Swastika
|
|
- For the town in Ontario, see Swastika, Ontario.
Hindu_swastika.png
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles either clockwise or anticlockwise. It is traditionally oriented so that a main line is horizontal, though it is occasionally rotated at forty-five degrees, and the Hindu version is often decorated with a dot in each quadrant; the un-dotted version is considered more formal in Hinduism.
| Contents |
Overview
The swastika is the holiest non-syllabic symbol (also see Om) in Hinduism. By extension Jainism and Buddhism also use this symbol. In the West, however, it is generally recognised as the badge of the Nazi movement.
The motif seems to have first been used by early inhabitants of Eurasia. However, it was also adopted in Native American cultures, seemingly independently. The swastika is now used universally in religious and civil ceremonies in India. Most Indian temples, wedding, festivals and celebrations are decorated with swastikas. By the early twentieth century it was widely used worldwide, and was regarded as a symbol of good luck and auspiciousness. Swastikas appeared on the spines of books by the Anglo-Indian writer Rudyard Kipling, and the symbol was used by Robert Baden-Powell's Boy Scout movement.
Since the rise of the National Socialist German Workers Party, the swastika has been associated with fascism, racism, World War II, and the Holocaust in much of the western world. Before this, it was particularly well-recognized in Europe from the archaeological work of Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the symbol in the site of ancient Troy and who associated it with the ancient migrations of Indo-European (Aryan) peoples.Template:Ref Nazi use derived from earlier German völkisch nationalist movements, for which the swastika was a symbol of "Aryan" identity, a concept that came to be equated by theorists like Alfred Rosenberg with a Nordic master race originating in northern Europe. The swastika remains a core symbol of Neo-Nazi groups, and is also regularly used by radical groups to signify the supposed Nazi-like behaviour of organizations and individuals they oppose.
After the end of World War II, the traditional uses of swastika in the western world were discouraged. There have been some, as-yet failed, attempts by individuals and groups to educate Westerners to look past the swastika's recent association with the Nazis to its prehistoric origins.
Etymology and alternative names
The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit svastika, meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck. It is composed of su- (cognate with Greek ευ-), meaning "good, well" and asti a verbal abstract to the root as "to be"; svasti thus means "well-being". The suffix -ka forms a diminutive, and svastika might thus be translated literally as "little thing associated with well-being", corresponding roughly to "lucky charm", or "thing that is auspicious".Template:Ref. The suffix -tika also literally means mark; therefore a sometimes alternate name for swastika in India is shubhtika (literally good mark). The word first appears in the Classical Sanskrit (in the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics).
Alternative historical English spellings of the Sanskrit word include suastika and svastica. Alternative names for the shape are:
- Black Spider, to various peoples in middle and western Europe.
- crooked cross
- cross cramponned, ~nnée, or ~nny (in heraldry), as each arm resembles a crampon or angle-iron. (Compare Winkelmaßkreuz in German.)
- cross gammadion, tetragammadion or just gammadion, as each arm resembles the Greek letter Γ (gamma). (Compare croiz gammée in Old French and croix gammée in French; cruz gamada in Spanish.)
- fylfot (meaning "four feet", chiefly in heraldry and architecture). (See Fylfot for a discussion of the etymology.)
- hooked cross, (Dutch: hakenkruis, Icelandic: Hakakross German: Hakenkreuz, Finnish: hakaristi, Norwegian: Hakekors Italian: croce uncinata and Swedish: Hakkors)
- sun wheel (German Sonnenrad), a name also used as a synonym for the sun cross.
- tetraskelion, Greek "four legged", especially when composed of four conjoined legs (compare triskelion).
- Thor's hammer, from its supposed association with Thor, the Norse god of thunder, but this may be a misappropriation of a name that properly belongs to a Y-shaped or T-shaped symbol. (See Thomas Wilson, below.) - The Swastika shape appears in Icelandic grimoires where in it is named Þórshamar
- thunder cross (Latvian: perkonkrusts)
History
The swastika appears in art and design from pre-history symbolizing, in various contexts: luck, the sun, Brahma, or the Hindu concept of samsara. In antiquity, the swastika was used extensively by Hittites,Template:Ref Celts and Greeks, among others. It occurs in other Asian, European, African and Native American cultures – sometimes as a geometrical motif, sometimes as a religious symbol. Today, as always, the swastika is the sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
The ubiquity of the swastika has been explained by three main theories: independent development, cultural diffusion, and external event. The first theory is that the swastika's symmetry and simplicity led to its independent development everywhere, along the lines of Carl Jung's collective unconscious, or just as a very simple symbol.
Hansilk2.png
Another explanation is suggested by Carl Sagan in his book Comet. Sagan reproduces an ancient Chinese manuscript that shows comet tail varieties: most are variations on simple comet tails, but the last shows the comet nucleus with four bent arms extending from it, recalling a swastika. Sagan suggests that in antiquity a comet could have approached so close to Earth that the jets of gas streaming from it, bent by the comet's rotation, became visible, leading to the adoption of the swastika as a symbol across the world.
