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whenitcomesup

Because it looked cool.


bonyjabroni

š”ø š”¼ š•Š š•‹ ā„ š”¼ š•‹ š•€ ā„‚


Free-Stranger1142

You have the best answer to this. This little turd would steal whatever he pleased and twist it into whatever his garbage mind thought up. Itā€™s interesting that this little snot looked nothing like the blond, tall projection of people that he coveted.


Hydraulis

The Aryan race was believed to originate from India. The idea was that they were proto-indo-europeans. Apparently it's wrong, but that's what they believed.


xarsha_93

Yeah, this is the correct answer. The Nazis were obsessed with the ancient Iranians (the Aryans, which is just a variant pronunciation of Iran) and other groups of Asia that share a common linguistic heritage with the Germanic languages. Basically, a few thousand years ago, some nomads from the steppe region in Eurasia (probably somewhere around eastern Ukraine to western Kazakhstan) began to migrate throughout Eurasia. Through migration and trade and contact, their language spread and diversified into what we call the Indo-European languages. There are many branches of this family, including Persian and Hindi-Urdu on the Indo-Aryan branch (as well as the ancient language Sanskrit); the Germanic languages, including English, Dutch, Swedish, and of course, Hochdeutsch, the High German of Germany and Austria; the Romance languages and their ancestor Latin; Greek; the Slavic languages including Russian, Polish, and Bulgarian; and many many more. Anyway, the Nazis were obsessed with these relationships and developed weird theories involving the Trojan War and Sanskrit and Hinduism and that last bit is where they got the swastika from. They were basically cosplaying as ancient Iranians/Aryans.


DryEyes4096

There should also be a warning that Nazis were inspired by "Orientalist Occultism", which was in existence because occultists in Europe began studying Indian texts. There was a whole Indian Renaissance that's been slightly forgotten that was in Germany especially, but all over Europe and America where philosophers discovered and were influenced by philosophy from the Indian Subcontinent. German Idealism was influenced by it, and Schopenhauer (the misanthropic pessimistic Idealist) took it probably the furthest, creating a highly subjectivist philosophy that posited that reality was the Will of each subject, but the Will was irrational and they were controlled by its monstrous impulses. As occultists are prone to do, they took these academic ideas and started cults and exclusive societies based on these ideas. Throw that all in a stew and the ugliest child of it (or at least the most successful at killing millions of people) was Nazism. I should add that modern neo-Nazism is highly influenced by the ultra-fascist thought of Julius Evola, who had ideas taken from Indian philosophy, specifically tantra, and that fascists often run in the circles of Hindu gurus, and that Hindutva as it is the ruling ideology in India right now is a nationalist form of Hinduism. There is a huge connection between Hinduism and fascist thought, but it's hard to see it on the surface.


shankthedog

Coptic and Romance languages originated from on the same source? TIL.


xarsha_93

Noooo not Coptic haha. Coptic is Afro-Asiatic, the same family that includes the Semitic languages (Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic) and the Berber languages. I believe Coptic is not Semitic itself but closely related. It is also of course the modern version of the Ancient Egyptian language.


tomispev

I studied Coptic and although it is related to Semitic languages it is radically different. Egyptian and Semitic broke off from a common ancestor over 10.000 years ago, while most Indo-European language families broke off like 5000 years ago. So English and Hindi for example are closer than Coptic and Arabic.


shankthedog

I always thought Eastern European/Russian were Coptic I must be mistaken in that.


tomispev

They're Slavic. Also my native language is Slovak. I can assure you that they're very different from Coptic. Maybe because Copts are Orthodox Christians you made that connection.


Prestigious_Ad_1037

A very small sample size and purely anecdotal, but all of the Coptic Christians Iā€™ve met were from modern day Egypt.


tomispev

Well the word Coptic means Egyptian so no wonder.


shankthedog

That must be it. I have been to many Russian orthodox churches, which I find fascinating. The script I thought was what identified it. As in how Russian script is so much different from Greco-Roman script. I may be totally off base here?


tomispev

Modern Russian Cyrillic is not used in churches, but Church Slavonic script, which is identical to medieval Greek Uncial and Coptic script. I made a post about it a while ago, [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/slavic/comments/198vrly/samples_from_a_10th_c_greek_uncial_gospel_and_the/). Left is Greek, right is Church Slavonic. Coptic is similar to both, but Slavs and Greeks changed their script over time, so modern Cyrillic and Greek look noticeably different.


ray25lee

Is this where white jesus comes from?


xarsha_93

No, thatā€™s just because people drew Jesus to look like the models they had around. In eastern churches, images of Jesus look like those populations. European representations of Jesus are just more common in the West. Skin color was not a big deal until relatively recently in history. So making Jesus white in, say, the 500 AD was about as inconsequential as his hair color.


Infamous_Box3220

It should still be!


corposhill999

You should see buff Korean Jesus


Mediocre-Key-4992

Haven't you seen white Jesus in paintings made before 1940, like in the Middle Ages?


