German Society for Celtic Studies

The DGKS belonged to the Indo-European Seminar of the University of Berlin. It was set up from the beginning as a contact point between the German Celtologists and the Schutzstaffel. Immediately after its founding, SS-Obergruppenführer Werner Best and Ahnenerbe became cooperative members. Best was at this time de facto Interior Minister of France and German national propaganda. In addition, the work of the Institute has been dressed up ideologically: It was said in reports from the Reich, "to supplement the old, merely linguistically oriented research with racial and folkloric research".{{cite book |last=Boberach |first=Heinz |date=1984 |title=Meldungen aus dem Reich. Die geheimen Lageberichte des Sicherheitsdienstes der SS, Volume II |language=de |trans-title=Messages from the realm. The secret situation reports of the security service of the SS, Volume II |location=Herrsching |page=917}} Important founding members were Helmut Bauersfeld, {{ill|Gerhard von Tevenar|de}}, Hans Otto Wagner, Adolf Mahr, and Helmut Clissmann.For the early connections of these scientists to the Abwehr and Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers SS (SD) see {{cite book |last=Lerchenmueller |first=Joachim |title="Keltischer Sprengstoff": eine wissenschaftsgeschichtliche Studie über die deutsche Keltologie von 1900 bis 1945 |language=de |trans-title="Celtic Sprengstoff": a study of the history of science on German Celtology from 1900 to 1945 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JdciAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA384 |publisher=Niemeyer |location=Tübingen |date=1997 |isbn=3484401427 |pages=384–389, 395}}

After the start of World War II some members of the DGKS were assigned special tasks in the Abwehr and the Foreign Office, particularly in the Benelux countries, and in northern France. In the course of its existence, the cooperation between the DGKS and Ahnenerbe became ever closer. One of the central figures was {{ill|Ludwig Mühlhausen|de}} (1888-1956), who was a specialist in Welsh, had been honorary professor of Celtic Studies at the University of Hamburg from 1928-1936, was a Nazi party member and lead the politicization of Celtic studies in Germany after taking the Berlin Chair position for Celtic studies after Julius Pokorny was expelled for his Jewish ancestry.{{cite web |url=https://www.keltologie.uni-bonn.de/abteilung-keltologie/institutsgeschichte |title=Institutsgeschichte |last=Hemprich |website=Universität Bonn Abteilung für Keltologie |access-date=9 July 2019}} Mühlhausen from the beginning of 1940 also worked with Leo Weisgerber for foreign broadcasting propaganda.{{cite web |url=https://www.academia.edu/32147473 |title=Notes on the history of German Celtic Studies |last=Asmus |first=Sabine |date=2017 |website=Academia.edu |access-date=9 July 2019}} At a Celtic congress in Wernigerode at the beginning of September 1941, Mühlhausen spoke in favor of the continuation and "use of humanities in war".{{cite book |last=Hutton |first=Christopher |date=2002 |title=Linguistics and the Third Reich: Mother-tongue Fascism, Race and the Science of Language |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zJ9YUflEreYC&pg=PA339 |publisher=Routledge |page=128 |isbn=0415189543}} In June 1942, Mühlhausen was leader of an "education and research center for Celtic people research" newly established in the Ahnenerbe.{{cite book |last1=Hausmann |first1=Frank-Rutger |last2=Müller-Luckner |first2=Elisabeth |date=2002 |title=Die Rolle der Geisteswissenschaften im Dritten Reich |language=de |trans-title=The role of the humanities in the Third Reich |location=Oldenburg |publisher={{ill|Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag|de|R. Oldenbourg Verlag}} |page=149}}

While working in collaboration with the SS-Ahnenerbe the DGKS was involved in espionage, as well as sabotage and encouraging Celtic ethnic minorities towards insurrection in Brittany and the British Isles.{{cite book |last1=Socanac |first1=Lelija |last2=Ureland |first2=Sture |date=2017 |title=Glottogenesis and Language Conflicts in Europe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GgxMDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA205 |location=Berlin |publisher=Logos Verlag Berlin|isbn=9783832544447 }}

• {{ill|Institut celtique de Bretagne|fr}}
• Olier Mordrel
• François Debeauvais
• Frank-Rutger Hausmann
• {{ill|Heinz Boberach|de}}

{{reflist}}

• Reiner Luyken: "[http://www.zeit.de/1996/30/kelt.txt.19960719.xml Keltologie: Über die Verquickung von Wissenschaft und Nationalsozialismus]“ in: Die Zeit vom 19. Juli 1996

{{Celts}}

{{authority control}}

{{Germany-org-stub}}

Category:1936 establishments in Germany

Category:Organizations established in 1936

Category:Learned societies of Germany

Category:Celtic studies