Theories of single origin as a sacred prehistorical symbol point to the Proto-Indo-Europeans, noting that the swastika was not adopted by Sumer in Mesopotamia, which was established no later than 3500 BC, and the Old Kingdom of Egypt, beginning in 2630 BC, arguing that these were already well-established and codified at the time of the symbol's diffusion. As an argument ex silentio, this point has little value as a positive proof.
The swastika symbol is sacred in Hinduism, which is considered the parent religion of Buddhism and Jainism, both dating from about the sixth century BC, and both borrowing the swastika from their parent. Buddhism in particular enjoyed great success, spreading eastward and taking hold in southeast Asia, China, Korea and Japan by the end of the first millennium. The use of the swastika by the indigenous Bön faith of Tibet, as well as syncretic religions, such as Cao Dai of Vietnam and Falun Gong of China, is thought to be borrowed from Buddhism as well. Similarly, the existence of the swastika as a solar symbol among the Akan civilization of southwest Africa may have been the result of cultural transfer along the African slave routes around AD 1500.
The existence of the swastika symbol in the Americas is a clear challenge to the diffusion theory. While some have proposed that the swastika was secretly transferred to North America by an early seafaring civilization on Eurasia, a separate but parallel development of religious symbolism is considered the most likely explanation.
Regardless of origins, the swastika had generally positive connotations from early in human history, with the exceptions being most of Africa and South America.
Adoption of the swastika in the West
The discovery of the Indo-European language group in the 1790s led to a great effort by archaeologists to link the pre-history of European peoples to the ancient Aryans. Following his discovery of objects bearing the swastika in the ruins of Troy, Heinrich Schliemann consulted two leading Sanskrit scholars of the day, Emile Burnouf and Max Müller. Schliemann concluded that the Swastika was a specifically Indo-European symbol. This idea was taken up by many other writers, and the swastika quickly became popular in the West, appearing in many designs from the 1880s to the 1920s.
The religious meanings of the symbol were subverted in the early twentieth century when it was adopted as the emblem of the National Socialist German Workers Party. This association occurred because Nazism stated that the historical Aryans were the forefathers of modern Germans and then proposed that, because of this, the subjugation of the world by Germany was desirable, and even predestined. The swastika was used as a convenient symbol to emphasize this mythical Aryan-German correspondence. Since World War II, some Westerners see the swastika as solely a Nazi symbol, leading to incorrect assumptions about its pre-Nazi use and confusion about its sacred religious status in Hinduism.
Geometry and symbolism
Missing image Cw_right-facing_swastika.ant.png A right-facing swastika may be described as "clockwise"... |
Missing image Ccw_right-facing_swastika.ant.png ... or "counter-clockwise" |
Missing image 17-square_swastika.ant.png A swastika composed of 17 squares in a 5x5 grid |
Geometrically, the swastika can be regarded as an irregular icosagon or 20-sided polygon. The arms are of varying width and are often rectilinear (but need not be). Only in modern use are the exact proportions considered important: for example, the proportions of the Nazi swastikaTemplate:Ref were based on a 5x5 grid.
The swastika is chiral, with no reflectional symmetry, but both mirror-image forms have 90° rotational symmetry (that is, the symmetry of the cyclic group C4).
The mirror-image forms are often described as:
- left-facing and (as depicted above) right-facing;
- left-hand and right-hand;
- clockwise and counterclockwise.
"Left-facing" and "right-facing" are used mostly consistently. Looking at an upright swastika, the upper arm clearly faces towards the viewer's left (卍) or right (卐). The other two descriptions are ambiguous as it is unclear if they refer to the direction of the bend in each arm or to the implied rotation of the symbol. If the latter, the question as to whether the arms lead or trail remains. The terms are used inconsistently (sometimes even by the same writer) which is confusing and may obfuscate an important point, that the rotation of the swastika may have symbolic relevance.
The swastika is, after the simple equilateral cross (the "Greek cross"), the next most commonly found version of the cross.
Seen as a cross, the four lines emanating from the center point to the four cardinal directions. The most common association is with the Sun. Other proposed correspondences are to the visible rotation of the night sky in the Northern Hemisphere around Polaris.
Sauwastika
See main article: SauwastikaThe name sauwastika is sometimes given for the supposedly "evil", left-facing, form of the swastika (卍). The left-facing swastika is generally regarded as evil in Hindu tradition. The much more common form in India is the right-facing swastika. Indians of all faiths rarely use the symbol in both orientations although Buddhists (outside India) can use the left-facing swastika. Sometimes, examples are said to be found of left-facing swastikas in India. These are invariably an unintended or ignorant mistake by the decorator or sculptor who created the left-facing swastika.
