The  (, "Ancestral Heritage") was a  (SS) pseudo-scientific organization which was active in Nazi Germany between 1935 and 1945. It was established by  Heinrich Himmler in July 1935 as an SS appendage devoted to the task of promoting the racial doctrines espoused by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. The  was composed of scholars and scientists from a broad range of academic disciplines and fostered the idea that the German people descended from an Aryan race which was racially superior to other racial groups.

Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, and transformed the country into a one-party state governed as a dictatorship under the control of the Nazi Party. He espoused the idea that the German people were descended from the Aryan race which, Hitler claimed in contrast to established academic understandings, had invented most major developments in human history, such as agriculture, art, and writing. The majority of the world's scholarly community did not accept this, and the Nazis established the Ahnenerbe in order to provide evidence for Nazi racial theories and to promote these ideas to the German public. Ahnenerbe scholars interpreted evidence to fit Hitler's beliefs, and some consciously fabricated evidence in order to do so. The organisation sent expeditions to other parts of the world, intent on finding evidence of historical Aryan expansion.

The government of Nazi Germany used the organization's research to justify many of their policies, including the Holocaust. Nazi propaganda also cited  claims that archaeological evidence indicated that the Aryan race had historically resided in eastern Europe to justify German expansion into the region. In 1937, the  became an official branch of the SS and was renamed the "Research and Teaching Community in Ancestral Heritage" (). Many of their investigations were placed on hold after the outbreak of World War II in 1939, though they continued to carry out new research in areas under German occupation after Operation Barbarossa was launched in 1941.

Towards the end of World War II in Europe,  members destroyed much of the organisation's paperwork to avoid being incriminated in forthcoming war crimes trials. Numerous members escaped Allied denazification policies and remained active in West Germany's archaeological establishment in the postwar era. This stifled scholarly research into the , which only intensified after German reunification in 1990. Ideas promoted by the  have retained an appeal for some neo-Nazi and far-right circles and have also influenced later pseudoarchaeologists.

Background

Adolf Hitler believed that one could divide humanity into three groups: "the founders of culture, the bearers of culture, the destroyers of culture". The founders of culture, in Hitler's view, were a biologically distinct Aryan race who (he believed) had been tall, blond, and originating in Northern Europe. He believed that in prehistory, the Aryan race had been responsible for all significant developments in human culture, including agriculture, architecture, music, literature, and the visual arts. He believed that most modern Germans were the descendants of these Aryans and had genetically inherited the Aryans' biological superiority to other races. The destroyers of culture, in Hitler's view, were the Jews, whom he regarded not as a genetically diverse population sharing certain ethno-cultural and religious traits—as they were then widely recognized—but as a unified, biologically distinct race. He believed that wherever Jews went, they damaged and ultimately destroyed the cultures surrounding them.

Hitler had promoted his ideas about the greatness of Germany's ancestors in his 1925 book, . Outside Germany, most scholars and scientists regarded Hitler's ideas about human evolution and prehistory as nonsense, in part due to the absence of any evidence that North European communities had ever originated major developments in prehistory, such as the development of agriculture and writing, all of which first appeared in the Near East and in Asia.

In January 1929 Hitler appointed Nazi Party member Heinrich Himmler to head the  (SS), a paramilitary group founded in 1925 to serve as personal bodyguards to Hitler and other Nazis. Himmler set out to re-organise the SS, introducing a better system of organisation, and gathering intelligence on prominent Jews and Freemasons, as well as on rival political groups. In 1929, Himmler launched an SS recruitment campaign, and by the end of 1931 the group had 10,000 members. Himmler aimed to ensure that this membership was as racially Nordic as possible, establishing the SS Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHA) to screen both applicants and the women whom SS members proposed to marry. In believing in the existence of a "Nordic" racial type which was the purest survival of the ancient Aryans, Himmler was influenced by the Nordicist ideas of Hans F. K. Günther (1891–1968), which had been popular in German nationalist circles over the preceding decades.

Himmler had an abiding interest in the past, and in how it could provide a blueprint for the future. However, his views of the ancient Germanic peoples differed from Hitler's in certain areas. Hitler was perplexed as to why ancient societies in southern Europe had developed more advanced technology and architecture than their contemporaries in northern Europe. Hitler stated that "People make a tremendous fuss about the excavations carried out in districts inhabited by our forebears of the pre-Christian era. I am afraid that I cannot share their enthusiasm, for I cannot help remembering that, while our ancestors were making these vessels out of stone and clay, over which our archaeologists rave, the Greeks had already built the Acropolis." Hitler explained this by claiming that the Aryans must also have inhabited the south of the continent and that they were responsible for establishing the societies of ancient Greece and Rome. Specifically, he believed that it was the warmer climates of the south that enabled these Aryans to develop in ways that those living further north, in colder and wetter climates, did not. Himmler was aware of these views but, unlike Hitler, admired what he believed was the fierceness and valour of the Germanic tribes of northern Europe. He was particularly interested in Tacitus's Germania, an ethnographic and historical account of the Iron-Age Germanic tribes written by the Roman historian at the end of the first century CE.

Nazi Party takes power
In the 1932 federal election, the Nazis secured 230 seats in the Reichstag, making them the largest single party but without a controlling majority. Six months later, President Paul von Hindenburg invited Hitler to become Chancellor, after which the latter cemented Nazi dominance over the government. In February 1933, Hitler convinced von Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree, legally suspending civil liberties. Himmler, who was newly appointed as the police chief of Munich, ordered the arrests of those he regarded as a threat to the Nazis—including journalists, labour organisers, Jewish community leaders, socialists, and communists—and their incarceration in Dachau concentration camp. Hitler approved of Himmler's tactics and appointed him head of the political police across Germany.

In 1933, Himmler initiated plans to establish a "Nordic Academy" to assist the instruction of the SS upper ranks. He was assisted in this by Karl Maria Wiligut, an occultist who was popular in German ultra-nationalist circles. Himmler brought Wiligut into the SS—where he eventually rose to the rank of Brigadeführer—and gave him a private villa in Berlin.
Using Wiligut's prophecies as his guide, Himmler selected Wewelsburg castle in Westphalia to serve as a base for many SS operations. The architect Hermann Bartels was employed to oversee renovations to the castle to make it fit for the SS's use. As part of these alterations, one of the rooms in the building became known as "the Grail Room" with a rock crystal representing the Holy Grail being placed in a central position. Himmler also established a private museum at the castle, employing the young archaeologist Wilhelm Jordan to manage it.

In 1934, Himmler met the Dutch prehistorian Herman Wirth, who was then living in Germany, at the home of Johann von Leers, a Nazi propagandist.
Wirth was one of the most controversial prehistorians in Germany. After examining symbols found in rural Frisian folk art, he became convinced that they represented the survival of an ancient script used by a prehistoric Nordic civilisation. This script, Wirth believed, was the world's oldest written language and had been the basis for all other ancient scripts. Wirth also believed that if he could decipher it, he could then learn the nature of the ancient religion of the Aryan race. This belief conflicted with established scholarly understandings of the past; by the 1930s, scholars were aware that the world's two oldest scripts were those of Mesopotamia and Egypt, and that northern Europe only developed its own form of literacy, that of the runes, under the influence of Etruscan script between 400 BCE to 50 CE. Attempting to explain the lack of any archaeological or historical evidence for an ancient advanced Nordic civilisation, Wirth claimed that the Aryans had evolved in an Arctic homeland two million years ago, before establishing their advanced society on a land in the North Atlantic, which had since sunken into the sea, giving rise to the stories about Atlantis.

Wirth's ideas were rejected and ridiculed by the German archaeological establishment, although they had gained the support of several wealthy backers, which assisted him in promoting them. Himmler was among those who liked Wirth's ideas. Himmler was interested in the pre-Christian religions of northern Europe, believing that a modern Pagan religion modelled on them could replace Christianity as the primary religion of the German people. Himmler disliked Christianity because of its Semitic origins, its presentation of Jesus of Nazareth as a Jew, and its advocacy of charity and compassion. Later, Himmler privately told his personal physician that after the Second World War, "the old Germanic gods will be restored".

History

Formation

On July 1, 1935, Himmler organised a meeting at the Berlin headquarters of the SS where he discussed his desire to launch a prehistoric research institute. Both Wirth and the agriculturalist Richard Walther Darré were present, and both responded with enthusiasm to the idea. The group was launched as a department of RuSHA. Wirth became the group's president, while Himmler took the role of superintendent, a position entailing considerable control by placing him in charge of its board of trustees. Its formal goal was "to promote the science of ancient intellectual history".

The organisation was initially named the "" (Society for the Study of the History of Primeval Ideas), but this was soon shortened to Ahnenerbe. This was a German term for "something inherited from the forefathers". The Ahnenerbe's first premises were at number 29 and 30 of the Brüderstrasse, a thirteenth-century street in Berlin. These corner buildings were rented from the city's department store magnate Rudolf Herdzog. Initially, it employed seven members of staff. Reflecting Wirth's fixation on the idea of an ancient Aryan script, the organisation's early focus was upon what Wirth called "script and symbol studies". One of its researchers, Yrjö von Grönhagen, was for instance tasked with collecting the Finnish wooden calendars which were engraved with various symbols.

Starting in 1934, Himmler began financially supporting and visiting excavations in Germany. This brought him into contact with archaeologists like , Hans Schleif,  and Wilhelm Unverzagt, director of the  in Berlin. Initially, there were two departments within the SS engaged in archaeology: the  of the  and the  at the RuSHA. The latter ("RA IIIB") was established in 1934 and was supposed to serve as a "general staff" for all SS activities related to prehistory. It was responsible for archaeological research and related propaganda and led by Rolf Höhne, a geologist. Höhne was eventually replaced by Peter Paulsen, an archaeologist, in October 1937. The department did not conduct any excavations itself, but was intended to extend the influence of the SS over other institutions, especially those responsible for education/research and monument preservation. In fact, Langsdorff did this in Himmler's personal staff. The department also tried to make use of pre-history in the training and indoctrination of SS members. When the RuSHA was restructured, the department was dissolved with its responsibilities passing to the . The  in Himmler's personal staff was established in 1935 on the initiative of Langsdorff. In March 1937, Höhne joined the leadership of this department. By 1937, it was responsible for SS excavations and maintained its own personnel for this activity.

