The Aryan Race

S. ToddCHC 2DI

Foreward

• Understanding the concept of the Aryan race is very difficult

• It is very convoluted and involves a history that dates back many hundreds of years before the Nazi regime

• This lesson is very much a simplified version of a more complex subject

Background

• In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the term “Aryan” was simply used to label people of European or Western Asian heritage who spoke the Indo-European languages

Background

• These linguistic groups included the Romans, Greeks, and the Germans, Balts, Celts, and Slavs

• It was argued that all of these languages originated from a common root language: Indo-European

• The ancient people who spoke this root language were thought of as ancestors of the European, Iranian, and Indo-Aryan peoples

• Aryan began as a language classification; not one of race

A Changing Definition

• With increasing racism in the 20th century, the term “Aryan” began to be used to describe a racial grouping

• The notion of an Aryan race took root in mainstream culture

• So what was the evolved definition of “Aryan?”

Aryan

• 19th-20th century writers, anthropologists and archaeologists began to describe Aryans as a sub-race of the larger Caucasian race

• They claimed that Aryans represented a superior branch of humanity who had descended from a biologically-superior racial group originating in ancient Germany or Scandinavia

Aryan

• This idea was widely circulated in both intellectual and popular culture by the early twentieth century

Hitler and the Nazis

• Nazism embraced the idea that Aryan was not only a racial designation but that it described a “master race”

• Nazi racial theorist Hans F.K. Günther went further and identified the Aryan race in Europe as having five sub-races:

Nordic, Mediterranean, Dinaric, Alpine, and East Baltic

Hans F. K. Günther

• Günther argued that the Nordics were the highest in the racial hierarchy amongst these five Aryan subtype races

• He defined each racial subtype according to general physical appearance and their psychological qualities including their "racial soul" - referring to their emotional traits and religious beliefs, and provided detailed information on their hair, eye, and skin colours, facial structure

Hans F. K. Günther

• He distinguished Aryans from Jews, and argued that Jews descended from non-European races and were “incompatible” with Germans and most Europeans

• He went on to describe Jews as having Near Eastern characteristics and categorized them with Armenians, Greeks, Turks, Syrians, and Iranians

Hans F. K. Günther

• Gunther further argued that these Near Eastern groups were “commercially spirited and artful traders - that the type held strong psychological manipulation skills that aided them in trade”

The Five Aryan Sub-Races

1. Nordic- light-colored hair, light-colored eyes, fair skin, long and narrow skulls and tall stature-Nazis claimed Nordics were the most ideal

The Five Aryan Sub-Races

• Mediterranean-medium to tall stature, long skull, a narrow and nose, dark hair and eyes, rosy pink, dark brown or olive skin tone

The Five Aryan Sub-Races

3. Dinaric- very light skin, hair ranging from dark blonde to dark brown, a wide range of eye color, tall stature, long face, a very narrow and prominent nose, a thin body build, and very big feet

The Five Aryan Sub-Races

4. Alpine-broad-head, thick-set/broad body type, short stature, broad nose, chestnut-coloured hair, 'intermediate white‘ skin a colour in-between the lighter skinned Nordic and the darker skinned Mediterranean-Hitler admired Mussolini’s Alpine racial heritage

The Five Aryan Sub-Races

5. East Baltic-short, short-headed, broad-faced, chin not prominent, short nose with low bridge; stiff, light/ash hair; light grey to bluish eyes, light skin with a greyish undertone