In 1933, on March 12, a decree was issued: simultaneously raise two flags - black - white - red and a flag with a depicted swastika. It was a symbol of the connection between Germany's "glorious past and the rebirth of the German nation". Together they were supposed to represent the power and close connection between each representative of the German land. Moreover, on military buildings it was required to hang out exclusively the state military banner.

Flag of the Third Reich: A bit of history

Adolf Hitler himself developed and implemented the design of the banner. According to his idea, the national canvas is a formidable personification of the ideas of socialism (underlined in scarlet), the ideals of nationalism (in white) and the mission of confrontation for the purity of the Aryan nation, laid on the cross inside. This is the embodiment of the Motherland, because a division that has lost its banner has no right to exist.

S. V. Zubkov said that since ancient times the banners have served as a talisman. From time immemorial, on the flags of all peoples, their history, information about traditions, revered gods (Ancient Russia) was transferred. Their purpose was indeed to protect - some kind of magical effect, protection. For example, even in modern times on the flags of some countries - England, Switzerland, Scotland - there are crosses as symbols of patrons referred to as saints.

Historical fact: the flag of the Third Reich was simply taken from the banners of the National Socialist German Party (NSDAP), created by Adolf. It is identical to the party symbols, and in its appearance, the Thule community can be distinguished, providing advice to heraldists.

The symbolism of the canvas

So, the standard of the Third Reich. Scarlet color, light circle and traditionally, black swastika.
The background of the canvas is bright scarlet. According to the traditions of Nazi Germany, this is fire and blood, which was given great importance, as well as the power of the social idea.

According to the great thoughts and reasoning of Adolf Hitler, only through the purification of the blood could Aryan society be recreated from the ashes. This is a continuation of the "blood and soil" theory, which was reinforced by national symbols, creating a single concept.

White color - holiness, purity, a symbol of chosenness and light, a national idea. The geometric figure - a circle, was chosen by Hitler for a reason. A similar arrangement of all elements on the canvas means an empire, a monarchy. Direct proof of this is Japan before the war. This is a symbol of dedication, a magic block, protection.

And, finally, the central detail - the swastika - a creative black symbol, the central sign of the revival of the Aryans. It was not for nothing that the Fuhrer was engaged in the development himself - such a banner could only be put together by a piously convinced person who believes in the invincibility of mystical protection.

Political background

One can draw a parallel with another powerful power - the Soviet Union. The flag was also red, and three colors - white, black and red - were widely used for Bolshevik posters. Political scientists said that it was not in vain that the revolutionary movements drowned Russia in blood. What is the similarity? Hitler's revolutionary party NSDAP was conceived as an opposition party. The color scheme of the German flag also appeared for a reason - these are “bloody” shades with “bloody” overtones. Let's remember Blok's work, "12". This is a revolutionary poem that also had a thread of the three aforementioned colors.

Hitler attached great importance to all the mystical foundations for the formation of his standard: the latter was carefully checked by the special organization Anenerbe. What is meant? Representatives of the organization conducted studies, during which it was proved that there was no dangerous energy that could prevent the leader from purifying the blood and reviving the race. At the end of the check, the flag was taken under the cover of night to the burial place of Kaiserling (the Fuhrer considered himself his incarnation) and consecrated according to the Teutonic custom.

Let's start by stating that National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) actually became the first political party that managed to most effectively use symbolic-ritual means in order to achieve the maximum possible propaganda effect and, thus, to win over to its side all those vacillators who, for some reason, were unable (or did not feel the desire) delve into the ideological depths of the National Socialist doctrine. This was one of its undoubted advantages over all political competitors - complete artistry, its own, unique aesthetics, which no other political party had at all. "Weimar" Germany. Although the German (German) National People's Party (NNPP), the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), and their slogans, congresses, the words also had a purely artistic meaning and did not carried, in fact, no semantic load ...

What is the secret of the truly phenomenal success and attraction for the broad masses of precisely the National Socialist propaganda means? In various popular (and sometimes claiming to be scientific) publications it is persistently asserted (sometimes directly, but more often - subtly) that the slogans, vestments, symbols and rituals of the National Socialists (and especially the SS) allegedly carried a clear occult, satanic and and, most importantly, the anti-Christian burden. How was it in reality?

Long before the emergence of the National Socialist movement on the political arena, many (mainly left) political forces sought to derive practical benefit from symbols.

An interesting testimony in this regard was left by none other than Adolf Hitler himself in his programmatic and autobiographical work “My Struggle”, the title of which for some reason we prefer to give in the German version - “Mein Kampf”, - without translating it into Russian (perhaps because, in accordance with the stamps of the traditional "owl", and if we take it even wider - "revolutionary" thinking, word "wrestling" associated and associated predominantly with something "positive" i.e "progressive" - primarily with "fight for freedom" etc., and therefore "Worthless for a faithful Marxist-Leninist, the bearer and propagandist of the world's most advanced doctrine and worldview" apply this positive epithet to creation "possessed Fuhrer" enemy of progress and world revolutionary development!):

“Until now, we did not have our own party badge or banner. This began to harm the movement. Without these symbols, we could not do now, much less in the future. Party comrades needed a badge by which they could recognize each other by their appearance. Well, in the future, of course, it was impossible to do without a well-known symbol, which, moreover, we had to oppose to the symbols of the Red International.

I already knew from childhood what great psychological significance such symbols have and how they act, first of all, on feelings. After the end of the war, I once had to watch a mass Marxist demonstration ... A sea of ​​red banners, red armbands and red flowers - all this created an irresistible external impression. I personally was able ... to see how gigantic an impression such a magical spectacle makes on a simple person from the people.

As the young modern Russian historian Dmitry Zhukov quite rightly notes, it was the National Socialists (or, more broadly, "fascists" ), who fully assimilated this experience adopted from the radical left, managed to develop their own, completely unique style, which partly contributed to the broad mobilization of the masses, aimed at achieving the party goals of the NSDAP. By the way, in the ideological sphere, in the bowels of the National Socialist Party, there was such an incredible number of all kinds of factions, groups, opinions and competencies that sometimes it seems that the party held on, except for the iron will of the Fuhrer (no doubt, who had outstanding organizational skills), only on the commonality of style (including the commonality of symbols, emblems and rituals). No wonder the well-known sociologist of Swiss origin Armii Mohler, a well-known researcher of the phenomenon "conservative revolution" emphasized: “Fascists seem to easily come to terms with theoretical inconsistencies, because they achieve perception at the expense of the style itself ... Style dominates beliefs, form dominates the idea.” And in 1933, the German Expressionist poet Gottfried Benn, who was under the influence of the "National Socialist Revolution", solemnly proclaimed that "Style is higher than truth!" . To a certain (and not insignificant) extent, what has been said applies not only to the conservative-revolutionary, fascist National Socialist, but also to the left, and in particular to the radical left parties, movements and organizations - it is enough to look at least at our modern "liberal democrats" or "National Bolsheviks" who have "ninety-five percent - banter, and only five percent is ideology.”

Different blood, different law.
Who will reconcile me, Aryan,
With an alien from other sides?
Who will wash away the name: bloodsucker?

Fedor Sologub

Large plus sign with curved ends. So in his travel notes he called the ancient swastika (one of the variants of which became the will of fate "hooked cross" German National Socialists) modern Russian poet, writer and historian Alexei Shiropaev. Aptly said, and rightly noticed - it’s only a pity that the author bonmota did not pay attention to the fact that, having added only one single letter to the word "plus" - "about", - we get the word "pole", but the swastika in the historical and esoteric tradition (for example, in the same Rene Guenon) has always been considered precisely "sign of the Pole". Coincidence? Unlikely! Personally, we are rather inclined to see a certain pattern in this. Be that as it may, it should be noted that many unscrupulous authors, in pursuit of cheap popularity (and possibly pursuing some other, more far-reaching goals), strive to mythologize and even falsify the history of the choice of the ancient sacred place by the German National Socialists symbol - swastikas (kolovrat, filfota or gammadion ) as a party symbol. Let's try to approach the consideration of the true circumstances of this choice without prejudice, without anger and predilection. At present, it is almost no secret to anyone that hakenkreutz (kolovrat or swastika) belongs to the original (primordial) archetypal symbols of humanity. Kolovrat ("gammed", "gammatic" or "martyr"

cross) was widely used in Christian symbolism (especially in the late antique and early medieval period of the development of Christianity) - as, indeed, "Cross of Saint Nicholas" (referred to in heraldry and ecclesiastical art as "cross between staples" ), which was especially often depicted by icon painters on the robes of Christian saints Nicholas of Myra, John Chrysostom and Dionysius the Areopagite and later became an identification mark on German military equipment. Occultists and theosophists also attached considerable importance to this sacred sign. It was this circumstance that subsequently gave rise to all sorts of speculations about the supposedly “occult” roots of National Socialism. According to Theosophists, "the swastika ... is a symbol of energy and movement that creates the world, breaking holes in space ... creating vortices, which are atoms that serve to create worlds."

Kolovrat (along with the six-pointed the star of Solomon », Egyptian "cross of eternal life" ("anhom"), a snake biting its own tail Ouroboros and Buddhist-Hindu sign of Creation "Om", or "Aum" ) was included as an element in the emblem of the Theosophical Society, as well as in the personal emblem of the founder of Theosophy E.P. Blavatsky and adorned almost all theosophical publications. So, for example, the Kolovrat sign was present on title page magazine of German theosophists "Lotus Flowers", published in the "Prussian-German" Second Reich of the Hohenzollerns in 1892-1900.

The Kolovrat swastika, in some cases used as an emblem in the aviation of Kaiser Germany, was used as an identification mark on the aircraft of a number of countries of the world (Finland, Norway and Latvia) between the two world wars, sleeve patches of the Red Army units (which fought in 1918 on Eastern Front against the troops of the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Admiral Kolchak), headdresses of the Kalmyk cavalry units of the Red Army (and even in the coat of arms of the Soviet Kalmyk Republic!).