The organization's official mission was twofold. Its first purpose was to reveal new evidence for the accomplishments of the ancestors of the modern Germans "using exact scientific methods". Its second purpose was to convey its findings to the German public through magazine articles, books, museum exhibits, and scholarly conferences.
According to Pringle, it was however "in the business of myth-making", repeatedly "distorting the truth and churning out carefully tailored evidence to support the racial ideas of Adolf Hitler." Some members of the Ahnenerbe consciously altered their evidence and interpretations to match Hitler's beliefs; others appear to have been unaware of how their adherence to Nazi doctrine was shaping their interpretations.

Himmler regarded the Ahnenerbe as an elite think tank which would sweep away previous scholarship on the development of humanity and reveal that Hitler's ideas on the subject were true.
Himmler also believed that the group's investigations might reveal ancient secrets about agriculture, medicine, and warfare which would benefit Nazi Germany.
It employed scholars from a wide range of academic fields, including archaeology, anthropology, ethnology, folkloristics, runology, Classics, history, musicology, philology, biology, zoology, botany, astronomy, and medicine. Himmler believed that scholars active in all of these different fields would piece together a view of the past that would revolutionise established interpretations; in his words, it would represent "hundreds of thousands of little mosaic stones, which portray the true picture of the origins of the world."

On July 1, 1935, at SS headquarters in Berlin, Himmler met with five "racial experts" representing Darré and with Wirth. Together they established an organization called the "German Ancestral Heritage—Society for the Study of the History of Primeval Ideas" (), shortened to its better-known form in 1937. At the meeting they designated its official goal, "to promote the science of ancient intellectual history," and appointed Himmler as its superintendent, with Wirth serving as its president. Himmler appointed Wolfram Sievers  (General Secretary) of the Ahnenerbe.

Through 1937, the Ahnenerbe was essentially engaged in amateur  research. Financial and academic pressure caused Himmler to start looking for an alternative to Wirth as early as the spring of 1936. In September, Hitler negatively referred to Wirth's beliefs regarding Atlantis and their influence on "Böttcherstrasse architecture" in a speech at the .

In March 1937, the Ahnenerbe was given a new statute, implementing the  (leader principle) and giving Himmler extensive powers. Wirth was deposed as president and appointed honorary president, a powerless position. Himmler's position as  was given more power.

Walther Wüst was appointed the new president of the Ahnenerbe. Wüst was an expert on India and a dean at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, working on the side as a  for the  (SD, Security Service). Referred to as The Orientalist by Wolfram Sievers, Wüst had been recruited by him in May 1936 because of his ability to simplify science for the common man. After being appointed president, Wüst began improving the Ahnenerbe, moving the offices to a new headquarters that cost  in the Dahlem neighborhood of Berlin. He also worked to limit the influence of "those he deemed scholarly upstarts," which included cutting communication with the RuSHA office of Karl Maria Wiligut.

The  led by Sievers was turned into the institution's . The Ahnenerbe was renamed . It was moved from the RuSHA to Himmlers's personal staff.

Wirth and Wilhelm Teudt lost their departments in Ahnenerbe in 1938. In 1939, the statutes were changed again and Wirth was deposed as honorary president. Himmler's and Wüsts' titles were switched with Himmler now the president. Next to Wüst, the academic with most influence in the institution after 1939 was Herbert Jankuhn, who in 1937 still had categorically rejected cooperation with the "unscientific" Ahnenerbe.

Ahnenerbe was a mix between an SS department and an . Membership was open to all natural and legal persons. Its staff were SS members, many also working in other SS positions, and thus subject to SS jurisdiction.

In late 1936, Ahnenerbe took over the publication of Teudt's magazine , first in cooperation with Teudt, then without him. The monthly now became the official voice of Ahnenerbe and was aimed at a wider audience. From December 1936, the magazine was distributed free of charge to all SS leaders.

Cooperation with other SS departments was initially limited, but improved after 1937. Contacts with the SD-HA and the editorial team of the SS weekly  intensified. Ahnenerbe eventually had the scientific responsibility for the  and in conjunction with the SS-HA, Ahnenerbe established  and .

In 1939, the Ahnenerbe held its first independent annual convention, at Kiel. The event's success contributed to the trend that archaeologists were increasingly turning to the Ahnenerbe and away from Alfred Rosenberg's rival .

In fiscal year 1938–1939, the budget for the excavations department was , about 12% of the Ahnenerbe's total budget. More than a third of that went to the Haithabu activities. Under Jankuhn's direction four more archaeological departments were set up: in April 1938 the  (a laboratory for analyzing pollen) was established at Dahlem under the leadership of . The  at Wilhelmshaven led by , the  led by Martin Rudolph and the  directed by  followed in 1939.

As a gift for Hitler's fiftieth birthday, among the presents which Himmler procured for him was a set of leather bound books, one of which was on the subject of the Ahnenerbe's research.

The Ahnenerbe sought to cultivate an air of professional integrity. The Ahnenerbe became an integral part of the SS.
By 1939, the Ahnenerbe employed 137 scholars and scientists, as well as 82 support workers, including artists, photographers, laboratory technicians, librarians, accountants, and secretaries.

The Holocaust
Himmler used the Ahnenerbe's research to fuel and justify the Holocaust. In a 1937 speech at Bad Tölz, Himmler announced that the bog bodies of northwestern Europe, which testified to an Iron Age tradition in which individuals were deliberately killed and deposited in bogs, must have represented the eradication of homosexuals. This was an idea that he had adopted from Ahnenerbe archaeologist Herbert Jankuhn. His adoption of this suggestion was linked to his homophobic fear that male homosexuality was transmittable and that it could spread within the ranks of the SS and other spaces of male bonding unless strong measures were implemented to prevent it. Himmler then claimed this alleged ancient tradition as legitimation for the extermination of homosexuals within his own society. As many as 15,000 gay men were rounded up and imprisoned in concentration camps, where up to 60 percent died.

Second World War
Amid the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Ahnenerbe sent a team into Warsaw to remove any items from its museums which they believed to be German in origin. In 1939, the Ahnenerbe's further four planned expeditions—to Iran, the Canary Islands, the Andes, and Iceland—were indefinitely postponed. At the end of the war in Europe, members of the Ahnenerbe destroyed much of the organisation's paperwork lest it incriminate them during future war crime tribunals.

Institutes

The Ahnenerbe had several different institutes or sections for its departments of research. Most of these were archeological but others included the Pflegestätte für Wetterkunde (Meteorology Section) headed by Obersturmführer Dr Hans Robert Scultetus, founded on the basis that Hanns Hörbiger's  could be used to provide accurate long-range weather forecasts, and a section devoted to musicology, whose aim was to determine "the essence" of German music. It recorded folk music on expeditions to Finland and the Faroe Islands, from ethnic Germans of the occupied territories, and in South Tyrol. The section made sound recordings, transcribed manuscripts and songbooks, and photographed and filmed instrument use and folk dances. The lur, a Bronze Age musical instrument, became central to this research, which concluded that Germanic consonance was in direct conflict to Jewish atonalism.

Expeditions

Karelia
In 1935, Himmler contacted a Finnish nobleman and author, Yrjö von Grönhagen, after seeing one of his articles about the Kalevala folklore in a Frankfurt newspaper. Grönhagen agreed to lead an expedition through the Karelia region of Finland to record pagan sorcerers and witches. Because there was uncertainty about whether the Karelians would allow photography, the Finnish illustrator Ola Forsell also accompanied the team. Musicologist  brought along a magnetophon, hoping to record pagan chants.

The team departed on their expedition in June 1936. Their first success was with a traditional singer, , who knew a song closely resembling one in the Kalevala although he was unaware of the book. Later, in Tolvajärvi, the team photographed and recorded Hannes Vornanen playing a traditional Finnish kantele.

One of the team's final successes was in finding Miron-Aku, a soothsayer believed to be a witch by locals. Upon meeting the group, she claimed to have foreseen their arrival. The team persuaded her to perform a ritual for the camera and tape recorder in which she summoned the spirits of ancestors and "divine[d] future events." The team also recorded information on Finnish saunas.

Bohuslän

After a slide show on February 19, 1936 of his trip to Bohuslän, a region in southwestern Sweden, Wirth convinced Himmler to launch an expedition to the region, the first official expedition financed by the Ahnenerbe. Bohuslän was known for its massive quantity of petroglyph rock carvings, which Wirth believed were evidence of an ancient writing system predating all known systems. Himmler appointed Wolfram Sievers to be the managing director of the expedition, likely because of Wirth's earlier troubles balancing finances.

On August 4, 1936, the expedition set off on a three-month trip, starting at the German island of Rügen, then continuing to Backa, the first recorded rock-art site in Sweden. Despite the existence of scenes showing warriors, animals and ships, Wirth focused on the lines and circles that he thought made up a prehistoric alphabet. While his studies were largely based on personal belief, rather than objective scientific research, Wirth made interpretations of the meanings of ideograms carved in the rock, such as a circle bisected by a vertical line representing a year and a man standing with raised arms representing what Wirth called "the Son of God." His team proceeded to make casts of what Wirth deemed the most important carvings and then carried the casts to camp, where they were crated and sent back to Germany. Once satisfied with their work at the site, the team set out on a trek through Sweden, eventually reaching the Norwegian island of Lauvøylandet.

Italy

In 1937, the Ahnenerbe sent the archaeologist Franz Altheim and his wife, the photographer Erika Trautmann, to Val Camonica, to study prehistoric rock inscriptions. The two returned to Germany claiming that they had found traces of Nordic runes on the rocks, supposedly confirming that ancient Rome was founded by Nordic incomers.
Also, an expedition to Sardinia was planned in the 1930s, but the reasons for it still remain unknown.

