He espoused the idea that modern Germans descended from the ancient Aryans, who he claimed—in contrast to established academic understandings of prehistory—had been responsible for most major developments in human history such as agriculture, art, and writing. His racial theories and claims about prehistory were not accepted by the majority of the world's scholarly community, and a decision was taken to give them greater scholarly backing. The Ahnenerbe was established with the purpose of providing evidence for Nazi racial doctrine and to promote these ideas to the German public through books, articles, exhibits, and conferences.