![]() An archaeological unit was also established at the castle to research prehistory, ancient history, medieval history and folklife, all with the intent of strengthening the National Socialist worldview.īy 1936, Himmler had envisioned the Wewelsburg as the representative and ideological centre of the SS Order, and founded the “Gesellschaft zur Förderung und Pflege deutscher Kulturdenkmäler e.V.” (Association for the advancement and maintenance of German cultural relics) which was assigned to redevelop the castle at a cost of 15 million Reichsmarks using prisoners from the Sachsenhausen and Niederhagen concentration camps. The curriculum quickly moved away from the schooling of SS leadership, and instead became more pseudo-scientific, with a focus on racial teachings through studies of Germanic history, folklore, and genealogy. ![]() The castle instead became the Reichsführerschule SS (SS Leadership School), a centre for teaching the unified ideological training of the SS leadership, and in 1935 was officially named the “SS-Schule Haus Wewelsburg” (“SS School, House Wewelsburg”). Himmler had initially tried to secure Burg Schwalenberg (Schwalenberg Castle), but then decided to buy or lease Wewelsburg from the Landrat of Büren in 1934. During the 1930’s, Heinrich Himmler (Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel) was searching for a castle as a retreat for SS members “in the heartland of Hermann der Cherusker”.
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