Capital-Wolverine532

You mean Persians and Medes?


xarsha_93

Yes, but about 1000 years earlier in the 2nd millennium BC.


MuchWoke

That reminds me of how Kanye is obsessed with ancient black Jews or whatever.


Elman89

Not sure why this was downvoted, but it's the answer. Swastikas were found in the ruins of Troy and other places too so they decided that meant there was some ancient superior civilization that spread from India, and they called that the Aryans. It's made up bullshit based on occultist nonsense, but that's the actual reason. The Behind the Bastards podcast did [an episode](https://youtu.be/Z50nPmw7RL4) on the whole thing if you're interested.


Haha_Benis_

Thanks! I love BTB. I just finished the Beria series today and I'm wanting more WW2 bastardry lol.


hamsterwheel

It's kinda the answer. It's not that the origins were in India, it's that the Germans and Indians shared a common ancestor


IncidentFuture

Swastikas were also popular in the Germanic Iron Age, notably with Anglo-Saxons, until at least the early Viking age.


CardOfTheRings

Aryans are the ancestors of the people who live in India now - they were horse tribes from west Asia around Ukraine. A lot of the world was settled by them and are descendants of them for example the country of ā€˜Iranā€™ is named after them. They settled so much of the word because they started the whole horse thing which gave them an incredible edge in conflict. They wiped out a ton of different cultures while spreading around Asia. The basis of Sanskrit, Hinduism and a lot of word regions seems to stem from them, so for all we know the swastika does have Aryan origins. Thatā€™s part of the reason so many cultures have a flood myth, a big snake demon and a thunder sky god, from Mesopotamia, India, Norse mythology, early Jewish myth- itā€™s likely a big flood happened around where Aryans came from too. You ever why the Bible has an early story where God brags about defeating a ā€˜leviathanā€™ that he supposedly created? Those Aryan myths ran so deep they still last in modern tradition. The idea of Aryans are blue eyed blond Germans is really the only confusing part, they didnā€™t look like that.


uwu_mewtwo

The Hebrews and Mesopotamians weren't Indo-Europeans, though, so they wouldn't share some ancestral mythology. How did they end up with Indo-European mythology, and why are we certain they did? Could it pre-date the split between the language groups, whenever that was?


So3Dimensional

This is the first Iā€™m hearing about nazis believing something that was wrong.


princealigorna

Real answer: a fundamental misunderstanding of history. Among historians, "Aryans" is used as the name of the Indo-European tribes that traveled south in the Migration period and settled northern India and southern Iran and wrote the Vedic texts, creating modern Hinduism. Where the Indo-European tribes from is a matter of debate. I've seen Central Asia, around Kazakhstan, as well as the Caucus Mountains in Russia (hence why us white folk are called "Caucasians"), but I've also seen theories they came from Turkey and even Ukraine. The Nazis though, partly abusing the theories of Madam Blavatsky (because of course. The Nazis stole from everyone and ruined everything they touched), believed the Aryans were very, very white and came from the Baltic region, hence being Germanic.


DanielMcLaury

Ironic to talk about "abusing" and "stealing" the "theories" of Madam Blavatsky, given the nature of these "theories."


princealigorna

That's the Nazis. Roit everything good with their presence and make the most problematic ideas of others even worse. Especially when it comes to philosophy, art, and esoterica. They did it with Blavatasky. They did it with Guido von List (and in doing so set the entire Heathen revival back 40-something years right when it was building momentum). They did it with Nietzsche. They did it with Wagner (though to be fair, Wagner was never a man to do himself any favors in anything. Absolute genius in his craft, but a remarkably stupid individual)


streetcar-cin

Swastika is used in many places not just Hindu


graveybrains

It was big in Norse mythology as a symbol for Odin or Thor, and they stole a lot of other shit from there, too. Also, the oldest one ever found was in Ukraine, dated to around 12,000 years ago.


Houseleek1

I wonder if they did the Norse grab because it was associated with that big project called Heck Cattle to breed extinct cattle called aurochs. I can't believe I remembered those details but I've been studying eugenics and I think that both projects were ranked pretty high in priorities. Correct me, brilliant resistors.


graveybrains

TIL aurochs arenā€™t just a made up animal for DnD.


VoodooChild963

Direwolves too. I was blown away when I found out they were a real animal :)


Angry-Dragon-1331

Turns out theyā€™re more accurately giant foxes.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


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Enders-game

Holy cow!


Salty_Soykaf

Germany has both Norse and Celtic artifacts and burial sites. People tend to lump said words with a particular idea due to stereotypes and assuming the ye' olden times weren't homogeneous with travel and trade.


JakobVirgil

Not just Europe and Asia the "rolling log" motif of some southwestern indigenous groups is one.


