Davud Monshizadeh
Davud Monshizadeh was an Iranian Nazi politician, propagandist, and scholar of Iranian studies. He founded SUMKA and supported Nazism in Germany during World War II and in Iran after the war. He was a member of the SS and produced print and radio propaganda in Germany. He became a professor of Iranian languages for Uppsala University, Sweden, a position he held until his death.
Career
Monshizadeh was born in Tehran, Iran. He is mainly remembered for his political life, most notably being the leader of SUMKA, but he is also recognized for his contributions to Iranian linguistics, particularly to the study of Modern and Middle Iranian languages.Monshizadeh formed the SUMKA in 1951. He had lived in Germany since 1937, and was a former SS member who fought and was wounded in the Battle of Berlin. During the war, he worked as a translator for interrogations with Soviet prisoners of war on the Eastern Front. Monshizadeh also wrote articles for Das Reich. The Nazis regarded Monshizadeh as being an expert on the Jewish Question in Nazi Germany.
After the war, he was a professor at Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich and was deeply influenced by Jose Ortega y Gasset's philosophy, even translating many of his books, from Spanish to Persian. He returned to Iran in 1950. Monshizadeh would later serve as a professor of Persian Studies at Uppsala University and Alexandria University. Monshizadeh was known as an admirer of Hitler and imitated many of the ways of the National Socialist German Workers Party, as well as attempting to approximate Hitler's physical appearance, including his moustache.
He is buried at Uppsala Old Cemetery, Sweden.
Chronology
- 1931 − Sent to France by Iranian government to study.
- 1937 − Moved to Germany, a year after the Hitler Cabinet declared Iranians to be "pure−blooded Aryans" and immune to all Nuremberg laws, thus making them capable of becoming Reich citizens.
- 1938 − Began his studies in Nazi Germany. He studied with Walther Wüst, with whom he developed a close bond.
- 1939 − Monshizadeh and Bahram Shahrokh started working for the Persian program of the Third Reich’s Deutsche Radio.
- 1940 − He started writing articles for Das Reich, the official newspaper of the Nazi Party
- 1941 − He worked with various organizations in the Third Reich
- 1943 − Obtained his doctorate in philosophy and literature from Berlin University.
- 1945 − During the Battle of Berlin, he fought as a member of the SS. He was injured and hospitalized till 1947.
- 1947 − Taught Iranology and Persian language in University of Munich.
- 1950 − He returned to Iran.
- 1951 − Along with Manouchehr Amir Mokri and Hussein Zarabi, he established the Iranian National Socialist Party, which played a role against oil nationalization in Iran.
- 1953 − Monshizadeh was "Unofficially Exiled" to Europe by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
- 1963 − He left Iran in 1963 and came to Sweden on the initiative of Professor Stig Wikander. He spent the rest of his life in Sweden teaching Iranology and Persian language at Uppsala University, eventually becoming Professor in Iranian Languages.
- 1989 − He died in Uppsala, Sweden, and is buried at Uppsala old cemetery.