AKA:
Secret Tibet: Schutzstaffel Expedition to Tibet
Synopsis:
In 1938,Heinrich Himmler sponsored an expedition to Tibet lead by Ernst
Schäfer and composed by several other SS scientists, officially to study
the region's flora and fauna and to take scientific measurements of the
Earths magnetic fields. The expedition was also sent to find traces of
the origins of the Aryan race in Tibet which was where Himmler thought
evidence of could be found. As a follower of the Hollow Heart theory,
Himmler was also looking in Tibet for the "doors to Agharta", the
mythical underground town, home of the "Unknown Masters". This film is a
Third Reich era documentary of that expedition. Ernst Schäfer
(1910-1992) was a famous German hunter and zoologist in the 1930s,
specializing in ornithology. He is most famous for his three expeditions
to Tibet in 1931, 1934-1935, and 1938-1939, the first two led by the
American Brooke Dolan II, and the third led by himself under the
patronage of Himmler's Ahnenerbe organization. In July 1934, during his
second expedition in Asia, he met the then exiled Panchen Lama, Thubten
Chökyi Nyima, in Hangzhou, China. Schäfer wrote several books, including
Berge, Buddhas und Bären (Mountains, Buddhas and Bears), and helped to
produce this film.
Geheimnis Tibet was never released to the public in Nazi Germany but intended as a film for SS internal use only.