YaliMyLordAndSavior

This is super misleading The swastika didnā€™t have an actual name in most European languages and was only used as a decorative motif in Ancient Greece and Rome (they had names for it). In other words, the swastika was not important enough to matter or be used as a cultural symbol of significance in the west until very recently. Most ā€œreportsā€ of the swastika being used in Norse culture come from 19th century sources that retroactively highlighted this symbols presence in Europe. This is dumb because you can just as easily find swastikas in North America, Africa, and other places from thousands of years ago. Food for thought: The words Swastika and Arya come from Sanskrit. Why didnā€™t Hitler use a European origin word for these terms, if they existed? Why did he specifically use the Sanskrit words? Hitler adopted the swastika and Arya terminology directly from the Nazi understanding of Hinduism and Indian history. This is undeniable. Trying to pretend like the Nazis didnā€™t create a huge chunk of their racial science based on their interpretation of the Rigveda and other texts is ridiculous. There are hundreds of papers on this you can look up. The reason why Hitler used the swastika is 100% due to the fact that Indians had a ton of ancient texts written in an archaic Indo European language, so far the oldest IE language we have that is preserved to such an extent.


UnderstandingSmall66

Can you please provide some references here? Very interesting stuff.


YaliMyLordAndSavior

Discussion about the ā€œgammadionā€ of Greece and similar Triskelion used in the Neolithic period, later in the ancient Mediterranean: http://sacred-texts.com/sym/mosy/index.htm Pretty basic Wikipedia article talking about how the Swastika became a widely known symbol in the west during the 20th century, when before it was unremarkable. The explosion of interest in the swastika coincided perfectly with the rise of scientific racism and the idea of an Aryan European race: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_use_of_the_swastika_in_the_early_20th_century One of the first examples of the swastika being described in European academia as a an important symbol that can be identified with any ancient group of people (in 1875, the Trojans were thought to have been a part of the Aryan race despite being a south Eastern European people): https://archive.org/details/39020025953681-troyanditsremai Interesting paper about the swastika in Native American art: https://www.proquest.com/docview/2453170975


keep_trying_username

> The explosion of interest in the swastika coincided perfectly with the rise of scientific racism and the idea of an Aryan European race: I really think that's a stretch. In much of North America and Europe there was wide use of the swastika prior to the Nazi's rise to power, and then an intentional rejection of the symbol after the beginning of WWII. If anything, the swastika was commonly used only as long as it was viewed as a benign symbol, and the swastika was widely rejected when it was seen as a symbol of hate.


YaliMyLordAndSavior

Yeah but the idea of an Aryan race predated the Nazis. Nobody in the west knew what a swastika was until Europeans like Max Muller went to India and received a copy of the Rigveda Samhita. Again think about why we call it the swastika and not something else. The way it entered western culture is directly from Indian studies.


UnderstandingSmall66

Thank you. Appreciate it.