No less popular was the Kolovrat (found, by the way, on ancient German weapons, cult and household items, in Old Nordic runic inscriptions, on the tombstones of the ancient Germans and, in particular, Vikings ) also among German "populists" ("fölkishe", from the word "folk" - "people") And Ariosophists - such as the notorious "G(v)ido" von List (author of many scientific works, founder of a society of his own name and secret High Order of Armans ) and truly become "parable of the town" founder Order of the New Temple (or Order of the New Templars ) Baron Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels, as well as secret lodges of the paramasonic sense - German Order (German Order ),

Society Thule and others, about which sensational enthusiasts are conspiracy theorists of the past and our days, a great many more or less scientific thrillers have been written - perhaps no less than about the "Jewish Freemasons" and about the "holy devil" Grigory Rasputin, who is also credited with some kind of conspiratorial "occult connections" with some mysterious " The Green Society. So about Hitler, one Frenchman published the book "Hitler - the chosen one of the dragon", the other is even more terrible "horror novel" called "Nazism - a secret society", but all were surpassed by the patriarchs "black legend about Nazism" - the notorious masters Louis Povel and Jacques Bergier with their mystical fantasy "Morning of Magicians"! It was with their light hand that they went for a walk through the pages of the popular "conspiracy" literature, designed to reveal the "satanic roots of Nazism", devoid of any historical basis, idle speculation that Hitler was allegedly associated with the underground kingdom of Aggarti (Aggarti or Agartha), the "King of Horror ”, the descendants of the Atlanteans who survived the global flood, that he made human sacrifices, listened to the teachings of the inventor for hours "theories of world ice" Hans Görbiger (and even allowed himself to be rudely reprimanded for his incomprehension in the presence of third parties!), sold his soul to the devil for exactly 12 years, that in May forty-fifth the Berlin Reichstag and the Reich Chancellery were supposedly defended by the “last battalion” of the SS, which consisted entirely of Tibetan lamas, who unanimously committed collective ritual suicide after the Fuhrer’s death (probably imagining themselves for a moment not as Tibetan lamas, but as Japanese samurai!), and all thanks to the fact that Hitler turned the “blessed right-handed” Buddhist-Hindu swastika in the other direction, as is customary among adherents of the sinister ancient Tibetan "black faith" bon-po…

In reality, Adolf Hitler, whose membership in any such " secret societies”(The composition of which was limited to such a narrow circle of “initiates” that I just want to say about them in the words of V.I. Lenin from the article “In Memory of Herzen”: "Narrow is the circle of these (conservative. - V.A.) revolutionaries, they are terribly far from the people!” ) there is absolutely no reliable information, neither in Agharti, nor in Shambhala, nor in the Atlanteans who survived the flood, I never met Hans Görbiger in my life, and the Reichstag and the Reich Chancellery in May forty-fifth, except for the Germans, who just did not defend - French SS from the division Charlemagne ( Charlemagne), Belgian SS men from the division wallonia, Spaniards from the former blue division , Russian volunteers from ROA General Vlasov - but that's just not among them, as a sin, not a single Tibetan! Choosing the Kolovrat as a party symbol, Hitler certainly did not look back at the theosophical, populist or occult interpretations of this ancient sacred symbol. Not least for the simple reason that, according to the unanimous testimony of eyewitnesses who knew him closely at the beginning of his political career - the Bechsteins, Hanfstaengls and many others - who left their memoirs about the early, Munich period of the history of the NSDAP and its future leader - Hitler in the described period was completely uncouth or (to put it modern language) "unscratched" a provincial who did not even know how a hot and cold water mixer functions in the bathroom - what can we say about the presence of some kind of “secret knowledge” in him, and in addition, “deeply secret plans” to replace Christianity in Germany with some kind of “ occult neo-paganism”, “Aryan-racist religious doctrine”, and even more so - the establishment in the Third Reich of the “black satanic cult”! In addition, Hitler (completely unreasonably presented by modern unfortunate historians and "conspiracy theorists" as a "black magician", "occult messiah", "adept of dark forces", "enemy of Orthodoxy", "hater of Christianity", "demonic medium", "notorious Satanist”, “Forerunner of the Antichrist”, “Dragon’s Chosen One”, “Messenger of the Green Society”, “Esoteric Hermetist” and even “the incarnation of Landulf of Capuan”!) Throughout his life, he was very critical of all "Populist bearded men", "John the Baptist" And "Agasferah" - "initiates", "occultists, esotericists and other rubbish" (as Victoria Vanyushkina aptly put it), who claimed to possess "secret knowledge" and to create a "new dogma for the German people", and indeed about everything "völkisch" ("populist") mysticism (in many ways reminiscent of the fruitless attempts of our current domestic primordial bearded "neopagans" who are trying in vain to "revive the ancient faith" of their "Slavic-Aryan great-grandfathers"!). The extremely hostile attitude of the Fuhrer of the NSDAP and the Chancellor of the Third Reich towards such “keepers of the family memory” of all stripes is evidenced, by the way, by the following lines from “My Struggle” (we quote them in our own translation from the German original):

“It is characteristic of these natures that they admire ancient German heroism, hoary antiquity, stone axes, spear and shield, but in reality they are the greatest cowards. For the same people who brandish in the air ancient Germanic, carefully stylized antique tin swords, in dissected bear skins and with bull horns on a bearded forehead V.A.), preach for the current day the struggle with the so-called "spiritual weapon" and hurriedly run away at the sight of a rubber club of any communist . Future generations will not be able to perpetuate the images of these people in the new German epic.

I have studied these people too well to feel anything other than a feeling of contempt for their trickery ... Moreover, the claims of these gentlemen are completely excessive. They consider themselves smarter than everyone, despite the fact that their entire past eloquently refutes such a claim. The influx of such people becomes a real punishment of God for honest, straightforward fighters who do not like to talk about the heroism of past centuries, but want in our sinful age to actually show at least a little of their own practical heroism.

It is quite difficult to figure out which of these gentlemen acts so only out of stupidity and inability, and which of them pursues certain goals. As regards the so-called religious reformers of the ancient German type, then these personalities have always inspired me with suspicion that they were sent by circles that do not want the revival of our people. After all, it is a fact that all the activities of such personalities actually distract our people from the common struggle against the common enemy - the Jew - and dissipates our forces in the internal religious strife ... They are not only cowards, but always turn out to be loafers and clumsy.

It is said, in our opinion, very clearly, so there is nothing for our "conspiracy theorists" to philosophize in vain, "smearing white porridge on a clean table" (as they say in Odessa) ... It is no coincidence that Hitler, after coming to power, immediately suppressed all attempts to plant in Germany some new "Nordic folk religion" by neo-pagan "German German Faith Society" ("Deutsche Glaubensgemeinschaft"), performing under the emblem of the golden "solar wheel" in the blue field.

According to the most authoritative modern Russian researcher of the swastika, Roman Bagdasarov, Hitler’s National Socialist Party “needed an emblem, on the one hand, known to everyone, on the other, “not occupied” by competitors, on the third, causing an unambiguously positive reaction and capable of mobilizing the people ... The swastika perfectly matched the above requirements! It was quite traditional for Christian Europe, but had (as all authoritative scientists of the described era claimed) Aryan (Indo-Germanic, Indo-European, Indo-Celtic) origin, and this, as Roman Bagdasarov emphasizes, "of course, has become an additional plus in arousing the racial instinct among the Germans."

Contrary to obvious facts, quite a few science fiction mystics, diligently dressed up in the clothes of "popularizers of history", are trying to prove the unprovable, arguing that Hitler supposedly "borrowed the idea of ​​​​using this symbol from people close to him from the occult environment." According to their unsubstantiated opinion, Adolf Hitler allegedly believed that behind the Kolovrat lies a certain "dark secret" that allows him to "manage history." Those who claim this emphasize that the Fuhrer allegedly “with unusual attention” related to the very direction of rotation of the swastika: “He even decided to replace the left-handed swastika of the Thule society, which he adopted as a model, with the right-handed one found in ancient Indian texts.”

In principle, the Swastika is a symbol of Christ, since it contains the same esoteric idea, only somewhat less connected with the historical details of the Incarnation of the Word.

A.G. Dugin. Crusade of the Sun

First, it should be noted that in Christian symbolism and Christian art (and even later - say, in vignettes to the Psalter of St.

that Queen-Martyr Alexandra Feodorovna) both right-handed and left-handed swastikas were equally used. Both of them from the very first centuries of Christianity were considered connected with the third hypostasis of the Most Holy Life-Giving Trinity, namely, with the Holy Spirit. Right handed "martyr's cross" serves as a symbol of "gathering (concentration) of the Holy Spirit", the left-hand side - a symbol of its "scattering (spreading)".

As our Russian "conspiracy theorist" Alexander Gelievich Dugin:

“The cross is the four orientations of space, the four elements, the four rivers of paradise, and so on. At the intersection of these components there is a unique point - the point of Eternity, where everything comes from and where everything returns. This is the pole, the center, the earthly paradise, the Divine ruler of reality, the King of the world. In a special way, this “fifth”, integral element, the Divine presence, the “higher Self”, is manifested in the symbol of the “revolving cross”, i.e. Swastika, which accentuates the immobility of the Center, the Pole and the dynamic nature of the peripheral, manifested elements. The swastika, as well as the Crucifixion, was one of the preferred symbols of the Christian tradition, and it is especially characteristic of the "Hellenic", Aryan, manifestationist line ... The fifth element here is Christ himself, God the Word, the Immanent hypostasis of the Deity, Immanuel, "GOD WITH US ". In principle, the Swastika is a symbol of Christ ... "

In this case, Alexander Dugin is absolutely right. In the "Orthodox Interlocutor" for July-August 1869, the researcher Brednikov wrote the following about the swastika:

“As for the monuments (Catacomb Christians in the first centuries of Christianity. - V.A.), belonging to the 2nd, 3rd and early 4th centuries, with a few exceptions, they use only veiled images of the Sign of the Cross, somehow ... especially a figure representing a four-pointed cross with curved ends (Italics hereinafter are ours. — V.A.)».

The author of this book himself happened, when visiting "tourist reserve" Suzdal (which it still remained, at least in 1983) to see in one of the churches there (which was then a museum) a perfectly preserved sakkos of an Orthodox bishop, decorated with gold, on a red background, swastikas, put on public display, and it was in the “Nazi "version - left-handed," lunar ", and even rotating! We are not talking about the walls of the Kiev Hagia Sophia, decorated alternately with right- and left-handed kolovrats, and other similar patterns and images on countless objects of Christian worship - from bells to the salaries of Holy Images! However, we refer everyone who wants to study in depth the place and role of the Kolovrat in Christian and, in particular, Orthodox church symbols, to Roman Bagdasarov's book "Swastika: a sacred symbol."

Secondly, the “populists” themselves, the Ariosophists, who were - supposedly! - predecessors, secret patrons, inspirers and "backstage puppeteers" of Hitler, - calmly used both right-hand and left-hand "hooked cross" and sometimes both of its variants at the same time (as, for example, G(v)ido von List in his famous magic formula "AREGISOSUR" ).

Thirdly, as Count Julius Evola, the most authoritative researcher and critic of fascism and National Socialism “on the right”, noted with good reason: “There is a strong doubt that the National Socialists, starting with Hitler himself, were truly aware of the meaning of the main party symbol - the swastika. According to Hitler, it symbolized "the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man, for the triumph of the idea of ​​creative work, which has always been and will be anti-Semitic" ... "A truly primitive and" profane "interpretation!" Count Julius Evola exclaims about this. It is completely incomprehensible how the ancient Aryans could tie together the swastika, "creative work" (!) And Jewry, not to mention the fact that this symbol (Kolovrat. - V.A.) is found not only in Aryan culture. They did not give "a clear explanation for the left-sided (opposite to the generally accepted when it is used in the meaning of the solar and" polar "sign) rotation of the National Socialist swastika." It is unlikely that the Nazis at the same time knew that "the reverse (left-sided," lunar ". - V.A.) the rotation of the sign symbolizes power, while the usual (right-handed, masculine, "solar" - V.A.) is knowledge. When the swastika became the emblem of the party, Hitler and his entourage completely lacked knowledge of this kind. On illustrations for ancient Indian, Jain and Buddhist manuscripts (as well as on sculptural and architectural monuments in the vast - from Tibet, China and Japan to Malaya and Indonesia - the zone of distribution of ancient Indian culture and art), both "lunar" and " solar" swastikas. And depicted against the backdrop of the rising sun, framed by oak branches and in combination with a short sword (or dagger), point down, the swastika on the emblem of the Society Thule although it was left-handed, it had a completely different shape than Hitler's, and arcuately curved ends (the so-called "sun wheel" ).

