Ahnenerbe and Frederick the Great: A theory about Nazi Zombies

[anonymous]

9 March, 1152 was a special day. It was the day Frederick (the Great) I, also known as Frederick Barbarossa, was crowned to King of Holy Germany and later of the whole Holy Roman Empire. He is considered to be the Holy Roman Empire's greatest medieval emperors ever. He combined qualities that made him look almost superhuman to his fellow Germans: his longevity, his ambition, his extraordinary skills at organization, his battlefield acumen and his political perspicuity. Unfortunately for him, 38 years later, in 1190, he died like a normal human being. He had brought Germany a huge amount of wealth, respect and land, more than most moments before and later in the German history. He was seen like a true hero for Germany, and therefore many German citizens did not wanted to believe that he actually died.

This causes that Frederick is the subject of many legends, including that of a sleeping hero. Legend says he is not dead, but asleep with his knights in a cave in the Kyffhäuser mountain in Thuringia, Germany, and that when the ravens cease to fly around the mountain he will awake and restore Germany to its ancient greatness...

 

A small 800 years later. According to the legend, Frederick Barbarossa still lays in the cave of Kyffhäuser, waiting for the moment to resurrect. But the rusty years after World War I had made Germany broken. Out of the ashes of the old Imperial Germany, something new had risen: the NSDAP (a.k.a the Nazi's), with as leader: Adolf Hitler. We all know the story that followed...

 

What you might did not knew, was that in 1935 SS officer Himmler had created the group "Ahnenerbe". Remember this name, people, because I believe this will be one of the main subjects of WWII Zombies. Ahnenerbe was a project in Nazi Germany to research the archaeological and cultural history of the Aryan Race. The Ahnenerbe group later conducted experiments and launched expeditions in an attempt to prove that the mythological Aryans, a tall, pale and blue-eyed race, once had ruled the world.

Investigation to Atlantis, expeditions to Tibet and Antartica in order to find gateways to the mythical Agartha, land of the Vril Ya (or Aryans), experiments on human subjects to make them "Aryan", it happened all in this group. "Hey" you may think: "Agartha and Vril, I know that". You're true, it are the same Agartha and Vril Ya I talk about here. In case you are not familar with it, here's a short summary about it by @Tac:

Quote

There were two inhabitable planets revolving around a star, Aldebaran, and the population of the Aldebaran system was divided into the master race, known as the Aryans, and subservient lower races.  However, as their sun expanded and the planets became uninhabitable, they left.  They visited many places in the Universe, with their first stop at planet named Marduk, in what is now the asteroid belt, followed by Mars, and shortly after that, they came to Earth and settled in Sumeria. They split into two factions, some migrating towards the Gobi Desert and the other heading north, landing in the mythical Hyperborea, which some say is modern day Siberia.  Eventually, they created the subterranean world known as Agartha, with the capital city of Shambhala, in the Earth’s Core, Hollow Earth.  As the center of intellectual progress and enlightenment, and is powered by the Black Sun, or Schwarze Sonne, a black star located within the Earth itself said to contain and radiate immense power, called Vril Energy.  It’s been said that there many entrances to Agartha, including Antarctica, the Pyramids of Gaza, and the city of Shangri-La in the Himalayas. Over time, evidence began to show that this Vril was the very lifeblood of the Aryans; the source of powerful psychic and technological advancements among their race.  When employing this energy source via Vril rods, they could achieve great telekinetic abilities and through great acts of medicine, could live up to the age of one thousand years.  However, if used the wrong way, those rods could be used for great destruction.

Here's a link to the wikipedia page of Ahnenerbe, take a look to it if you have time. Espessially the expeditions are pretty interesting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahnenerbe

 

But we continue: Like I said, Ahnenerbe did more than these harmless expeditions, namely, experiments on humans. You may know the horrific story about Mengele, the doctor of Auschwitz, trying to make Jew's brown eyes blue, blue like the eyes of "Aryan übermenschen" (German for superhuman). These experiments on human subjects, many concentration camp inmates, provide a horrifying constellation of facts that can lead to the theory about Nazi experiments to reanimate the dead. Because blue eyes and white skin aren't the only special things about Aryans: Legend says the inhabitants of Agartha are immortal. Wolfram Sievers, director of Ahnenerbe, oversaw a particularly horrific program of medical testing on concentration camp inmates, some of which ran parallel to the concept of raising the dead...

 

The Second World War begins by Germany's invasion of Poland. During this invasion and the following occupation, many Polish paintings and art are fallen into the hands of the Nazi's. Probably the most known one: Raphael's portrait. Up to this day, it is still unknown what happened with it...

