The Secret SS Mission to Tibet You’ve Never Heard Of

To support the militarization of Germany and to justify the actions of the Nazis and their beliefs, the German government embarked on radical propaganda campaigns to impose their will on the German people. Central to this propaganda were the racial doctrines of the Nazi party.

Ethnographic missions were undertaken in order to create an academic base for further action.

Zoologist Ernst Schäfer added his skills to this dynamic and undertook an expedition to Tibet to look for evidence that Germans and Tibetans were connected as “Aryan” people. What they found surprised them.

The beliefs held by the upper echelons of the SS, notably Heinrich Himmler and Rudolf Hess, were critical to the decision to send an expedition to Tibet. They drew on writings by the ancient Greek writer Herodotus, who wrote of mythical lands far to the north called Hyperborea and Thule.

The occult side of the SS linked these lands with the Aryans, whom they believed were also linked to the legendary land of Atlantis. In addition, astronomer Edmund Halley suggested that the earth was hollow. This subsequently stimulated the imagination of writers, who began creating myths and legends to accompany the idea.

In The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer Lytton, a superior race of humans called the Vril-ya plans to conquer the world with a psychic energy called Vril. Edward Bulwer Lytton, himself a Rosicrucian, wrote novels that resonated with the upper classes of Europe at a time when the occult and the supernatural were particularly en vogue.

In his writings, French writer Louis Jacolliot expanded on these ideas, adding to pseudo-scientific beliefs in Europe. He wrote of the people who lived in the subterranean depths of Thule and linked them to the power of Vril.

These stories captured the imaginations of the German people. They found a home in the SS, which furthered the ideas by drawing upon the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and the idea of the Übermensch. 

With the racial interpretations of human difference expounded by scientists such as Joseph Arthur de Gobineau, who developed the theory of the “Aryan” master race, Germans began to believe not just that they were a superior race but that they were the descendants of the Vril-ya.

Founded in 1910 and adopting the belief of racial supremacy, the Thule Society also incorporated radical ideas of revolution and was decidedly anti-communist. Inspiration for the doctrines found in the beliefs of the Thule Society was wide and varied and came from sources such as the Knights Templar, the Jesuits, the Order of the Golden Dawn, and the Sufis. From the Thule Society, the Nazi Party would evolve. It was created in 1919 as the German Workers’ Party, and soon after its creation, a young Adolf Hitler joined the Society and ended up becoming the leader of the German Workers’ Party.

Dietrich Eckart, who introduced Hitler to the Thule Society and the German Workers’ Party, enlightened his student on harnessing the power of Vril and creating a race of Aryan supermen.

Into this mix was also the Vril Society, founded in Berlin in 1918 by Karl Haushofer. Haushofer was an avid exponent of the belief in ancient superbeings that lived beneath the earth. He was fascinated with Tibet and claimed a Central Asian origin of the “Aryan” race. Haushofer was a great influence on Adolf Hitler and mentored him while Hitler was incarcerated in Landsberg prison after the failed Beer Hall Putsch.

These beliefs would lead to the formation of the SS Ahnenerbe (SS Ancestral Heritage Society), composed of scholars and scientists who worked to promote the racial beliefs and ideologies of Hitler. To this, archaeology and research into the prehistoric origins of the Aryan race was sought. Thus, the idea of sending archaeologists to remote parts of the world became an enticing endeavor.

In the quest to find the source of the Aryan race, Heinrich Himmler sought the experience of scientist and explorer Ernst Schäfer, who had led two expeditions to Tibet, the first from 1931 to 1932 and the second from 1934 to 1936. A man who valued his scientific freedom, Schäfer was not enthused by the prospect of having to conduct research forced on him by the SS, but patronage and funding were issues that needed to be resolved. Pressured by political will, Schäfer and his team were obliged to join the SS before any expedition could take place.

There is debate over where the funding from the expedition came from. Isrun Engelhardt argues that Schäfer raised the funds himself, with the vast bulk of it coming from the Public Relations and Advertising Council of German Industry, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation), and the American naturalist Brook Dolan II. Very little of it actually came from the SS or Heinrich Himmler.

Setbacks

Getting to Tibet was not an easy task. Schäfer had wanted to use the Yangtze River to reach Tibet, but in 1937, Japan invaded Manchuria, and Schäfer had to find an alternative route. The next planned route was through India, but this required the permission of the British government that controlled India. Schäfer flew to London, but his request was denied on the basis that Britain was expecting to be at war with Germany in the very near future.

In November 1937, Schäfer’s wife of four months was killed in a hunting accident when the boat they were in tipped over, causing Schäfer’s gun to discharge and fatally wounding her. Naturally, he was aggrieved by this unfortunate accident, but eight weeks later, he had recovered enough to rejoin the expedition.

Tired of looking for alternative routes to Tibet, Schäfer asked Himmler if he and his team could ignore the British lack of permission and force their way into Tibet via India. Himmler agreed with the plan and started contacting individuals who could facilitate it.

Having secured funding, the expedition set out in April 1938 from Genoa, Italy. Accompanying Schäfer were Karl Wienert, the team’s geologist, and Edmund Geer, the technical organizer of the expedition. Ernst Krause performed the functions of filmographer and entomologist, and Bruno Beger was the expedition’s anthropologist.