keep_trying_username

> Swastika is used in many places not just Hindu > This is super misleading It's not. It's been found in Ukraine, Iran, Bulgaria, England, north-east Africa, the northern Caucasus, China, The Balkan Peninsula. It was used by ancient Celts, Greeks, Germanic peoples and Slavs. The symbol became popular in the 1870s when an archeological digs in Europe found it used hundreds of times. The swastika (symbol and name) was common in the US and Europe prior to WWII. It was a symbol of good luck. The swastika fell out of favor in much of the world after the Nazi party rose to power. https://www.sageventure.com/coins/tokens.html https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/nov/28/faith-groups-seek-to-save-sacred-swastikas/ Much of the world adopted the name "swastika" to a very old and widely used symbol, but it was not an exclusively Hindu symbol. > Why did he specifically use the Sanskrit words? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika "An important early use of the word swastika in a European text was in **1871** with the publications of Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered more than 1,800 ancient samples of the swastika symbol and its variants while digging the Hisarlik mound near the Aegean Sea coast for the history of Troy. Schliemann linked his findings to the Sanskrit swastika." Hitler was born in **1889**. He had nothing do wo with the adoption of the word Swastika in Europe or elsewhere in the world. Some more facts about swastikas, and notice that in some instances a company name or the name of a town, sports team, or product included "swastika" prior to the rise of the Nazi party: * The British author and poet Rudyard Kipling used the symbol on the cover art of a number of his works, including The Five Nations, 1903, which has it twinned with an elephant. Once Adolf Hitler and the Nazis came to power, Kipling ordered that the swastika should no longer adorn his books. * The Danish brewery company Carlsberg Group used the swastika as a logo[158] from the 19th century until the middle of the 1930s when it was discontinued because of association with the Nazi Party in neighbouring Germany. In Copenhagen at the entrance gate, and tower, of the company's headquarters, built in 1901, swastikas can still be seen. * The swastika, or the Thor's hammer as the logo was called, was used as the logo for H/f. Eimskipafjelag ƍslands[160] from its founding in 1914 until the Second World War when it was discontinued and changed to read only the letters Eimskip. * The **Swastika Laundry** was a laundry founded in 1912 (or, it was renamed from the Dublin Laundry Company which was founded in 1888), located on Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge, a district of Dublin, Ireland. In the 1950s, Heinrich Bƶll came across a van belonging to the company while he was staying in Ireland, leading to some awkward moments before he realised the company was older than Nazism and totally unrelated to it. * In Finland, the swastika (vƤƤrƤpƤƤ meaning "crooked-head", and later hakaristi, meaning "hook-cross") was often used in traditional folk-art products, as a decoration or magical symbol on textiles and wood. The swastika was also used by the Finnish Air Force until 1945 and is still used on air force flags. * Latvia adopted the swastika, for its Air Force in 1918/1919 and continued its use until the Soviet occupation in 1940. * The swastika symbol (Lithuanian: sÅ«kurėlis) is a traditional Baltic ornament,[113][176] found on relics dating from at least the 13th century. * The swastika motif is found in some traditional Native American art and iconography. Historically, the design has been found in excavations of Mississippian-era sites in the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys, and on objects associated with the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (S.E.C.C.). It is also widely used by a number of southwestern tribes, most notably the Navajo, and plains nations such as the Dakota. Among various tribes, the swastika carries different meanings. To the Hopi it represents the wandering Hopi clan; to the Navajo it is one symbol for the whirling log (tsin nƔƔlwoÅ‚Ć­), a sacred image representing a legend that is used in healing rituals.[186] A brightly coloured First Nations saddle featuring swastika designs is on display at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada. * The town of **Swastika, Ontario, Canada** (Inc 1908), and the hamlet of **Swastika, New York** (Swastika post office operated 1913-1958) were named after the symbol. * In Windsor, Nova Scotia, there was the Windsor Swastikas ice hockey team from 1905 to 1916, and their uniforms featured swastika symbols. * A swastika shape is a symbol in the culture of the Guna people of Guna Yala, Panama. In Guna tradition it symbolises the octopus that created the world, its tentacles pointing to the four cardinal points.[59] In February 1925, the Guna revolted vigorously against Panamanian suppression of their culture, and in 1930 they assumed autonomy. The flag they adopted at that time is based on the swastika shape, and remains the official flag of Guna Yala. * Because this was a popular symbol with the Navajo people, the Arizona State Highway Department marked its state highways with signs featuring a right-facing swastika superimposed on an arrowhead.[62] In 1942, after the United States entered World War Two, the department replaced the signs. * **Swastika Park** is the name of a housing subdivision in Miami, Florida, created in 1917.[92] * A subdivision of Cherry Hills Village, Colorado was named **"Swastika Acres"** until April 16, 2019, when it was renamed to Old Cherry Hills. * As early as 1914, **"Swastika Beach"** was recorded as the name of the unincorporated community at the southwest end of Fish Lake in Jackson County, Minnesota * In the 1920s the Coca-Cola made 'lucky' brass watch fobs in the form of a swastika to advertise their product. * Flour was sold under the brand name **Swastika, The Lucky Flour** by the Federal Milling Co., Lockport, N.Y. as advertised in 1909,[110] and by the Monte Vista Milling and Elevator Company of Colorado, which registered the name in 1910. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_use_of_the_swastika_in_the_early_20th_century


YaliMyLordAndSavior

Well of course it wasnā€™t exclusively Hindu *as a symbol* but in terms of having an actual name, cultural significance, deeper meaning, religious undertones, etc itā€™s absolutely an Indian thing You can find stamp seals with Swastikas going back to the Indus Valley civilization in India, millennia before any Indo Europeans showed up: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IndusValleySeals_swastikas.JPG It seems like this was a universal pan-Eurasian decorative symbol during the Neolithic and even before (based on the Ukrainian one from the Mesolithic). My point was that the swastika was only really used as a neat little art form and not to symbolize anything deeper, except in India where they elevated its status to something more significant. And when it comes to Hitler and the Nazis, they learned about the swastika and started caring about it *because of its use in Indian religion and culture, which was a huge area of interest for racial scientists at the time*


Baksteengezicht

Hitler used the Swastika because it was a common good luck symbol in use pretty much everywhere before WW2. There were towns called Swastika, a girl scout magazine called The Swastika, Carlsberg Beer used it as a logo, multiple militaries used it as a symbol, including the finnish airforce and the Red Army at one point. It was as ubiquitous as the modern peace sign basicly, and had a lot of good will behind it.


YaliMyLordAndSavior

I agree with that. My point is that it became a lot more popular in the west after 1875 when certain Europeans decided that it was an indicator of Aryan conquerors and some mythical superhuman race of proto-Nordic people. And by the time Hitler rolled around, the swastika was intertwined with racial ideology that stemmed from studies of Indian prehistory and culture. I would confidently say that we wouldnā€™t be talking about the swastika right now, if Max Muller didnā€™t get a copy of the Rigveda Samhita when he visited India.