Central Eurasia
In 1938, Franz Altheim and his research partner Erika Trautmann requested the Ahnenerbe sponsor their expedition from Central Europe through Western Asia to study an internal power struggle of the Roman Empire, which they believed was fought between the Nordic and Semitic peoples. Eager to credit the vast success of the Roman Empire to people of a Nordic background, the Ahnenerbe agreed to match the  put forward by Hermann Göring, an old friend of Trautmann's.

In August 1938, after spending a few days traveling through remote hills searching for ruins of Dacian kingdoms, the two researchers arrived at their first major stop in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. There Grigore Florescu, the director of the Municipal Museum, met with them, and discussed both history and the politics of the day, including the activities of the Iron Guard.

After traveling through Istanbul, Athens, and Lebanon, the researchers went to Damascus. They were not welcomed by the French, who ruled Syria as a colony at the time. The newly-sovereign Kingdom of Iraq was being courted for an alliance with Germany, and Fritz Grobba, the German envoy to Baghdad, arranged for Altheim and Trautmann to meet with local researchers and be driven to Parthian and Persian ruins in southern Iraq, as well as Babylon.

Through Baghdad, the team went north to Assur where they met Sheikh Adjil el Yawar, a leader of the Shammar Bedouin tribe and commander of the northern Camel Corps. He discussed German politics and his desire to duplicate the success of Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud who had recently ascended to power in Saudi Arabia. With his support, the team traveled to their final major stop, the ruins of Hatra on the former border between the Roman and Persian empires.

New Swabia

The third German Antarctic Expedition took place between 1938 and 1939. It was led by Alfred Ritscher (1879–1963).

Germany

Hedeby
Excavations that had been ongoing at Hedeby since 1930 were formally put under the aegis of Ahnenerbe in 1938 by Jankuhn.

Baden-Württemberg
In 1937–1938, Gustav Riek led an excavation at the Heuneburg on the Danube in Baden-Württemberg, where an ancient fortress had been discovered much earlier. The Ahnenerbe thus won out over Hans Reinerth of the  who had competed for the excavation. Riek focused on the burial mound known as  where he found the main burial chamber to have been plundered in antiquity. In its direct vicinity another grave was discovered, however, that included rich grave furnishings. Due to the outbreak of war in 1939 the excavations were discontinued.

A private expedition by Richard Anders and Wiligut into the Murg Valley of northwestern Baden-Württemberg had nothing to do with the Ahnenerbe.

Mauern
The Ahnenerbe also was active in the  (Mauern caves) in the Franconian Jura. R.R. Schmidt discovered red ochre, a common pigment for cave paintings made by the Cro-Magnon.

In autumn 1937, , a Frisian nationalist who had applied to the SS Excavations Department earlier that year, took over the excavation. His team proceeded to find artifacts such as burins, ivory pendants, and a woolly mammoth skeleton. They also discovered Neanderthal remains buried with what appeared to be throwing spears and javelins, a technology thought to have been developed by the Cro-Magnons.

Bohmers interpreted this to mean that Cro-Magnons had left these stones in the caves over 70,000 years before, and this was therefore the oldest Cro-Magnon site in the world. To validate his claims, Bohmers traveled around Europe speaking with colleagues and organizing exhibitions, notably in the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

France
At the Parisian Institute for Human Paleontology, Bohmers met with Abbé Henri Breuil, an expert on cave art. Breuil arranged for Bohmers to visit Trois Frères, a site whose owners allowed only a small number of visitors. First, however, Bohmers took a quick trip to London, followed by a tour of several other French points of interest: Font-de-Gaume (a site featuring Cro-Magnon cave paintings), Teyat, La Mouthe and the caves of Dordogne. Then Bohmers moved on to Les Trois-Frères.

Bayeux Tapestry
The Ahnenerbe took great interest in the 900-year-old Bayeux Tapestry. In June 1941, its staff oversaw the transport of the tapestry from its home in Bayeux Cathedral to an abbey at Juaye-Mondaye, and finally to the Château de Sourches. In August 1944, after Paris was liberated by the Allies, two members of the SS were dispatched to Paris to retrieve the tapestry, which had been moved into the basement of the Louvre. Contrary to Himmler's orders, however, they chose not to attempt to enter the Louvre, most likely because of the strong presence of the French Resistance in the historic area.

Tibet

In 1937, Himmler decided that he could increase the Ahnenerbe's visibility by investigating Hans F. K. Günther's claims that early Aryans had conquered much of Asia, including attacks against China and Japan in approximately 2000 BC, and that Gautama Buddha was himself an Aryan offshoot of the Nordic race. Walther Wüst later expanded on this theory, stating in a public speech that Adolf Hitler's ideology corresponded with that of the Buddha, since the two shared a common heritage. However, according to contemporary research Hitler himself was not interested in Buddhism or Tibet.

Poland

After the invasion of Poland in September 1939, Wolfram Sievers wrote to Himmler stressing the need to appropriate exhibits from numerous museums. Reich Security Main Office (RSHA)  Franz Six oversaw  , who was commanding a small team that entered Kraków to obtain the 15th-century Veit Stoss altar. Because the Poles had foreseen the German interest in the altar, they had disassembled it into 32 pieces, which were shipped to different locations, but Paulsen located each piece, and on October 14, 1939, he returned to Berlin with the altar in three small trucks and had it stored in the locked treasury of the Reichsbank. After conferring with Hitler, who had not initially been told of the operation to capture it, it was decided to send the altar to an underground vault in Nuremberg, for safety.

Reinhard Heydrich, then head of RSHA, sent Paulsen back to Kraków in order to seize additional museum collections, but Göring had already sent a team of his own men, commanded by  Kajetan Mühlmann under the supervision of Dagobert Frey, to loot the museums. Mühlmann agreed to let Paulsen take items of scholarly interest back to the Ahnenerbe, while keeping artworks for Göring. During the looting, Hans Frank, the head of the German General Government in occupied Poland, issued an order dated November 22, 1939 prohibiting the "unapproved export" of Polish items. Paulsen obeyed the order, but his colleague Hans Schleif arranged for five freightcars of loot from the Warsaw Archaeological Museum to be shipped to Poznań, which was outside Frank's control. In return, Schleif was appointed as a trustee for Wartheland. Paulsen later tried to take credit for the freightcars' contents in his report to RuSHA, but was reassigned.

Eduard Paul Tratz of the Ahnenerbe also removed some exhibits from the State Zoological Museum in Warsaw to the Haus der Natur, the museum in Salzburg of which he was founder and director.

Crimea
After the German Army conquered the Crimea in early July 1942, Himmler sent Herbert Jankuhn, as well as  and Baron Wolf von Seefeld, to the region in search of artifacts to follow up the recent display of the Kerch "Gothic crown of the Crimea" in Berlin.

Jankuhn met with senior officers of  11, part of , while waiting at the field headquarters of the 5th SS Panzer Division. Commander Otto Ohlendorf gave Jankuhn information about the Crimean museums. Traveling with the 5th SS Panzer, Jankuhn's team eventually reached Maykop, where they received a message from Sievers that Himmler wanted an investigation of Mangup Kale, an ancient mountain fortress. Jankuhn sent Kersten to follow up on Mangup Kale, while the rest of the team continued trying to secure artifacts that had not already been taken by the Red Army.  11b's commander Werner Braune aided the team.

Jankuhn was ultimately unable to find Gothic artifacts denoting a German ancestry, even after intelligence about a shipment of 72 crates of artifacts shipped to a medical warehouse. The area had been ravaged by the time the team arrived and only 20 crates remained, but they contained Greek and stone-age artifacts, rather than Gothic.

Ukraine
In June 1943, 27-year-old SS-Untersturmführer Heinz Brücher, who held a PhD from Tübingen in botany, was tasked with an expedition to Ukraine and Crimea.  Konrad von Rauch and an interpreter identified as Steinbrecher were also involved in the expedition.

In February 1945, Brücher was ordered to destroy the Ahnenerbe's 18 active research facilities to avoid their capture by advancing Soviet forces. He refused, and after the war continued his work as a botanist in Argentina and Trinidad.

Cancelled expeditions

Bolivia

After winning  in a writing contest, Edmund Kiss traveled to Bolivia in 1928 to study the ruins of temples in the Andes. He claimed that their apparent similarity to ancient European structures indicated that they had been designed by Nordic migrants millions of years earlier. He also claimed that his findings supported the World Ice Theory, which held that the universe originated from a cataclysmic clash between gigantic balls of ice and glowing mass. Arthur Posnansky had been studying a local site called Tiwanaku, which he also believed supported the theory.

After contacting Posnansky, Kiss approached Wüst for help planning an expedition to excavate Tiwanaku and a nearby site, Siminake. The team would consist of 20 scientists, who would excavate for a year and also explore Lake Titicaca, and take aerial photographs of ancient Incan roads they believed had Nordic roots. By late August 1939, the expedition was nearly set to embark, but the invasion of Poland caused the expedition to be postponed indefinitely.

Iran
In 1938, the Ahnenerbe's president, Walther Wüst, proposed a trip to Iran to study the Behistun Inscription, which had been created by order of the Achaemenid Shah Darius I, who had declared himself to have been of  Aryan origin in his inscriptions. The inscriptions were recorded atop steep cliffs using scaffolding that was removed after the inscriptions were made. Unable to afford the cost of erecting new scaffolds, Wüst proposed that he, his wife, an amanuensis, an Iranian student, a photographer and an experienced mountaineer be sent with a balloon-mounted camera. The onset of the war, however, saw the trip postponed indefinitely.

Canary Islands
Early travelers to the Canary Islands had described the Guanche natives as having golden-blond hair and white skin, and mummies had been found with blond tresses—facts which Wirth believed indicated that the islands had once been inhabited by Nordics. His colleague Otto Huth proposed an autumn of 1939 expedition to study the ancient islanders' racial origins, artifacts and religious rites. At the time, the Canary Islands were part of Francisco Franco's fascist Spanish State (). Because Franco refused to side with the Axis when the war started, however, the trip was cancelled.

Iceland
Bruno Schweizer had already traveled to Iceland three times in 1938 when he proposed an Ahnenerbe expedition with seven others to the country in order to learn about their ancient farming practices and architecture, record folksongs and dances, and also collect soil samples for pollen analysis.

