Davud Monshizadeh

Davud Monshizadeh (29 August 1915 in Tehran – 1989 in Uppsala, Sweden) was the founder of SUMKA (the "Iranian National Socialist Workers Party") and a supporter of Nazi ideology in Germany during World War II and in Iran after the war.

Background
Monshizadeh formed Sumka in 1952. He had lived in Nazi Germany since 1937, and was a former SS member, who had fought in the Battle of Berlin and gotten injured. He was also 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 Alexandria University and Uppsala University. Monshizadeh was known as an admirer of Hitler and imitated many of the ways of the Nazi Party (such as their militarism and salute), as well as attempting to approximate Hitler's physical appearance.

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.
 * 1939 - Monshizadeh and Bahram Shahrokh (the future Iranian Propaganda Director) started working for the Persian program of Nazi Germany’s Deutsche Radio.
 * 1940 - He started writing articles for Das Reich, the official newspaper of the German National Socialist party
 * 1941 - He worked with various organizations in Nazi Germany
 * 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 (off and on) 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 (Sumka), 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 spent the rest of his life in Sweden and the U.S.
 * 1989 - He died in Uppsala, Sweden.