The British, however, were alerted by a German newspaper, Völkischer Beobachter, which reported the group’s intentions. Himmler made a call to Admiral Barry Domvile, a Nazi supporter and former head of British naval intelligence, who in turn contacted Neville Chamberlain. The prime minister accepted the request and allowed the team to travel through northern India’s Sikkim region.

They made their way through India to Sikkim at the foothills of the Himalayas. Here, they assembled a caravan of 50 mules and traveled along the Teesta River valley, collecting specimens and taking samples as they went. Bruno Beger acquired permission from the locals to take cranial measurements in exchange for medical supplies.

The team traveled back to Gangtok, the Sikkim capital, where Schäfer learned that he had been promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer while the rest of his team had been promoted to SS-Obersturmführer.

Waiting for Permission

Meanwhile, Schäfer looked for a way into Tibet. The opportunity came in the form of a man who represented the son of a former king (the Tering Raja) who had been exiled by the British. Schäfer attempted to persuade the man to extend an official invitation for the research team to enter Tibet.

The man explained that in his palace across the border, it was difficult to obtain vegetables, and so Schäfer supplied the man with a considerable amount of his plentiful stocks, including 80 kilograms of potatoes as well as a number of German delicacies. The man went back to his king and returned with official permission.

On July 30, Schäfer crossed the border but did not initially take his entire team, as he did not want to arouse suspicions from the British. On the journey, Schäfer became very ill and was nursed back to health by Kaiser Bahadur Thapa, the expedition’s interpreter.

They reached the Raja’s palace and were well received. The Raja sent a letter to Lhasa, and the expedition had nothing to do but wait for several inhospitable months to get a reply. When the reply did come in December, it was an invitation to spend 14 days in Lhasa.

The British, outraged at Schäfer’s audacity, could do nothing to enforce any restriction. They forbade him from taking his scientific equipment, but the order was simply ignored.

On their way to Lhasa, the team continued their work, which included Beger measuring the locals’ physical features. Wienert set up geometry stations, and Kaiser was sent off to look for local barley and wheat seeds, as Himmler had asked Schäfer to obtain these. Himmler was interested in researching new agricultural options for the Reich.

On the way, they met with the commanders of a British garrison and sat down to an extremely awkward lunch. From the news reports, war seemed imminent, and the British commander did not deign to reel in his opinions on the matter.

The team reached Lhasa on January 19, 1939, and was warmly received, but it was clear the British had used their influence to reduce the level of respect given to the Germans. The Germans had expected a diplomatic welcome to a large fanfare, but instead, they were greeted by a minor official and led to small and unsanitary accommodations.

Far from the glittering city of imagination that they had expected, the Germans were unpleasantly surprised to discover that most of Lhasa was a filthy place with no drainage. Beggars and prostitutes pushed themselves onto the newcomers, looking for money and trade.

Managing to renew their permits, they spent two months in Lhasa, where they gathered data on culture, agriculture, and religious practices. The Tibetan government took an active interest in the expedition. Ministers and other noteworthy people attached to the government worked closely with the team, and dealings were good-natured and friendly. On several occasions, Schäfer even met with the Regent of Tibet, Reting Rinpoche.

From Lhasa, the team then headed westward to the city of Gyantse, where they explored the remains of the ancient abandoned capital of Jalung Phodrang. They then traveled to Shigatse, where locals streamed out in crowds to greet them. Here, they conducted more research before heading back to Gyantse, where Schäfer met with local British officials and negotiated a return through British territory.

Under the threat of war in Europe, Schäfer decided to return home. He feared that if they tried to move through India, the British would apprehend and imprison them. They left Tibet in August 1939, just weeks before the outbreak of war, and safely returned home.

Throughout the months of the expedition, the explorers collected anything and everything that they found of interest. Animals and plants were sent back, including live specimens. The grain seeds they acquired were stored in the SS-Institute for Plant Genetics in Lannach in Austria and were under the curatorship of SS botanist Heinz Brücker, who had hoped to experiment with grains adapted to Eastern Europe where the Germans planned to extend Lebensraum.

Wienert also collected geomagnetic data, while Krause studied a large number of Tibetan wasps. Of particular importance was the ethnographic data that was collected. Rituals and celebrations were observed and studied, while Beger recorded the measurements of 376 people, which included casts of head and facial features.

To obtain such a large number of specimens, Beger posed as a physician and treated the medical ailments of the locals, including monks with venereal diseases. In fact, he noted that the city was particularly plagued by venereal disease, and it seemed almost everyone in the city was suffering.

Beger’s work as a healer in Lhasa brought about incredible attention and respect from the locals. Despite their poverty, they showered the Germans with gifts.

Among the most interesting of all the data was Schäfer’s record of sexual intimacy between the people of Tibet. Included in his accounts were details of sexual acts between older lamas and young boys. According to Schäfer’s research, homosexuality played an important part in the higher politics of Tibetan culture.

Along with thousands of photographs and reams of reports, Schäfer and his team had collected a treasure trove of artifacts and scientific data.

Returning home just in time, Schäfer and his team were successful in their attempts to study Tibet. German attention, however, would turn to other things soon. Schäfer’s writings would only be published in 1950.