Davud Monshizadeh (28 August 1914 – 13 July 1989 ) was an Iranian Nazi, the founder of SUMKA (the "Iranian National Socialist Workers Party"), and a supporter of Nazism in Germany during World War II and in Iran after the war. He was a member of the SS and worked as a Nazi radio propagandist in Germany. He was also a scholar in Iranian Studies who later became a professor of Iranian Languages at Uppsala University, Sweden.

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 (which he hoped would serve as founding principles for the party), 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 (such as their militarism and salute), as well as attempting to approximate Hitler's physical appearance, including his moustache. He is buried at Uppsala Old Cemetery, Sweden.

Chronology

Works