In his study, Count Evola persistently emphasizes the following idea: “One can consider as pure fantasy any “demonic” interpretation of Hitlerism, characteristic of many researchers of National Socialism, who believe that the reverse movement of the swastika is an unintentional, but clear sign of a demonic character. All allusions to "occult", initiatory or counter-initiatic underpinnings (we assert this with knowledge of the matter) are the same fiction. In 1918 a small group arose Thule Bund, choosing as its symbol the swastika and the radiant solar disk; however, with the exception of Germanism, her general spiritual level was no higher than that of the Anglo-Saxon Theosophists. There were also other groups and authors, such as, for example, Guido von List and Lanz von Liebenfels (who also created their own "Order") ... and used the swastika; but all these currents were superficial and had no connection with the true tradition, confusion of concepts and various personal errors reigned in them.

Thus, the use of the Kolovrat swastika by the German National Socialists was due solely to propaganda and aesthetic motives, so that the search in this area for some insidious "secret intentions" seems to us completely meaningless. And in this sense, the “interpretation” of the swastika by the neo-Freudian Wilhelm Reich (Reich) sounds absolutely ridiculous, who claimed that this symbol supposedly “acts on the subconscious as a designation of two human bodies during sexual intercourse.” The followers of the Reich (who, by the way, was tried in the United States for quackery and insulting the authorities, sentenced to prison) agreed to explain the success of the NSDAP by the fact that the National Socialists, as a party greeting, threw up their right hand with their palm forward and up (which allegedly symbolized an erection and, thereby, the powerful potency inherent in their movement!), And their main political opponents, the Social Democrats, used as an emblem of the association they created "Iron Front" three white arrows without plumage inscribed in a red circle, directed diagonally with their points down, which supposedly symbolized the impotence and, accordingly, the political impotence of the SPD and its allies!

As prosaically as the use of the Kolovrat by the German National Socialists, by the way, their choice of brown for their party uniform is also explained. Just to the Nazis (yes, by the way, and not only to them, but also to members of the right-wing radical organization of Gerhard Rossbach, and also - which looks like just a curiosity - "Revisionist Zionists" Vladimir (Zeev) Zhabotinsky!) at one time managed to buy at an inexpensive price a large batch of "junk goods" - shirts of light brown (or rather, light tobacco) protective "tropical" color, intended for uniforms of German "security (colonial) troops" in the African and Asian colonies of the Second Reich, which turned out to be unclaimed after Germany lost its overseas possessions as a result of losing the First World War. Only later, in hindsight, did party ideologists come up with an explanation (quite successful, by the way) of the brown color of the Nazi uniform as symbolizing soil (as we remember, the slogan of fidelity "blood and soil" - "bluethund boden" received wide distribution in the NSDAP with the light hand of the "Imperial Peasant Leader" Richard Walter Darre). This is probably why Hitler does not write anything at all in Mein Kampf about the party's "brown" shirt, although he devotes a lot of space to the topic of choosing the party banner and party emblem.

For the first time, the swastika appeared on the party banner of the National Socialists (which were still a small regional party limited to Bavaria during the described period) in the summer of 1920 in the capital of Bavaria, Munich. The final proportions and shape of the National Socialist swastika were determined by Adolf Hitler himself. At the same time, it should be noted that neither Hitler, nor any of the representatives of the NSDAP or other similar or ideologically similar German or Austrian parties and organizations that used the ancient symbol, ever called it "swastika" preferring to use the German term borrowed from medieval heraldry Therefore, in what follows, we will denote "swastikas" use similar German "Hackenkreutsu" Slavic-Russian term "kolovrat" .

Tighter ranks! Let's raise the banner!
Our firm step is measured and heavy.
Invisibly here, closing in ranks with us,
Those who have gone into battle before are marching.

In addition to the final approval of the proportions and shape of the Nazi Kolovrat, Adolf Hitler also owned the main merit in the development of a version of the Nazi banner, which later became the prototype and model for all subsequent party flags of the NSDAP. The Fuhrer believed that the new flag should be as effective and attractive as a political poster.

Based on this, the colors for the party flag of the National Socialists were also chosen. According to "national drummer" NSDAP (as Hitler liked to call himself at the time described), the white color was not able to “captivate the masses” and was most suitable for virtuous old maids and for all kinds of sobriety societies (however, in the future, the same Hitler justified the presence of a white circle on red banners, standards, badges and armbands of their party in that white symbolizes "nationalism"). In the same way, the Fuhrer rejected the black color, because it was no less than white was far from attracting attention to itself. The combination of black and white was also considered unacceptable - by the way, it was used at the time being described by a very popular right-wing organization. Young Teutonic (Young German) Order (in German: Jungdeutscher Order, abbreviated: Jungdo) , competed with the National Socialists and banned by them shortly after Hitler came to power (Supreme Master Young Teutonic Order Arthur Maraun was even imprisoned in a concentration camp). In addition, the flag of Prussia was black and white, and to the Prussians, the Bavarians, who suffered from them, as allies of the Austrian Empire, were defeated in the so-called "Austro-Prussian" (the Germans themselves call it more correctly - "German-German" or "inner German" , for this war for the right to unify Germany was waged not only between the then two largest German states - Prussia and Austria, but also between the North German and South German states adjoining them) the war of 1866, still experienced persistent antipathy. On the other hand, the combination of blue (blue) and white (in itself, according to Hitler, "very good from an aesthetic point of view") was also considered unsuitable for the NSDAP, since white and blue (white and blue) were traditionally official colors. Bavaria and were used by numerous organizations of Bavarian particularists and separatists (many of which in the period described even demanded the separation of Bavaria from the rest of Germany, "hopelessly infected with the bacilli of Marxism"), while the NSDAP, on the contrary, claimed the role of an all-German party and strove for overcoming traditional for Germany throughout almost its entire history of federalism and separatism. The use of the black-red-gold banner by the National Socialists was also out of the question, since since 1919 it became the official flag of the Weimar Republic, to which Hitler from the very beginning declared a war to the death (counting "Weimar government of the red November criminals" even a greater enemy than the French, who occupied the Ruhr area - the industrial heart of Germany). Meanwhile, at one time it was the black-red-gold flag that was the symbol of the struggle of German patriots for the unification of Germany. To make the reader understand the paradox of the situation, we will make a brief historical digression.

From darkness to light - through blood!

Interpretation of symbolism
tricolor black-red-gold
the national flag of united Germany

The future German state was born in the 9th century A.D. in the bowels of the empire of the Frankish king Charlemagne (included in the French heroic epic under the name "Charlemagne" ), crowned in 800 by the pope Roman "Emperor of the West". Part empires (Reich, or, in Russian, Powers ) Charlemagne (742-814), whose capital was considered "the eternal City" Rome - "Head of the Universe" (although the residence of Charles himself was in the city of Aachen), included vast territories of Southern, Central and Western Europe. Like the ancient Roman emperors, Charlemagne used a purple (red or scarlet) banner. By the way, the red color of the banner originally symbolized the right emperor (this ancient Roman, purely military, title, which only later became to denote the monarch-autocrat, initially, in the republican period of Roman history, was given by the army to the victorious commander-triumphant and had nothing to do with the claim to sole power) to execute (shed blood) the guilty without trial and consequences, in accordance with the laws of war. By the way, this is precisely why red flags and banners have long been used by pirates, rebels and revolutionaries - by raising the red banner, they seemed to openly demonstrate their encroachment on the prerogative of monarchs and other "God-given" authorities "execute and pardon", "make judgment and reprisal." In addition, Charlemagne used golden single-headed ancient Roman eagles as a banner.

Under the descendants of Charles (Carolingians), his "Western Roman Empire" broke up into three parts. The grandson of Charles, Louis (Ludwig) the German (804-876), under the Verdun Treaty of 843, received imperial possessions west of the Rhine - the so-called East Frankish kingdom (future Germany).

In 962, the German king Otto I the Great (912-973) from the Saxon (Salic) dynasty, the winner of the Hungarian nomads, led a strong army "armed pilgrimage" to Rome, forcing the pope to crown him Roman emperor, as once Charlemagne. Founded by Otto I "Holy Roman Empire" (or first reich, according to the terminology of the later German nationalists, adopted from the latter by the National Socialists of Hitler), the name of which by the end of the Middle Ages acquired a somewhat more “national” character - "Holy Roman Empire of the German (German) Nation", - and representing (despite the vigorous attempts of some gifted Emperors (Kaiser ) - for example, Frederick I Barbarossa or his great-nephew Frederick II from the House of Hohenstaufen - to turn their possessions into a strong state) a very loose conglomerate of separate feudal estates, lasted about a thousand years. "Roman-Germanic" Emperors - as a rule, were first crowned in octagonal Church of the Octagon in Aachen German Royal crown, and then, having previously ascended the throne of Charlemagne, they marched to Italy, where the popes more or less voluntarily placed the crown on them Roman Emperors! - used standards in the form of gilded single-headed Roman eagles and various banners (for example, a banner with the image of the Archangel Michael, who was considered the patron of all warriors in general, and of Christian chivalry in particular). Over time, as a battle banner of the lords of the "Holy Roman Empire" established red banner with a straight white cross. This banner was also used by vassals directly subordinate to the Emperor - for example, the Swiss cantons (which overthrew the yoke of the Austrian dukes, but until 1638 formally continued to be considered part of the Empire) or Danish kings (the Danes called this banner "Dannebrog" ). By the way, the echo of the former vassalage of Denmark from First Reich preserved in the self-name of this country - "Dan Mark", i.e. Danish brand"; "stamps" called the border areas of the Empire, which were under the control of appointed Kaiser officials - Mark counts or Mark izov - for example, the Meissen mark, the Brandenburg mark, the East mark (Ost Mark ) - future Austria (Ostarrichi= Oesterreich= Eastern Reich= Eastern Empire) etc.

On August 6, 1806, the last "Roman-German" Emperor Franz II of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty was forced by the victorious "Emperor of the French" Napoleon I Bonaparte to renounce the crown of the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" and be content with the more modest title of "Emperor of Austria". The Roman-German "Thousand-Year Reich" crumbled into many independent kingdoms, principalities, Grand Duchies, duchies and free cities. Each of them had their own flag (black-white-black for Prussia, blue-white for Bavaria, white-green for Saxony, red-white-red for Austria, red-white-blue for Luxembourg, red-blue - from Liechtenstein, etc.).

The "black-red-gold" (black-red-yellow) German national colors date back to the days of the Wars of Independence against Napoleonic tyranny. After defeat great army Napoleon I in Russia, a popular anti-Napoleonic movement began to spread throughout Germany. In 1813, a volunteer corps was formed (freykor) under the command of Baron Adolf von Lützow. Von Lützow, a former officer in the regiment of the rebel leader Ferdinand von Schill, led his volunteers (including the partisan poet Theodor Kerner, nicknamed the "German Denis Davydov") into battle not for the dynastic interests of individual German monarchs, but for a single, independent Germany. They were called "black rangers" because they wore black form with red finishing and golden (brass) buttons, which in combination gave "German national colors" (in any case, this was the opinion of romantically minded German students and poets, who were looking for the origins of "gloomy German genius", who dreamed of reviving for the sake of restoring "the former splendor of the Reich" ). In fact, as we already know, neither the power of Charlemagne nor the medieval "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" (First Reich) did not have black-red-gold "national flag". Representation of the German Nationalist Romantics early XIX century about its existence in medieval Germany was based on the following misunderstanding. In one of the German monasteries, a scroll was found with records of the texts of medieval minnesingers (minstrels) - the so-called "Manessian Songbook" , on one of the illustrations to which the coat of arms of the German kings was depicted - a black single-headed eagle on a golden field (the coat of arms of the same German kings, but already in their second capacity - as "Roman emperors" from the beginning of the XIV century was also considered an eagle, but already two-headed) . By some incomprehensible whim of the illustrator, the beak and paws "Manesian" black eagles were depicted not as black, as usual, but red. From this accidental circumstance, the German romantics of the early 19th century drew the unsubstantiated but far-reaching conclusion that in "Manessian Songbook" supposedly the official “state emblem of the German Reich” was depicted and that, according to the rules of heraldry, the same black-red-gold color scheme should have been present on the “state banner of the German state”.