Some contemporary writers — Servando González, for example — confuse matters even further by asserting that the right-facing swastika, used by the Nazis is in fact the "evil" sauwastika.Template:Ref (González "proves" that the left-facing swastika is the sunwise one with reference to a 1930's box of Standard fireworks from Sivakasi, India.) This inversion – whether intentional or not – might derive from a desire to prove that the Nazi's use of the right-handed swastika was expressive of their "evil" intent. (See also Taboo in North America and Europe.) But the notion that Adolf Hitler deliberately inverted the "good left-facing" swastika is wholly unsupported by any historical evidence.Template:Ref
Art and architecture
Amiens-pavement-swastika.jpg
The swastika is common as a design motif in current Hindu architecture and Indian artwork as well as in ancient Western architecture, frequently appearing in mosaics, friezes, and other works across the ancient world. Ancient Greek architectural designs are replete with interlinking swastika motifs. Related symbols in classical Western architecture include the cross, the three-legged triskele or triskelion and the rounded lauburu. The swastika symbol is also known in these contexts by a number of names, especially gammadion. Pictish rock carvings, adorning ancient Greek pottery, and on Norse weapons and implements. It was scratched on cave walls in France seven thousand years ago.
In Chinese, Korean, and Japanese art, the swastika is often found as part of a repeating pattern. One common pattern, called sayagata in Japanese, comprises left and right facing swastikas joined by lines.Template:Ref As the negative space between the lines has a distinctive shape, the sayagata pattern is sometimes called the "key fret" motif in English.
The swastika symbol was found extensively in the ruins of the ancient city of Troy.
In Greco-Roman art and architecture, and in Romanesque and Gothic art in the West, isolated swastikas are relatively rare, and the swastika is more commonly found as a repeated element in a border or tesselation. A design of interlocking swastikas is one of several tesselations on the floor of the cathedral of Amiens, France.Template:Ref A border of linked swastikas was a common Roman architectural motif,Template:Ref and can be seen in more recent buildings as a neoclassical element. A swastika border is one form of meander, and the individual swastikas in such border are sometimes called Greek keys.
The Laguna Bridge in Yuma, Arizona was built in 1905 by the U.S. Reclamation Department and is decorated with a row of swastikas.
The Canadian artist ManWoman (http://www.manwoman.net/) has attempted to rehabilitate the "gentle swastika (http://www.manwoman.net/swastika/swastika.html)".
Religion and mythology
Hinduism
The swastika is found all over Hindu temples, signs, altars, pictures and iconography where it is sacred. It is used in all Hindu weddings, festivals, ceromonies, houses and doorways, clothing and jewelry, motor transport and even decorations on food items like cakes and pastries.
It is interesting to note that along with the swastika, the Om symbol is also sacred in Hinduism. However, whereas Om is representative of a single primordial tone of creation, the swastika is a pure geometrical mark and has no syllabic tone associated with it.
In Hinduism, the two symbols represent the two forms of the creator god Brahma: clockwise it represents the evolution of the universe (Pravritti), anti-clockwise it represents the involution of the universe (Nivritti). It is also seen as pointing in all four directions (North, East, South and West) and thus signifies stability and groundedness. Its use as a sun symbol can first be seen in its representation of Surya, the Hindu lord of the Sun. The swastika is considered extremely holy and auspicious by all Hindus, and is regularly used to decorate all sorts of items to do with Hindu culture. It is used in all Hindu yantras and religious designs. Throughout the subcontinent of India it can be seen on the sides of temples, written on religious scriptures, on gift items, and on letterhead. The Hindu God Ganesh is often shown as sitting on a lotus flower on a bed of swastikas.
Amongst the Hindus of Bengal, it is common to see the name "swastika" applied to a slightly different symbol, which has the same significance as the common swastika, and both symbols are used as auspicious signs. This symbol looks something like a stick figure of a human being.Template:Ref "Swastika" is a common given name amongst Bengalis and a prominent literary magazine in Calcutta is called the Swastika. The stick figure, however, is not mainstream usage in India.
Buddhism
Buddhism was founded by a Hindu Prince and has thus inherited the swastika. These two symbols are included, at least since the Liao dynasty, as part of the Chinese language, the symbolic sign for the character 萬 (wàn) meaning "all", and "eternality" (lit. myriad) and as 卐 which is seldom used. A swastika marks the beginning of many Buddhist scriptures. The swastikas (in either orientation) appear on the chest of some statues of Gautama Buddha and is often incised on the soles of the feet of the Buddha in statuary. Because of the association with the right facing swastika with Nazism, Buddhist swastikas (outside India only) after the mid-20th century are almost universally left-facing. This form of the swastika is often found on Chinese food packaging to signify that the product is vegetarian and can be consumed by strict Buddhists. It is often sewn into the collars of Chinese children's clothing to protect them from evil spirits. Additionally, the left-facing swastika is found on Japanese maps to indicate a temple.
It must be noted that left facing swastikas are seldom if ever found in Buddhism's home country of India. It is considered as evil in Indian Buddhism as it is in Hinduism or Jainism.
The swastika used in Buddhist art and scripture is known in Japanese as a manji, and represents Dharma, universal harmony, and the balance of opposites. When facing left, it is the omote (front) manji, representing love and mercy. Facing right, it represents strength and intelligence, and is called the ura (rear) manji. Balanced manji are often found at the beginning and end of Buddhist scriptures (outside India).
Jainism
In Jainism, the swastika symbol is the only holy symbol. This is not surprising since Jainism was founded by Mahavira, a Hindu Prince. Jainism does not use the Hindu om symbol at all and thus gives even more prominence to the swastika than Hinduism. It is a symbol of the seventh Jina (Saint), the Tirthankara Suparsva. It is considered to be one of the 24 auspicious marks and the emblem of the seventh arhat of the present age. All Jain temples and holy books must contain the swastika and ceremonies typically begin and end with creating a swastika mark several times with rice around the altar.
