The swastika of fascism. Cult symbolism and its meaning

Half a century has passed since the end of the Second World War, but until now, the two letters SS (more precisely, of course, SS), for the majority, are synonymous with horror and terror. Thanks to the mass production of Hollywood and the Soviet film factories trying to keep up with it, almost all of us are familiar with the uniforms of the SS men and their death-head emblem. But real history SS is much more complex and multifaceted. In it one can find heroism and cruelty, nobility and meanness, selflessness and intrigue, deep scientific interests and a passionate craving for the ancient knowledge of distant ancestors.

The head of the SS Himmler, who sincerely believed that the Saxon king Henry I "Birdcatcher" was spiritually reincarnated in him - the founder of the First Reich, elected in 919 the king of all Germans. In one of his speeches in 1943 he said:

"Our order will enter the future as a union of an elite that has united the German people and all of Europe around itself. It will give the world leaders of industry, Agriculture as well as political and spiritual leaders. We will always obey the law of elitism, choosing the superior and discarding the inferior. If we stop following this fundamental rule, then we will condemn ourselves to and disappear from the face of the earth like any other human organization.

His dreams, as you know, were not destined to come true for completely different reasons. WITH young years Himmler showed an increased interest in the "ancient heritage of our ancestors." Associated with the Thule Society, he was fascinated by the pagan culture of the Germans and dreamed of its revival - of the time when it would replace the "stinking Christianity." In the intellectual depths of the SS there was a development of a new "moral" based on pagan ideas.

Himmler considered himself the founder of a new pagan order, which was "destined to change the course of history", carry out "cleansing of the rubbish accumulated over the millennia" and return humanity to "the path prepared by Providence." In connection with such grandiose plans for a "return", it is not surprising that the ancient one was widely used on the SS order. On the uniforms of the SS men, they stood out, testifying to the elitism and camaraderie that prevails in the organization. From 1939 they went to war singing a hymn that included the following line: "We are all ready for battle, we are inspired by runes and a dead head."

According to the plan of the Reichsführer SS, the runes were to play a special role in the symbols of the SS: on his personal initiative, the Institute of Runic Writing was established as part of the Ahnenerbe program - the Society for the Study and Dissemination of the Cultural Heritage of Ancestors. Until 1940, all recruits of the SS order underwent mandatory instruction regarding runic symbolism. By 1945, 14 basic runic symbols were used in the SS. The word "rune" means "secret script". Runes are the basis of the alphabets carved on stone, metal and bone, and which became widespread mainly in pre-Christian Northern Europe among the ancient Germanic tribes.

"... The great gods - Odin, Ve and Willy carved a man from ash, and a woman from willow. The eldest of the children of Bor, Odin, breathed soul into people and gave life. To bestow them with new knowledge, Odin went to Utgard, the Land of Evil ", to the World Tree. There he pulled out an eye and brought it to, but this seemed not enough to the Guardians of the Tree. Then he gave his life - he decided to die in order to resurrect. For nine days he hung on a branch pierced by a spear. Each of the eight nights of Initiation opened him new secrets of being. On the ninth morning, Odin saw runes-letters inscribed on a stone. His mother's father, the giant Belthorn, taught him to carve and color runes, and the World Tree became known from then on - Yggdrasil ... "

So tells about the acquisition of runes by the ancient Germans "Snorrieva Edda" (1222-1225), perhaps the only complete review of the heroic epic of the ancient Germans, based on legends, divination, spells, sayings, cult and rituals of the Germanic tribes. In the Edda, Odin was revered as the god of war and the patron of the dead heroes of Valhalla. He was also considered a necromancer.

The famous Roman historian Tacitus in his book "Germany" (98 BC) described in detail how the Germans were engaged in predicting the future with the help of runes.

Each rune had a name and magical meaning that went beyond the purely linguistic framework. The inscription and composition changed over time and acquired magical significance in Teutonic astrology. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. the runes were remembered by various "folkische" (folk) groups spread in Northern Europe. Among them was the Thule Society, which played a significant role in the early days of the Nazi movement.

Hakenkreutz

SWASTIKA - the Sanskrit name of the sign depicting a hook cross (among the ancient Greeks, this sign, which became known to them from the peoples of Asia Minor, was called "tetraskele" - "four-legged", "spider"). This sign was associated with the cult of the Sun among many peoples and is found already in the Upper Paleolithic era and even more often in the Neolithic era, primarily in Asia (according to other sources, the oldest image of the swastika was found in Transylvania, it dates from the Late Stone Age; the swastika found in the ruins of the legendary Troy, this is the Bronze Age). Already from the 7th-6th centuries BC. e. it enters into symbolism, where it means the secret doctrine of the Buddha. The swastika is reproduced on the oldest coins of India and Iran (before our era it penetrates from there to); in Central America it is also known among the peoples as a sign indicating the cycle of the Sun. In Europe, the distribution of this sign dates back to a relatively late time - to the Bronze and Iron Ages. In the era of the migration of peoples, he penetrates through the Finno-Ugric tribes to the north of Europe, to Scandinavia and the Baltic, and becomes one of the supreme Scandinavian god Odin (Wotan in German mythology), who suppressed and absorbed the previous solar (solar) cults. Thus, the swastika, as one of the varieties of the image of the solar circle, was practically found in all parts of the world, as the solar sign served as an indication of the direction of rotation of the Sun (from left to right) and was also used as a sign of well-being, “turning away from the left side”.