In 1817, several thousand German students gathered for a celebration in the Wartburg castle (Thuringia) in connection with the 300th anniversary of the anti-Catholic Reformation (it was in Wartburg that the "father of the Reformation" Martin Luther at the beginning of the 16th century translated Holy Scripture from Latin into German, which was regarded by German romantics -nationalists as "the beginning of the struggle of the German spirit and the German people against the universalist, anti-German, Romanesque rule of the Roman popes") and the four-year anniversary "battle of the nations" near Leipzig, which finally "break the back" of Napoleon Bonaparte's dominion over Germany. Climax "Wartburg Feast" became, among other things, public burning at the stake "writings hostile to the German spirit" (repeated in 1933, after Hitler came to power). Those who came to "Wartburg Holiday" of all the German "feudal principalities", the students who advocated the unification of Germany for the first time raised the "national black-red-gold flag of Germany" at this meeting. It must be said that the three-color "black-red-gold German flag" of the sample of 1817 in its appearance was significantly different from the later three-striped one. "Wartburg Flag" was sewn from two dark red stripes and one black between them. A golden oak branch was embroidered in the center of the flag. Be that as it may, the black-red-gold color scheme has become a universally recognized symbol of the desire of young Germans for freedom and unity. The flag of a very loose quasi-state formation - the German Confederation (under the auspices of the Austrian emperor, as the most powerful German sovereign of the era described) was black-red-gold, with a double-headed Austrian imperial eagle in a golden roof. Under the black-red-gold banner (but already without the roof with an eagle), the first all-German federal parliament-Bundestag met in 1848 in Frankfurt am Main. Under this banner, the nationalist revolutionaries of Saxony, Prussia and Baden, who dreamed of German unity, fought against the troops of the German dynasts (primarily the King of Prussia and the Emperor of Austria). Black-red-gold "tricolor" a very poetic interpretation was even given: "From darkness to light - through blood" .

In 1867, however, not the black-red-gold, but the black-white-red flag of the North German Confederation, the predecessor of the German Empire (Second Reich) that arose four years later, became the official state flag - the union of 18 North German "patchwork" kingdoms and principalities. When the issue of a flag for this union was discussed, Otto von Bismarck - the future first Reich Chancellor (Imperial Chancellor) of a united Germany - proposed black-white-red. The fact is that black and white were the colors of the flag of Prussia (which played a leading role in the North German Union), and red and white (silver) colors prevailed on the coats of arms and flags of the North German trading cities of Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck - which financed the creation of a new union. In addition, the Prussians had a strong antipathy to the black-red-gold flag, under which the German nationalist revolutionaries opposed the Prussian troops in 1848 with weapons in their hands (the latter offered the crown of the emperor of united Germany successively to the Austrian emperor, and then to the Prussian king, but both monarch refused to accept it, striving for the unification of Germany "from above", or "iron and blood" according to the well-known expression of Bismarck). So the black-white-red flag first became the flag of the North German Confederation, and then the German Empire ( Second Reich in the terminology of the German nationalists, and later the National Socialists), which was not a unitary state, but a federation of four kingdoms (Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria and Württemberg), a number of Grand Duchies, duchies, principalities, etc., some of which (for example, Saxony or Bavaria) even retained their own mail, army, flags, coats of arms and other attributes state power, headed by the German Emperor (but not the Emperor of Germany!) from the Hohenzollern dynasty, who at the same time continued to remain the king of Prussia - the largest "subject of the Federation".

It remained so until 1919, when, after the overthrow of the monarchy and the defeat of Germany in World War I, a republic was proclaimed there (although the country was still officially called the "German Reich" and Article 1 of the Weimar constitution stated: "The German Reich is a republic") . Since the black-white-red flag was strongly associated in the public mind with the monarchical regime, the new German state abandoned it, replacing it with a black-red-gold flag, which was considered a symbol of the "democratic traditions of the German people." The German Social Democrats (who preferred to use “general Marxist” red flags and bows before the November Revolution of 1918), having come to power and handing over the red flag “at the mercy” of the communists, even formed their own paramilitary detachments called "Reichsbanner Schwarz-Roth-Gold" ("Black-red-gold imperial banner"), abbreviated "Reichsbanner" ("Imperial banner"). The rulers of the Weimar Republic retained the colors black, white and red on the military and commercial flag of Germany: both of these flags remained black-white-red, but with a black-red-gold roof. Needless to say, all opponents of the Weimar regime tirelessly emphasized their adherence to the black-white-red and their disgust for the black-red-gold flag, stubbornly calling the latter "black-red-yellow", "black-red-mustard", otherwise and cleaner. Among them was widely used, for example, the following verse:

Die deutsche Fahn' war schwarzweissrot -
Wir war'n ihr treu bis in den Tod.
Man hat genommen uns das Weisse -
Nun hab'n wir Gelb, und Gelb ist Scheisse!

(or in a somewhat loose translation into Russian:

The German flag was
black-white-red -
We were faithful to him to death.
White color was taken from us -
Now we have yellow, and this is -
shit color!).

This was the case in the "Second" (German) Reich. But in Austria, as a result of its defeat in the war with Prussia in 1866, expelled from the German Union, a completely different situation developed. The Germans there suddenly turned out to be a national minority, because much more than half of the population of the Austrian (and then the Austro-Hungarian) empire excluded from the number of German states were Hungarians (Magyars), various Slavic nationalities (Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, Slovenes, Ukrainians-Rusyns, Serbs, Bosnians), Italians, etc. The Austrian emperors from the Habsburg dynasty (who were also the kings of Hungary) were forced to constantly maneuver between the various nationalities that inhabited their “Dual” (or “Danubian”) monarchy, making constant concessions to non-German peoples, as a result of which the Austrian Germans felt themselves increasingly disadvantaged in their rights. A number of German nationalist unions, parties and organizations arose in Austria, many of which (for example, "pan-Germanists" Georg Ritter von Schönerer) openly advocated secession "German Austria" (in territorial terms, roughly corresponding to the modern Republic of Austria, with the exception of South Tyrol, which seceded to Italy under the Treaty of Versailles) from the Habsburg monarchy and its annexation to the German Empire of the Hohenzollerns (Second Reich). Such sentiments were widespread among the Austrian Germans, but they could not demonstrate them openly, under a black-white-red flag (for any performance of the Austro-German subjects of the Habsburg monarchy under the flag of a foreign power, which, from the point of view of international law, was the Hohenzollern " Prussian" German Empire, would be equated with act of high treason ). And here the almost forgotten black-red-gold "national flag of all Germans" came to the aid of the Austro-German "Pan-Germans". They began to widely use "German national" black-red-gold flags, ribbons and rosettes in their propaganda. When the "Pan-German" schoolboy Adolf Hitler was ordered to remove the black-red-gold rosette, he found a way out by laying out three pencils in a row in front of him on the desk - black, red and yellow, to which the teacher - a staunch supporter of the Habsburgs - no longer could complain. In a word, as Hitler wrote much later in his book "My Struggle":

“Only ... in German Austria the bourgeoisie had something like its own banner. Part of the German-Austrian nationalist burghers appropriated the banner of 1848. This black-red-gold flag became the official symbol of part of the Austrian Germans. Behind this flag ... there was no particular worldview. But from the state point of view, this symbol, nevertheless, represented something revolutionary. The most implacable enemies of this red-black-gold flag were then - let's not forget this - the Social Democrats, the Christian Social Party and clerics of all kinds. Then these parties mocked the black-red-gold flag, threw mud at it, cursed it in exactly the same way as they did in 1918 with the black-white-red banner. The black-red-gold colors used by the German parties of old Austria (Habsburg monarchies. — V.A.), were at one time the colors of 1848 ... In Austria, a part of honest German patriots followed these banners. But behind the scenes of this movement, the Jews were already cautiously hiding. But after the most vile betrayal of the Fatherland was committed, after the most shameless betrayal of the German people, the Marxists and the Center Party (the Catholic bourgeois party of the period of the Weimar Republic in Germany. — V.A.) black-red-gold banners have suddenly become so expensive that they now consider them as their shrine.

Hitler treated the black-white-red colors of the “Prussian-German” flag of the Second Reich with great reverence, as the colors of the “imperial flag born on the battlefields” of the so-called “Franco-Prussian” victorious for German weapons (or to be more precise - Franco-German) war of 1870-1871, the main result of which, along with the "return to the bosom of the Reich" of Alsace-Lorraine, was the proclamation of the German Empire (Second Reich) in the "Hall of Mirrors" of the Palace of Versailles. Nevertheless, the use by the National Socialists in their symbols and emblems of black, white and red in their former, "Kaiser", The combination seemed inappropriate to Hitler, since in his eyes they symbolized “the old (monarchist. — V.A.) a regime that perished as a result of its own weaknesses and mistakes." In addition, the black-white-red flag in his "old-fashioned" or "Kaiser", the variant was already used as an emblem by numerous right-wing nationalist parties and organizations of the Weimar Republic - for example, the German (German) National People's Party (NNPP), which was adjacent to this party, the nationalist union "Steel helmet" (Stalhelm) etc. However, in itself, the black-white-red color scheme seemed to Hitler extremely attractive (although he did not fail, as we will see below, to interpret it in a new, National Socialist spirit). He wrote literally the following about her: “This combination of colors, generally speaking, is certainly better than all the others” and is “the most powerful chord of colors” that you can imagine.

In the end, the final draft of the party banner was drawn up: on a red background - a white circle, and in the center of this circle - a black one. "Hackenkreutz" (Kolovrat). Interestingly, in the first edition of My Struggle, Hitler himself designated the swastika with a term not borrowed from medieval heraldry. "Hackenkreutz" (hook-shaped cross, from the German word "hacken" - hook ), but "Hackenkreutz" (literally: hoe-like cross, from the word "gakke" - hoe). But in subsequent editions of the book, in the lexicon of the National Socialist movement and Hitler's Third Reich, only the term was used "Hackenkreutz" (hook-shaped cross).

The armbands "combat armbands" ("kampfbinden") of the National Socialists actually copied (in miniature) the party banner of the NSDAP. After the creation of the assault squads of the party (SA), on the red armbands of their "fuhrers" (commanders), horizontal silver (white) stripes were added to the black kolovrat in a white circle for some time, the number of which varied depending on the rank of one or another Fuhrer. However, these white stripes were abolished no later than 1932 (in photographs depicting the top leadership of the NSDAP - in particular, Hermann Goering - on "Congress of the National Opposition" in Bad Harzburg, where an ephemeral anti-Weimar "Hartsburg Front" these stripes on the bandages are still clearly visible). At the highest party functionaries, the armbands were decorated with gold trim - up to gilded quadrangular stars - "head over heels" in the center of the kolovrat.

