Help - an Aryan ancestry document?

[Rhino69]

Hey, guys, I found this forum online while trying to research a document that I acquired recently from a family member who passed away. I'm hoping someone here will be able to help:


From what I've been able to translate and understand, this is some sort of heritage or ancestry certificate. It looks like a specific office/department of the German government issued these or approved these (or was it a NSDAP-issued document? I see the letters front top left) and I see there's a lot of room for a detailed family history... And I see the different designations of "Aryan" and "Mix first class" and "mix second class" and "jew" on the front (when I realized what the words meant, I was quite shocked/repulsed/saddened at the same time, since I'm fully Jewish).


I'd like to know more about what this is, what purpose it served, who filled these out, what was done with these, the office who was in charge of this, and any information that anyone here has OR can refer me to. I'd like to at least create some kind of informational record for the future, so that my own children/grandchildren don't one day find this and are clueless like I am right now. I appreciate it.

[HPL2008]

Yes, you're right:

This is a blank form from the Nazi Party's Gau Vienna for the Aryan Certificate, more specifically the Kleiner Ariernachweis (= roughly "Lesser" or "Basic" Aryan Certificate) which detailed the Aryan background of the person it was issued for, his/her parents and his/her maternal and paternal grandparents.
This level of certificate was required for all officials and employees in the public sector.
(See here for a little more: Aryan certificate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )

The "higher" level of Aryan Certificate was the Großer Ariernachweis (= roughly "Greater" or "Advanced" Aryan Certificate), which was required for membership in the Nazi Party or the SS and for compliance with the Reichserbhofgesetz. This covered a person's Aryan ancestry back to 1800 or, for SS officers, to 1750.

The obverse of the document lists the name, address and marital status of its holder as well as his "classification" in one of four categories:

- Of German Blood (Aryan)
- 2nd degree Mischling
- 1st degree Mischling
- Jew

(See here for some more on these categories: Mischling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )

The reverse has information on the name, date of birth, religious affiliation and marital data of the holder's paternal grandfather (space # 4), paternal grandmother (space # 5), maternal grandfather (space # 6), maternal grandmother (space # 7), father (space # 2), mother (space # 3) and the actual holder of the certificate (space # 1).

Hope this helps.

(PS: It should go without saying, but I would still like to stress the fact that, by using terms like "Aryan", I only quote the period terminology.)

[Rhino69]

Yes, you're right:

This is a blank form from the Nazi Party's Gau Vienna for the Aryan Certificate, more specifically the Kleiner Ariernachweis (= roughly "Lesser" or "Basic" Aryan Certificate) which detailed the Aryan background of the person it was issued for, his/her parents and his/her maternal and paternal grandparents.
This level of certificate was required for all officials and employees in the public sector.
(See here for a little more: Aryan certificate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )

The "higher" level of Aryan Certificate was the Großer Ariernachweis (= roughly "Greater" or "Advanced" Aryan Certificate), which was required for membership in the Nazi Party or the SS and for compliance with the Reichserbhofgesetz. This covered a person's Aryan ancestry back to 1800 or, for SS officers, to 1750.

The obverse of the document lists the name, address and marital status of its holder as well as his "classification" in one of four categories:

- Of German Blood (Aryan)
- 2nd degree Mischling
- 1st degree Mischling
- Jew

(See here for some more on these categories: Mischling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )

The reverse has information on the name, date of birth, religious affiliation and marital data of the holder's paternal grandfather (space # 4), paternal grandmother (space # 5), maternal grandfather (space # 6), maternal grandmother (space # 7), father (space # 2), mother (space # 3) and the actual holder of the certificate (space # 1).

Hope this helps.

(PS: It should go without saying, but I would still like to stress the fact that, by using terms like "Aryan", I only quote the period terminology.)

Very interesting, I appreciate the info... have you (or anyone here) seen these before? I know some of you guys probably go to auctions or dealers and purchase militaria, has anyone seen anything like this before? Just wondering how common they are and if it'd be worth anything in an auction, for example. I'm not planning on selling regardless of the value, since this is a piece of history I'd like to keep in the family, but it obviously interests me if this is that rare, expensive item that may one day appear at an auction.

I posted this photo on another forum, too, hoping to expand the audience, and someone noted they've only seen them before in books, not in real life, and that it is unusual to have one that is not filled out. If these were pretty much required for public office (of which I assume that includes a lot of different professions) shouldn't more of these be avaiable?

Also - what does "prufunsergebnis" (the title of the document) mean?

[HPL2008]

Also - what does "prufunsergebnis" (the title of the document) mean?

"Prüfungsergebnis" means "examination results".

I posted this photo on another forum, too, hoping to expand the audience, and someone noted they've only seen them before in books, not in real life, and that it is unusual to have one that is not filled out. If these were pretty much required for public office (of which I assume that includes a lot of different professions) shouldn't more of these be avaiable?

It sure included a lot of different occupations: Every single policeman, railway official, teacher, municipal administration employee, corrections officer, postal worker etc. etc. ... You name it.
Of course, in the case of these persons, the document would have been taken into the personnel files kept by their various public-sector employers. That could account for the alleged comparative rarity of these documents on the market.

Very interesting, I appreciate the info... have you (or anyone here) seen these before? I know some of you guys probably go to auctions or dealers and purchase militaria, has anyone seen anything like this before? Just wondering how common they are and if it'd be worth anything in an auction, for example.

Sorry, I cannot comment on that as I am not a document collector.