It is precisely because of this that the ancient Greeks, who learned about this sign from the peoples of Asia Minor, changed the turn of their “spider” to the left and at the same time changed its meaning, turning it into a sign of evil, sunset, death, since for them it was “alien” . Since the Middle Ages, the swastika has been completely forgotten and only occasionally met as a purely ornamental motif without any meaning and significance.

Only in the late XIX century, probably based on the erroneous and hasty conclusion of some German archaeologists and ethnographers that the swastika sign can be an indicator for identifying the Aryan peoples, since it is allegedly found only among them, in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century they began to use the swastika as an anti-Semitic sign (for the first time in 1910), although later, at the end of the 20s, the works of English and Danish archaeologists were published, who discovered the swastika not only in the territories inhabited by Semitic peoples (in Mesopotamia and Palestine), but also directly on the Hebrew sarcophagi.

For the first time as a political sign-symbol, the swastika was used on March 10-13, 1920 on the helmets of the militants of the so-called “Erhard Brigade”, which formed the core of the “Volunteer Corps” - a monarchist paramilitary organization led by Generals Ludendorff, Seeckt and Lutzow, who carried out the Kapp putsch - counter-revolutionary the coup that planted the landowner V. Kapp as “premier” in Berlin. Although Bauer's Social Democratic government fled ignominiously, the Kapp Putsch was liquidated in five days by the 100,000-strong German Army created under the leadership of the Communist Party of Germany. The authority of the militaristic circles was then severely undermined, and the sign of the swastika from that time began to mean a sign of right-wing extremism. Since 1923, on the eve of Hitler's "beer putsch" in Munich, the swastika has become the official emblem of the Nazi Party, and since September 1935 - the main state emblem Nazi Germany, included in its coat of arms and flag, as well as in the emblem of the Wehrmacht - an eagle holding a wreath with a swastika in its claws.

Under the definition of "Nazi" symbols, only a swastika standing on an edge at 45 °, with the ends directed to the right, can fit. It was this sign that was on the state banner of National Socialist Germany from 1933 to 1945, as well as on the emblems of the civil and military services of this country. It is also desirable to call it not "swastika", but Hakenkreuz, as the Nazis themselves did. The most accurate reference books consistently distinguish between the Hakenkreuz ("Nazi swastika") and the traditional swastikas in Asia and America, which stand on the surface at an angle of 90°.

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Symbols of the Third Reich

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Half a century has passed since the end of the Second World War, but until now, the two letters SS (more precisely, of course, SS), for the majority, are synonymous with horror and terror. Thanks to the mass production of Hollywood and the Soviet film factories trying to keep up with it, almost all of us are familiar with the black uniforms of the SS men and their death-head emblem. But the actual history of the SS is much...

Image copyright Hulton Archive Image caption Is it possible to rehabilitate the swastika, which for many has become a symbol of fascism?

In the West, the swastika has become an integral symbol of fascism. But few remember that for thousands of years and in different cultures of the world, it was considered a symbol that brings good luck.

Will the ancient sign ever be able to shake off the stigma of Nazism and the negative associations associated with it?

In Old Indian literary language Sanskrit "svasti" means a wish for prosperity and good luck. This symbol has been used by Hindus, Buddhists and followers of Jainism for thousands of years. Most researchers believe that the symbol itself was born in India.

The first travelers from Western countries who reached Asia favorably reacted to the positive associations that the swastika carried with them, and began to actively use this symbol at home.

American graphic artist and designer Steven Heller in his book The Swastika: A Symbol Without Redemption? shows how popular it was in architectural motifs and advertising before Hitler came to power.

"She was decorated with bottles of Coca-Cola and Carlsberg beer. It was adopted by the Boy Scouts, and the American Young Girls Club called its magazine "Swastika". Its editors sent swastika badges to readers who participated in the distribution of the magazine as a small gift" Heller says.

American military units used the swastika during World War I. Her images adorned the wings of some aircraft of the Royal Air Force of Great Britain until 1939. However, the "peaceful" swastika came to an end after fascism came to power in Germany in the 30s of the last century.

The Nazis appropriated the swastika for a reason. In the 19th century, the French romantic writer and sociologist Joseph Gobineau wrote a work entitled: "A Study on Inequality human races", in which he introduced the term "Aryans". So Gobineau called the fair-haired and blue-eyed representatives of the white race, whom he considered as the highest level of all mankind.

In the second half of the 19th century, German scientists, translating texts from Sanskrit, discovered similarities between it and the Old Germanic dialects, from which it was concluded that both the ancient Indians and the ancient Germans had common ancestors: the same god-like race of warriors - the Aryans.

This idea was enthusiastically taken up by nationalist groups, who declared that the swastika was a symbol of the Aryans, and a clear demonstration of the ancient roots of the German nation.

A black cross with bent ends (the so-called "rotating cross" with rays directed clockwise), on a white circle located on a red square, has become one of the most hated emblems of the 20th century, inextricably linked with the crimes of the Third Reich.

