Matthew Gildner
Kiss, Edmund
Edmund Kiss (1886-1960) was a German architectural student with an interest in archaeology. After the First World War, he wrote a number of adventure novels. In the 1920’s he began his foray into the world of ‘alternative archaeology. Later in that decade, he made his first visit to Tiahuanaco.
During this period Kiss worked with Arthur Posnansky and advanced the idea that Tiahuanaco had been built by Nordic refugees from Atlantis (Thule) more than 17,000 years ago. Their work included a search for evidence to support the theories of Hanns Hörbiger.
Matthew Gildner, a professor of Latin American history has written an interesting essay on the background to Kiss’ theories and work in Bolivia(b).
During the Third Reich Kiss was requested by Heinrich Himmler to take a team of researchers from the Ahnenerbe to continue his studies at Tiahuanaco but the expedition was called off. Following that he briefly joined the Waffen SS. After the war he continued his interest in Atlantis, writing a book on Plato’s Critias and contributing to Egerton Sykes’ Atlantean Research newsletter in the 1950s.
Rafael Videla Eissmann is a historian at the Catholic University of Chile and has written a number of articles in Spanish(a) regarding Kiss, as well as a wide range of other historical subjects.
>Dr. Graham Horton has written about the pseudo-science of Kiss and Posnansky in the early 20th century relating to their work at Tiwanaku(d).<
As late as 1953, Kiss was still defending Hörbiger’s idea of an ice-covered Moon>as was Egerton Sykes(c). Further related articles were available on the now defunct geocities website(e).<
(a) https://charlasylecturas.blogspot.com/
(b) https://theappendix.net/issues/2013/4/andean-atlantis-race-science-and-the-nazi-occult-in-bolivia
(c) Atlantis, Volume 6, No.1, May 1953
(e) titicaca (archive.org) *