According to Hitler, the new NSDAP party symbol was a combination of “all the colors that we loved so much in our time”, as well as “a vivid embodiment of the ideals and aspirations of our new movement”, in which the red color personified the “social ideas” embedded in this movement. , white color - the idea of ​​nationalism (later, especially after the end of World War II, neo-Nazis and other followers of Hitler even more "successfully" reinterpreted the white color as the idea of ​​fighting for white supremacy ), "a hoe-shaped cross - the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryans and at the same time for the victory of creative work, which from time immemorial has been anti-Semitic and will remain anti-Semitic."

To be continued...

Symbols were powerful weapons in the Nazi transformation of society. Never before or since in history have symbols played such an important role in political life and been used so consciously. national revolution, according to the Nazis, not only had to be implemented - it had to be visible.

The Nazis not only destroyed all those democratic public institutions laid down during the Weimar Republic, they also nullified all the external signs of democracy in the country. The National Socialists absorbed the state even more than Mussolini did in Italy, and party symbols became part of the state symbols. The black-red-yellow banner of the Weimar Republic was replaced by the Nazi red-white-black with a swastika. The German state emblem was replaced by a new one, and the swastika took center stage in it.

The life of society at all levels was saturated with Nazi symbols. No wonder Hitler was interested in methods of influencing mass consciousness. Based on the opinion of the French sociologist Gustave Le Bon that the best way to control large groups of people is through propaganda aimed at the senses and not the intellect, he created a gigantic propaganda apparatus that was supposed to convey to the masses the ideas of National Socialism in a simple, understandable and emotional. A variety of official symbols appeared, each reflecting a part of Nazi ideology. Symbols worked like the rest of propaganda: uniformity, repetition, and mass production.

The desire of the Nazis for total power over citizens was also manifested in the insignia that people from various fields had to wear. Members of political organizations or administrations wore cloth patches, badges of honour, and pinned badges with symbols approved by the Goebbels Propaganda Ministry.

The insignia was also used to separate the "unworthy" to participate in the construction of the new Reich. Jews, for example, were stamped with the letter J (Jude, Jew) in their passports to control their entry and exit from the country. Jews were ordered to wear stripes on their clothes - a yellow six-pointed "star of David" with the word Jude ("Jew"). Such a system was most widespread in concentration camps, where prisoners were divided into categories and forced to wear stripes indicating their belonging to a particular group. Often the stripes were triangular, as a warning road signs. Different categories of prisoners corresponded to different colors of stripes. Blacks were worn by the mentally handicapped, alcoholics, lazy, gypsies and women sent to concentration camps for so-called anti-social behavior: prostitution, lesbianism or for the use of contraceptives. Homosexual men were required to wear pink triangles, members of the Jehovah's Witnesses - purple. Red, the color of socialism so hated by the Nazis, was worn by "enemies of the state": political prisoners, socialists, anarchists and freemasons. The patches could be combined. For example, a homosexual Jew was forced to wear a pink triangle on a yellow triangle. Together they created a two-color "Star of David".

Swastika

The swastika is the most famous symbol of German National Socialism. This is one of the oldest and most common symbols in the history of mankind, which was used in many cultures, at different times and in different parts of the world. Its origin is debatable.

The most ancient archaeological finds with the image of the swastika are rock paintings on ceramic shards found in southeastern Europe, their age is more than 7 thousand years. The swastika is found there as part of the "alphabet" that was used in the Indus Valley during the Bronze Age, i.e. 2600-1900 BC. Similar finds of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages have also been discovered during excavations in the Caucasus.

Archaeologists have found the swastika not only in Europe, but also on objects found in Africa, South and North America. Most likely, in different regions this symbol was used completely independently.

The meaning of the swastika can be different depending on the culture. In ancient China, for example, the swastika denoted the number 10,000 and then infinity. In Indian Jainism, it denotes four levels of being. In Hinduism, the swastika, in particular, symbolized the fire god Agni and the sky god Diaus.

Its names are also numerous. In Europe, the symbol was called "four-legged", or cross gammadion, or even just gammadion. The word "swastika" itself comes from Sanskrit and can be translated as "something that brings happiness."

The swastika as an Aryan symbol

The transformation of the swastika from an ancient symbol of the sun and good luck to one of the most hated signs in the Western world began with the excavations of the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. In the 70s of the 19th century, Schliemann began excavating the ruins of ancient Troy near Hisarlik in the north of modern Turkey. On many finds, the archaeologist discovered a swastika, a symbol familiar to him from ancient pottery found during excavations at Köningswalde in Germany. Therefore, Schliemann decided that he had found the missing link connecting the Germanic ancestors, Greece of the Homeric era and the mythical India, sung in the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.

Schliemann consulted the orientalist and racial theorist Emil Burnauf, who argued that the swastika is a stylized image (view from above) of the burning altar of the ancient Aryans. Since the Aryans worshiped fire, the swastika was their main religious symbol, Burnauf concluded.

The discovery caused a sensation in Europe, especially in the recently unified Germany, where the ideas of Burnauf and Schliemann met with a warm response. Gradually, the swastika lost its original meaning and began to be considered an exclusively Aryan symbol. Its distribution was considered a geographical indication of exactly where the ancient "supermen" were in one or another historical period. More sober-minded scientists resisted such a simplification and pointed to cases when the swastika was also found outside the region where the Indo-European languages ​​\u200b\u200bdistributed.

Gradually, the swastika began to be given an increasingly anti-Semitic meaning. Burnauf argued that the Jews did not accept the swastika. The Polish writer Mikael Zmigrodsky published Die Mutter bei den Völkern des arischen Stammes in 1889, which depicted the Aryans as a pure race that did not allow mixing with Jews. In the same year, at the World Fair in Paris, Zmigrodsky arranged an exhibition of archaeological finds with a swastika. Two years later, the German scholar Ernst Ludwig Krause wrote Tuisko-Land, der arischen Stämme und Götter Urheimat, in which the swastika appeared as an obviously anti-Semitic symbol of popular nationalism.

Hitler and the swastika flag

The National Socialist Party of Germany (NSDAP) formally adopted the swastika as a party symbol in 1920. Hitler was not yet chairman of the party at that time, but he was responsible for propaganda issues in it. He understood that the party needed something that would distinguish it from competing groups and at the same time attract the masses.

Having made several sketches of the banner, Hitler chose the following: a black swastika in a white circle on a red background. The colors were borrowed from the old imperial banner, but expressed the dogmas of National Socialism. In his autobiography Mein Kampf, Hitler then explained: “Red is social thought in motion, white represents nationalism, and the swastika is a symbol of the struggle of the Aryans and their victory, which is thus the victory of the idea of ​​creative work, which in itself has always been anti-Semitic and always will be anti-Semitic.”

The swastika as a national symbol

In May 1933, just a few months after Hitler came to power, a law was passed to protect "national symbols". According to this law, the swastika was not supposed to be depicted on foreign objects, and the commercial use of the sign was also prohibited.

In July 1935, the German merchant ship Bremen entered the port of New York. The Nazi flag with the swastika flew next to the German national flag. Hundreds of union and American Communist Party members gathered on the wharf for an anti-Nazi rally. The demonstration escalated into riots, excited workers boarded the Bremen, tore off the swastika flag and threw it into the water. The incident resulted in four days later German ambassador in Washington demanded an official apology from the American government. The Americans refused to apologize, saying that the disrespect was shown not to the national flag, but only to the flag of the Nazi Party.

The Nazis were able to use this incident to their advantage. Hitler called it "the humiliation of the German people". And to prevent this from happening in the future, the status of the swastika was raised to the level of a national symbol.

On September 15, 1935, the first of the so-called Nuremberg Laws came into force. It legalized the colors of the German state: red, white and black, and the flag with the swastika became the state flag of Germany. In November of the same year, this banner was introduced into the army. During the Second World War, it spread to all the countries occupied by the Nazis.

The cult of the swastika

However, in the Third Reich, the swastika was not a symbol of state power, but primarily an expression of the worldview of National Socialism. During their reign, the Nazis created a cult of the swastika that more closely resembled a religion than the usual political use of the symbols. The grandiose mass gatherings organized by the Nazis were like religious ceremonies, where Hitler was assigned the role of high priest. During party days in Nuremberg, for example, Hitler exclaimed "Heil!" - and hundreds of thousands of Nazis answered in chorus: "Heil, my Fuhrer"! With bated breath, the huge crowd watched as huge banners with swastikas were slowly unfurled to the solemn drum roll.

This cult also included a special veneration of the banner, preserved from the time of the "beer putsch" in Munich in 1923, when several Nazis were shot dead by the police. The legend claimed that a few drops of blood fell on the cloth. Ten years later, after coming to power, Hitler ordered the delivery of this flag from the archives of the Bavarian police. And since then, each new army standard or flag with a swastika went through a special ceremony, during which the new cloth touched this blood-stained banner, which became a relic of the Nazis.

The cult of the swastika as a symbol of the Aryan race was to eventually replace Christianity. Since the Nazi ideology presented the world as a struggle between races and peoples, Christianity with its Jewish roots was in their eyes another proof that the earlier Aryan regions had been "conquered" by the Jews. Towards the end of World War II, the Nazis developed far-reaching plans to transform the German church into a "national" church. All Christian symbols were to be replaced in it with Nazi ones. Party ideologue Alfred Rosenberg wrote that all crosses, Bibles and images of saints should be removed from churches. Instead of a Bible, Mein Kampf should be on the altar, and a sword to the left of the altar. Crosses in all churches should be replaced by "the only invincible symbol - the swastika."

post-war period

After the Second World War, the swastika in the Western world was so associated with the atrocities and crimes of Nazism that it completely overshadowed all other interpretations. Today in the West, the swastika is associated primarily with Nazism and right-wing extremism. In Asia, the swastika sign is still considered positive, although, since the middle of the 20th century, some Buddhist temples have been decorated only with left-handed swastikas, although signs of both directions were previously used.

National symbols

Just as the Italian fascists presented themselves as the modern heirs of the Roman Empire, the Nazis sought to prove their connection to ancient German history. It was not for nothing that Hitler called the state he conceived the Third Reich. The first large-scale state formation was the German-Roman Empire, which existed in one form or another for almost a thousand years, from 843 to 1806. A second attempt at a German empire, made in 1871, when Bismarck united the North German lands under Prussian rule, failed with Germany's defeat in World War I.

German National Socialism, like Italian Fascism, was an extreme form of nationalism. This was expressed in their borrowing of signs and symbols from the early history of the Germans. These include the combination of red, white and black colors, as well as the symbols used by the militaristic power during the Prussian Empire.

Scull

The image of the skull is one of the most common symbols in the history of mankind. It has different meanings in different cultures. In the West, the skull is traditionally associated with death, with the passage of time, with the finiteness of life. Skull drawings existed in ancient times, but became more noticeable in the 15th century: they appeared in abundance in all cemeteries and mass graves associated with the plague epidemic. In Sweden, church paintings depict death as a skeleton.

The associations associated with the skull have always been a suitable symbol for those groups that wanted to either scare people or emphasize their own contempt for death. A well-known example is the pirates of the West Indies of the 17th and 18th centuries, who used black flags with the image of a skull, often combining it with other symbols: a sword, an hourglass or bones. For the same reasons, the skull and crossbones began to be used to indicate danger in other areas. For example, in chemistry and medicine, a skull and crossbones on a label means that the drug is poisonous and life-threatening.

SS men wore metal badges with skulls on their headdresses. The same sign was used in the Life Hussars of the Prussian Guards back in the time of Frederick the Great, in 1741. In 1809, the "Black Corps" of the Duke of Brunswick wore a black uniform depicting a skull without mandible.