“For the Jewish people, the swastika remains a symbol of fear, oppression and destruction. We can never change this symbol,” Holocaust survivor Freddie Knoller told the BBC. “When nationalists paint the swastika on our tombstones and synagogues, we become afraid. This should never happen again."

The swastika became a banned symbol in Germany after the end of World War II. In 2007, Germany attempted to extend this ban to all EU countries, albeit without success.

The irony is that the European roots of the swastika go much deeper than many people realize. Archaeological finds have long shown that this is a very ancient symbol, which was used not only in India. It was found in Ancient Greece, it was familiar to the Celts and Anglo-Saxons, and the oldest examples were found in Eastern Europe from the Baltic to the Balkans.

One of the oldest ornaments depicting a swastika is kept in the State Historical Museum in Kyiv.

Among the most valuable exhibits of the museum is a small bone figurine of a bird carved from a mammoth tusk. It was found in 1908 during excavations of a Paleolithic site near the village of Mizin in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine.

The bird's body is engraved with a complex pattern of intertwining swastikas. It is the oldest officially recognized swastika ornament in the world. Radiocarbon analysis showed that the bone bird was carved 15,000 years ago. During excavations, the bird was found among a number of phallic objects, which, according to scientists, supports the theory that the swastika also served as a symbol of fertility.

In 1965, Soviet paleontologist Valentina Bibikova discovered that the swastika meander ornament may be a conscious reproduction by ancient artists of a natural cut on a mammoth bone. Maybe the inhabitants of the Paleolithic simply reproduced what they saw in nature? And the huge mammoth logically became a symbol of prosperity and fertility?

Single swastikas began to appear in the Vinca Vinca Neolithic culture in Eastern Europe about 7,000 years ago. However, this symbol became truly widespread in Europe only in the Bronze Age.

The collection of the Kyiv Museum has clay pots with swastikas encircling the upper part of the vessel, which is about 4 thousand years old. When fascist troops occupied Kyiv in World War II, the Germans were so convinced that these pots proved the existence of their own Aryan ancestors that they took them with them to Germany. After the war they were returned to Kyiv.

In the Greek collection of the museum, the swastika is widely present in the form of a widespread meander ornament, which is still used to this day.

In ancient Greece, pots and vases were decorated with a swastika motif.

But, perhaps, one of the most unexpected exhibits of the museum in Kyiv is a dilapidated piece of fabric, miraculously preserved from the 12th century. It is believed that it was part of the collar of the dress of some Slavic princess, and the decorations of swastikas and gold crosses were supposed to ward off evil.

The swastika remained a popular motif in Eastern European embroidery until World War II. Associate professor at the Smolny Institute Pavel Kutenkov, who manages the Russian Museum of Ethnology in St. Petersburg, counted about 200 varieties of swastikas in the region.

At the same time, the swastika remains one of the most emotionally negative symbols of our world. In 1941, at Babi Yar in Kyiv, the Nazis killed, according to the most minimal estimates, more than 150 thousand people - Jews, prisoners of war, the mentally ill, gypsies, and so on. The swastika is not to blame for the fact that the National Socialists chose it as their symbol, but few manage to get rid of this association.

Some sincerely believe that the swastika can be revived as a positive symbol. Copenhagen tattoo parlor owner Peter Madsen says the swastika is an important element in Scandinavian mythology.

Madsen was one of the initiators of the action called "Learn to love the swastika", which took place on November 13 last year. The idea was that tattoo artists all over the world offered clients to apply three swastikas on their skin for free on this day, as a symbol of its glorious cultural past.

"The swastika is a symbol of love, which Hitler ruthlessly distorted. We are not trying to revive the" rotating cross, it would be impossible. And we do not want people to forget about the horrors of Nazism, "says Madsen.

“We want people to know that the swastika exists in many forms, none of which have been used for something terrible before. We also want to demonstrate to all these right-wing fascists that they have no right to use this symbol. And if we can teach people to understand true value swastikas, then maybe we will be able to take it away from the Nazis.

But for those who, like Freddie Knoller, experienced all the horrors of fascism, learning to love the swastika is almost impossible.

"For people who survived the Holocaust, it is impossible to forget what a swastika is. For us, it is a symbol of absolute evil."

"However, we did not know that the swastika was born many millennia ago. Maybe people will be interested to know that it was not always a symbol of fascism," concludes Noller.

With the filing of the anti-Russian media and information, it is not known who works for many people, the Swastika is currently associated with fascism and Adolf Hitler. This opinion has been hammered into the heads of people for the last 70 years. Few people now remember that the Swastika was depicted on Soviet money in the period from 1917 to 1923 as a legalized state symbol; that on the sleeve patches of soldiers and officers of the Red Army in the same period there was also a Swastika in laurel wreath, and inside the Swastika were the letters R.S.F.S.R. There is even an opinion that Comrade I.V. Stalin himself presented the Golden Swastika-Kolovrat as a party symbol to Adolf Hitler in 1920. around it ancient symbol so many legends and conjectures have accumulated that perhaps it is worth telling in more detail about this oldest solar cult symbol on Earth.