The Abrahamic religions
The swastika was not widely utilized by followers of the Abrahamic religions, because Semitic peoples had a very different religious history, culture and language system (written and spoken) than those in the Indo-European family.
Where it does exist, it is not portrayed as an explicitly religious symbol and is often purely decorative or, at most, a symbol of good luck. Examples of scattered use includes the floor of the synagogue at Ein Gedi, built during the Roman occupation of Judea, was decorated with a swastika.Template:Ref Some Christian churches built in the Romanesque and Gothic eras are decorated with swastikas, carrying over earlier Roman designs. Swastikas are prominently displayed in a mosaic in the St. Sophia church of Kiev, Ukraine dating to the 12th century. They also appear as a repeating ornamental motif on a tomb in the Basilica of St. Ambrose in Milan. However, a proposed direct link between it and a swastika floor mosaic in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Amiens, which was built on top of a pagan site at Amiens, France in the 1200s, is considered unlikely. The Muslim "Friday" mosque of Isfahan, Iran and the Taynal Mosque in Tripoli, Lebanon both have swastika motifs.
Other Asian traditions
Some sources indicate that the Chinese Empress Wu (684-704) of the Tang Dynasty decreed that the swastika would be used as an alternative symbol of the sun. The Chinese character 卐 has developed into the modern one 方, pronounced fāng in Standard Mandarin, and has the main meaning of "square". As part of the Chinese script, the swastika has Unicode encodings U+534D 卍 (left-facing) and U+5350 卐 (right-facing).Template:Ref
In Japan, the swastika is called manji (卍). On Japanese town plans, a swastika (left-facing and horizontal) is commonly used to mark the location of a Buddhist temple. The right-facing manji is often referred as the gyaku manji (逆卍, lit. "reverse manji"), and can also be called kagi jūji, literally "hook cross." A Pokémon playing card sold in Japan had a manji graphic. Because of its resemblance to the Nazi swastika (see below), the card was altered for Western translations, and eventually withdrawn in Japan following Western complaints. Similarly, a manji symbol was incorporated as a level design in both the Japanese and U.S. versions of the 1986 The Legend of Zelda video game.
The left-facing Buddhist swastika also appears on the emblem of Falun Gong. This has generated considerable controversy, particularly in Germany, where the police have reportedly confiscated several banners featuring the emblem. A court ruling subsequently allowed Falun Gong followers in Germany to continue the use of the emblem.
Native American traditions
The swastika shape was used by some Native Americans. It has been found in excavations of Mississippian-era sites in the Ohio valley. It was widely used by many southwestern tribes, most notably the Navajo. Among different tribes the swastika carried various meanings. To the Hopi it represented the wandering Hopi clans; to the Navajo it was one symbol for a whirling log (tsil no'oli'), a sacred image representing a legend that was used in healing rituals.Template:Ref
Pre-Christian European traditions
Use of the swastika corresponds closely with Indo-European languages and paganism in Europe.
The swastika, also known as the fylfot in northwestern Europe, appears on many pre-Christian artefacts, drawn both clockwise and counterclockwise, within a circle or in a swirling form. The Greek goddess Athena was sometimes portrayed as wearing robes covered with swastikas. The "Ogham stone" found in County Kerry, Ireland is inscribed with several swastikas dating to the fifth century AD, and is believed to have been an altar stone of the Druids. The pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo, England, contains gold cups and shields bearing swastikas. Today it is used as a symbol for Ásatrú, the reconstructed religion of Northern Europe.
Early 20th century
Europe
Kipling_swastika.png
The British author Rudyard Kipling, who was strongly influenced by Indian culture, had a swastika on the dust jackets of all his books until the rise of Nazism made this inappropriate. One of Kipling's Just So Stories, "The Crab That Played With The Sea", had an elaborate full-page illustration by Kipling including a stone bearing what was called "a magic mark" (a swastika); some later editions of the stories blotted out the mark, but not its captioned reference, making the readers wonder what the "mark" was.
The Russian Provisional Government of 1917 printed a number of new bank notes with right-facing, diagonally-rotated swastikas in their centres. Some have suggested that this may have been the inspiration behind the Nazis adoption of this symbol as Alfred Rosenberg was in Russia at this time.
It was also used as a symbol by the Boy Scouts in Britain, and worldwide. According to "Johnny" Walker,Template:Ref the earliest Scouting use was on the first Thanks Badge introduced in 1911. Robert Baden-Powell's 1922 Medal of Merit design adds a swastika to the Scout fleur-de-lis as good luck to the person receiving the medal. Like Kipling, he would have come across this symbol in India. During 1934 many Scouters requested a change of design because of the use of the swastika by the Nazis. A new British Medal of Merit was issued in 1935.