The first setback for the expedition was the ridicule of the Scandinavian press, publishing stories in February 1939 claiming the expedition was based on false ideas about Icelandic heritage and sought old church records that did not even exist. An enraged Himmler publicly shut down the trip, but after calming down he allowed the planning of the trip to be secretly continued. The final setback occurred when Himmler's personal staff was unable to get enough Icelandic crowns—Iceland's currency. Not being able to quickly solve this problem, the trip was rescheduled for the summer of 1940. In May 1940, the British invaded neutral Iceland, but when the war had started the expedition had already been shelved.

In 1940, following the British occupation of Iceland, the Ahnenerbe-funded Bruno Kress, a German researcher who was in the country at the time, was rounded up along with other German nationals present on the island. Kress was interned in Ramsey on the Isle of Man, but was allowed to correspond with Sievers through letters. Kress's Grammar of Icelandic was eventually published in East Germany in 1955. Kress later worked for the East German  (Stasi).

Other Ahnenerbe activities

Master Plan East

After being appointed Commissioner for the Strengthening of the German Race, Himmler set to work with Konrad Meyer on developing a plan for three large German colonies in the eastern occupied territories. Leningrad, northern Poland and the Crimea would be the focal points of these colonies intended to spread the Aryan race. The Crimean colony was called Gotengau, "Goth district", in honor of the Crimean Goths who had settled there and were believed to be Aryan ancestors of the Germans.

Himmler estimated that Aryanization of the region would take twenty years, first expelling all the undesirable populations, then re-distributing the territory to appropriate Aryan populations. In addition to changing the demographics of the region, Himmler also intended to plant oak and beech trees to replicate traditional German forests, as well as plant new crops brought back from Tibet. To achieve the latter end, Himmler ordered a new institution set up by the Ahnenerbe and headed by Schäfer. A station was then set up near the Austrian town of Graz where Schäfer set to work with seven other scientists to develop new crops for the Reich.

The final piece of the puzzle fell into place after Hitler read a work by Alfred Frauenfeld which suggested resettling inhabitants of South Tyrol, believed by some to be descendants of the Goths, to Crimea. In 1939 the South Tyroleans were ordered by Hitler and Benito Mussolini to vote on whether they wanted to remain in Italy and accept assimilation or emigrate to Germany. Over 80% chose the latter (for details see South Tyrol Option Agreement). Himmler presented the  to Hitler and received approval in July 1942.

Full implementation of the plan was not feasible because of the war, but a small colony was founded around Himmler's field headquarters at Hegewald, near Kiev. Starting on October 10, 1942, Himmler's troops deported 10,623 Ukrainians from the area in cattle cars before bringing in trains of ethnic Germans () from northern Ukraine. The SS authorities gave families supplies as well as land, but also informed them of quotas of food they would be required to produce for the SS.

Failed seizure of Tacitus manuscript
The Ahnenerbe had tried to gain possession of the Codex Aesinas, a famous medieval copy of Tacitus' Germania. Although Mussolini had originally promised it as a gift in 1936, it remained in the possession of the Count Aurelio Baldeschi Guglielmi Balleani outside Ancona, from where the Ahnenerbe tried to obtain it after Mussolini was deposed.

Headquarters relocation
On July 29, 1943, the Royal Air Force's firebombing of Hamburg led Himmler to order the immediate evacuation of the main Ahnenerbe headquarters in Berlin. The extensive library was moved to Schloss Oberkirchberg near Ulm while the staff was moved to the tiny village of Waischenfeld near Bayreuth, Bavaria. The building selected was the 17th century . While much of the staff was not ecstatic about the primitive conditions, Sievers seemed to have embraced the isolation.

Financing
Financially, the Ahnenerbe was separate from the Nazi Party treasury and had to find funding from other sources including membership dues and donations. After 1938, it received funds from the . In addition, a foundation () was established, set up with funds from business leaders. One of the largest donations, approximately , came from Deutsche Bank boardmember Emil Georg von Stauß associates, including BMW and Daimler-Benz. The foundation also received royalties from patents partially held by the SS (see below). During the war, Ahnenerbe also received money from other SS departments and profited from the  of Jewish property—its headquarters in Dahlem had been purchased at half its market value. In 1940, another estate in Munich was added.

In 1936, the SS formed a joint company with Anton Loibl, a machinist and driving instructor. The SS had heard about reflector pedals for bicycles, that Loibl and others had been developing. Assuring that Loibl got the patent himself, Himmler then used his political weight to ensure the passing of a 1939 law requiring the use of the new reflective pedals—of which the Ahnenerbe received a share of the profits,  in 1938.

Medical experiments
The  ("Institute for Military Scientific Research"), which conducted extensive medical experiments using human subjects, became attached to the Ahnenerbe during World War II. It was managed by Wolfram Sievers. Sievers had founded the organization on the orders of Himmler, who appointed him director with two divisions headed by Sigmund Rascher and August Hirt, and funded by the Waffen-SS.

Dachau
Sigmund Rascher was tasked with helping the Luftwaffe determine what was safe for their pilots—because aircraft were being built to fly higher than ever before. He applied for and received permission from Himmler to requisition camp prisoners to place in vacuum chambers to simulate the high altitude conditions that pilots might face.

Rascher was also tasked with discovering how long German airmen would be able to survive if shot down above freezing water. His victims were forced to remain out of doors naked in freezing weather for up to 14 hours, or kept in a tank of icewater for 3 hours, their pulse and internal temperature measured through a series of electrodes. Warming of the victim was then attempted by different methods, most usually and successfully by immersion in very hot water, and also less conventional methods such as placing the subject in bed with women who would try to sexually stimulate him, a method suggested by Himmler.

Rascher experimented with the effects of Polygal, a substance made from beets and apple pectin, on coagulating blood flow to help with gunshot wounds. Subjects were given a Polygal tablet, and shot through the neck or chest, or their limbs amputated without anaesthesia. Rascher published an article on his experience of using Polygal, without detailing the nature of the human trials, and also set up a company to manufacture the substance, staffed by prisoners.

Similar experiments were conducted from July to September 1944, as the Ahnenerbe provided space and materials to doctors at Dachau concentration camp to undertake "seawater experiments", chiefly through Sievers. Sievers is known to have visited Dachau on July 20, to speak with Ploetner and the non-Ahnenerbe Wilhelm Beiglboeck, who ultimately carried out the experiments.

Skulls
Walter Greite rose to leadership of the Ahnenerbe's Applied Nature Studies division in January 1939, and began taking detailed measurements of 2,000 Jews at the Vienna emigration office—but scientists were unable to use the data. On December 10, 1941, Bruno Beger met with Sievers and convinced him of the need for 120 Jewish skulls. During the later Nuremberg Trials, Friedrich Hielscher testified that Sievers had initially been repulsed at the idea of expanding the Ahnenerbe to human experimentation, and that he had "no desire whatsoever to participate in these."
 Jewish skeleton collection: Beger collaborated with August Hirt, of the Reich University of Strassburg, in creating a Jewish skeleton collection for research. The bodies of 86 Jewish men and women were ultimately collected and macerated.

Post-World War II

Trials

 Wolfram Sievers: In Waischenfeld American troops captured a slew of documents that would be used in the case against Sievers which would be a part of the Doctors' Trial. Sievers was charged for aiding in the Jewish skull collection and human medical experiments at Dachau and Natzweiler. In his defense, Sievers claimed he had helped a resistance group since 1929, which was supported by testimony from Friedrich Hielscher on April 15, 1947. Sievers was nevertheless found guilty on all four counts on August 21, 1947, and sentenced to death. He was hanged on June 2, 1948, at Landsberg Prison.
 Richard Walther Darré: One of the founders of the Ahnenerbe, Darré was tried in the Ministries Trial. He received seven years imprisonment after being found not guilty on more serious charges.
 Edmund Kiss: His Bolivia trip having been cancelled, Kiss served in the armed forces the rest of the war, taking command of SS men at Wolfschanze near the end. He was interned in the Darmstadt camp after the war, but was released in June 1947 due to severe diabetes. His de-Nazification classification was as a "major offender". This allowed him to only take a manual labor job. Following this decision, Kiss hired a lawyer to protest this decision, a major component of his case being he had never been a member of the Nazi Party. After somewhat renouncing his past, Kiss was reclassified as a Mitläufer in 1948 and fined 501 DM.
 Walther Wüst: Although the president of the Ahnenerbe from 1937 until the end of the war, Wüst's claims that he was unaware of any medical experiments were acknowledged, and in 1950 he was classified as a Mitläufer and released, returning to the University of Munich as a professor-in-reserve.
 Bruno Beger: In February 1948, Beger was classified as "exonerated" by a denazification tribunal unaware of his role in the skeleton collection. In 1960, an investigation into the collection began in Ludwigsburg, and Beger was taken into custody on March 30, 1960. He was released four months later, but the investigation continued until coming to trial on October 27, 1970. Beger claimed that he was unaware the Auschwitz prisoners he measured were to be killed. While two others indicted in the trial were released, Beger was convicted on April 6, 1971, and sentenced to three years in prison for being an accomplice in the murder of 86 Jews. Neither of his colleagues with whom he was tried, Hans Fleischhacker and Wolf-Dietrich Wolff, was convicted.

Legacy

Academic study
During the 20th century, little scholarly research into the Ahnenerbe took place. Many scholars had likely been dissuaded from exploring the subject because ex-Ahnenerbe members held prominent academic positions in West Germany and did not want younger historians or archaeologists investigating their links with the SS. The main scholar to explore the subject in this period was a Canadian historian, Michael Kater, who conducted his research while in Germany. As the University of Heidelberg sought to publish Kater's thesis on the subject in 1966, Walther Wüst unsuccessfully tried to legally prevent it from doing so. Kater's research was then published in 1974 as Das "Ahnenerbe" der SS 1935–1945.

Following German unification in 1990, Achim Leube began an examination of the surviving historical evidence on the Ahnenerbe, much of which had been based in West Germany. In November 1998, Leube oversaw an international academic conference in Berlin on the Nazis' relationship with prehistory.