The swastika symbol is a rotating cross with curved ends pointing clockwise or counterclockwise. As a rule, now all over the world all Swastika symbols are called in one word - SWASTIKA, which is fundamentally wrong, because. each Swastika symbol in ancient times had its own name, purpose, protective power and figurative meaning.

Swastika symbolism, as the most ancient, is most often found during archaeological excavations. More often than other symbols, it was found in ancient burial mounds, on the ruins of ancient cities and settlements. In addition, swastika symbols were depicted on various details of architecture, weapons, clothing and household utensils among many peoples of the world. Swastika symbolism is ubiquitous in ornamentation as a sign of Light, Sun, Love, Life. In the West, there was even an interpretation that the Swastika symbol must be understood as an abbreviation of four words starting with a Latin letter "L":
Light - Light, Sun; Love - Love; Life - Life; Luck - Fate, Luck, Happiness(see postcard below).

English-language greeting card from the early 20th century

The oldest archaeological artifacts depicting swastika symbols now date back to approximately 4-15 millennium BC. (on the right is a vessel from the Scythian Kingdom 3-4 thousand BC). Based on materials archaeological sites The richest territory for the use of the swastika as a religious, as well as cultural and everyday purpose of the symbol is Russia and Siberia. Neither Europe, nor India, nor Asia can compare with Russia or Siberia in the abundance of swastika symbols covering Russian weapons, banners, national costumes, household utensils, household and agricultural items, as well as houses and temples. Excavations of ancient mounds, cities and settlements speak for themselves - many ancient Slavic cities had a clear shape of the Swastika, oriented to the four cardinal points. This can be seen on the example of Arkaim, Vendogard and others (below is the reconstruction plan of Arkaim).

Plan-reconstruction of Arkaim L. L. Gurevich

The swastika and swastika-solar symbols were the main and, one might even say, almost the only elements of the most ancient Proto-Slavic ornaments. But this does not mean at all that the Slavs and Aryans were bad artists.
Firstly, there were a great many varieties of the image of the Swastika symbols. Secondly, in ancient times, not a single pattern was applied to any object just like that, because each element of the pattern corresponded to a certain cult or security (amulet) value, because. each symbol in the pattern had its own mystical power. By combining various mystical forces together, white people created a favorable atmosphere around themselves and their loved ones, in which it was easiest to live and create. These were carved patterns, stucco, painting, beautiful carpets woven by industrious hands (see photo below).

Traditional Celtic rug with swastika pattern

But not only Aryans and Slavs believed in the mystical power of swastika patterns. The same symbols were found on clay vessels from Samarra (territory modern Iraq), which date back to the 5th millennium BC. Swastika symbols in left-hand and right-hand form are found in the pre-Aryan culture of Mohenjo-Daro (Indus River basin) and ancient China around 2000 BC. e. In Northeast Africa, archaeologists have found a burial stele of the Meroz kingdom, which existed in the 2nd-3rd centuries AD. The fresco on the stele depicts a woman entering into afterworld, the Swastika flaunts on the clothes of the deceased.

The rotating cross also adorns the golden weights for scales that belonged to the inhabitants of Ashanta (Ghana), and the clay utensils of the ancient Indians, beautiful carpets woven by the Persians and Celts. Man-made belts created by the Komi, Russians, Sami, Latvians, Lithuanians and other peoples are also filled with swastika symbols, and at present it is difficult even for an ethnographer to figure out which of the peoples to attribute these ornaments to. Judge for yourself.

The swastika symbolism from ancient times has been the main and dominant among almost all peoples on the territory of Eurasia: Slavs, Germans, Mari, Pomors, Skalvians, Curonians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Mordovians, Udmurts, Bashkirs, Chuvashs, Indians, Icelanders, Scots and many others.

In many ancient Beliefs and religions, the Swastika is the most important and brightest cult symbol. So, in ancient Indian philosophy and Buddhism (fig. on the right. Buddha's foot) The swastika is a symbol of the eternal cycle of the universe, a symbol of the Buddha's Law, to which everything that exists is subject. (Dictionary "Buddhism", M., "Republic", 1992); in Tibetan Lamaism - a security symbol, a symbol of happiness and a talisman.
In India and Tibet, the Swastika is depicted everywhere: on the walls and gates of temples (see photo below), on residential buildings, as well as on fabrics in which all sacred texts and tablets are wrapped. Very often, sacred texts from the Book of the Dead are framed with swastika ornaments, which are written on burial covers before kroding (cremation).

At the gate of the Vedic Temple. Northern India. 2000

"Warships in the roadstead (in the inland sea)". 18th century

You can observe the image of many Swastikas both on an old Japanese engraving of the 18th century (picture above), and on peerless mosaic floors in the halls of the St. Petersburg Hermitage (picture below).

Pavilion Hall of the Hermitage. Mosaic floor. Photo 2001

But you will not find any messages about this in the media. mass media, because they have no idea what the Swastika is, what ancient figurative meaning it carries, what it has meant for many millennia and now means for the Slavs and Aryans and many peoples inhabiting our Earth. In these media, alien to the Slavs, the Swastika is called either a German cross or a fascist sign and relegates its image and meaning only to Adolf Hitler, Germany 1933-45, to fascism (National Socialism) and the Second World War. Modern "journalists", "is-Torics" and guardians of "universal values" seem to have forgotten that the Swastika is the Ancient Russian symbol, that in the past, representatives of the highest authorities, in order to enlist the support of the people, always made the Swastika a state symbol and placed its image on money . So did the princes and tsars, the Provisional Government (see p. 166) and the Bolsheviks, who later seized power from them (see below).