In Finland the swastika was used as the official national marking of the Finnish Air Force and Army between 1918 and 1944. The swastika was also used by the Lotta Svärd organisation. The blue swastika was the good luck symbol used by the Swedish Count Erich von Rosen, who donated the first plane to the Finnish White Army during the Civil War in Finland. It has no connection to the Nazi use of the swastika. It also still appears in many Finnish medals and decorations. In the much respected wartime medals of honor it was a visible element, first drafted by Axel Gallen-Kallela 1918–19. Mannerheim cross with a swastika is the Finnish equivalent of Victoria Cross, Croix de Guerre and Congressional Medal of Honor. Due to Finland's alliance with Nazi Germany in World War II, the symbol was abandoned as a national marking, to be replaced by a roundel.
The Swedish company ASEA, now a part of Asea Brown Boveri, used the swastika in its logo from the 1800s to 1933, when it was removed from the logo.
In Latvia, too, the swastika (known as Thunder Cross and Fire Cross) was used as the marking of the Latvian Air Force between 1918 and 1934, as well as in insignias of some military units.Template:Ref It was also used by the Latvian fascist movement Perkonkrusts (Thunder Cross in Latvian), as well as by other non-political organizations.
The Icelandic Steamship Company, Eimskip (founded in 1914), used a swastika in its logo until recently.
In Dublin, Ireland, a laundry company known as the Swastika Laundry was in existence on the south side of the city. Featuring a black swastika on a white background, the business started up in the early 20th century and continued up until recent times.
North America
The Theosophical Society, founded in New York in 1875, incorporated the Swastika into its seal because of the Buddhist associations of the symbol.
The swastika's use by the Navajo and other tribes made it a popular symbol for the American Southwest. Until the 1930s blankets, metalwork, and other Southwestern souvenirs were often made with swastikas.
Swastika usage and controversies
- Shortly after the beginning of World War II, several Native American tribes (the Navajo, Apache, Tohono O'odham, and Hopi) published a decree stating that they would no longer use the swastika in their artwork. This was because the swastika had come to symbolize evil to them. This decree was signed by representatives of these tribes. The decree states:
- Because the above ornament which has been a symbol of friendship among our forefathers for many centuries has been desecrated recently by another nation of peoples.
- Therefore it is resolved that henceforth from this date on and forever more our tribes renounce the use of the emblem commonly known today as the swastika or fylfot on our blankets, baskets, art objects, sandpainting, and clothing.
- One year in the first part of the 20th century, the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, featured a design that had a swastika on one of the towers.
- Swastika is the name of a small community in northern Ontario, Canada, approximately 580 kilometres north of Toronto, and 5 kilometres west of Kirkland Lake, the town of which it is now part. The town of Swastika was founded in 1906. Gold was discovered nearby and the Swastika Mining Company was formed in 1908. The government of Ontario attempted to change the town's name during World War II, but the town resisted.
- In Windsor, Nova Scotia, there was an ice hockey team from 1905 to 1916 named the Swastikas, and their uniforms featured swastika symbols. There were also hockey teams named the Swastikas in Edmonton, Alberta (circa 1916), and Fernie, British Columbia (circa 1922).
45th_Infantry_insignia_(swastika).png
- The 45th Infantry Division of the United States Army used a yellow swastika on a red background as a unit symbol until the 1930s, when it was switched to a thunderbird.Template:Ref~Template:Ref
- In 1925, Coca Cola made a lucky watch fob in the shape of a swastika with the slogan, "Drink Coca Cola five cents in bottles".
- The Health, Physical Education and Recreation Building (HPER) at Indiana University contains decorative Native American-inspired reverse swastika tilework on the walls of the foyer and stairwells on the southeast side of the building. HPER was built as the university fieldhouse in the 1920s, before the Nazi party came to power in Germany. In recent years, the HPER swastika motif, along with the Thomas Hart Benton murals in nearby Woodburn Hall have been the cause of much controversy on campus.
Level3.gif
- The third dungeon of the classic video game The Legend of Zelda is shaped very similarly to a left-facing swastika, causing some surprise among Western players; see The Legend of Zelda#Controversy.
- In the original release of the video game, Doom, a floor area in one level took on the shape of a swastika. It was removed in a later version.
Nazi Germany
Flag_Germany_1933.png
Flag Ratio: 3:5
Flag Dimensions: 60 x 100
Disc Diameter: 45
Arm Width: 6
The National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) formally adopted the swastika or Hakenkreuz (hooked cross) in 1920. This was used on the party's flag (right), badge, and armband. (It had been used unofficially by the NSDAP and its predecessor, the German Workers Party, Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP), however.)
In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler wrote:
- I myself, meanwhile, after innumerable attempts, had laid down a final form; a flag with a red background, a white disk, and a black swastika in the middle. After long trials I also found a definite proportion between the size of the flag and the size of the white disk, as well as the shape and thickness of the swastika.
(Red, white, and black were the colors of the flag of the old German Empire.)
The use of the swastika was associated by Nazi theorists with their conjecture of Aryan cultural descent of the German people. Following the Nordicist version of the Aryan invasion theory, the Nazis claimed that the early Aryans of India, from whose Vedic tradition the swastika sprang, were the prototypical white invaders. Thus, they saw fit to co-opt the sign as a symbol of the Aryan master race. The use of swastika as a symbol of the Aryan race dates back to writings of Emile Burnouf. Following many other writers, the German nationalist poet Guido von List believed it to be a uniquely Aryan symbol. Hitler referred to the swastika as the symbol of "the fight for the victory of Aryan man" (Mein Kampf).
