It was a small group, but it exercised much intellectual influence, and in this way popularized the theory of an Aryan master-race in Germany.[177] The Gobineauismus that Schemann and the Gobineau Vereinigung promoted owed as much to Wagner as it did to Gobineau for the group rejected Gobineau's pessimism and claimed the Aryan race could be saved.[178] Schemann, who was one of the most influential and best known race theorists in Imperial Germany, projected an optimistic message about the future of the Aryan race while accepting Gobineau's basic idea about an Aryan master race.[179] Schemann was the man who popularized Gobineau in Germany and it was largely through him, rather than reading the Essai directly, that Gobineauismus was promoted in the Reich.[179] In 1937, Schemann was personally awarded the Goethe Medal by Hitler for his "services to the nation and race".[179]