Now, few people know that the matrices of a banknote in denominations of 250 rubles, with the image of the Swastika symbol - Kolovrat against the background of a double-headed eagle, were made by special order and sketches of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II. The Provisional Government used these matrices to issue banknotes in denominations of 250, and later 1000 rubles. Beginning in 1918, the Bolsheviks put into circulation new banknotes in denominations of 5,000 and 10,000 rubles, which depict three Kolovrat Swastikas: two smaller Kolovrats in side ties are intertwined with large numbers 5000, 10,000, and a large Kolovrat is placed in the middle. But, unlike the 1000 rubles of the Provisional Government, which had the State Duma depicted on the reverse side, the Bolsheviks placed a double-headed eagle on banknotes. Money with the Swastika-Kolovrat was printed by the Bolsheviks and was in use until 1923, and only after the appearance of banknotes of the USSR they were withdrawn from circulation.

The authorities of Soviet Russia, in order to get support in Siberia, created in 1918 sleeve patches for the Red Army soldiers of the South-Eastern Front, they depicted a Swastika with the abbreviation R.S.F.S.R. inside (see below). But so did: The Russian Government of A. V. Kolchak, calling under the banner of the Siberian Volunteer Corps (see top left); Russian emigrants in Harbin and Paris, and then the National Socialists in Germany.

Created in 1921 according to the sketches of Adolf Hitler, the party symbols and the flag of the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party) subsequently became the state symbols of Germany (1933-1945). Few people now know that in Germany the National Socialists used not a Swastika , and a symbol similar to it in outline - Hakenkreuz (bottom left), which has a completely different figurative meaning - a change in the world around us and a person's worldview.

For many millennia, the different inscriptions of swastika symbols have had a powerful influence on the way of life of people, on their psyche (Soul) and subconsciousness, uniting representatives of various tribes for the sake of some bright goal; gave a powerful surge of light divine forces, revealing the internal reserves in people for all-round creation for the benefit of their Clans, in the name of justice, prosperity and well-being of their Fatherland.

At first, only clergy of various Tribal cults, Religions and religions used this, then representatives of the highest state power - princes, kings, etc., began to use swastika symbols, and after them all kinds of occultists and politicians turned to the Swastika.

After the Bolsheviks completely captured all levels of power, the need for the support of the Soviet regime by the Russian people disappeared, because it is easier to seize the values ​​​​created by the same Russian people. Therefore, in 1923, the Bolsheviks abandoned the Swastika, leaving only the five-pointed star, the Hammer and Sickle as state symbols.

In ancient times, when our Ancestors used x "Aryan Runes, the word Swastika , translated as Coming from Heaven. Since the rune SVA meant Heaven (hence Svarog - Heavenly God), - WITH - Rune of direction; Runes - TIKA - movement, advent, flow, run. Our children and grandchildren still pronounce the word tick, i.e. run. In addition, the figurative form TIKA and is now found in everyday words Arctic, Antarctica, mysticism, homiletics, politics, etc.

Ancient Vedic sources tell us that even our galaxy has the shape of a Swastika, and our Yarila-Sun system is located in one of the arms of this Heavenly Swastika. And since we are in the galactic sleeve, our entire galaxy (its ancient name Svasti) is perceived by us as the Perunov Way or the Milky Way.
Any person who loves to look at the night scattering of stars can see the constellation to the left of the constellation Makosh (B. Ursa) swastikas (see below). It shines in the sky, but it has been excluded from modern star charts and atlases.

Both cult and household solar symbol, bringing happiness, luck, prosperity, joy and prosperity, the Swastika was originally used only among the white people of the Great Race, professing the Old Faith of the First Ancestors - Ynglism , druidic cults of Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia, and many millennia later other peoples of the Earth began to revere her Sacred Image: followers of Hinduism, Bon, Jainism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity of various directions, representatives of nature-religious denominations of Europe and America. The only ones who do not recognize the symbolism as sacred are the representatives of Judaism. Some people may object: they say, in the oldest synagogue in Israel, the Swastika is depicted on the floor and no one destroys it. Indeed, the swastika symbol is present on the floor in the Israeli synagogue, but only for everyone who comes to trample it underfoot.

The legacy of the Ancestors brought the news that for many millennia the Slavs used the Swastika symbols. They numbered 144 species: Swastika, Kolovrat, Salting, Holy Gift, Svasti, Svaor, Solstice, Agni, Fash, Mara; England, Solar Cross, Solard, Vedara, Svetolet, Fern Flower, Perunov Tsvet, Swati, Race, Bogovnik, Svarozhich, Svyatoch, Yarovrat, Odolen-Grass, Rodimich, Charovrat, etc.

