerbe, therefore expressed criticism concerning the objectives of the expedition, and Ahnenerbe would not sponsor it. Himmler was agreeable to the expedition going ahead if all members joined the SS, and Schäfer found that he had no alternative but to accept that condition even without sponsorship.Isrun Engelhardt, The Ernst-Schaefer-Tibet-Expedition (1938–1939):/new light on the political history of Tibet in the first half of the 20th century in McKay Alex (ed.)
Designations While he prepared the expedition, Schäfer used the term "Schaefer Expedition 1938/1939" on his letterhead and to apply for sponsorship from businessmen. The official expedition name had to be changed by order of the Ahnenerbe, however, to German Tibet-Expedition Ernst Schaefer (in capital letters), "under the patronage of the Reichsführer-SS Himmler and in connection with the Ahnenerbe" (in small letters).Detlev Rose, L'expédition allemande au Tibet de 1938–39. Voyage scientifique ou quête de traces à motivation idéologique ? , in Synergies européennes – Bruxelles-Munich-Tübingen, novembre 2006 (article taken from the Deutschland in Geschichte und Gegenwart journal, No 3-2006): "Le nom officiel de l’expédition était le suivant : « Expédition allemande Ernst Schäfer au Tibet » (= « Deutsche Tibetexpedition Ernst Schäfer »).Isrun Engelhardt, The Ernst-Schaefer-Tibet-Expedition (1938–1939): new light on the political history of Tibet in the first half of the 20th century , in McKay Alex (ed.), Tibet and Her Neighbours : A History 2003, Edition Hansjörg Mayer (London), : "The expedition’s name, however, had to be changed on the order of the 'Ahnenerbe' to 'German Tibet-Expedition Ernst Schaefer' (in big letters), under the patronage of the Reichsführer-SS Himmler and in connection with the Ahnenerbe (in small letters)."This designation is also used by the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Historic photographs of Sikkim ‘Who is behind the camera?’
After the German Consul-General in Calcutta had criticized the letterhead in a report to the German Foreign Office by "arguing that the prescribed letterhead was counter-productive and immediately generated mistrust among the British," Schäfer "ordered a new, discreet letterhead in Antiqua font, which read 'Deutsche Tibet Expedition Ernst Schäfer'."Tibet in 1938–1939: The Ernst Schäfer Expedition to Tibet, Engelhardt 2007, p.17 and Note 38 p.250. During the expedition, Schäfer used only the latter letterhead or his original "Schaefer Expedition" paper. The Ahnenerbe-prescribed letterhead was used only prior to the expedition's departure.The Nazis of Tibet: A Twentieth Century Myth, Isrun Engelhardt, in: Monica Esposito (ed.), Images of Tibet in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), coll. Études thématiques 22, vol. I, 2008, pp. 77–78.
The British writer Christopher Hale claims that one cannot infer that Schäfer was independent of the SS and could do "pure science" simply from the special letterhead that he got printed for the expedition. To all intents and purposes, the expedition remained under Himmler's patronage, and Schäfer had no interest in losing his support.Christopher Hale (2003): "He was careful to remove that second line when he arrived in Gangtok in British India. [...] Some German historians have concluded from this that Schäfer was independent of the SS and was thus able to do 'pure science'. This was not the case. Himmler remained the expedition's patron and Schäfer clearly had no interest in losing his support."
In its time, the expedition was also commonly referred to in German newspapers and academic journals as the "SS Tibet Expedition", as it had Himmler as its patron, and all five members were SS officers.Konrad von Rauch, Die Erste Deutsche SS-Tibet-Expedition, in Der Biologe 8, 1939, S. 113–127. The "SS Tibet Expedition" designation was used by Schäfer himself in the Atlantis Journal."an article by Ernst Schaefer from the magazine Atlantis date October 1939. This article had the subheading 'von Dr Ernst Schaefer Leiter der SS-Tibet-Expedition' ", (Ofcom, Broadcast Bulletin, Issue number 85 – 21/05/07, Fairness and Privacy Cases, Not Upheld, Complaint by Mr Roger Croston on behalf of Dr Bruno Beger Secret History: The Nazi Expedition, Channel 4, 12 July 2004 ). "SS Tibet Expedition" is the title used in a 1946 report by US military intelligence in Western Europe., United States Forces – European Theater Military Intelligence Service Center, APO 757 Final Interrogation Report (OI-FIR) No. 32, Feb. 12, 1946: "A new Tibetan expedition, to be called the SS Tibet Expedition, was then in preparation."