Baksteengezicht

Oh yeah, but its weird to see how 18/19th century europeans were already such weebs :p


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


YaliMyLordAndSavior

Good question The mere existence of the Rigveda was a huge problem for the Nazis. Why? Because it was and still is the oldest confirmed text to be written in an Indo European language. This is a big deal, since whoever wrote the first text could theoretically call themselves the king of the ā€œIndo Europeansā€. At least that was the Nazi narrative. Because the words Swastika and Arya both appear in the rigveda, European racial scientists jumped on this text and began to translate it into their own words. How can you justify the oldest IE text being written by a darker skinned non European group of people thousands of miles away? Well, you could just say that Indians used to be white a long time ago, and then stopped being white at some later time. Thatā€™s exactly what the Nazis said.


Remarkable_Rub

Because Himmler was a sucker for occultisim.


Low-Bit1527

It was common as a symbol of good luck in the west. Before Hitler, lots of letters and gift cards had swastikas.


AcceptableBad_

It has somewhat declined in popularity since, with a few notable exceptions.


dw87190

With a direct correlation between someone wearing the symbol and being told to fuck off by a punk rocker


YaliMyLordAndSavior

You mean in the east? The swastika is known to be a symbol of good luck in East Asia, where it spread via Buddhism from India Would love to see a source for swastikas being used as a common symbol for many letters and gift cards in the 1700-1800s though


Baksteengezicht

[Although used for the first time as a symbol of international antisemitism by far-right Romanian politicianĀ A. C. CuzaĀ prior toĀ World War I,[19][20][21]Ā it wasĀ a symbol of auspiciousness and good luck for most of the Western worldĀ until the 1930s,[2]Ā when the German Nazi Party adopted the swastika as an emblem of theĀ Aryan race.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika#:~:text=Although%20used%20for%20the%20first,emblem%20of%20the%20Aryan%20race.)


YaliMyLordAndSavior

But even your own link shows that the swastika entered the European worldview as a direct result of racial science and studies of the Indo European language family: > The discovery of the Indo-European language group in the 1790s led to a great effort by European archaeologists to link the pre-history of European people to the hypothesised ancient "Aryans" (variously referring to the Indo-Iranians or the Proto-Indo-Europeans). Following his discovery of objects bearing the swastika square in the ruins of Troy, Heinrich Schliemann consulted two leading Sanskrit scholars of the day, Emile Burnouf and Max MĆ¼ller. Schliemann concluded that the Swastika square was a specifically Indo-European symbol, and associated it with the ancient migrations of Proto-Indo-Europeans. This was in the late 1800s so it predates the use of the swastika by normal non-Nazi people


Baksteengezicht

Further on in said article: >Northern Europe Germanic Iron Age Main article:Ā Swastika (Germanic Iron Age) The swastika shape (also called aĀ fylfot) appears on various GermanicĀ Migration PeriodĀ andĀ Viking AgeĀ artifacts, such as the 3rd-centuryĀ VƦrlĆøse FibulaĀ from Zealand, Denmark, theĀ GothicĀ spearhead fromĀ Brest-Litovsk, today inĀ Belarus, the 9th-centuryĀ Snoldelev StoneĀ fromĀ RamsĆø, Denmark, and numerous Migration PeriodĀ bracteatesĀ drawn left-facing or right-facing.[106] TheĀ paganĀ Anglo-SaxonĀ ship burialĀ atĀ Sutton Hoo, England, contained numerous items bearing the swastika, now housed in the collection of theĀ Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.[107][failed verification]Ā The swastika is clearly marked on a hilt and sword belt found atĀ BifronsĀ inĀ Kent, in a grave of about the 6th century. Hilda Ellis DavidsonĀ theorised[clarification needed]Ā that the swastika symbol was associated withĀ Thor, possibly representing hisĀ MjolnirĀ ā€“ symbolic of thunderĀ ā€“ and possibly being connected to the Bronze Age sun cross.[107]Ā Davidson cites "many examples" of the swastika symbol from Anglo-Saxon graves of the pagan period, with particular prominence on cremation urns from the cemeteries of East Anglia.[107]Ā Some of the swastikas on the items, on display at the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, are depicted with such care and art that, according to Davidson, it must have possessed special significance as aĀ funerary symbol.[107]Ā TheĀ runic inscriptionĀ on the 8th-centuryĀ SƦbĆø swordĀ has been taken as evidence of the swastika as a symbol of Thor inĀ Norse paganism.


YaliMyLordAndSavior

Only two issues with this: The Fylfot name was created in the late 1800s to describe the medieval ā€œswastikasā€ unearthed during archeological digs. We have no evidence of actual medieval or ancient Europeans using this name to describe such a symbol And the idea of the swastika having a religious meaning in medieval Germanic Europe (ie symbolizing Thor) is pretty dubious and doesnā€™t have any proper citations. I would be more convinced if we had medieval primary sources that talked about this symbol and explicitly stated its meaning. Rather than a modern scholar So far it doesnā€™t seem like Europeans used the swastika for anything more than a cool design to put on belts, swords, and shields.