Both of these options - a skull and bones or a skull without a lower jaw - existed in the German army during the First World War. In the elite units, these symbols meant fighting courage and contempt for death. When in June 1916 the sapper regiment of the First Guard received the right to wear a white skull on the sleeve, the commander addressed the soldiers with the following speech: "I am convinced that this insignia of the new detachment will always be worn as a sign of contempt for death and fighting spirit."

After the war, the German units that refused to recognize the Treaty of Versailles chose the skull as their symbol. Some of them entered Hitler's personal guard, which later became the SS. In 1934, the SS leadership officially approved the variant of the skull, which is still used by neo-Nazis today. The skull was also the symbol of the SS Panzer Division "Totenkopf". This division was originally recruited from concentration camp guards. The ring with a "dead head", that is, with a skull, was also honorary award, which Himmler presented to distinguished and honored SS men.

For both the Prussian army and the soldiers of the imperial units, the skull was a symbol of blind loyalty to the commander and readiness to follow him to death. This meaning has also been transferred to the symbol SS. “We wear a skull on black caps as a warning to the enemy and as a sign of readiness to sacrifice our lives for the Fuhrer and his ideals,” such a statement belongs to the SS man Alois Rosenvink.

Since the image of the skull was widely used in a variety of areas, in our time it turned out to be the least symbol associated with Nazi ideology. The most famous modern Nazi organization that uses the skull in its symbolism is the British Combat 18.

iron Cross

Initially, the "Iron Cross" was the name of a military order established by the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm III in March 1813. Now both the order itself and the image of the cross on it are called so.

"Iron Cross" different degrees handed over to soldiers and officers of four wars. First, in the Prussian war against Napoleon in 1813, then during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, and then during the First World War. The order symbolized not only courage and honor, but was closely associated with the German cultural tradition. For example, during the Prussian-Austrian war of 1866, the Iron Cross was not awarded, since it was considered a war between two fraternal peoples.

With the outbreak of World War II, Hitler revived the order. In the center of the cross was added, the colors of the ribbon were changed to black, red and white. However, the tradition has been preserved to indicate the year of issue. Therefore, the year 1939 is marked on the Nazi versions of the Iron Cross. During the Second World War, approximately 3.5 million Iron Crosses were awarded. In 1957, when the wearing of Nazi symbols was banned in West Germany, war veterans were given the opportunity to turn in orders and get back the same ones, but without the swastika.

The symbolism of the order has a long history. The Christian cross, which began to be used in Ancient Rome in the 4th century BC, originally meant the salvation of mankind through the martyrdom of Christ on the cross and the resurrection of Christ. When Christianity militarized in the era of the Crusades in the 12th and 13th centuries, the meaning of the symbol expanded and began to cover such virtues of the crusaders as courage, loyalty and honor.

One of the many knightly orders that arose at that time was the Teutonic Order. In 1190, during the siege of Acre in Palestine, merchants from Bremen and Lübeck founded a field hospital. Two years later, the Teutonic Order received formal status from the Pope, who endowed it with a symbol: a black cross on a white background, called the cross patté. The cross is equilateral, its crossbars are curved and expand from the center to the ends.

Over time, the Teutonic Order grew in numbers and its importance increased. During crusades to Eastern Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries, the Teutonic Knights conquered significant territories in the place of modern Poland and Germany. In 1525, the order underwent secularization, and the lands belonging to it became part of the Duchy of Prussia. The black-and-white knights' cross existed in Prussian heraldry until 1871, when its stylized version with straight lines became the symbol of the German war machine.

Thus, the iron cross, like many other symbols that were used in Nazi Germany, is not a Nazi political symbol, but a military one. Therefore, it is not banned in modern Germany, unlike purely fascist symbols, and is still used in the Bundeswehr army. However, neo-Nazis began to use it during their gatherings instead of the banned swastika. And instead of the forbidden banner of the Third Reich, the war flag of Imperial Germany is used.

The iron cross is also common among biker groups. It is also found in popular subcultures, for example, among surfers. Variants of the iron cross are found in the logos of various companies.

wolf hook

In 1910, the German writer Hermann Löns published a historical novel called Werwolf (Werewolf). The action in the book takes place in a German village during the Thirty Years' War. It's about about the struggle of the peasant son Garm Wolf against the legionnaires, who, like insatiable wolves, terrorize the population. The hero of the novel makes his symbol "wolf hook" - a transverse crossbar with two sharp hooks at the ends. The novel became extremely popular, especially in nationalist circles, because of the romantic image of the German peasants.

Löns was killed in France during the First World War. However, his popularity continued in the Third Reich. By order of Hitler in 1935, the remains of the writer were transferred and buried on German soil. The Werewolf novel was reprinted several times, and the cover often featured this sign, which was included in the number of state-sanctioned symbols.

After the defeat in the First World War and the collapse of the empire, the "wolf hook" became a symbol of national resistance against the policies of the victors. It was used by various nationalist groups - Jungnationalen Bundes and Deutschen Pfadfinderbundes, and one volunteer corps even took the name of the novel "Werwolf".

The sign "wolf hook" (Wolfsangel) existed in Germany for many hundreds of years. Its origin is not entirely clear. The Nazis claim that the sign is pagan, citing its resemblance to the Old Norse i rune, but there is no evidence for this. The "wolf hook" was carved on the buildings by members of the medieval masons' guild, who traveled around Europe and built cathedrals as early as the 14th century (these artisans then formed Masons or "free masons"). Later, starting from the 17th century, the sign was included in the heraldry of many noble families and city coats of arms. According to some versions, the shape of the sign resembles a tool that was used to hang wolf carcasses after hunting, but this theory is probably based on the name of the symbol. The word Wolfsangel itself is first mentioned in the Wapenkunst heraldic dictionary of 1714, but denotes a completely different symbol.

Different versions of the symbol were used by young “wolf cubs” from the Hitler Youth and in the military apparatus. The most famous examples of the use of this symbol are: stripes with a "wolf hook" were worn by the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, Eighth tank regiment, Fourth SS Motorized Infantry Division, Dutch SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Landstorm Nederland. In Sweden, this symbol was used by the youth wing of Lindholm's Youth of the North (Nordisk Ungdom) movement in the 1930s.

At the end of World War II, the Nazi regime began to create a kind of partisan groups that were supposed to fight the enemy who had entered German soil. Influenced by Löns's novels, these groups also began to be called "Werwolf", and in 1945 the "wolf hook" became their hallmark. Some of these groups continued to fight against the Allied forces even after the surrender of Germany, for which today's neo-Nazis began to mythologize them.

The "wolf hook" can also be depicted vertically, with points pointing up and down. In this case, the symbol is called Donnerkeil - "lightning".

Working class symbols

Before Hitler got rid of the socialist faction of the NSDAP during the Night of the Long Knives, the party also used the symbols of the labor movement - primarily in the SA assault squads. In particular, as with the Italian fascist militants a decade earlier, in the early 30s, a revolutionary black banner was encountered in Germany. Sometimes it was completely black, sometimes combined with symbols such as the swastika, "wolf hook" or skull. At present, black banners are found almost exclusively among anarchists.

Hammer and sword

In the Weimar Republic of the 1920s, there were political groups that tried to combine socialist ideas with völkisch ideology. This was reflected in the attempts to create symbols that combined elements of these two ideologies. Most often among them there were a hammer and a sword.

The hammer was drawn from the symbolism of the developing labor movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The symbols that glorified the working people were taken from a set of common tools. The most famous were, of course, the hammer and sickle, which in 1922 were adopted as symbols of the newly formed Soviet Union.

The sword has traditionally served as a symbol of struggle and power, and in many cultures it has also been an integral part of various gods of war, for example, the god Mars in Roman mythology. In National Socialism, the sword became a symbol of the struggle for the purity of a nation or race and existed in many variants.

The symbol of the sword contained the idea of ​​the future "unity of the people", which the workers and soldiers were to achieve after the revolution. For several months in 1924, the radical leftist and later nationalist Sepp Erter published a newspaper called Hammer and Sword, the logo of which used the symbol of two crossed hammers intersecting with a sword.

And in Hitler's NSDAP there were leftist movements - primarily represented by the brothers Gregor and Otto Strasser. The Strasser brothers published books at the Rhein-Ruhr and Kampf publishing houses. Both firms used the hammer and sword as emblems. The symbol was also found in the early stages of the existence of the Hitler Youth, before Hitler cracked down on all socialist elements in the Nazi movement in 1934.

Gear

Most of the symbols used in the Third Reich have existed in one form or another for hundreds, sometimes thousands of years. But the gear refers to much later characters. It began to be used only after the industrial revolution of the 18th and 18th centuries. The symbol denoted technology in general, technical progress and mobility. Due to the direct connection with industrial development, the gear has become a symbol of factory workers.

The first in Nazi Germany to use the gear as its symbol was the Technical Department (Technische Nothilfe, TENO, TENO), founded back in 1919. This organization, where the letter T in the shape of a hammer and the letter N was placed inside the gear, provided technical support to various right-wing extremist groups. TENO was responsible for the operation and protection of such important industries as water supply and gas. Over time, TENO joined the German war machine and became directly subordinate to Himmler.

After Hitler came to power in 1933, all trade unions were banned in the country. Instead of trade unions, the workers were united in the German Labor Front (DAF, DAF). The same gear was chosen as a symbol, but with a swastika inside, and the workers were obliged to wear these badges on their clothes. Similar badges, a gear with an eagle, were awarded to aviation maintenance workers - the Luftwaffe.

The gear itself is not a Nazi symbol. It is used by organizations of workers from different countries - both socialist and non-socialist. Among the skinhead movement, dating back to the British labor movement of the 1960s, it is also a common symbol.

Modern neo-Nazis use the gear when they want to emphasize their working origin and oppose themselves to the "cuffs", that is, the clean-cut employees. In order not to be confused with the left, neo-Nazis combine the gear with purely fascist, right-wing symbols.

A striking example is international organization skinheads "Hammerskins" (Hammerskins). In the center of the gear they put the numbers 88 or 14, which are used exclusively in Nazi circles.

Symbols of the ancient Germans

Many Nazi symbols were borrowed from the neo-pagan occult movement that existed in the form of anti-Semitic sects even before the formation of the Nazi parties in Germany and Austria. In addition to the swastika, this symbolism included signs from the pre-Christian era of the history of the ancient Germans, such as "irminsul" and "the hammer of the god Thor."

Irminsul

In the pre-Christian era, many pagans had a tree or a pillar in the center of the village, around which religious rites were performed. Among the ancient Germans, such a pillar was called "irminsul". This word consists of the name of the ancient German god Irmin and the word "sul", denoting a pillar. In northern Europe, the name Jörmun, consonant with "Irmin", was one of the names of the god Odin, and many scholars suggest that the Germanic "irminsul" is associated with the World Tree Yggdrasil in Norse mythology.

In 772, the Christian Charlemagne leveled the cult center of the pagans in the sacred grove of Externsteine ​​in what is now Saxony. In the 20s of the XX century, at the suggestion of the German Wilhelm Teudt, a theory arose that the most important Irminsul of the ancient Germans was located there. As evidence, a relief carved in stone by monks of the 12th century was cited. The relief shows the irminsul, bent under the image of St. Nicodemus and the cross - a symbol of the victory of Christianity over paganism.

In 1928 Teudt founded the Society for the Study of Ancient German History, symbolized by the "straightened" Irminsul from the Externstein relief. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Society fell into the sphere of Himmler's interests, and in 1940 became part of the German Society for the Study of Ancient German History and Heritage of Ancestors (Ahnenerbe).