Swastika symbols carry a huge secret meaning. They have great wisdom. Each Swastika symbol opens before us great picture universe. The legacy of the Ancestors says that the knowledge of Ancient Wisdom does not accept a stereotypical approach. The study of ancient symbols, Runic writings and ancient Traditions must be approached with an open heart and a pure Soul.
Not for self-interest, but for knowledge!
Swastika symbols in Russia, for political purposes, were used by all and sundry: monarchists, Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, but much earlier, representatives of the Black Hundred began to use their Swastika, then the Russian Fascist Party in Harbin intercepted the baton.

At the end of the 20th century, the Russian National Unity organization began to use the Swastika symbolism (see left). A knowledgeable person never says that the Swastika is a German or fascist symbol. So they say only the essence of unreasonable and ignorant people, because they reject what they are not able to understand and know, and also try to wishful thinking.

But if ignorant people reject any symbol or any information, this still does not mean that given character or information does not exist.

The denial or distortion of truth in favor of some violates the harmonious development of others. Even the ancient symbol of the Greatness of the Fertility of the Mother of the Raw Earth, called in antiquity SOLARD , some incompetent people rank as fascist symbols. A symbol that appeared many thousands of years before the rise of National Socialism. At the same time, it does not even take into account the fact that RNU's SOLARD is combined with the Star of the Lada-Virgin Mary (see on the left), where the Divine Forces (Golden Field), the Forces of Primary Fire (red), the Heavenly Forces (blue) and the Forces of Nature are united (green). The only difference between the original Symbol of Mother Nature and the sign used by the RNU is the multicolor of the Original Symbol of Mother Nature (left) and the two-color one of the Russian National Unity.

Ordinary people had their own names for Swastika symbols. In the villages of the Ryazan province, she was called "feather grass" - the incarnation of the Wind; on the Pechora "hare" - here the graphic symbol was perceived as a piece of sunlight, a ray, sun bunny; in some places the Solar Cross was called a “horse”, “horse shank” (horse head), because a long time ago the horse was considered a symbol of the Sun and Wind; were called Swastikas-Solyarniks and "flinters", again in honor of Yarila-Sun. The people very correctly felt both the Fiery, Fiery Nature of the symbol (Sun) and its Spiritual essence (Wind).

The oldest master of Khokhloma painting Stepan Pavlovich Veseloe (1903-1993) from the village of Mogushino Nizhny Novgorod region, observing the traditions, he painted the Swastika on wooden plates and bowls, calling it "ginger", the Sun, and explained: "This is the wind of a blade of grass shakes, stirs."

In the village, until now, girls and women wear elegant sundresses, ponevs and shirts for holidays, and men - blouses embroidered with swastika symbols of various shapes. Lush loaves and sweet cookies are baked, decorated on top with Kolovrat, Salting, Solstice and other Swastika patterns.

As mentioned earlier, before the second half of the 20th century, the main and almost the only patterns and symbols that existed in Slavic embroidery were Swastika ornaments.

But in the second half of the 20th century, in America, Europe and the USSR, they began to decisively eradicate this Solar symbol, and they eradicated it in the same way as they had previously eradicated: the ancient folk Slavic and Aryan Culture; ancient Faith and folk traditions; the true Heritage of the Ancestors, undistorted by the rulers, and the long-suffering Slavic people themselves, the bearer of the ancient Slavic-Aryan Culture.

And even now, the same people or their descendants are trying to ban any kind of rotating Solar Crosses, but using different pretexts: if earlier this was done under the pretext of class struggle and anti-Soviet conspiracies, now it is a fight against the manifestation of extremist activity.
For those who are not indifferent to the ancient Native Great Russian Culture, several typical patterns are given. Slavic embroidery XVIII-XX centuries. On all enlarged fragments you can see the Swastika symbols and ornaments for yourself.
The use of swastika symbols in ornaments on Slavic lands just uncountable. They are used in the Baltic States, Belarus, the Volga region, Pomorie, Perm, Siberia, the Caucasus, the Urals, Altai and Far East and other regions.

Academician B. A. Rybakov called the Solar symbol - Kolovrat, a connecting "link between the Paleolithic, where it first appeared, and modern ethnography, which gives innumerable examples of swastika patterns in fabrics, embroidery and weaving."

But after the Second World War, in which Russia, as well as all the Slavic and Aryan peoples suffered huge losses, the enemies of the Aryan and Slavic Culture began to equate fascism and the Swastika.

The Slavs used this Solar sign throughout their existence.
Streams of lies and fictions regarding the Swastika overflowed the cup of absurdity. "Russian teachers" in modern schools, lyceums and gymnasiums in Russia teach children complete nonsense, which The swastika is a German fascist cross, made up of four letters "G" , denoting the first letters of the leaders of Nazi Germany: Hitler, Himmler, Goering and Goebbels (sometimes replaced by Hess). Listening to such "unfortunate teachers", one might think that Germany in the time of Adolf Hitler used exclusively Russian alphabet , and not at all the Latin script and the German Runic.
Is it in German surnames: HITLER, HIMMLER, GERING, GEBELS (HESS) , there is at least one Russian letter"G" - No! But the flow of lies does not stop.
Swastika patterns and elements have been used by the peoples of the Earth over the past 10-15 thousand years, which is confirmed even by archaeologists.
Ancient thinkers have repeatedly said: "The development of man is hampered by two troubles: ignorance and ignorance." Our Ancestors were knowledgeable and knowledgeable, and therefore used various Swastika elements and ornaments in everyday life, considering them as symbols of the Yarila-Sun, Life, Happiness and prosperity.

