The Aryan Race S. Todd CHC 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 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