Hans F.K. Gunther

Hans Friedrich Karl Günther (February 16, 1891 in Freiburg – September 25, 1968 also in Freiburg) was a German race researcher, raciologist, & eugenicist in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. He was also known as Race Günther (Rassengünther) or Race Pope (Rassenpapst). He is considered to be a major influence on National Socialist racialist thought. He taught at the universities of Jena, Berlin, and Freiburg, writing numerous books and essays on racial theory. Günther's Short Ethnology of the German People (1929) was a popular exposition of Nordicism. In 1931 he was appointed to a new chair of racial theory at Jena. He joined the NSDAP in the following year.