Ahnenpass

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Certificate in Nazi Germany

title: "Ahnenpass" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["aryanism", "race-in-nazi-germany", "identity-documents-of-nazi-germany"] description: "Certificate in Nazi Germany" topic_path: "geography/germany" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahnenpass" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Certificate in Nazi Germany ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Ahnenpass.jpg" caption="NSDAP]], looking on its left"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Ahnenpass_Tjapko_Antoon_van_Bergen_(1903-1944).pdf" caption="Eagle of the ''Reich'']]) of the [[Nazi Germany]], looking on its right"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Ahnenpass-axb02.jpg" caption="Pages of an ''Ahnenpass''"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Ahnenpass_003_anonym.jpg" caption="Page 41"] ::

The Ahnenpaß (literally, "ancestor pass") documented the Aryan lineage of people "of German blood" in Nazi Germany. It was one of the forms of the Aryan certificate (Ariernachweis) and issued by the "Reich Association of Marriage Registrars in Germany" (Reichsverband der Standesbeamten in Deutschland e. V.).

The term Aryan in this context was used in a sense widely accepted in the "race science" of the time, which considered that there was a Caucasian race which was sub-divided into Semitic, Hamitic, and Aryan (Japhetic) subraces, the latter corresponding to the Indo-European language family. The Nazi ideology limited the category Aryan to specific subgroups, while excluding Slavs as non-Aryan. The actual primary objective was to create extensive profiling based on racial data.

The investigation for lineage was not obligatory, as it was a significant undertaking to research the original documents for birth and marriage. Many Nazi followers had already begun to research their lineage even before the law required it (soon after the NSDAP took power on 30 January 1933).

One important law, issued on 7 April 1933 (after the Nazi assumption of power), was called the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, and it required all public servants to be of Aryan descent. The law, however, did not define the term "Aryan" and a subsequent regulation was issued on 11 April as the first legal attempt by the Nazi government to define who was, and who was not, a Jew. Germans aspiring for the document had to prove they were of Aryan descent. The Ahnenpass could be issued to citizens of other countries if they were of "German blood", and the document stated that Aryans could be located "wherever they might live in the world". The Reichsgesetzblatt (Reich Law Gazette) referred to people of "German or racially related blood" rather than just "of German blood".

The many Poles, Czechs, and others of German descent in other countries were known as Volksdeutsche, and Aryan.

The Expert Advisor for Population and Racial Policy redefined "Aryan" as someone who is "tribally" related to "German blood". The implementing decree followed the pre-Nazi trend found in the Aryan Paragraph and read in pertinent part that:

The applicable fields were later enlarged under different laws to include lawyers, teachers, and medical doctors, and required a proven Aryan lineage even to attend high school or get married. Usually, the lineage was investigated two generations back. The Ahnenpass cost 0.6 Reichsmarks.

Holding an Ahnenpass was not on record; the document was shown whenever proof of Aryan descent was required. The Aryan proof had to be provided, for example, in the context of the South Tyrol Option Agreement, for which a special office was set up in Bolzano, a so-called Sippenkanzlei, under the direction of Franz Sylvester Weber.

Due to the need for Ahnenpasses, genealogical research flourished in Nazi Germany. Opposition clergy helped many racially persecuted individuals by providing them with false certificates of ancestry necessary for survival.

References

Notes

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Der Ahnenpaß des Ehepaares. Verlag für Standesamtswesen, Berlin 1939.
  • Eric Ehrenreich: The Nazi Ancestral Proof: Genealogy, Racial Science, and the Final Solution. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2007.
  • Cornelia Essner: Die "Nürnberger Gesetze" oder Die Verwaltung des Rassenwahns 1933–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, .
  • Nicholas John Fogg, 'German genealogy during the Nazi period (1933–1945)', in Genealogists' Magazine, vol. 30, no. 9 (London, March 2012), pp. 347–362.
  • Christian Zentner, Friedemann Bedürftig (1991). The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, p. 23. Macmillan, New York.

References

  1. Cornelia Schmitz-Berning (2007): Vokabular des Nationalsozialismus. [[Walter de Gruyter]], p. 20. {{ISBN. 3-11-013379-2.
  2. Schweikardt, Christoph. (2004). ""You Gained Honor for Your Profession as a Brown Nurse:" The Career of a Nationalist Socialist Nurse Mirrored by Her Letters Home". American Association for the History of Nursing.
  3. Cornelia Schmitz-Berning. (1 January 2007). "Vokabular des Nationalsozialismus". Walter de Gruyter.
  4. Christopher J. Wells. (1 January 1990). "Deutsch: Eine Sprachgeschichte bis 1945". Walter de Gruyter.
  5. Scheil, Stefan. "Aryans". JUNGE FREHEIT.
  6. Original: "deutsches oder artverwandtes Blut"; Reichsgesetzblatt 1939 I p. 2042, § 6.
  7. [[Götz Aly]], Peter Chroust, Christian Pross, ''Cleansing the Fatherland: Nazi Medicine and Racial Hygiene'', p.
  8. Michael Berenbaum, Abraham J. Peck, The Holocaust and History The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed, and the Reexamined, p. 59
  9. Ehrenreich, Eric. (2007). "The Nazi Ancestral Proof: Genealogy, Racial Science, and the Final Solution". Indiana University Press.
  10. The [[Nuremberg Laws]] would eventually supersede the "one grandparent" rule and would establish new rules of race for the Third ''Reich''.
  11. Hannes Obermair. (2021). ""Großdeutschland ruft!" Südtiroler NS-Optionspropaganda und völkische Sozialisation – "La Grande Germania chiamaǃ" La propaganda nazionalsocialista sulle Opzioni in Alto Adige e la socializzazione 'völkisch'". South Tyrolean Museum of History.

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