History of the Swastika in Nazi Germany
by Jonh DeerOn May 20th of 1920, the swastika was formally adopted as the symbol that would become the infamous banner of Nazi Germany. Though many people associate the swastika with the Nazi flag, it’s important to know that the Nazi’s weren’t the only ones that were obsessed with swastikas in this time period.
By the late 1920’s fascination with the swastika had spread throughout Europe, the United States, and Britain. In Scotland, the discovery of swastika markings in a Pictish cave had inspired the creation of a kilt-pin. In the United States, costly earrings and brooches appeared in the same form. The Stories of India by the British author, Rudyard Kipling, also appeared with the seal of the swastika. Kipling would later abandon the logo when it became more closely associated as the premium of all Nazi symbols.
By 1930, members of the British Druidic cults displayed swastikas on their ceremonial robes. In 1932, an English periodical appeared with the title “The Superman,” it was devoted to physical culture, and on its cover were Nazi symbols. “The Superman” featured sports and health, and carried articles by respected British scientists, warning of the racial contamination of Saxon-Britain. Glancing over this brief history of the swastika, it’s clear how far the power of the swastika had spread.
During the Great War of 1914, the British War Savings Drive used the Swastika as its official emblem and awarded it in recognition of service to the nation. In The Great War of 1914, Germans and British both used the swastika. Over the course of the history of the swastika, war raged on and casualties piled up. Soldiers on both sides took to wearing charms and amulets. In German and Austrian ranks, the most popular of all magic talismans was the swastika, and as it spread, it quickly became the emblem of militant German nationalism, and later of Nazi Germany.
But, before the swastika became known as the most famous of all Nazi symbols and grew into the fad fashion of the 1920’s, it had innocent origins and positive connotations in India. However, despite the brighter history of the swastika, the majority of interest in the swastika Nazis came to love comes from a brand of Aryan occultism developed and promoted by Madam Helena Blavatsky and Guido von List, this is why it was eventually selected as the Nazi flag.
Decades before the swastika was adopted by the Nazi Party, a periodical published in Germany, by an American occult society, became the first German publication to carry a swastika on its cover; Madam Helena Blavatsky was the occult society’s founder. Blavatsky was also responsible for the implied definition of the swastika which defined it as the sign of creation, the mystical destiny of Aryan man. Guido von List also had founded his own group, The List Society, which was based out of Vienna. List has also referred to the swastika as the twice high, holy secret of constant generation; the swastika as a disc of fire, the power of creation. In a way, List and Blavatsky could be looked at as the true creators of Nazi Germany, and Hitler as their prodigal son.
Compared to other Nazi symbols, the swastika Nazis used in every sort of ceremony was a much more powerful image which is why it was an obvious choice for the Nazi flag flag. However, the exact model used for the Nazi flag was the straight-armed and anti-clockwise swastika, chosen by Adolf Hitler; until that point there was no set direction for which way it pointed.
Other renditions of the swastika prior to Nazi Germany’s rise were vertical and tilted clockwise (or anti-clockwise) – Hermann Goering, the future Chief of the German Air Force wore a swastika of that styling in 1919. Hermann Goering and Hitler were also members of the Nationalist Socialist Workers Party before it became known as the National Socialist German Workers Party which eventually evolved into the Nazis. The beginnings of the Nazi SS Storm Troopers were seeded as a virulent anti-Semitism and penchant for eugenics is what held this group together.
Another rendition was the curved Swastika of Thule which was chosen as one of many popularized by Guido von List. The Thule version would live on in the belt buckles of brown-shirted Storm Troopers. The ceremonial swords of the Luftwaffe bear the Thule swastika as well as the Thule dagger.
During rallies, Hitler would preside over an extraordinary spectacle of pageantry and military might – the swastika Nazis worshipped was always present. At the climax of one Nuremberg rally, 32,000 swastikas Nazis used were on display.
For Hitler’s devout followers, Hitler was considered a messiah, come to lead Nazi Germany to rule the world – to usher in a 1,000-year “Golden Era” where men would become gods.
The Nazis thought that with ethnic cleansing, breeding Aryans through eugenics, and their pursuit of the occult practices, that they would be able to reach the next step of evolution. None of this would have been possible without the swastika – make no mistake, Hitler was supremely evil of his own doing, however, without the “power” of the swastika that had already burrowed its way deep into the collective mind, his job may have been harder if not impossible. Symbols like the swastika become points of reference for which those around it can rally and unite, regardless of the cause.