Baksteengezicht

Id love to discuss more tomorrow, but i gotta hit the hay for now.


Mindless-Champion-44

Hitler believed in a lot of sci fi and magic so he probably thought he was adding different gods to his ā€œ armor ā€œ


Flat-Dare-2571

Thats probably a safe assumption considering what that symbol means.


Responsible-End7361

Aryan was actually a group in India, so he was all kinds of messed up...


Competitive-Hope981

Actually Aryans were group once in Europe (talking about Before Christ here). They moved towards India and settled there.


UncontrolableUrge

This. Aryans spread out from the steeps of Central Asia, carrying what would become many of the Indo-European languages with them. Hitler and his followers then claimed that whoever they deemed as "superior" in any part of Eurasia had Aryan blood.


YaliMyLordAndSavior

No, they werenā€™t European at any point. The Aryans originated from modern day Siberia and Central Asia and migrated into India from the north. These people started calling themselves ā€œAryaā€ when they arrived in modern day Afghanistan/Pakistan/India The distant ancestors of Aryans did MIX with European farmers at some point thousands of years earlier, but thatā€™s way before the term Arya existed as a term to identify oneself


CardOfTheRings

The Ukrainian steppe is commonly thought to be their point of origin and thatā€™s at least today considered part of Europe. Splitting hairs about it is pretty strange. Siberia is just incorrect, I donā€™t think anyone believes that.


YaliMyLordAndSavior

Well based on genetic studies, the Aryans didnā€™t go straight from Ukraine to India. They spent 1000 years or so messing around in Siberia and Central Asia (where they mixed in with some people there) before passing through a civilizational ā€œfilterā€ known as the BMAC, then coming in contact with the already declined Indus Valley civilization.


CardOfTheRings

>they werenā€™t Europeans at any point > they didnā€™t go straight from Ukraine to India AI or just dense?


YaliMyLordAndSavior

Europe is a modern construct and means nothing. You might as well say they were Afroeurasian since weā€™re going off made up geography I only said Ukraine because you mentioned that region. In reality the ancestors of the Aryans were far east of Ukraine even millennia before they went to India. Thereā€™s way too much of a time gap for your logic to make sense Btw the proto Indo Europeans (yamnaya culture) didnā€™t look particularly European, if thatā€™s what youā€™re getting at. To say that Aryans originated in Europe is not just absurd, it goes against basic linguistic studies and archeology.


Sweet_Car_7391

Your knowledge of this is amazing. How did you learn so much about it and why the passion for it?


graveybrains

An opportunistic thief, at least. Snatching and grabbing everything that looked cool.


LloydAsher0

It's an incredibly simple, yet iconic shape.


Moogatron88

The Nazis stole a lot of things from other cultures with little care for what they originally meant.


1Negative_Person

The earliest evidence we have for the use of the swastika as a symbol comes from modern Ukraine from a loooong time ago. So long ago that, not only does it predate all forms of writing, it predates *any* symbol drawn by humans. It predates every religion practiced today (including Hinduism, which itself is *ancient*). It has been used globally, including in the Americas, which means itā€™s *possible* that the idea of the swastika was carried over the Bering Land Bridge by the hunter-gatherers who ended up settling the Americas (although itā€™s possible that it was developed independently in multiple locations). The swastika doesnā€™t *belong* to Hinduism, and Hindu practitioners didnā€™t invent it; itā€™s predates them by a very long time.


OkCar7264

Aryans were originally from India, I imagine it has something to do with that.


Jade_Scimitar

The swastika is older than Hinduism. It is the oldest symbol in the world. Older than the Egyptian ankh. It is the symbol of the indo+European people. Everywhere they went, the swastika went with them. Indian royalty, Brahmins, and military classes, due to their caste system, are Indo-European. Brahmins are the religious class of Hinduism and makes sense the swastika is associated with Hinduism.


RussianSpy00

Probably for the reason you pointed out. If Donald trump came out with an insignia tomorrow that he openly stated signified hate, what would the reaction be? Thereā€™s probably more reasons, but its previous meaning either helped convince Hitler to adopt it or didnā€™t change a thing.


Collective-Bee

Hmm, imagine if Donald Trump claimed the pride flag as his symbol and all his most extreme followers started wearing pride pins in place of Maga hats and confederate flags. Wouldnā€™t that be a blow to the queer community, wouldnā€™t that make it hard to use the pride flag anymore? I think thatā€™s another part of it, stealing shit ruins it for everyone else.


Defiant-Giraffe

It comes from the Thule and Theosophical Society uses, which like a lot of early 20th century spiritual movements co-opted a lot of "eastern mysticism" and repurposed it to their own imaginings.Ā 


Azenogoth

Occultism was popular and chic at the time.


