The "Aryans" of Hitler and Co., as you know where imagined to be blond, blue-eyed Nordics... total nonsense.
Aryan actually refers to a linguistic family, stemming from the Northern Caspian region, who settled what is today Iran, Afghanistan, India etc.
Very interesting. I always knew Hitler’s idea of the Aryan race was bogus, but it would still be interesting to study the details of where the ideas came from.
How ironic that both versions of Aryans ended up hating Jews.
The Aryans that were the center of Nazi ideology were not “blond, blue-eyed” exclusively, or even primarily. You are thinking perhaps of Nordics, who were favorites; but even they had hair and eyes of various colors.
Nazi beliefs have been stereotyped by movies and other media. In the interests of historical accuracy, we should make an effort to get record straight.
The Nazi racial theorists did believe that various physical types and ethnic strains had different psychological characteristics. They lamented the scarcity of Nordics in Germany, and wished to promote and expand their numbers, a policy they call “Aufnordung.” We might roughly translate that as Nordic promotion. Nordics were thought to be adventurous, and with good leadership qualities. Official propaganda also had good things to say about other groups, which was only good politics, because many Germans are not Nordic.
Aryan is often called a linguistic term, equivalent to Indo-European. Just where the original Indo-Europeans originated is still a subject of debate. The Capsian area is favored by one theory; the Iranian Plateau by another. The Baltics is favorite, and North Germany and Poland have been suggested.