In fact, the swastika was already in use as a symbol of German volkisch nationalist movements. In Deutschland Erwache (ISBN 0912138696), Ulric of England (sic) says —
- … what inspired Hitler to use the swastika as a symbol for the NSDAP was its use by the Thule-Gesellschaft since there were many connections between them and the DAP … from 1919 until the summer of 1921 Hitler used the special Nationalsozialistische library of Dr. Friedich Krohn, a very active member of the Thule-Gesellschaft, … Dr. Krohn was also the dentist from Sternberg who was named by Hitler in Mein Kampf as the designer of a flag very similar to one that Hitler designed in 1920 … during the summer of 1920, the first party flag was shown at Lake Tegernsee … these home-made … early flags were not preserved, the Ortsgruppe München flag was generally regarded as the first flag of the Party.
José Manuel Erbez says —
- The first time the swastika was used with an "Aryan" meaning was on December 25, 1907, when the self-named Order of the New Templars, a secret society founded by [Adolf Joseph] Lanz von Liebenfels, hoisted at Werfenstein Castle (Austria) a yellow flag with a swastika and four fleurs-de-lys.Template:Ref
However, Liebenfels was drawing on an already established use of the symbol.
On 14 March 1933, shortly after Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany, the NSDAP flag was hoisted alongside Germany's national colors. It was adopted as the sole national flag on 15 September 1935.
The swastika was used for badges and flags throughout Nazi Germany, particularly for government and military organizations, but also for "popular" organizations such as the Reichsbund Deutsche Jägerschaft.Template:Ref
EK_1class.png
Several variants are found:
- a 45° black swastika on a white disc as in the NSDAP and national flags;
- a 45° black swastika on a white lozenge (e.g. Hitler JugendTemplate:Ref);
- a 45° black swastika outlined by thin white and black lines on a white disc (e.g., the German War EnsignTemplate:Ref);
- an upright black swastika outlined by thin white and black lines on a white disc (e.g., Hitler's personal flag, in which a gold wreath encircles the swastika; the Schutzstaffel; and the Reichsdienstflagge, in which a black circle encircles the swastika);
- small gold, silver, black, or white 45° swastikas, often lying on or being held by an eagle, on many badges and flags.Template:Ref
- a swastika with curved outer arms forming a broken circle, as worn by the SS Nordland Division. (See photo at "Nordland Reenactors (http://www.mobil1.net/users/nordland/history.htm)".)
There were attempts to amalgamate Nazi and Hindu use of the swastika. Notably by Savitri Devi Mukherji who declared Hitler an avatar of Vishnu (see esoteric Hitlerism).
Taboo in Western countries
Because of its use by Hitler and the Nazis and, in modern times, by neo-Nazis and other hate groups, for many people in the West, the swastika is associated primarily with Nazism, fascism, and white supremacy in general. Hence, outside historical contexts, it has become taboo in Western countries. For example, the German postwar criminal code makes the public showing of the Hakenkreuz (the swastika) and other Nazi symbols illegal and punishable, except for scholarly reasons.
However, since it is a holy symbol for Hindus, Jains and Buddhists, it is not clear whether the German postwar code actually bans the construction of Hindu and Jain temples in Germany (Jain temples always have the swastika on their entrance and Jain ritual typically involves creating seven swastikas from grains of rice around the altar during prayer).
The powerful symbolism acquired by the swastika has often been used in graphic design and propaganda as a means of drawing Nazi comparisons; examples include the cover of Stuart Eizenstat's 2003 book Imperfect Justice,Template:Ref publicity materials for Costa-Gavras's 2002 film Amen,Template:Ref and a billboard that was erected opposite the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, Cuba, in 2004, which juxtaposed images of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse pictures with a swastika.
Founded in the 1970s, the Raëlian Movement, a religious sect believing in the possibility of immortality by scientific progress, used a symbol that was the source of considerable controversy: an interlaced Star of David and swastika. In 1991, the symbol was changed to remove the swastika and deflect public criticism. The Society for Creative Anachronism, which aims to study and recreate Medieval and Renaissance history, imposes restrictions on its members' use of the swastika on their arms,Template:Ref although some arms dating to the early days of the group have the symbol.
Rael_symbol.JPG
Punk rockers like Siouxsie Sioux, Sid Vicious and John Lydon used, and were photographed using, the Nazi version of the swastika for its shock value, notwithstanding that Malcolm McLaren, the Sex Pistols' manager, was half-Jewish. The previously successful career of the British band Kula Shaker virtually collapsed in the 1990s after the band's frontman, Crispian Mills, son of actress Hayley Mills, expressed his desire to use Swastikas as part of the imagery of their live show; because of this, and additional remarks he made, he was widely accused of holding Nazi sympathies. However, the band was musically influenced by Indian styles, and Mills asserted that his attraction to the swastika was part of an attempt to reclaim the Indian usage of the symbol in the West. In January 2005 there was much criticism when Prince Harry of Wales, third in line of succession to the British throne, was photographed wearing what appeared to be intended as an Afrika Korps uniform, plus a Nazi swastika armband, to a fancy dress party.Template:Ref
Related topics
- Brigid's cross
- Celtic cross
- fylfot
- lauburu or Basque cross Missing image
Lauburu.jpgThe modern version of lauburu is rounded - Rodlo
- sauwastika
- sun cross, a traditional symbol also co-opted by many modern neo-Nazis
- triskelion, including the three-legged badge of the Isle of Man
- Wolfsangel
- Crescent and star, its modern usage symbolizes Islamic identity and brotherhood. Several Muslim nations use the symbol frequently on their respective flags.