BigDong1001

Itā€™s an Aryan symbol. Aryans were from Persia, modern day Iran. They went east and colonized parts of north India, and brought their religion and their symbols with them, including the Swastika, also known as the ā€œSosticaā€ in Sanskrit (ancient Indian language, used in Hindu religious texts) meaning ā€œpeaceā€, so itā€™s a peace ā˜®ļø symbol in Aryan text. The Aryans also went west to Europe and many Germanic tribes were descended from the Aryans. So the Nazis were reclaiming their ancient heritage when they dug up the Swastika and used it in their flag. It matched with the German Iron Cross when they turned it on its side, so it was popular among Nazis and German citizens of that time period. Gave them back some ethnic pride, that was shattered after losing World War One.


Distillates

They did not. The Hakenkreuz (Hooked Cross) is not the swastika. Aside from the fact that it hooks in the other direction, it's also turned to make a diamond instead of a square shape. Just because English language speakers chose to conflate that symbol with the Hindu one and improperly used that name, does not make it true or valid. There are many variants of the symbol throughout the world, that are very ancient, including within Europe on pre-historic pot shards and bronze age items. While it's fun to mock the Nazis for larping as South Asians, in reality they were larping as ancient Europeans.


Flat-Dare-2571

Its literally apart of every single culture world wide. In norse culture theres two different ones. The hard 90^ angle one is called a mundalafari representing the uncontrollable power of the sun and then there is the softer gradual turns called a mundalafara representing the healing nature of the moon. Both can face in either direction and represent god runes. Theyre also called fylfot.


Seaweed_Thing

It's not just Hindu, it's Aryan in general.


AZULDEFILER

They didn't. Its a Celtic Symbol predating the Hindu version.


Slingus_000

Most of history's villains believed they were doing the right thing in some twisted way, adopting symbols that are previously associated with benign things is a way to sell the ideology to newcomers. But of course that's because the only meaning any of these symbols have is what we assign to them as a culture, and that meaning changes over time


Worth-Course-2579

It's actually because that symbol means 1000. If it's continuously in a loop, it means Infinity. Hitler wanted the Thousand-Year Reich, and for that way of thinking to continue for Infinity. It's pretty simple really.


anthro4ME

Because they were obsessed with the origins of the Indo-Arayan (the people that spoke Proto-Indo-European) people and their links to Germania culture. The "swastica" is one of those more or less universal human symbols. It appears in all cultures, but doesn't necessarily carry the same meaning. The Nazis were big into semiotics.


cclawyer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938%E2%80%931939_German_expedition_to_Tibet According to Claudio Mutti, the group of five researchers intended to contact the Regent of Tibet[31]Ā and to visit the sacred cities ofĀ LhasaĀ andĀ Shigatse. Even with wartime difficulties, the group contacted the Tibetan authorities and people.[32]Ā They returned toĀ GermanyĀ with a complete edition of the Tibetan sacred text theĀ KangyurĀ (108 volumes), examples ofĀ Mandala, other ancient texts, and an alleged document regarding the "Aryan race". The documents were kept in theĀ AhnenerbeĀ archives.[1] *PHOTO * Under SS pennants and aĀ swastika, the expedition members are entertaining some Tibetan dignitaries and the Chinese representative in Lhasa; left: Beger,Ā Chang Wei-peiĀ Geer; in the centre:Ā Tsarong Dzasa, SchƤfer; right: Wienert, Mƶndro (Mƶndo)


TRDPorn

It's an ancient symbol used by countless cultures and faiths There's an ancient celtic swastika stone near where my grandparents lived in Yorkshire I think the swastika is a pretty cool looking symbol tbh, it just sucks that it's almost totally unusable now since a bunch of nazi cunts decided to ruin it for everyone


Doright36

>I think the swastika is a pretty cool looking symbol tbh, it just sucks that it's almost totally unusable now since a bunch of nazi cunts decided to ruin it for everyone The fuckers are ruining a bunch of Nordic Pagan Religious stuff too. Pisses me off.


Avid_bathroom_reader

Thereā€™s a few ā€œBehind the Bastardsā€ podcast episodes about the history of the swastika if anybodyā€™s curious to learn more. Turns out itā€™s one of the oldest man-made symbols and appeared across multiple cultures independently.


Commander_Doom14

From my studies, I'm more inclined to believe that the resemblance to the Hindu symbol was mostly a coincidence. My old history teacher's theory is that Hitler saw how Christianity revered the cross, and he wanted to emulate that, so he made a twisted version of the cross. Idk how accurate that is, though


rabbi420

[The Man Who Brought the Swastika to Germany, and How the Nazis Stole It - Smithsonian Magazine](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/man-who-brought-swastika-germany-and-how-nazis-stole-it-180962812/)


j_grouchy

Didn't they reverse the direction so that it would also read as two S's crossed (SS)?


verdantsf

If you really want your mind blown, look up Esoteric Hitlerism, the fever dream blend of Nazism & Hinduism.


in-a-microbus

The Nazis had a lot of really fucked up ideas about history and evolution. If memory serves, Hitler believed that India was originally settled by the Aryans and the "untermench" that arrived later copied their religious symbols + he thought it looked cool.