 

followed by the capitulation of Nazi-Germany and the Axis Powers. On 28 April 1945, at a munitions factory depot called Bernterode, in the German region of Thuringia, 40,000 tons of ammunition were found. Inside the mine, investigating American officers noticed what looked like a brick wall, painted over to match the color of the mineshaft. The wall turned out to be 5 feet thick, the mortar between the bricks not yet fully hardened. Breaking through with pickaxes and hammers, the officers uncovered several vaults containing a wealth of Nazi regalia, including a long hall hung with Nazi banners and filled with uniforms, as well as hundreds of stolen artworks: tapestries, books, paintings and decorative arts. There is a very big chance that Raphael's portrait was somewhere in here too. In a separate chamber, the soldiers came upon a ghoulish spectacle: four monumental coffins, containing the skeletons of the 17th century Prussian king, Frederick the Great, Fieldmarschalk von Hindenburg, and his wife. The Nazis had seized human relics of deceased Teutonic warlords. The fourth coffin was empty, but bore an engraved plate with the name of its intended occupant: Adolf Hitler. The return of these corpses to their proper resting places was a military operation called “Operation Bodysnatch”.

 

The mine the American soldiers had stumbled upon was a Nazi facilty, built upon the Kyffhäuser mountain, where the body of King Frederick lays. It was never clear what the Nazis planned to use these specific bodies for, but conspiracy theorists offered no shortage of suggestions. There is a possibility that it was an Ahnenerbe facility, where they try to resurrect dead bodies. Their final goal? Raising Germany's greatest leaders, including Frederick Barbarossa.

 

When the ravens cease to fly around the mountain he will awake and restore Germany to its ancient greatness...

 

Spoiler

I used these sources. Most of them are pretty interesting, so I recommend you to take a look if you have time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahnenerbe

http://www.salon.com/2015/08/22/did_nazis_really_try_to_make_zombies_the_real_history_behind_one_of_our_weirdest_wwii_obsessions/

http://www.uselessinformation.org/operation_bodysnatch/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_race

 

[anonymous]

A'ight lads, we've got our first story intel. And yes, yes, yes: This story I told you a month ago actually fits into the intel given by Sledgehammer. Ahnenerbe is mentioned! I cannot believe that! I won't keep you longer in curiousity, here's the intel. Special thanks so @MrRoflWaffles.

Quote

ENVELOPE

Front

Feldpost

GENEHMIGT (Approved)

Fräulein
Marie Fischer
Wardington Place N. 404
Kandy, Ceylon

Back

Klaus Fischer
Mitarbeiterforscher
N. 1474Z

Cleared by OSS

 

 

INSIDE

Mein Liebling Marie:

 

I hope this letter finds you well! How is life in England? I hope that your studies at Cambridge are going well. Father always said that you were the natural scholar of our famoo;y, so I am sure adapting to your new life has been seamless.
I have so much to tell you. The last time we spoke, I was angry. Furious. I now know that my anger was misdirected at you. I was frustrated that I had to leave my studies at Heidelberg to care for father. After my mentor Professor Linden retired, I thought that there was no way I could ever play a role in Germany's scientific renaissance.
But fate is a funny thing! If I had stayed at Heidelberg, I would have missed out on the greatest discovery of our time! Right underneath our noses!
Marie, I wept when they found it. When workers came in from the mine, talking about what they had found - the artifact of legend. My life has meaning again! My life has purpose!
I had to get this message to where it mattered, to the Deutsches Reich. My contacts at the univeristy put me in touch twith Fuhrer Heinz F. Richter. From there, it was only a matter of days before the Ahnenerbe rolled in with a full battalion of troops. I took Doktor Straub down to the chapel myself, showed him the hilt to what we had found: Barbarossa's Sword.
Who would have imagined, Marie? Me giving one of the inner circle a personal tour! Destiny has placed me at the right place, at the right time. In the coming days, I am going to present him with my papers: highlights from the research I had done with Professor Linden. Findings that will surely help us to understand the potential of what we have uncovered.
I wish I could tell you more. And I hope to see you again, when the smoke has cleared. Please forgive my heated words earlier - I will always be your brother, Marie.

 

Liebe Grube.
Klaus.

We are now able to distinguish . characters.

*Klaus Fischer: a young German science student. Studying in Heidelberg University (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidelberg_University)

*Marie Fischer: Klaus's sister, studying in Cambridge, England.

*Professor Linden: Klaus's old professor in Heidelberg.

*Heinz F. Richter: Klaus's teacher. He was able to make contact with Ahnenerbe, after the discovery of Barbarossa's sword.