See also: Fascist symbolism.
References
- Aigner, Dennis J. (2000). The Swastika Symbol in Navajo Textiles. Laguna Beach, California: DAI Press. ISBN 097018980X.
- Sagan, Carl, and Ann Druyan (1985). Comet. New York: Random House. ISBN 0394549082. London: Joseph. ISBN 0718126319.
- Tan Huay Peng. (1980-1983). Fun with Chinese Characters. Singapore: Federal Publications. ISBN 9810130058.
- Wilson, Thomas (Curator, Department of Prehistoric Anthropology, U.S. National Museum) (1896). "The Swastika: The Earliest Known Symbol, and Its Migrations; with Observations on the Migration of Certain Industries in Prehistoric Times". In Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution
External links
Notes
- Template:Note Sarah Boxer. "One of the world's great symbols strives for a comeback (http://faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=606)". The New York Times, July 29, 2000.
- Template:Note "The Swastika (http://www.northvegr.org/lore/swastika/004.php)". Northvegr Foundation. Notes on the etymology and meaning of Swastika
- Template:Note "The Swastika". Crystalinks: Ellie Crystal's Metaphysical and Science Website (http://www.crystalinks.com/swastika.html).
- Template:Note "Swastika Flag Specifications and Construction Sheet (Germany) (http://flagspot.net/flags/de%271933.html)". Flags of the World.
- Template:Note Servando González. "The Krohn Connection". The Swastika and the Nazis (http://www.intelinet.org/swastika/swasti01.htm). 1998.
- Template:Note J. R. "Debunking the Nazi 'Backwards Swastika' Myth (http://www.jrbooksonline.com/HTML-docs/The_Backwards_Swastika.htm)". JR's Rare Books and Commentary. August 2001.
- Template:Note "Sayagata 紗綾形". Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System (http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/s/sayagata.htm).
- Template:Note Robert Ferré. "Amiens Cathedral (http://www.labyrinth-enterprises.com/amiens.html)". Labyrinth Enterprises.
- Template:Note Gary Malkin. "Tockington Park Roman Villa (http://romanbristol.tripod.com/avon/tockington.html)". The Area of Bristol in Roman Times. December 9, 2002.
- Template:Note Subhayu Banerjee. "Shubho Nabobarsho (http://www.bengalonthenet.com/php/displayfile.php?article_id=60§ion_id=5&sub_id=0)". Bengal on the Net. April 16, 2001
- Template:Note "Ein Gedi: An Ancient Oasis Settlement (http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/History/Early%20History%20-%20Archaeology/Ein%20Gedi%20-%20An%20Ancient%20Oasis%20Settlement)". Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. November 23, 1999.
- Template:Note "CJK Unified Ideographs (http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U4E00.pdf)", The Unicode Standard, Version 4.1. Unicode, Inc. 2005. (PDF file)
- Template:Note Dottie Indyke. "The History of an Ancient Human Symbol (http://www.collectorsguide.com/fa/fa086.shtml)". April 4, 2005. originally from The Wingspread Collector’s Guide to Santa Fe, Taos and Albuquerque, Volume 15.
- Template:Note C.R. "Johnny" Walker. "The Fleur-de-lis and the Swastika (http://www.scouting.milestones.btinternet.co.uk/badges.htm)". "Johnny Walker's Scouting Milestones Pages. November 2003.
- Template:Note House of Commons Hansard Debates for 12 Jun 1996 (pt 41) (http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199596/cmhansrd/vo960612/debtext/60612-41.htm).
- Template:Note Dov Gutterman, Latvia: Aircraft Marking (http://fotw.vexillum.com/flags/lv%5Eair.html), June 20, 2004.
- Template:Note "From Swastika to Thunderbird (http://www.45thdivisionmuseum.com/History/SwastikaToThunderbird.html)". 45th Infantry Division Museum.
- Template:Note Brigadier General Ross. H. Routh (Ret.) "From Swastika to Thunderbird (http://www.m38a1.com/Misc-MV/thunderbirds.htm)". The M38A1 Restoration Site. History of the 45th Infantry Division
- Template:Note José Manuel Erbez. "Order of the New Templars 1907 (http://flagspot.net/flags/de%7Dns_or.html#ont)". Flags of the World. January 21, 2001.