Influence in pseudo-archaeology
Many of the ideas inherited or developed by the Ahnenerbe remain influential. Canadian author Heather Pringle has particularly drawn attention to the influence of Edmund Kiss' various "crackpot theories" concerning such matters as the World Ice Theory and the origins of Tiwanaku upon subsequent writers such as H.S. Bellamy, Denis Saurat and, later, Graham Hancock.

In popular culture

Much misinformation about the Ahnenerbe has circulated, due in part to adaptations of the group in fiction, and historically dubious conspiracy theories that sometimes confuse the Ahnenerbe with the roughly contemporaneous Thule Society, or the historically unverified Vril society.

The Ahnenerbe formed the basis for the depiction in the Indiana Jones franchise of Nazis searching for religious artifacts.

The antagonist of the 2019 animated film, Lupin III: The First is part of a fictional branch of the Ahnenerbe.

Fictional SS Paranormal Division from Return to Castle Wolfenstein video game is based on Ahnenerbe.

See also
 Deutsche Physik and Deutsche Mathematik
 List of Nazi Party organizations
 List of Ahnenerbe institutes
 Nazi mysticism
 Reich Research Council
 Thule Society
 Kokugaku, a similar, if earlier, project to recapture legendary heritage in Japan

References

Bibliography

 Цибулькін В. В., Лисюк І. П. СС-Аненербе: розсекречені файли. – К. – Хмельницький: Поділля, 2010. – 288 с. (Tsibulkin V.V., Lysyuk I.P. (2010). SS-Anenerbe: declassified files. - K. - (in Ukrainian). Khmelnytskyi: Podillia)

External links

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Nazi SS
Occultism in Nazism
Nazi culture
Nazi Party organizations
Pseudoarchaeology
Pseudohistory
Organizations established in 1935
Organizations disestablished in 1945
1935 establishments in Germany
Heinrich Himmler
1945 disestablishments in Germany
Science in Nazi Germany

Ahnenerbe


White Fang () is a 2018 French-Luxembourgish computer-animated film directed by Alexandre Espigares. Based on the 1906 book of the same name by Jack London, the film features the voices of Nick Offerman, Rashida Jones, Paul Giamatti, and Eddie Spears as natives of Alaska who, at different times, come to know White Fang, a free spirited and at times violent wolfdog who eventually bonds with Offerman's character, a gentle master named Weedon Scott. The film also features Dave Boat, Daniel Hagen, and Stephen Kramer Glickman in the original English version, and Virginie Efira, Raphaël Personnaz, and Dominique Pinon in the French dub.

The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2018. After a limited theatrical run in France and the United States, Netflix acquired the film and released it later that year, on July 6, 2018. The film received positive reviews from critics and audiences. During its theatrical run, White Fang grossed $7.8 million worldwide.

Plot
White Fang, a wolfdog, is mauled during a dog fight. Town marshal Weedon Scott tries to interfere, but White Fang's owner, Beauty Smith, overpowers him, knocking him out with his cane. When the police search for Weedon, he runs away.

In a flashback, White Fang lives with his mother, another wolfdog. While searching for a shelter, they get attacked by a lynx. White Fang's mother successfully kills the predator, but not without injury. While Scott camps for the night after escaping a pack of wolves with Hank, another Marshall, and Jim Hall, a criminal being transported to prison, White Fang and his mother head to their campground to search for food. Hank notices the pair and attempts to shoot White Fang's mother to put her down due to her injured leg. Scott stops Hank from killing White Fang's mother and instead gives White Fang a piece of salmon, saying that he might be able to return the favour in the future. White Fang and Kiche then end up encountering the pack of wolves Weedon encountered. Kiche then throws the salmon towards the pack to distract them, giving her and White Fang a chance to escape.

While searching for food the following morning, White Fang and his mother come across an Indigenous camp. When a man named Three Eagles attempts to kill White Fang's mother, Grey Beaver, another man recognises her as Kiche, his old sled dog. Three Eagles leaves Kiche to Grey Beaver, who decides to train her to become a sled dog again. Later, Hank comes to the camp area to tell the Indigenous people that their land is currently on sale due to a recent gold strike, and Grey Beaver resolves to buy back the land by selling beaver pelt mittens in Fort Yukon.

When Grey Beaver realises that there are no beavers on his side of the land, he decides to give Kiche to a man named William in exchange for trapping beavers on William's side. After selling the amount of mittens he needs to buy back the land, Grey Beaver travels to Fort Yukon with White Fang, where they run into Smith. Smith attempts to buy White Fang to make him a fighting dog, an offer that Grey Beaver declines. Smith and his henchman Curtis then force Grey Beaver to sell White Fang after stealing his money the night before.

Smith and Curtis then take White Fang to participate in dog fights, where he wins all his matches, including a match against a lynx. He eventually fights against two dogs and passes out after getting mauled by them in the ring. White Fang awakens near a cabin, where and injured Weedon and his wife, Maggie live. The next morning, Weedon and Maggie find out that White Fang went through a hole in their chicken coop, killing a few of the birds. Maggie then blocks the hole and leaves White Fang in after telling him that he can't kill the chickens. She then goes back to Weedon to tell him that she is pregnant and they agree to go back to San Francisco. After that, they check on White Fang, who is calmly resting with the chickens in the coop.

After White Fang is taken back from Smith and Curtis by Scott and Maggie, Smith enlists the help of Hall, who recently escaped prison, to attack the couple. While White Fang and Scott are hiking, Hall attacks them. White Fang manages to fight him off with Scott and the two rush home to see that Maggie is being held at knifepoint by Curtis and Smith. Smith attempts to hit Scott with his cane when White Fang intercepts him, snatching the cane away from him and snapping it with his jaws. After a tiring fight and chase, Curtis, Smith, and Hall are escorted to prison by Hank.

Exhausted and satisfied with their new life, Scott and Maggie head to San Francisco with White Fang. However, Scott decides to set him free in the wild after he sees White Fang sadly looking back at the woods. White Fang then runs away as fast as he can into the woods until he reaches a cliff. He then howls so loudly that Grey Beaver, Kiche and William can hear his cry. After howling, he then rushes back into the woods.

Voice cast
Nick Offerman as Marshal Weedon Scott
Rashida Jones as Maggie Scott
Paul Giamatti as Beauty Smith
Eddie Spears as Grey Beaver
Dave Boat as Jim Hall
Sean Kenin as Bookie
Raquel Antonia as Vichi
Daniel Hagen as Marshal Todd
Stephen Kramer Glickman as Ned
William Calvert as William
Jason Grasl as Three Eagles
Armando Riesco as Curtis

Reception
The film received mostly positive reviews from critics and audiences.

Guy Lodge of Variety called it a "a visually marvelous, dramatically uneven spin" on the source material, writing that, "close canine sympathy is one thing this kind-hearted, beautifully conceived but, well, slightly toothless 'White Fang' gets right throughout." Lodge criticized the film's pacing, voice acting, and lack of personality, but praised its animation and artistic style, and felt that it was an enjoyable movie for its target demographic of young children. Kate Erbland of IndieWire gave the film a B grade, wrote that it "offers up warm-hearted charms and often stunning animation", praising its animation and message.

Awards and accolades

References

External links

2018 films
2018 computer-animated films
2010s children's animated films
French animated feature films
French children's films
2010s French-language films
Animated films about friendship
Films based on White Fang
2010s English-language films
2010s French films

White Fang (2018 film)


Qstock is an annual two-day rock festival held at the end of July in Oulu, Finland.
The festival lineup includes some of the biggest names in both the domestic and international music scene, regardless of the genre. The first Qstock festival was organised in 2003. The festival has quickly grown into the biggest summer event in northern Finland, with 30,000 visitors. As of July 2022, Qstock has been sold out nine times in a row. The festival acts as sort of a successor of the former Kuusrock festival which was organised in Oulu from the 1970s until the early 1990s.

Qstock is organised by Qstock Ltd and the event's official, promotional vehicle is a white/yellow coloured VW Kleinbus from 1965.

Qstock has its online TV channel called 'QTV' which releases new episodes throughout the Spring, with interviews from each summer's upcoming festival lineup. The full length episodes can be viewed via Qstock Festival's Youtube channel.

Lineup

2003

1st Qstock was organised in Oulu, 18 – 19 July 2003. The organisers expected the festival to get approximately 2,000 visitors, but eventually the number grew to approximately 7,000 visitors. The lineup included, amongst others; Sentenced, Negative and Radiopuhelimet.

2004

2nd Qstock was organised in Kuusisaari, Oulu, 23 – 24 July 2004.

The lineup included a.o. Kotiteollisuus, Sentenced and Suburban Tribe. The 2004 event also saw the comeback performance of Brussel Kaupallinen.

2005

3rd Qstock was organised in Oulu,  29 – 30 July 2005.

The lineup included a.o. Apulanta, CMX, Hidria Spacefolk, Negative, Moses Hazy, The 69 Eyes, The Coffinshakers and Kuolleet Intiaanit.

2006

4th Qstock was organised in Oulu, 28 – 29 July 2006.

The lineup included Motörhead, Paradise Lost, The Cardigans, Anekdoten, Sonata Arctica, Egotrippi, PMMP, Tiktak, Mokoma, Negative, Poets of the Fall, Tuomari Nurmio, Lemonator, Kemopetrol, Teräsbetoni, Amorphis, Diablo, Poisonblack and Shade Empire.

The festival area also included a huge tent called 'Happiteltta', organised by a local Trank-collective, featuring artists such as Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators, Modeselektor (D), Thomas Brinkmann (D), Zentex (D), Kiki & Silversurfer, Magyar Posse, Plutonium 74, and I Was a Teenage Satan Worshipper.

In 2006 the festival capacity was significantly increased by bringing the main entrance closer to the city center. The visitor traffic rush at entrances was also decreased by organising ticket > wristband exchange spots in the city central.

2007

5th Qstock was organised in Oulu, 27 – 28 July 2007.