In general, only one symbol was called the Swastika. This is an equilateral cross with curved short rays. Each beam has a 2:1 ratio (see left).
Only narrow-minded and ignorant people can denigrate everything that is pure, bright and expensive that remains among the Slavic and Aryan peoples. Let's not be like them! Do not paint over the Swastika symbols in the ancient Slavic Temples and Christian temples, on the Kummirs of the Light Gods and the Images of the Wise Ancestors. Do not destroy, at the whim of ignoramuses and Slav-haters, the so-called "Soviet staircase", the mosaic floor and ceilings of the Hermitage or the domes of the Moscow St. Basil's Cathedral just because they have been painted on them for hundreds of years various options Swastikas.

Everyone knows that the Slavic prince Prophetic Oleg nailed his shield to the gates of Tsargrad (Constantinople), but few now know what was depicted on the shield. Nevertheless, a description of the symbolism of his shield and armor can be found in historical chronicles. (Drawing of the shield of the Prophetic Oleg on the right).Prophetic people, i.e. possessing the gift of Spiritual Foresight and knowing the Ancient Wisdom, which the Gods and Ancestors left to people, were endowed by the Priests with various symbols. One of these most notable people was the Slavic prince - Prophetic Oleg.
In addition to being a prince and an excellent military strategist, he was also a high-level priest. The symbolism, which was depicted on his clothes, weapons, armor and the princely banner, tells about this in all the detailed images.

The Fiery Swastika (symbolizing the land of the Ancestors) in the center of the nine-pointed Star of Inglia (the symbol of the Faith of the First Ancestors) was surrounded by the Great Kolo (Circle of Patron Gods), which radiated eight rays of Spiritual Light (the eighth degree of Priestly initiation) to the Svarog Circle. All this symbolism spoke of the enormous Spiritual and physical strength, which is sent to protect the Motherland and the Holy Old Faith.

They believed in the Swastika as a talisman, "attracting" good luck and happiness. In ancient Rus', it was believed that if you draw Kolovrat on the palm of your hand, you will definitely be lucky. Even modern students draw the Swastika on the palm of their hand before exams. The swastika was also painted on the walls of the house so that happiness reigned there, this exists in Russia, and in Siberia, and in India.

For those readers who wish to receive more information about the Swastika, we recommend the Ethno-religious essays of Roman Vladimirovich Bagdasarov

Yesterday's arrangement brought an indescribable feeling of Unity.
Already in my second arrangement, archetypes and sacred symbols are shown.
The swastika symbol - as a manifestation of my attitude to the Great Patriotic War (war is the price of life) and Indian sacred meaning swastika symbol - managed to merge.
The symbol of the swastika manifested itself in the way the 4 figures of the deputies stood.
The sacred meaning of the constellation shone through for me through the usual phrases and words of the deputies. And I didn't need words!

Yesterday was 19 lunar day.
The symbol of the 19th Lunar day is the Indian swastika (Zervan), a sign of all manifested and unmanifested worlds.

Light and Darkness, forming by their struggle the existence of the real world.

This symbol has many meanings - not only the sun, but also samsara, the wheel of reincarnations. Four rays symbolize the four elements, as well as four segments of a person's life. The first one is growth and learning. The second is marriage and raising children. The third is the education of youth. The fourth is the service of God.

The swastika also suggests the idea of ​​movement in two directions: clockwise and
counterclock-wise. Like "Yin" and "Yang", the dual sign: rotating on
sentry symbolizes male energy, counterclockwise - female.

In addition, the swastika has the meaning of royal power.
Recently, this symbol has been fully associated with Ganesha and Lakshmi.

The swastika symbolizes all gods and goddesses, and that all gods have one
source - in this case, a symbol is added to the line of intersection of the lines (cross)
Ohm.
Swastika卐 (Skt. match, greeting, good luck) - a cross with curved ends ("rotating"), directed either clockwise or counterclockwise. The swastika is one of the most ancient and widespread graphic symbols. For most ancient peoples, it was a symbol of the movement of life, the Sun, light, prosperity.

The swastika reflects a rotational movement with its derivative - translational and is able to symbolize philosophical categories.

The word "swastika" is a composite of two Sanskrit roots: su, "good, good" and asti, "life, existence", that is, "well-being" or "well-being".

The swastika is seen not only as solar symbol but also as a symbol of the fertility of the earth. This is one of the ancient and archaic solar signs - an indicator of the apparent movement of the Sun around the Earth and the division of the year into four parts - four seasons. The sign fixes two solstices: summer and winter - and the annual movement of the Sun. Has the idea of ​​four cardinal directions. Symbolic cross-shaped sign, consisting of four letters G of the Greek alphabet, interconnected by their bases or four human legs emanating from one common center.
The swastika in India has traditionally been seen as a solar sign - a symbol of life, light, generosity and abundance.