"Ahnenerbe", created by Himmler in 1935, was engaged in the study of the history of Germanic tribes, but the results of studies that did not fit into the National Socialist doctrine of the purity of the race could not be published. Irminsul became the symbol of Ahnenerbe, and many employees of the institute wore small silver jewelry that reproduced a relief image. This sign is still used by neo-Nazis and neo-pagans to this day.

Runes

The Nazis considered the Third Reich a direct successor of the ancient German culture, and it was important for them to prove the right to be called the heirs of the Aryans. In their pursuit of evidence, the runes caught their attention.

Runes are signs of the writing of the pre-Christian era of the peoples who inhabited the north of Europe. Just as the letters of the Latin alphabet correspond to sounds, each runic sign corresponded to a specific sound. Runic writings of various variants have been preserved, carved on stones at different times and in different regions. It is assumed that each rune, like each letter of the alphabet, had its own name. However, everything we know about runic writing is not obtained from primary sources, but from later medieval records and an even later Gothic script, so it is not known whether this information is correct.

One of the problems for Nazi research on runic signs was that there were not too many of these stones in Germany itself. Research was mainly based on the study of stones with runic inscriptions found in the European North, most often in Scandinavia. Scientists supported by the Nazis found a way out: they argued that half-timbered buildings, widespread in Germany, with their wooden posts and braces that give the building a decorative and expressive appearance, repeat the way of writing runes. It was understood that in such an "architectural and construction way" the people allegedly kept the secret of runic inscriptions. Such a trick led to the discovery in Germany of a huge number of "runes", the meaning of which could be interpreted in the most fantastic way. However, beams or logs in half-timbered structures, of course, cannot be "read" as text. The Nazis solved this problem too. Without any reason, it was announced that in ancient times each individual rune had some hidden meaning, an “image”, which only the initiates could read and understand.

Serious researchers who studied the runes only as writing lost their subsidies because they became "renegades", apostates from Nazi ideology. At the same time, quasi-scientists who adhered to the theory sanctioned from above received significant funds at their disposal. As a result, almost all research was aimed at finding evidence of the Nazi view of history and, in particular, in search of the ritual meaning of runic signs. In 1942, runes became the official holiday symbols of the Third Reich.

Guido von List

The main representative of these ideas was the Austrian Guido von List. A supporter of the occult, he devoted half his life to the revival of the "Aryan-Germanic" past and was at the beginning of the 20th century a central figure among anti-Semitic societies and associations involved in astrology, theosophy and other occult activities.

Von List was engaged in what in occult circles was called "medium writing": with the help of meditation, he plunged into a trance and in this state "saw" fragments of ancient German history. Coming out of a trance, he wrote down his "visions". Von List argued that the faith of the Germanic tribes was a kind of mystical "natural religion" - Wotanism, which was served by a special caste of priests - "Armans". In his opinion, these priests used runic signs as magical symbols.

Further, the "medium" described the Christianization of Northern Europe and the expulsion of the Armans, who were forced to hide their faith. However, their knowledge did not disappear, and the secrets of the runic signs were preserved by the German people for centuries. With the help of his "supernatural" abilities, von List could find and "read" these hidden symbols everywhere: from the names of German settlements, coats of arms, Gothic architecture and even names different types baking.

After an ophthalmic operation in 1902, von List saw nothing for eleven months. It was at this time that he was visited by the most powerful visions, and he created his own "alphabet" or runic row of 18 characters. This series, which had nothing in common with the scientifically accepted, included runes from different times and places. But, despite his anti-science, he greatly influenced the perception of runic signs not only by the Germans in general, but also by the Nazi "scientists" who studied runes in the Ahnenerbe.

The magical meaning that von List attributed to runic writing has been used by the Nazis from the time of the Third Reich to the present day.

Rune of life

"Rune of Life" - the Nazi name for the fifteenth in the Old Norse series and the fourteenth in the series of Viking runes runic sign. Among the ancient Scandinavians, the sign was called "mannar" and denoted a man or a person.

For the Nazis, it meant life and was always used when it came to health, family life, or the birth of children. Therefore, the "rune of life" became the emblem of the women's branch of the NSDAP and other women's associations. In combination with a cross inscribed in a circle and an eagle, this sign was the emblem of the Association of German Families, and together with the letter A, the symbol of pharmacies. This rune has replaced the Christian star in newspaper announcements of the birth of children and near the date of birth on tombstones.

The "Rune of Life" was widely used on patches, which were awarded for merit in a variety of organizations. For example, the girls of the Health Service wore this emblem in the form of an oval patch with a red rune on a white background. The same sign was issued to members of the Hitler Youth who had undergone medical training. All physicians initially used the international symbol of healing: a snake and a bowl. However, in the desire of the Nazis to reform society down to the smallest detail in 1938, this sign was also replaced. The "Rune of Life", but on a black background, could also be received by the SS.

Rune of death

This runic sign, the sixteenth in a series of Viking runes, became known among the Nazis as the "death rune". The symbol was used to glorify the murdered SS. It replaced the Christian cross in newspaper obituaries and death announcements. He began to be depicted on gravestones instead of a cross. They also put it on the places of mass graves on the fronts of the Second World War.

This sign was also used by Swedish right-wing extremists in the 30s and 40s. For example, the "rune of death" is printed in the announcement of the death of a certain Hans Linden, who fought on the side of the Nazis and was killed on the Eastern Front in 1942.

Modern neo-Nazis, of course, follow the traditions of Nazi Germany. In 1994, in a Swedish newspaper called The Torch of Freedom, an obituary for the death of the fascist Per Engdal was published under this rune. A year later, the newspaper "Valhall and the Future", which was published by the West Swedish Nazi movement NS Gothenburg, under this symbol, published an obituary for the death of Eskil Ivarsson, who in the 30s was an active member of Lindholm's Swedish fascist party. The 21st-century Nazi organization, the Salem Foundation, still sells patches in Stockholm with images of the "life rune", "death rune" and torch.

Rune Hagal

The rune, meaning the sound "x" ("h"), in the ancient runic series and in the newer Scandinavian one looked different. The Nazis used both signs. "Hagal" is an old form of the Swedish "hagel", which means "hail".

The hagal rune was a popular symbol of the völkisch movement. Guido von List put a deep symbolic meaning into this sign - the connection of man with the eternal laws of nature. In his opinion, the sign called on a person to "embrace the Universe in order to master it." This meaning was borrowed by the Third Reich, where the hagal rune represented absolute faith in Nazi ideology. In addition, an anti-Semitic magazine called Hagal was published.

The rune was used by the SS tank division"Hohenstaufen" on flags and badges. In the Scandinavian form, the rune was depicted on high award- SS ring, and also accompanied the wedding of the SS.

In modern times, the rune has been used by the Swedish party Hembygd, the right-wing extremist group Heimdal, and the small Nazi group Popular Socialists.

Rune Odal

The Odal rune is the last, 24th rune of the Old Norse series of runic signs. Its sound corresponds to the pronunciation of the Latin letter O, and the form goes back to the letter "omega" of the Greek alphabet. The name is derived from the name of the corresponding sign in the Gothic alphabet, which resembles the Old Norse "property, land". This is one of the most common signs in Nazi symbols.

The nationalistic romanticism of the 19th century idealized the simple and close to nature life of the peasants, emphasizing the love for their native village and homeland in general. The Nazis continued this romantic line, and the Odal rune took on special significance in their "blood and soil" ideology.

The Nazis believed that there was some kind of mystical connection between the people and the land where they live. This idea was formulated and developed in two books written by SS member Walter Darre.

After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Darré was appointed minister of agriculture. Two years earlier, he had headed a sub-department of the SS, which in 1935 became the state Central Office for Race and Resettlement, the Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt (RuSHA), whose task was to put into practice the basic Nazi idea of ​​racial purity. In particular, in this institution they checked the purity of the race of SS members and their future wives; sexual relationship with a German or a German woman. The symbol of this department was the rune Odal.

The odal was worn on the collars by the soldiers of the SS Volunteer Mountain Division, where they both recruited volunteers and took “ethnic Germans” from the Balkan Peninsula and from Romania by force. During the Second World War, this division operated in Croatia.

Rune Zig

The Zig rune was considered by the Nazis a sign of strength and victory. The ancient Germanic name for the rune was sowlio, which means "sun". The Anglo-Saxon name for the rune sigel also means "sun", but Guido von List mistakenly associated this word with the German word for victory - "sieg" (Sieg). From this mistake arose the meaning of the rune, which still exists among neo-Nazis.

"Zig-rune", as it is called, is one of the most famous signs in the symbolism of Nazism. First of all, because this double sign was worn on the collars of the SS. In 1933, the first such patches, designed in the early 1930s by SS man Walter Heck, were sold by the textile factory of Ferdinand Hoffstatters to SS units at a price of 2.50 Reichsmarks apiece. The honor of wearing a double "zig-rune" on the collars of the uniform was the first to be awarded to part of the personal guard of Adolf Hitler.

They wore a double "zig-rune" in combination with the image of a key and in the SS Panzer Division "Hitler Youth" formed in 1943, which recruited young people from the organization of the same name. The single "zig-rune" was the emblem of the Jungfolk organization, which taught the basics of Nazi ideology to children from 10 to 14 years old.

Rune Tyr

Rune Tir is another sign that was borrowed by the Nazis from the pre-Christian era. The rune is pronounced like the letter T and also denotes the name of the god Tyr.

The god Tyr was traditionally seen as the god of war, hence the rune symbolized struggle, battle and victory. Graduates of the officer school wore a bandage with the image of this sign on their left arm. The symbol was also used by the 30 January Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division.

A special cult around this rune was created in the Hitler Youth, where all activities were aimed at individual and group rivalry. The Tyr rune reflected this spirit - and meetings of members of the Hitler Youth adorned colossal Tyr runes. In 1937, the so-called "Adolf Hitler Schools" were created, where the most capable students were prepared for important positions in the administration of the Third Reich. The students of these schools wore the double "Tyr rune" as an emblem.

In Sweden in the 1930s, this symbol was used by the Youth of the North, a branch of the Swedish Nazi Party NSAP (NSAP).

In order to understand how the swastika became the emblem of Nazism, one dictionary definition is not enough. The swastika in this role (the Nazis themselves never called it that - this symbol was called exclusively das Hakenkreuz, from der Haken - a hook) has a rather interesting trajectory.

For starters, the swastika is not a symbol of fascism in general (the emblem of the ancestor of this phenomenon, the Italian National Fascist Party, was a fascia - a bundle of rods into which an ax was inserted, in ancient Rome, fascias were the property of lictors, guards and executors of decisions of higher magistrates; B. Mussolini when choosing a symbol for his movement, he used a play on words - Italian fascio, union, league, came from the Latin fascis), and the symbol of German National Socialism (one can argue for a long time about whether Nazism can be called fascism or not - this question of the methodology of specific historical schools and researchers). In turn, movements different countries of the world, imitating the German Nazis or considering themselves successive in relation to the NSDAP, borrowed it from this party. And now - history.

I must say that the swastika in its various versions was not at all unfamiliar to Europeans - it was used in ornaments, heraldry (for example, A. Hitler first saw it as a child in the Benedictine Lambach Abbey). But he got on the banners of the Nazis in a roundabout way.