- Template:Note Santiago Dotor, and Norman Martin. "German Hunting Society 1934-1945 (Third Reich, Germany)" Flags of the World. March 15, 2003. The flag of the Reichsbund Deutsche Jägerschaft (http://flagspot.net/flags/de@dj933.html)
- Template:Note Mark Sensen, António Martins, Norman Martin, and Ralf Stelter. "Centred vs. Offset Disc and Swastika 1933-1945 (Germany) (http://flagspot.net/flags/de1933_o.html)". Flags of the World. December 29, 2004.
- Template:Note Marcus Wendel et al. "Hitler Youth (NSDAP, Germany) (http://flagspot.net/flags/de%7Dns_hj.html)". Flags of the World. January 17, 2004.
- Template:Note Norman Martin et al. "War Ensign 1938-1945 (Germany) (http://flagspot.net/flags/de1938~w.html)". Flags of the World. The "Reichskriegsflagge"
- Template:Note Flags at Flags of the World:
- Norman Martin et al. "Standard of the Leader and National Chancellor 1935-1945 (http://flagspot.net/flags/de1935ah.html)". April 9, 2004. Hitler's personal flag;
- Marcus Wendel, Jaume Ollé, et al. "Schutzstaffel/SS (http://flagspot.net/flags/de%7Dns_ss.html)" December 14, 2001;
- Jaume Ollé, Željko Heimer, and Norman Martin. "State Flag and Ensign 1935-1945 (http://flagspot.net/flags/de1935~s.html)" December 29, 2004. The "Reichsdienstflagge"
- Template:Note Harry Kreisler. "Conversation with Stuart E. Eizenstat (http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people3/Eizenstat/eizenstat-con0.html)". Conversations with History. Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley. April 30, 2003.
- Template:Note "Swastika film poster escapes ban (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/1834183.stm)". BBC News. February 21, 2002.
- Template:Note "Glossary of Terms (http://www.sca.org/heraldry/coagloss.html)" of the Society for Creative Anachronism. December 23, 2003.
- Template:Note "Toy pandas bearing swastikas a cultural mix-up (http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/12/30/swastika021230)". CBC News. December 30, 2002.
- Template:Note Scott H. Howard, City Attorney. "Report: Lampposts (http://www.ci.glendale.ca.us/government/lampposts.html)". Memo to the City Council of Glendale, California.
- Template:Note "critical update to remove unacceptable symbols from the Bookshelf Symbol 7 font (http://support.microsoft.com/?id=833407)". Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 833407. November 8, 2004
- Template:Note "Papers shocked at Harry stunt (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4173881.stm)". BBC News. January 14, 2005.
Further external links
- A very comprehensive source, by a Hindu leader (http://www.gurudeva.org/resources/books/lg/lg_ch-07.html)
- The Cross: Its Origin and Significance (http://www.ccg.org/english/s/p039.html), Christian Churches of God, 1999
- The History of the Swastika (http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/aa120699a.htm) (About.com)
- The Swastika in Heraldry (http://www.heraldica.org/topics/swastika.htm) (comments from the Heraldica mailing list)
- The Origins of the Swastika (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4183467.stm) BBC News
- Windsor's "Swastikas" Hockey Teams 1905-1916 (http://www.birthplaceofhockey.com/hockeyists/swastikas/swastikas-story.html)
- sites presenting versions of Wilson's The Swastika (above)
- The Swastika (http://www.northvegr.org/lore/swastika/index.php)
- Swaztika (http://www.maitreya.org/swastika/) (sic) (a scan of the original publication)
- The Swastika, the Earliest Known Symbol (http://fax.libs.uga.edu/J84xSI3x1/) (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layered PDF (http://fax.libs.uga.edu/J84xSI3x1/1f/swastika_history_report.pdf) format)
- Comets and the Bronze Age Collapse (http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/bronze.html#hansilk) by Bob Kobres
- Swastika in Indian Culture (http://www.kamat.com/indica/culture/sub-cultures/swastika.htm) by Jyotsna Kamat
- Origins and its first appearance as a Nazi symbol (http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/text/x31/xr3187.html)
- The Swastika and the Nazis (http://www.intelinet.org/swastika/index.html) by Servando González
- From Flags of the World:
- Origins of the Swastika Flag (Third Reich, Germany) (http://flagspot.net/flags/de%7Dns_or.html) (collection of links and comments)
- Neonazi flags (http://flagspot.net/flags/naz.html) (links to other FOTW pages)
- Rehabilitating the Fylfot (http://www.odinic-rite.org/fylfot.html) (notes from the Odinic Rite's website)
- Rehabilitating the Swastika (http://news.indiainfo.com/2005/01/19/1901hindus.html) Hindus in Britain launch campaign to revive the Swastika
- The Swastika (http://www.chan1.org/ddp/chanmag/sum2000.html#swastika), Lawrence Waldron, Chan Magazine, Summer 2000.
- "manwoman" (http://www.manwoman.net/) - Canadian "pop artist" covered in Swastika tatoosbg:Свастика
da:Svastika de:Swastika es:Esvástica eo:Svastiko fi:Hakaristi fr:Svastika it:Svastica he:צלב הקרס hr:Svastika nl:Swastika ja:卍 no:Hakekors pl:Swastyka pt:Suástica ru:Свастика sv:Svastika
zh:卐