In the form of a swastika, a wooden tool was made to produce the sacred fire. They laid him flat on the ground; the recess in the middle served for the rod, which was rotated until the appearance of fire, kindled on the altar of the deity.

Also a symbol of esoteric Buddhism. In this aspect, it is called the "Seal of the Heart" and, according to legend, was imprinted on the heart of the Buddha.

According to one theory, a special kind of swastika, symbolizing rising Sun, the victory of Light over Darkness, eternal life over death, was called Kolovrat ( Old Church Slavonic form, lit. "wheel rotation"; Old Russian form - kolovorot, which had the meaning of "spindle"). In general, many more examples can be cited that inextricably link the swastika and Rus'.

In the good old days, Russian people got married and got married under a swastika.

The swastika, the sleeve insignia of the Kalmyk formations, is denoted by the word "lyungtn", that is, the Buddhist "Lungta", meaning - "whirlwind", "vital energy".

In pre-Buddhist ancient Indian and some other cultures, the swastika is usually interpreted as a sign of auspicious destinies, a symbol of the sun. This symbol is still widely used in India and South Korea, and most weddings, holidays and festivities cannot do without it.

In Buddhism, the swastika is also one of the sacred symbols - the sacred knowledge and teachings of the Buddha and His heart.

Later it became a symbol of the German Nazis, after they came to power - the state symbol of Germany (depicted on the coat of arms and flag).

In the view of Hitler himself, she symbolized "the struggle for the triumph of the Aryan race." This choice combined both the mystical occult meaning of the swastika and the idea of ​​the swastika as an "Aryan" symbol (due to its prevalence in India).

However, strictly speaking, Nazi symbol there was not any swastika, but four-pointed, with the ends directed to the right side, and rotated by 45 °. At the same time, it should be in a white circle, which in turn is depicted on a red rectangle.

It was this sign that was on the state banner of National Socialist Germany from 1933 to 1945.

Hitler started the war on the summer solstice.

In Hinduism, there are two ways to depict the swastika - left-handed and right-handed. Both of these symbols are two forms of brahman, which symbolizes the development of the universe (pravriti) from brahman - clockwise and the folding of the universe (nivriti) into brahman - counterclockwise.
It also matters as manifestations of brahman or God in the four cardinal directions - north, south, east, west.

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. The national revolution, according to the Nazis, not only had to be carried out - it had to be seen.

The Nazis not only destroyed all those democratic public institutions, laid down during the Weimar Republic, they nullified and all external signs 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. Many 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 honor 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. The Jews were also 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 has been used in many cultures, at different times and in different parts Sveta. Its origin is debatable.

The most ancient archaeological finds with the image of the swastika are cave drawings 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 quite 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 Western world began with the excavations of the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. In the 70s XIX years century Schliemann began excavations of 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 portrayed 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 the book 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 led the German ambassador in Washington to demand a formal apology from the American government four days later. 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 a 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, which was more like a religion than the usual political use characters. 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 previously 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" one. All Christian symbols were to be replaced in it with Nazi ones. Party ideologist 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, from the middle of the 20th century, some Buddhist temples began to be 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 extreme form 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 a lower jaw.

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 Guards 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 leadership of the SS officially approved the version 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 Alois Rosenvink, an SS man.

Since the image of the skull was widely used in a variety of fields, 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.

The "Iron Cross" of various degrees was awarded 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 stamped 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. 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 established 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 the 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 cross of knights 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, in contrast to 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 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 the fight peasant son Garma Wolf against 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 were then formed into 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 well-known examples of the use of this symbol are: “wolf hook” patches were worn by the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, the Eighth Panzer Regiment, the 4th SS Motorized Infantry Division, the 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 sword symbol 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 symbols. 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 form of a hammer and the letter N was placed inside the gear, carried out technical support various right-wing extremist groups. TENO was responsible for the operation and protection of such important industries as water 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 workers' organizations different countries- as a socialist direction, and not related to it. 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 the international organization of 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 the German tribes, but the results of research that did not fit into the National Socialist doctrine of the purity of the race could not be published. The irminsul became the symbol of Ahnenerbe, and many employees of the institute wore small silver jewelry that reproduced the 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 writing preserved different options, carved on stones at different times and 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 the half-timbered buildings widespread in Germany, with their wooden posts and braces that give the building a decorative and expressive appearance, repeat the way the runes were written. 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 initiated 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 work was directed towards finding evidence of the Nazi view of history and, in particular, the search for 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 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, emblems, gothic architecture and even the names of different types of pastries.

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 international symbol healing: snake and bowl. However, in the desire of the Nazis to reform society up to the smallest details in 1938 and this sign was 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 "rune of death." 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 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 Panzer Division Hohenstaufen on flags and badges. In the Scandinavian form, the rune was depicted on a high award - an SS ring, and also accompanied the weddings 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.

Nationalist romanticism of the 19th century idealized the simple and close to nature life of the peasants, emphasizing the love of 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 between the people and the land where they live, there is some kind of mystical connection. 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 members of the SS and their future wives, it was determined here which children in the occupied territories were sufficiently “Aryan” to be kidnapped and taken to Germany, it was decided here which of the “non-Aryans” should be killed after 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 for 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).