*Doktor Strain: a scientist of Ahnenerbe.

 

 

Also, Sledgehammer announced this.

https://t.co/vdX9KmcmW1

 

EDIT: I FOUND SOMETHING!

https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Fischer_(Indologe)

One Klus Fischer was a archeologist, born in 1919 and died in 1993. He had studied in Heidelberg, but left it later and went to another university (like the Klaus Fischer from the intel). He was an expert in studies to the ancient Indian and Eurasian culture (does that ring any bells?)

[certainpersonio]

Excellent foresight with your theory! It looks like Sledgehammer's following your lead ;) 

 

I wanted to add in a few more things we found out from Marie Fischer's Journal

 

Quote

Juni 22 (1945?)

From the Journal of Marie Fischer

 

Today has been difficult. I continue to run into obstacles with the Colonel, despite the clear and alarming evidence I have demonstrated for him. While I am grateful for the training I have received here, I fear I will have to extend my reach beyond Prince William County. The messages from Klaus have grown more desperate and… and I hesitate to write this, but they begin to border on madness.

 

My contact in the UK recommends that I get in touch with a military architect who is spearheading a new organization that may be useful. He called it “The Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Program”, rolling his eyes at the clunky, no-nonsense American name. But he said that they might be my best shot for getting behind enemy lines. This group will be focused on recovering and safeguarding historic and cultural monuments—items that the Nazis have stolen form the most valuable collections in Europe. 

 

While I could care less about the dusty artifacts Klaus claims to have uncovered for the Nazis, they may provide the angle I need to get an operation moving Mittelberg. Into my hometown.

 

After my exodus from Bavaria ten years ago, I never thought I would return. I saw the Beer Hall Putsoh for what it was: the first winds of a coming storm. Klaus was more optimistic—he drew hope from the fiery words of the Kampfbund.

 

Klaus has always been an idealist. Always a patriot. But even these pillars of his generally stalwart character are beginning to wear thin. I worry about my brother. He has a brilliant mind—top of his class at Heidelberg, mentored by one of the greatest physicist of our time and one of the ambitious new voices leading the Deutsche Physik. I have tried not to think about Klaus, to put him out of my mind, for years. Our last fight was about Father’s death…

 

Now I fear my years of training with the OSS must come to service for one singular cause: to rescue my brother

 

-Marie

 

 

1. Marie is working for OSS
   1. A German trained by the proto-CIA sounds like a backstory with deep historical records to draw from
2. Looks like Marie will be working with the Monument Men
   1. This is a direct connection with Raphael's Portrait as well as Operation Bodysnatch
3. Marie is from Mittelberg in Bavaria
   1. I find this interesting because she seems to be attempting to get the MFAA to lead a mission to her hometown to look for Klaus. To me this suggests that Klaus, and therefore Frederick, will be nearby.
   2. Now, I can't read German so maybe @Nieno69 could help out a bit, but there seem to be a few places in Germany that have Mittelberg in their name. 
   3. I think Mittelberg (Rödental) is the most likely candidate because is:
      1. In Bavaria on the border with Thuringia
      2. Only about a 2 hour drive to the Barbarossa monument on Kyffhäuse
   4. A more fun location though might be Mittelberg (Nebra)
      1. Not in Bavaria but it is only 1 hour away from the Kyffhäuse monument
      2. Nebra is the site where the Nebra Sky Disk was discovered
         1. Essentially it's believed to be a Bronze Age astronomical instrument. It was buried with a bunch of cool bronze age weapons and stuff
         2. Again I find it interesting because it goes back to the rich history of the area/region and how people used the area for star gazing/religious rites
4. Continuing to reference historical events to ground the story
   1. Again, nothing specific to zombies here, but I just love that they threw in the Kampfbund, Beer Hall Putsch, and the Deutsche Physik into this story
   2. This attention to detail gives me a lot of hope for this game

[anonymous]

5 hours ago, certainpersonio said:

This attention to detail gives me a lot of hope for this game

Same. Thanks for all this info, I am really fund on Zombies being based on real events again. I'm on vacation next week but the week after that one I will continue research.

[anonymous]

New intel is discovered:

Quote

July 24 1943

I have just received an interesting letter, a response from Major Hank Rideau of the newly-formed MFAA — apparently the program has been rubber stamped by the President himself. After weeks of being deferred through pencil pushers and secretarial layers, my inquiring finally landed on the desk of someone who may be able to make a difference.

Major Rideau is direct and to the point. He expressed a clear interest in the artifacts that Klaus has alluded to, and pressed me for details.