The lineup included a.o. Turbonegro, The Coffinshakers, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Sparzanza, Celtic Frost, The Rasmus, Hanoi Rocks, Stam1na, Sonata Arctica, Poets of the Fall, Sunrise Avenue, CMX, Von Hertzen Brothers, Zen Cafe, Maija Vilkkumaa, PMMP, Tarot, Mieskuoro Huutajat and Morley.

2008

6th Qstock festival was organised in Kuusisaari, Oulu, 25 – 26 July 2008.

The lineup included a.o. Manic Street Preachers, Within Temptation, Dark Tranquility, Poets of the Fall, Ismo Alanko Teholla, Sturm ind Drang, J&J, Kotiteollisuus, 22 Pistepirkko, Scandinavian Music Group, Mokoma, Stam1na, Diablo, Entwine, PMMP, YUP, Amorphis, Aknestik, Leverage, and Seith. The so-called "Jälkikäynti-club" featured the heavy metal band W.A.S.P. The "Happiteltta" featured The Field, 120 Days, Äänijännite, Eero Johannes, Komytea and Artificial Latvamäki.

2009

7th Qstock festival was organised in Kuusisaari, Oulu, 24 – 25 July 2009.

The lineup included a.o. Pain, Sparzanza, Major Parkinson, Heaven and Hell, Elephant 9, Apulanta, Pete Parkkonen, Happoradio, Maija Vilkkumaa, Haloo Helsinki!, Kotiteollisuus, Radiopuhelimet, Sacred Crucifix, Tuomari Nurmio, PMMP, Op:l Bastards, Amorphis, The Black League, CMX, Egotrippi, The Rasmus, Kauko Röyhkä & Rättö & Lehtisalo, Stam1na, Anna Puu and Cheek.

2010

The 8th Qstock festival was organised in Kuusisaari, Oulu, on 30 – 31 July 2010.

The lineup included Meshuggah, Raised Fist, Europe, Gösta Berlings Saga, Chisu, Eppu Normaali, Sonata Arctica, Husky Rescue, Eläkeläiset, Ismo Alanko & Teho-osasto, Doom Unit, Samuli Putro, Jenni Vartiainen, Amorphis, Fintelligens, Viikate, J. Karjalainen Polkabilly Rebels, Klamydia, Tuomo, Stam1na, Mokoma and Radiopuhelimet.

2011

The 9th Qstock festival was organised in Kuusisaari & Raatti, Oulu, 29 – 30 July 2011.

The lineup on Fri 29: Children of Bodom, Happoradio, Paleface, Petri Nygård, Laura Närhi, CMX, Omnium Gatherum, Barbe-Q-Barbies, Amorphis, Scarified, Radiopuhelimet, Terveet Kädet, Regina, Haloo Helsinki!, Reetta and Sininen Kaappi

Lineup on Sat 30: Twisted Sister, Mustasch, Wold People, The Posies, Jenni Vartiainen, Von Hertzen Brothers, Cheek, Apulanta, Stam1na, Jukka Poika & Sound Explosion Band, Anna Puu, The Mama King, Michael Monroe, Anna Abreu, Antti Tuisku, Jukka Takalo, Stache, 2-7 Miehen trio and Satellite Stories.

2012

The 10th Qstock festival was organised in Kuusisaari & Raatti, Oulu, 27 – 28 July 2012.

Lineup on Fri 27: Michael Monroe, Apocalyptica, PMMP, Sonata Arctica, Iiris Vesik, Jippu, Notkea Rotta, French Films, Satan Takes A Holiday, Kotiteollisuus, Klamydia, Paprika Korps, Black City, Radiopuhelimet, Matalat Majat, Madhatter, JVG, Petri Nygård, Haterial, TKU 10, Ruger Hauer, Gracias, Relentless, For the Imperium and Salaseura.

Lineup on Sat 28: Roxette, Arch Enemy, Amaranthe, Apulanta, Chisu, Jukka Poika & Sound Explosion Band, Kauko Röyhkä & Narttu, Reckless Love, Emma Salokoski Ensemble, Stam1na, Sparzanza, Fintelligens, Death Letters, Pariisin Kevät, Viikate, Haloo Helsinki!, Martti Servo ja Napander, Diandra Flores, Sara, Tes La Rok, Kirsi Helena, Solonen, Hebosagil, Olli PA & OPP, Swallow The Sun, Before The Dawn, Satellite Stories, Tunguska Press, Ruudolf ja Karri Koira, Stepa & Are, Väinö Tuonela & Kerettiläiset, Bongo Rock, Kairon; IRSE!, Torttu and Apina.

2013
The 11th Qstock festival was organised in Kuusisaari & Raatti, Oulu, 26 – 27 July 2013. The festival was sold out with 30,000 visitors.

Lineup on Fri 26: J. Karjalainen, Krista Siegfrids, Temple Balls, Levon Zoltar, PMMP, Bloodred Hourglass, Julma-Henri x RPK, Kotiteollisuus, First Aid Kit, Pearly Gates, Michael Monroe, Battle Beast, Teflon Brothers, Turmion Kätilöt, The Scenes, Kolmas Nainen, Anna Puu, Shining, Stig & Kullankaivajat, Von Hertzen Brothers, Mariska & Pahat Sudet, Dimi, Sini Sabotage, Within Temptation, Eevil Stöö, DJ Kridlokk & Koksukoo, and Radiopuhelimet.

Lineup on Sat 27: Jonne Aaron, Elämän Jani & Totuuden Todistajat, Antti Tuisku, Eva & Manu, Petri Nygård, Raappana & Sound Explosion Band, Justimus and Nost3 & Protro, ESOM, Cheek, Santa Cruz, Funksons, Mokoma, Satellite Stories, Domovoyd, Jukka Poika & Sound Explosion Band, Rytmihäiriö, Laineen Kasperi & Palava Kaupunki, Disco Ensemble, Laura Närhi, Kalmah, Amorphis, Pää Kii, Inner Circle, Haloo Helsinki!, Fuckface Unstoppable, Mushmouthed Talk, Eppu Normaali, Bombus, Elokuu, Katatonia, Karri Koira, The Magnettes, HIM, Stepa & Are and Wöyh.

2014

The 12th Qstock festival was organised in Kuusisaari & Raatti, Oulu, on 25 – 26 July 2014. The festival was sold out. Pre-announced festival headliners were Volbeat for Friday 25 and Megadeth for Saturday 26 July.

Lineup on Fri 25: Happoradio, Nopsajalka, Alataajuus-deejiit, Magic Meredith, Erin, Lost Society, Risto, Viikate, Graveyard, Nuoret Marttyyrit, Sonata Arctica, Iisa, Elastinen, Michael Monroe, Scandinavian Music Group, Pummiharmonia, Jenni Vartiainen, Kypck, Gracias & The Globe Band, J. Karjalainen, DJ Q, Sanni, Tuomas Henrikin Jeesuksen Kristuksen Bändi, Kasmir, Juju and Radiopuhelimet.

Lineup on Sat 26: Softengine, Alataajuus-deejiit, Joma, Jukka Poika & Sound Explosion Band, The Blanko, Setä Tamu, Kuningas Pähkinä, Mäkki, Kube, Chebaleba, Samuli Putro, Santa Cruz, Night Lives, Anna Abreu, Wolfheart, Tuomas Kauhanen, Pariisin Kevät, Poisonblack, The Scenes, Haloo Helsinki!, The Stanfields, Brädi, Soilwork, DJ Haus, Redrama, Villi Huhu, Kaija Koo, Profane Omen, JVG, Stam1na, Dj Mala, The 69 Eyes, Blind Channel, Cheek, Bigelf, KC/MD Mafia, Apulanta, The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Disco Fiasco, Musta Barbaari, Mikael Gabriel and Brother Firetribe.

References

External links

Culture in Oulu
Rock festivals in Finland
Tourist attractions in Oulu
Koskikeskus
Music festivals established in 2003
Summer events in Finland

Qstock


Central Scientific Instruments Organisation is a Chandigarh, India-based national laboratory dedicated to research, design and development of scientific, and industrial instruments. It is one of the constituent laboratories of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), an Indian industrial research and development organisation situated at Chandigarth's Sector 30C.

Overview
CSIO was established in October 1959 as a laboratory that works on the research, design, and development of scientific and industrial instruments.  It was located in New Delhi, and then moved to Chandigarh in 1962. The first Director was Piara Singh Gill. CSIO campus (spread over an area of approximately 120 acres) comprises office buildings, R&D laboratories, Indo-Swiss Training Centre and a housing complex. A  building and the accompanying workshops were inaugurated in December 1967. Another block was added in 1976 for housing the R&D Divisions and library. During the mid-1980s the laboratory buildings and infrastructural facilities were modernized. An Administration Block was inaugurated in September 1994.

With a view to meeting the demand for instrument technologists, the Indo-Swiss Training Centre (ISTC) was started in December 1963 with the cooperation of the Swiss Foundation for Technical Assistance, Zurich, Switzerland.

CSIO is under the Physical Sciences Cluster of CSIR. CSIR-CSIO has signed an MoU with CSIR-IMTECH Chandigarh on 28 April 2012 for collaborative research work.

CSIO has infrastructural facilities in the areas of microelectronics, optics, applied physics, electronics, and mechanical engineering. R&D programmes are in food & agriculture, health and rehabilitation, avionics, snow and seismic monitoring in the strategic sector, landslide and structure health monitoring for public safety, and bio and nanosciences.

A large number of instruments have been developed by the Institute and their know-how has been passed on to the industry for commercial exploitation.

The laboratory provides a two-year postgraduate research programme in Engineering (PGRPE) in 'Advanced Instrumentation Engineering' the only such program in India. The students are designated as Quick Hire Scientist Trainee QHS(T). The areas of research are Optics and Photonics, Bio-Medical Instrumentation and Agrionics. After the completion of 1-year course work taught by the senior scientists of the organization, they are given a one-year project work as their thesis.