In 1888 E.P. Blavatsky, the founder of the Theosophical Society, writes the book "Secret Doctrine", where she rips off the covers and talks about astral channels and secret mahatmas. In it, for the first time in her writings, the swastika appears (illustrating the stages of the evolution of the universe), and the author likes it so much that she decided to include it in the printing project of her society.

The new doctrine, which was a mixture of various religious concepts and their own ideas, quickly gained popularity in Europe, which at that time was dominated by romanticism. The German Theosophical Society was founded in 1885, and seven years later the theosophist F. Hartmann published the first issue of the Lotus Flowers magazine, which became the first German printed publication to feature the swastika. At the same time, theosophical ideas began to spread among the supporters of the Völkische Bewegung movement - it is customary to translate this name into Russian as "populist movement". The völkische movement originated in the first half of the 19th century in Germany on the wave of emerging romanticism, it was associated with the Germans' search for their spiritual roots, a place in the world. It was not strictly formalized, organizations, publications, ideas constantly appeared and disappeared - in particular, it turned out to be susceptible to trends from the east. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, several books by F. von Sebald and G. von List, which are significant in this regard, appeared, borrowing ideas from theosophical treatises, introducing their own terminology into them. Thus, the so-called. Ariosophy - the union of theosophical and racial doctrines (the hierophants from Blavatsky's book are replaced by a certain community of Armanenschaft initiates, "people" - by "race", "Germans" - by "Aryans", who are identified with the "fifth root race" from the "Secret Doctrine" ). In 1902, Guido von List (one of the "pillars" of the Austrian Völkisch) finishes his work on the origin of the "Aryan parent language", in which he actually completely borrows the scheme illustrating the emergence and evolution of the world through the swastika from Blavatsky's "Secret Doctrine"; at about the same time, he publishes an article in which he claims for the first time that the swastika is an ancient sacred Aryan symbol.

On the other hand, the völkisch movement, although in itself religious and philosophical, ideologically fed various pan-German political groups, the main ideas of which were the unification of all Germans under the auspices of the German Reich and the Hohenzollern dynasty, opposition to the Habsburg dynasty, the Catholic Church and the influence of non-German peoples Austria-Hungary, as well as anti-Semitism. Thus, through the Theosophists, the swastika became the emblem of numerous German and Austrian esoteric groups - from the Order of the New Templars by J. Lanz-Liebenfels to the Munich Germanenorden. One of the parts of the latter (by that time it had broken up into several "true Germanenorden") became in 1918 the "Thule Society", whose members were part of the core of one of the dwarf anti-Semitic Völkisch parties in Munich - the German Workers' Party (and its leader R. von Sebottendorf financed the work of the main press organ of this group - the newspaper "Munich (later" People's ") Observer"), whose name in 1920 was changed to the NSDAP. Hitler, without thinking twice, took as a basis the sign that had long been known as the emblem of the German national movement, using the heraldic colors of the German Empire - black, red and white - to design the banner of his party. True, Hitler could not stand the home-grown Völkische philosophers, despised and mocked them - but that's a completely different story.

Why dress code? Well, it must be said that in the Third Reich, a soldier had to be not only the most elegant representative of the nation, but also the ideal man. Accordingly, the form that was developed for this ideal man had to correspond to the hero of the nation. A lot of people worked on this and, probably, quite a lot of people now know that the famous couturier, whose fashion house still exists today, Hugo Boss, put his hand into the development and tailoring of the German form. Moreover, in 1931, Hugo Boss Sr. joined the National Socialist Party and began to design costumes for the SS, SA, Hitler Youth, the top party leadership of Germany and, of course, for military units various types of troops.

The Germans began to pay special attention to camouflage fabrics, because the new war assumed new standards of warfare, greater secrecy. At first, this did not appear, and the first main association with the German army, which probably exists in most people to this day, is gray uniforms with four pockets, very elegant (we must give them their due), very comfortable to wear, Made from durable and quality fabrics.

If we recall the chronicle of the war, look at the photographs of the British, the French or us, then neither the English, nor the French, nor the Soviet form caused a feeling of a hidden threat. And the element of hidden threat was one of the main components of the conduct of hostilities German army. In his book, German General Staff Officer Eike Middeldorf repeatedly addresses the issue of hidden threat. The hidden threat was always to be created. It is not necessary to completely surround the enemy - you need to create the appearance of an environment and move on; it is not necessary to take any drastic unmotivated actions - it is enough to hint that they will happen. And this idea permeated literally everything, including the development of uniforms for the German army.

Group photo of young men from the Hitler Youth, 1933. (pinterest.com)

The basis of the main, let’s say, German tunic, which was worn by both officers and soldiers, was taken from the model of the First World War, which was finalized: with its appearance, it gave greater status, greater smartness, at the same time it was extremely functional.

If you count how many varieties of uniforms German soldiers and officers had, you get about ten varieties: it was a dress uniform, output, report form, additional output uniform, everyday, patrol, field and work. Accordingly, the form was supposed to have all kinds of unloading, as it is now called. A knapsack was specially designed, in which everything and everything could be placed - this is for the infantry, for the soldiers. And numerous views German parades and marching columns really evoke a feeling of this anxiety and fatality, on which, apparently, not only Hugo Boss, but also ideologists and fashion designers did a good job.

It must be said that, naturally, all kinds of attributes were attached to the uniform: these are buttonholes, according to which belonging to one or another branch of the military was determined; these are piping on caps, which also made it possible to do this; and, accordingly, all kinds of elements that distinguished those who achieved something.

If speak about German awards, then they all had their own slang names. And I must say that there was some kind of internal competition between the Wehrmacht, that is, the German army, and the NSDAP and the SS, respectively, since the SS was like a military application of the NSDAP, Hitler’s personal troops, party troops, because neither the Wehrmacht, nor the Luftwaffe, nor Kriegsmarine, no other troops in the German army were political. Not a single soldier and officer of the German army, in accordance with German law, could be a member of any party. As a matter of fact, the Wehrmacht never really liked the NSDAP and actively organized assassination attempts against Hitler, the last of which was almost effective.

No more than six awards could be worn on the German uniform. The Germans had laconic, non-colored awards, with the exception of the German star, which in the army was called "fried eggs" for the presence yellow color. Usually it was white or black metal. And, of course, the most prestigious awards were the Iron Cross and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, which went to very, very few.

Presentation of the Iron Cross to Hanna Reitsch, 1941. (pinterest.com)

As for the SS, Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, who was very interested in the German epic, personally developed the style of the form and much more. And everything that had anything to do with this, he sought to bring into the development and creation of the form and symbols of the SS troops.

If we talk about the SS troops, then usually the associative series draws people in black uniforms. But in fact, not everyone had a black uniform for everyone, and the SS field units wore exactly the same gray uniform or camouflage as all the other military units in Germany.

Probably the standard stereotype of perception is the presence of a skull and crossbones on the uniform of the SS. In fact, the story of the skull and bones has nothing to do with intimidation and intimidation of the enemy. This is a very ancient German sign, which meant readiness for self-sacrifice, readiness to sacrifice oneself in the name of the Motherland. This symbol existed in the time of Frederick of Prussia, and when he was buried, the coffin was covered with a black cloth, on the corners of which a skull with two bones was embroidered, and the skull did not have a lower jaw. It was believed that this was the same skull that was on Golgotha, the skull of Adam, which lay at the base of the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified.

This symbol was very common in Germany and during the First World War. Soldiers and officers ordered rings with the image of this skull. Naturally, when the struggle for political power began, everything that could work for this power was adapted by it, and Hitler and his entourage decided to use this symbol also in their favor. Some changes in appearance skulls and bones were introduced by Himmler. Since he nevertheless graduated from an agricultural educational institution, he noticed that the shape of the skull was not quite correct - there was no lower jaw, and ordered the symbol to be finalized in accordance with the anatomical parameters. It was this anatomically correct skull that appeared as a symbol of the SS troops and, first of all, the Totenkopf Division, which was very, very active on all fronts during the Second World War.

I must say that the beginning of hostilities on the Eastern Front introduced its own severe adjustments into the life of the German army. Naturally, the German soldiers and officers had overcoats. However, the Germans were not initially going to fight in the winter, and their overcoat was rather demi-season and for cool weather, but not for the 30 and 40-degree frosts that they had to face during the fighting in the winter of 1941/42. Accordingly, this posed the challenge for German uniform designers to make clothes warm. And this form appeared in 1942. It was a reversible jacket, white on one side, gray on the other, or in protective camouflage (it was either in the form of broken glass or in the form of stains on the water), which had pockets turned inside out, which was decently insulated and which could be put on over all. It was probably the first shapeless form that absolutely did not constrain movements and made it possible to work quite comfortably in all weather conditions, including even on snow.

Division "Totenkopf" moving forward, 1941. (pinterest.com)

A separate form development was carried out for Africa. One of the commanders in Rommel's Afrika Korps writes in his memoirs that the first impressions of the uniform they received for the desert war were quite stunning, because both the shorts and the jacket were thick. In the daytime, when the temperature reached forty or more degrees, it seemed ridiculous, it was very hot. But the temperature differences in the desert were so great that by night this form turned out to be the most suitable.

It turns out that the form not only determines the appearance, not only affects the psychology of the enemy and the psychology of those who wear this uniform, but also performs a huge number of functions.

A few words about the swastika as a symbol of the Third Reich. So, the swastika is a very ancient symbol. When Nazi symbols were being developed, the NSDAP somehow revolved around a cross of one form or another: after all, the cross was the standard German symbol for many centuries, starting with the same Teutonic knights.

In fact, the swastika is a Tibetan, Buddhist and Hindu symbol, which is many, many thousands of years old, which symbolized the movement of the sun. And if you visit India, you will see swastikas of all sorts and colors, painted on anything: on dwellings, on cars, on counters ...

Accordingly, the rigid form of the swastika, apparently, greatly impressed Hitler and Himmler. She was very concise. And if you remember that the banners of the Nazis were red with a white circle, where the swastika was placed in the middle, and the banners of the German communists were red with a white circle, where the black sickle and hammer were placed, then at a great distance all this was perceived uniformly, and at the beginning of the struggle for influence to society it all looked like variations on the same theme. One way or another, the swastika took root in Germany, but it was not a national symbol, but a political one. She was not a symbol of the Wehrmacht. And, moreover, if we recall the conflict between the commander of the Jagdgeschwader-77, Gordon Gollob, and Goering, who accused him of cowardice and insufficient effectiveness of actions, then Gollob simply ordered to paint over the swastika on the Messerschmitts of his division. So they flew through the whole war without a swastika on their tails. Well, in general, there were quite a few such precedents.

Erwin Rommel during the fighting in Africa. (pinterest.com)

A few words about what the German infantry looked like. As mentioned above, the privates and officers had about ten varieties of uniforms that they wore. Basically, this form was gray, as we say, mouse-colored. The question arises: why did the Germans choose gray? But in fact, in combat conditions, when dust, dirt, etc. rise, everything becomes gray. You can read Remarque or someone else who wrote about the war: dust, dust and dirt. Accordingly, the gray color is the most adaptive, the most invisible.

I must say that at the first stage of the war, the Germans painted aircraft according to the scheme: light green and dark green on top, pale blue on the bottom. But, starting in 1942, they began to paint planes and fighters in gray and dark gray, such gray-gray, the shade of the wings of a dove. Why? Because at a short distance this plane was already hiding, blurring. Gray is rather faceless, as the Strugatskys wrote, “the grays start and win.” And, indeed, as an element of camouflage, it was effective. Our aviation, too, since 1943, has adapted gray colors for greater secrecy.