 

Unfortunately, my brother is far less interested in these medieval museum pieces than he is in he captors' attempts at discerning their metaphysical properties. I have highlighted the few pieces of archeological evidence Klaus managed to share in his notes, in hopes that it will be enough to entire Rideau into action. It is a paltry list, I know:

— Six years ago the Mittelburg mines uncovered a chamber below the salt mines, buried in the roots of the Kyffhäuser Mountains. It contains several altars and is adorned with "remarkably preserved" medieval carvings.

— A hand-picked band of fanatical Nazi thugs, a group known as the Ahnenerbe took over the mines shortly thereafter and sealed off the area. Nobody was allowed in or out of Mittelburg. Klaus believes the chamber to have been the chamber dedicated to the Emperor Frederick I, King of Germany and Roman Emperor, and that it has been untouched for 800 years.

— There is something in the chamber, some relic form the era which their leader believes to be sacred and... powerful. A tool that is important to what will lead to the "Fourth Reich"—apparently a quote from the Anführer. I must confess that I refrained form communicating this final bit to the Major. The Ahnenerbe has always been something of a joke in Allied Intelligence circles, chalked up to their leader's fanatical superstition and a welcome waste of Nazi time and money.

 

This is why I believe that even the OSS has been hesitant to engage in such obvious nonsense. I pray that the hint of medieval treasures will be enough to bring the MFAA to my door.

 

Quote

August 3, 1943

After weeks of careful questioning in regards to the Mittelburg discoveries, Rideau has finally approved a mission into Bavaria. My careful framing of Klaus' notes had nothing to do with this good news, apparently. As is so often the case, events beyond my control opened the door for opportunity. According to a source from our agent in "La Résistance", the Nazis have begun shipping stolen art into the very same mines we have been discussing for the past two months. This was enough to convince the MFAA to take this risk — their first mission behind enemy lines. But the best news comes at the very bottom of Rideau's letter: a simple request for an operations leader with experience running espionage, someone with extensive knowledge of the area, preferably an agent fluent in the local dialect.

The Major says he has already forwarded a requested name to OSS.

Name. Singular.

Dare I hope?

 

Quote

August 25, 1943

I am trying to keep my emotions in check. The papers that I have been waiting for just came across my desk: I have been assigned lead operative on the Mittelburg mission! Major Rideau and I will begin tactical planning in another week, and I have to remind myself not to be too effusive in my gratitude for his help. He is an interesting man: fairly unremarkable in both stature and presentation, but with a quiet drive that has helped him to move through bureaucratic channels with impressive speed.

Rideau has presented me with a list of his top men from the MFAA, a collection of soldiers and academics from across the Allied spectrum. I need to form a small team, no more than three experts to join me in a mission that formed around the recovery of a handful of stolen paintings, a relic from the reign of Frederick I, and, God willing, Klaus Fischer.

I need to make sure that it is a team that can display flexibility and strength under duress. If even a small part of what my brother has said is true, this will not be a simple mission. My first priority will be to recruit the Maquis agent who discovered the paintings being moved from Paris. Beyond that, I will need somebody familiar with medieval antiquities. Finally, I will need some muscle. A soldier with experience on the front lines. I'd like to avoid bloodshed, but my instincts say we should prepare for the worst.

We will need to arrive and depart without notice — I am thinking we may take cover under the guise of a military supply train, preferable in the snowy season. The line that runs by Mittelburg should still be in service, as that section of Bavaria is benign enough to have avoided Allied shelling.
But I am getting ahead of myself. For now, it is enough to know that I jave set things in motion to return home. To set things right. And to save my brother from whatever horrors he has uncovered.

@certainpersonio Now she speaks of Mittelburg, instead of Mittelburg. Might change some things. Some other things we've learned:

 

1. In 1937, miners working in the Mittelburg salt mines discovered an ancient underground tomb of Frederick the Great (Barbarossa). Shortly thereafter, Ahnenerbe took over the mines and made sure no one entered or exited the village of Mittelburg.

 

2. Ahnenerbe found a powerful artifact (most likely Barbarossa's sword) which is believed to lead to the "Fourth Reich". What is meant with this, is unknown. Does Ahnenerbe want to do a coup and kill Hitler? Is it a reference to the Illuminati?

 

3. Marie Fischer is send together with the French resistance member Olivia Durant, the art thief Drostan Hynd and the soldier Jefferson Potts to Mittelburg. The secret mission will take place in the winter of 1943 or early 1944, and the goal is to recover a handful of stolen paintings, secure the artifact of Frederick I and rescue Klaus Fischer. 

[anonymous]

"When the ravens cease to fly around the mountain he will awake and restore Germany to its ancient greatness..."