Campus
CSIO campus is situated on the Ambala-Chandigarh highway which houses the laboratories and workshops, Indo-Swiss Training Centre (ISTC) and residential complex. Amenities on campus include Clinical Centre, Crèche, Community Centre, Health Club and Adult Park. There are 250 dwelling units catering for the employees. A hostel is available for students from engineering institutions and universities undergoing their thesis/project/training. A guest-house with 16 rooms is on campus. A canteen facility exists for all the employees and students.

The vacant Type-I accommodation in the campus is being renovated with a provision for the internet facility for accommodating the Scientist Trainees and a 50-room hostel is proposed to be constructed for them. Dining and Common Room facilities would be provided in for Scientist Trainees.

Laboratories
CSIO has labs engaged in R&D programmes of the institute. A number of these labs and facilities have been earmarked for carrying out research/project/thesis of MTech/PhD level scholars. They can accommodate additional 3-5 Scientist Trainees each while a similar number would be allowed from other institutions. Three basic (common to all streams) labs exist (already catering MTech (Mechatraonics) students). Additional two labs are easily configurable from the related R&D groups.

In all the three departments for the chosen streams, sitting space for accommodating the Scientist Trainees is being created with office amenities including computer, internet, printing, phone/fax facility. The CSIO's IT cell would extend the services to the Scientist Trainees. Similarly, administrative requirements including national travel and outstation stay/accommodation of the TSs would be met initially by the existing CSIO establishments till independent arrangements are made. The Scientist Trainees would be considered as team members for international collaborations and funds for fees/travel/etc would be sought from different sources including CSIO/CSIR and other government funding schemes.

Library
CSIO library has a seating capacity of about 40 persons and has 50,000 books and standards covering science, engineering, technology, management and multidisciplinary areas. 92 journals are subscribed by the library and there is access to 2000 online e-journals within the campus. The library has arrangements with other local institutions as well as the National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (NISCAIR) for the emergent requirement of literature and books.

Faculty
CSIO has been playing a role in human resource development in terms of running MTech (Instrumentation) affiliated to Panjab University (PU), Chandigarh which was initiated at CSIO in 1994 and was run by the CSIO faculty using internal laboratory facilities for three consecutive years before it was shifted to PU. The scientists here were also involved in the conception, design and implementation of another programme [MTech (Microelectronics)] programme in 1998 in association with Semiconductor Complex Ltd (now called Semiconductor Laboratory), Mohali (Pb) being run by PU, Chandigarh. Another Masters programme [MTech(Nanosciences)] has been initiated in 2006 in PU, Chandigarh.

CSIO has jointly initiated an MTech (Mechatronics) programme with Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI), Durgapur and Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI), Pilani in affiliation with Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, Kolkata formerly known as Bengal Engineering Science University (BESU). This programme is run jointly by the faculty of all the four institutions involved.

Scientists supervise project training and thesis work of a large number of B.Tech and MTech students respectively. A number of Junior Research Fellows (JRFs) and Senior Research Fellows (SRFs) pursue their research work at CSIO for MTech/PhD.

CSIO has MoUs with universities, institutions and industries resulting in a regular flow of students and research problems. CSIO scientists are members of Boards of Studies (BoSs) and Research Degree Committees (RDCs) of universities and institutions. Scientists have been identified to serve as faculty at CSIO Chandigarh. They comprise PhDs and MTechs and some of them are pursuing their PhD. All are MTechs and PhDs from institutions such as IITs, BITS, and NITs. Some of them have gained experience as post-doctorates from abroad.

International research publications have emanated from the research work carried out by the scientists. About a dozen PhDs have been supervised by some of the senior faculty members in the last decade while currently more than 20 PhDs and about 35 MTech students are pursuing their thesis. The January session in 2011 attracted the registration of six PhDs in the organisation in both science and engineering. In the last few years, more than 50 patents have been filed by them and granted while many are under process.

Major R&D areas
 Strategic and Defence Applications
 Optics & Opto-Electronics
 Holography and displays
 Computational Instrumentation
 Geo-Scientific Instrumentation
 Medical Instrumentation
 Analytical Instrumentation
 Agri-Electronic Instrumentation
 Energy Management, Condition Monitoring & Quality Control
 Environmental Monitoring Instrumentation
 Microelectro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and Sensors
 Biomolecular Electronics and Nanotechnology

Departments

Verticals
  Agrionics
 Bio-Medical Instrumentation
 Optical Devices & Systems
  Advanced Materials & Sensors
  Precision Mechanical Systems

Horizontals
  Ubiquitous Analytical Techniques and R&D Support Facilities
  Computational Instrumentation
  Human Resource Development
  Knowledge Resource Management
  Engineering Services

Courses
The degree in the following courses is provided by the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR).
 PhD in Engineering - a master's degree in Engineering/Technology/Pharmacy with a good academic record who have secured master's degree admission based on GATE score or valid CSIR-SRF or equivalent fellowship.
 PhD in Science - candidates with master's degree in Science or bachelor's degree in Engineering or Medicine having a National level fellowship (JRF/SRF of funding agencies), INSPIRE or other equivalent fellowships.
 Integrated M.Tech. and PhD in Engineering (formerly, Postgraduate Research Programme in Engineering (PGRPE)) - AcSIR admits candidates into the five-year integrated M. Tech and PhD Program. Candidates do have an exit option after completion of M.Tech. part of the program.

Indo-Swiss Training Centre
 Four years Advanced Diploma in "Die and Mould Technology"
 Four years Advanced Diploma in Mechatronics and Industrial Automation
 Three years diploma in Instrument Technology
From 2013,
 Three years Diploma in "Die and Mould Technology"
 Three years Diploma in Mechatronics and Industrial Automation
One year post graduation diploma in Cad-Cam and Mechatronics.
Indo Swiss Training Centre (ISTC) was established in the year 1963 in collaboration with the Swiss Foundation for Technical Assistance, Switzerland . ISTC was formally inaugurated on 18 the December 1963 by the first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru. Established under the patronage of Swiss Foundation it is being run under the aegis of Central Scientific Instruments Organization (CSIO), Chandigarh, a constituent laboratory of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi.

ISTC today is a training centre of repute in the field of Technical Training. The Indian industry had been impressed with the performance of ISTC and even today after 44 years of its inception, the centre has maintained an excellent quality of training. The basic aim of this training is skills. All the trainees work on machines individually and are trained to execute industrial jobs and face real life work environment. Stress is laid on the development of attitude such as punctuality, cleanliness, housekeeping, obedience, prior in labour, commitment etc. There exists a perfect spirit of teamwork among trainees and staff. Behaviour and discipline of trainee are closely monitored and recorded. A rigid system of performance evaluation has been devised to maintain the quality of training.

Programmes and Workshops
Recently from the year 2014 Faculty development motivational programme for Government schools has been started. CSIO has adopted a government school to provide the knowledge and promoting science to the faculties as well as students.

References

External links
Official site
Scientific Instruments

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
Research institutes in Chandigarh
Scientific organisations based in India
1959 establishments in Delhi
Research institutes established in 1959


The Kansas Barbed Wire Museum is a barbed wire museum located in La Crosse, Kansas, United States, known as the "Barbed Wire Capital of the World." The museum focuses on barbed wire and its history, displaying over 2,000 different forms of the wire and its history. Barbed wire played a significant role in the history of the settlement of the United States and forever changed the face of the prairie.

The museum was established in 1970 in a small storefront on Main Street in downtown La Crosse, Kansas. By 1990, the collections had grown so much that a new building was constructed adjacent to the Post Rock Museum and Rush County Historical Museum in Grass Park at the south edge of the community. In 2004, an addition was constructed on the building to house the headquarters of the Antique Barbed Wire Society and the Larry Greer Research Center. The Antique Barbed Wire Society is an international organization "committed to collecting, preserving, exhibiting, and interpreting the historical heritage of barb wire and barbed wire related items." The Larry Greer Research Center houses collections of publications related to the history of barbed wire and a complete collection of patents related to barbed wire and related items. The Kansas Barbed Wire Museum is located at 120 W. 1st Street, La Crosse, KS 67548.

References

Museums in Rush County, Kansas
Rural history museums in Kansas
American West museums

Kansas Barbed Wire Museum


Union Grove Township is a rural, non-functioning county subdivision established in 1868 in Iredell County, North Carolina, United States. Two towns have existed in Union Grove township:  1) the unincorporated community Union Grove, established in 1857 and 2) the former town of Williamsburg established in 1812. The Union Grove Post Office was established in 1857. In 2019, within the unincorporated town of Union Grove is the Union Grove Milling Company, Union Grove School (formerly Union Grove elementary through high school), Union Grove Volunteer Fire House, and two Methodist churches. In the later half of the 20th century, Union Grove was famous for the Fiddler's Convention which was held in Union Grove from the 1920s to 1970s. The Fiddler's Convention was originally established to benefit the Union Grove school.

Geography
Union Grove Township is located on a scenic spot with a view of the Blue Ridge, Brushy Mountains, and the pinnacle of Pilot Mountain some 60 miles away. The center of the town of Union Grove is located at  (36.024400, -80.86639).  The center of Union Grove township is located at 36.00867730, -80.85436970.  Union Grove Township is in the north-central area of Iredell County.   It is bordered by Eagle Mills Township to the east, New Hope Township to the west, Olin Township and Turnersburg Township to the south, and Yadkin County and Wilkes County to the north.

Interstate 77 runs north-south  and North Carolina Highway 901 runs east–west through the township.

Bodies of water flowing through Union Grove Township include Hunting Creek, Rocky Creek, Owens Branch, Camel Branch, and Brushy Creek.

Demographics
The area that is now Union Grove Township was first settled in the late 1700s.  Early settlers included Campbell, Mullis, Morgan, Howard, and Tutterow families.  The first town in the area was Williamsburg, which had a post office from 18121827 and from 18321905 with the name Williamsburgh.