In the "Register of the Heinrich Himmler Papers", 1914–1944, archived at Stanford University's Hoover institution, the folder containing the material pertaining to the expedition bears the title "The SS-Tibet-Expedition, 1939".Online Archive of California (OAC).
That designation is still in use by modern scholars, such as Mechtild Rössler in 2001,"Probably the best known expedition was the SS Tibet expedition, undertaken in 1943" (Mechtild Rössler, Geography and Area Planning under National Socialism, in Margit Szöllösi-Janze, ed.), Science in the Third Reich, Oxford and New York: Berg Publishers, 2001, 289 p., pp. 59–79, p.71. and Suzanne Heim in 2002,"SS-Tibet-Expedition Schäfer 1938–1939" (Suzanne Heim, Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus, 2002, p. 131) as well as by the writer Peter Lavenda in 2002.Peter Levenda, Unholy alliance: a history of Nazi involvement with the occult, 2nd edition, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2002, 423 p., p. 192: "the efforts and adventures of the SS-Tibet expedition."
Funding According to Christopher Hale, as Schäfer was demanding more than 60,000 Reichsmarks for his expedition, and the coffers of the SS were depleted at the time, he was forced to raise the funds himself.Christopher Hale, Himmler's Crusade. The Nazi Expedition to Find the Origins of the Aryan Race, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken (NJ), 2003, 422 p.: "the coffers of the SS were much depleted (Schäfer was demanding more than sixty thousand Reichsmarks [...] Schäfer was now faced with a formidable task: he would have to raise the funds himself."
According to researcher Isrun Engelhardt, the expedition was not funded by the Ahnenerbe.Isrun Engelhardt, The Ernst-Schaefer-Tibet-Expedition (1938–1939): new light on the political history of Tibet in the first half of the 20th century in McKay Alex (ed.), Tibet and Her Neighbours : A History 2003, Edition Hansjörg Mayer (London), , Schäfer raised the funds by himself, 80% of which came from the Public Relations and Advertising Council of German Industry () as well as large German business enterprises, German Research Foundation () and Brooke Dolan II. Himmler's personal friends sponsored only the flight back to Germany.Isrun Engelhardt (2003)
According to the United States, the expedition's funding was provided by various public and private contributors, with the return flight to Germany being paid for by the SS. The cost of equipping the expedition was RM 65,000, and the expedition itself cost another RM 65,000, excluding the flight back., United States Forces – European Theater, Military Intelligence Service Center, APO 757 Final Interrogation Report (OI-FIR) No. 32, Feb. 12, 1946.
Members
Ernst Schäfer was a member of the SS when he arrived at the German consulate in Chongqing in 1935. He had just returned from a trip through parts of Asia, mainly India and China, in which the two other heads of the expedition had abandoned him out of fear of the native tribes. Schäfer turned the expedition from a complete failure into a great success, and the SS took note by sending him a letter informing him of a promotion to SS-Untersturmführer and summoning him back to Germany from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In June 1936, Schäfer met with Himmler, who informed Sievers and Galke to start organizing an expedition to Tibet.
Schäfer recruited young, fit men who would be well suited for an arduous journey.Pringle, Heather, The Master Plan: Himmler’s Scholars and the Holocaust, Hyperion, 2006. At 24, Karl Wienert (an assistant of Wilhelm Filchner, a famous explorer) was the team's geologist. Also 24, Edmund Geer was selected as the technical leader to organize the expedition. A relatively old teammate, who was 38, was Ernst Krause (not to be confused with the German biologist of the same name), who was to double as a filmmaker and an entomologist. Bruno Beger was a 26-year-old Rassekunde expert and student of Hans F.K. Günther and was to be the team's anthropologist.
Objectives
The researcher Roger Croston described the objective of the expedition as "an holistic creation of a complete biological record of Tibet alongside a synthesis of inter-relating natural sciences with regard to geography, cartography, geology, earth magnetics, climate, plants, animals and mankind."Roger Croston, Is the Space Buddha a Counterfeit?, 24 Oct. 2012.Ernst Schäfer, Geheimnis Tibet. München: Bruckmann 1943, 7–16, see also Engelhardt, Isrun, Nazis of Tibet: A Twentieth Century Myth. In: Monica Esposito (ed.), Images of Tibet in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Paris: École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO), coll. Études thématiques 22, vol. I, 2008, p.76.