Post offices were used to designate persons in the 1860 U.S. Federal Census.  The area that became Union Grove Township in 1868 included the census districts north and south of Hunting Creek in Iredell County.   This area included the following post offices: Williamsburg, Union Grove, Houstonville, and Eagle Mills post offices.  Houstonville and Eagle Mills would become part of Eagle Mills Township.  Before the U.S. Civil War, Union Grove was the largest town in this area.  The Union Grove post office was called Craters Mills until December 21, 1857.   John Templeton was postmaster of Craters Mills from September 17, 1851 until December 21, 1857.  The following table shows the breakout of the population of these towns in June 1860:

The inhabitants of the area that became Union Grove in the early 1800s and Union Grove Township in 1868 were farmers and some also ran mills. By 1850, some farms grew larger, as evidenced by the number of slaves and size of the families.  In 1850, Perciphull Campbell owned 21 slaves.  In 1860, Hosea Redman on Rocky Creek owned 30 slaves.  After the Civil War, the 1870 Census shows that there were only 70 "colored" men and women out of a total population of 1,034 in Union Grove Township.  There was only one foreign born resident in 1870, a farmer's wife from England named Sophia Low.  There were 281 inhabitants in the U.S. Census of 1860, including 242 in district North of Rocky Creek-Union Grove post office area and 39 in the Williamsburg district-Williamsburg post office area.

Demographic makeup in 2000
As of the census of 2000, there were 2,069 people, 775 households, and 579 families residing in the Union Grove township. There were 849 housing units at an average density of 57/sq mi (147.6/km). The racial makeup of the town was 92.2% White, 3.2% Black or African American, 0.1% Native American, 0.5% Asian, <1% Pacific Islander, 3.4% from other races, and 0.5% from two or more races. 5.5% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 775 households, out of which 74.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.8% were married couples living together, 8.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.3% were non-families. 36.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.02.

In the township the population was spread out, with 24.2% under the age of 18, 7.6% from 18 to 24, 30% from 25 to 44, 24.6% from 45 to 64, and 13.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38.0 years. For every 100 females, there were 104 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101 males.

The median income for a household in the township was $43,284, and the median income for a family was $46,134. Males had a median income of $31,906 versus $24,340 for females. The per capita income for the town was $18,321. About 4.8% of families and 8.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.2% of those under age 18 and 22.2% of those age 65 or over.

History

The area that is now Union Grove Township was a favorite spot with the Indians before early settlers. Many Indian artifacts have been found in the area, especially a site near Jennings mill known as Indian Hill.

Several mills were built on the Hunting Creek in the south and Rocky Creek in the north, the two main streams in Union Grove Township. The mills were used as both a grist mill and saw mill. Mills in the area included the following:
Campbell Mill on Rocky Creek  built by Perciphull Campbell in 1820, see also Perciphull Campbell House, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Old Brothers Mill built before 1848, later the site of the Weisner mill;
Diffy Mill built before 1848, later the site of the Robertson mill.
Rev. Quentin Holten Mill built about 1850. Jennings mill was built on the site of the Holten mill. This mill, originally built by Sandy Hall and Sampson Ball, included a corn grist mill first, and later a sash mill was added.
About 1880, John R. Huey built a mill several miles down Rocky Creek from the Jennings mill to grind wheat and corn, as well to saw lumber.
Union Grove mill, an electric-powered mill in Union Grove built in the 1900s

Severe flooding in the area in 1848 left only three mills in operation in North Iredell County, the Campbell mill on Rocky Creek, the Jennings mill, and the Diffy mill.

The community churches grew up around the mills, two towns, and concentration of inhabitants. The following churches are within Union Grove township:
Barker's Grove Baptist Church
Cavalry Baptist Church
Friendship Baptist Church
Grassy Knob Baptist Church, founded in 1794, within New Hope Township, Union Grove Post Office
Macedonia United Methodist Church, in Williamsburg in 1829
Moss Chapel was named after Rev. William Moss, who died in 1826. Rev. Moss was a Circuit Riding Methodist preacher from Brunswick County, Virginia, founded in 1799
New Friendship Church, Baptist, founded in 1896
Smith Chapel
Sweet Home Baptist Church, founded in 1886, located nearby in Osborneville in Wilkes County
Union Grove Christian Church
Union Grove United Methodist, founded on September 23, 1846, Tradition says that Union Grove referred to the church meeting place in the grove where the church members met.
Wesley Chapel, formerly Bush Hill Methodist Church, founded on August 8, 1868
Winthrop Friends Meeting, Quaker, established in the 1870s
Zion Baptist Church, founded on June 4, 1825, organized in the Douthit School House, which stood within 75 feet of the present Zion Church building—just north of the Campbell Mill site on Rocky Creek. The Douthit School, established in the 1830s in a log cabin, was a subscription school.

The earliest known store in the area was operated on the John Howard farm, two miles north of Union Grove, by Jacob Fraley. Prior to the Civil War, Mr Fraley moved his store to Union Grove. Jesse E. Fraley and John A. Fraley operated a store in Union Grove around 1844. Jacob Fraley was Postmaster of the Union Grove Post Office on December 21, 1857.

By the requirements of the North Carolina Constitution of 1868, the county was divided into townships. Previous to that time, the subdivisions were Captain's Districts. While the Captain's Districts referred primarily to the militia, it served also for the election precinct, the tax listing and tax collecting district. Union Grove Township was named after the Union Grove postoffice in the center of that township.  Union Grove Township has been used since 1870 as a census district.

The longest operating commercial activity in the area is the Jenning store, which is located one and one-half miles south of Union Grove. This store was originally operated by Rev. Quentin Holton about 1850. In 1886, Mr. John Myers and the Rev. T.L. Jennings founded a mercantile business on this site. Rev. Jennings son, J.T. Jennings, purchased the store from his father.

In the later 1800s or early 1900s, Union Grove citizens founded the Union Grove School. The earliest records show that in 1905 the average attendance was 50. There was only one teacher and the salary for one month was thirty dollars. The first schoolhouse was a one-room frame building. For the first time, the Union Grove school opened on September 14, 1925 with 67 high school students. The high school continued until 1966 when high schools in Iredell County where consolidated. The elementary and junior high students remained at Union Grove School, until 1991, when a consolidated middle school opened.

Fiddlers' convention
The Union Grove Old Time Fiddlers' Convention founded in 1924 by H. P. VanHoy and friends, as a fund raiser for the school.  Held annually on the school grounds every Easter weekend, the Fiddlers' Convention was a popular community event that brought many area old-time fiddlers into the small unincorporated town of Union Grove to compete. With the folk music revival in the 1950s and 1960s, however, this small-town community event became increasingly popular with young people who would travel great distances to attend. The unconventional lifestyles of some of these young people disturbed many residents of the conservative farming community.  The "Woodstock generation" generated huge crowds to Union Grove, thus overwhelming the community's resources.  After the 1969 Convention (and after Woodstock) the county school board asked that the event be moved off school grounds.  Thus the decision on where to relocate the Fiddlers' Convention came down to the two sons of H. P. VanHoy.  Pierce VanHoy was the oldest son and program director of the Convention.  Harper VanHoy (younger brother) was the Secretary and Treasurer.  They disagreed on how to proceed and thus, went their separate ways creating two distinct "Fiddlers' Conventions."

Fiddler's Grove, an old-time-music and family-oriented campground, was developed on land purchased near the school by Harper Van Hoy and his wife, Wanona, in 1970. From the beginning, Fiddler's Grove was envisioned as the site for the annual fiddling competition. Central entertainment events at Fiddler's Grove have been the Old Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival, a spring fiddling competition held annually since 1970, and the Square-Up, a fall clogging dance competition held until 1982.

Pierce Van Hoy was the program director and the main promoter of the Convention. He felt that it should be promoted as their father, the founder, intended. He held his event on his farm and retained the original name of "World's Championship Old-Time Fiddlers' Convention," with the blessings and support of their father.   Financially committed to Fiddler's Grove, Harper Van Hoy felt it was important to focus on the music and the community by creating a family atmosphere and enforcing a ban on alcohol and illegal drugs. He called his event the Old Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival and received early support from Doc Watson, Lee and Jean Shilling, Alan Jabbour, and Allein Stanley, JP Fraley, and Fred Coon, among others. While the World's Championship Old-Time Fiddlers Convention attracted large crowds and was immediately financially successful, Harper Van Hoy's Ole Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival deliberately stayed small, despite early financial losses, by implementing an invitation-only attendance policy in 1973. Both fiddling events were held simultaneously in Union Grove over Easter weekends. After newspaper accounts erroneously reported drug-related incidents and other problems occurring at the Old Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival instead of the World's Championship Old-Time Fiddlers Convention, Harper Van Hoy moved his festival to Memorial Day weekend in 1974 to distance it from his brother's festival.

Fiddler's Grove continued to host the Old Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival on Memorial Day weekend along with a number of other events. The Festival's commitment to the preservation and perpetuation of old-time music is particularly reflected in its special competition categories of Certified Old-Time Fiddler (fiddlers 55 years and older who play strictly by ear with no formal violin training) and Heritage Tune (in which the fiddler must not only perform but tell the origin and story of an old tune). The Square-Up, an annual dance competition, held over Labor Day weekend was an institution at Fiddler's Grove until 1982. This dance competition featured traditional mountain, precision, and smooth clogging teams as well as individual buck and flatfoot dancers. Fiddler's Grove and the Old Time Fiddler's & Bluegrass Festival were nominated in the Local Legacy category by Senator Jesse Helms as part of the Library of Congress Bicentennial in 2000.

The Pierce VanHoy farm was acquired by Casey VanHoy (the late Pierce VanHoy's youngest son) and converted into an entertainment facility and RV Park - The VanHoy Farms Family Campground. In 2012, Casey decided to restart the World's Championship Old-Time Fiddlers' Convention, under the name Union Grove Fiddlers' Convention.  The convention was a success - thus returning to its pre - "Woodstock generation" days, with a much smaller family oriented setting.

References

External links
 Fiddlers Grove
 Fiddler's Grove Collection, Southern Folklife Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
 1968 Fiddlers Convention Photos
 1966 Fiddlers Convention Program
 1967 Fiddlers Convention Program
 1968 Fiddlers Convention Program

Townships in Iredell County, North Carolina
Unincorporated communities in North Carolina
Townships in North Carolina
Unincorporated communities in Iredell County, North Carolina
1868 establishments in North Carolina

Union Grove Township, Iredell County, North Carolina