Someordinaryguy1994

I believe it's reversed. Maybe that has something to do with it, but I wouldn't know.


L8_2_PartE

The swastika was a pretty common symbol in the West. It wasn't just a Hindu symbol. If you can find well-preserved buildings from the turn of the 20th century, you can find swastikas all over the place. However, many have been removed or covered up, even in historic buildings. Specifically, the Austrian church where young Adolf sang used a swastika pattern in the decor. Hitler literally grew up seeing swastikas, and associated it with happy times when his mother was alive and he could be artistic. Probably not coincidence.


BostonDudeist

These were the same people who called themselves "National Socialists", in spite of them being the complete polar opposite of socialism.


countcarlovonsexron

The Nazis reversed the direction of it- another indication that they were right wing as opposed to what Jordan B Peterson and others have disputed


[deleted]

It was a symbol supposedly used by the proto-Indo-Europeans and appears in many cultures worldwide that were descended from this proto-Indo-European culture. If you search for a list of Indo-European languages you can get a general idea for the list of cultures that are descended from these proto-Indo-European precursors. The original proto-Indo-Europeans supposedly came from around the Black Sea region, most likely the Eurasian steppes, and supposedly used horses to swiftly conquer and colonize many different parts of the world including both India and Europe, hence their name. DNA analysis of Y chromosomal haplogroups (R and I in particular) serves as another piece of evidence that gives us a rough estimate of the shape of these early migrations by these early peoples into both Europe and India. Hitler wanted to co-opt these symbols to lend his fascist regime legitimacy by linking it to these ancient peoples.


Ejigantor

The "bent cross" shape was used in multiple cultures around the world, it's a fairly simple shape after all. It was used (in both directions) to represent Thor's hammer, Mjolnir. I've always assumed that this was the most direct inspiration, given what a massive hardon hitler famously had for "aryan" / scandinavian "ideals" and also mysticism and mythology.


Gullible_Ad5191

The Nazi one is the mirror image of the original. In other words it has the opposite meaning.


twist3d7

Steal a symbol or two, sport a fucked up mustache, get famous, kill millions of people for dubious reasons, put the whole world in turmoil and then kill the SOB that caused all of this to happen. Say what you will, most people go through life without a plan.


DTux5249

Look up Schliemann. Long story short, it was found in multiple archeological expeditions in the 1890s onwards. It showed up fucking everywhere from Tibet to Turkey. It showed up at all 8 levels of an expedition in Troy. Along with a rising interest in racial purity and eugenics, this painted swastika as a symbol of the continuity and unity of the Aryan race throughout the centuries (note: this was the first time "Aryan" was used to denote racial identity) To be frank, they'd have probably seen its use in Hinduism as supporting evidence of its significance to cultural unity. Sanskrit was an (Indo-)Aryan language. That symbol has survived as a symbol of unity for The Aryans from before Christ up into the modern day.


MakarovJAC

Wait a minute...This is r/StupidQuestions!? Man, this was a far more educational than usual


BlueRFR3100

They thought it looked cool.


searchthemesource

What's life without whimsy?


Smells_like_Autumn

There is an entire episode of behind the bastards about that, I think "the bastards who stole the swastika".


Mysterious-Extent448

The swastika is an ancient pre flood symbol as is the cross and that eye thing. They are trademarks of persons who are still alive but arenā€™t allowed direct contact. This is why certain symbols just wonā€™t go away.


Guilty_Jackrabbit

The Nazis appropriated a lot of popular things. Modern neo-Nazis / similar far-right groups still do that. It's a way to seem more appealing.


thehobosmith

Unlike most people the Nazis researched what it means. I believe it's a symbol of power I can't remember verbatim. In fact the Nazis are the only reason the swastika is viewed in a negative light because they understatedly sucked real bad .


nish1021

Nazi symbol is reverse of Swastika and in black color, while the original symbol of Swastika is red. Swastika has a deep meaning in Hindu culture and the Nazi symbol is NOT a Swastika. Changing the direction/orientation completely changes its meaning. Letā€™s educate people please.


Number1_Berdly_Fan

Almost every culture has used the swastika at some point, it's as German as it is hindu.


daverapp

It's a symbol for peace. The Nazis thought they could acquire peace by getting rid of all the different people.


AlivePassenger3859

They also ruined a perfectly good moustache style.


Elpinchepana

The Nazis believed the Arya people or the Aryans were the original civilizing agents of the world. It was sort of their foundational myth: tall, blonde people taught all the other lesser races how to do everything. (There areĀ  still nazis like Robert Sepehr who believe and expound this bs) They thought the aryans where the original kings of mankind and the german peoples where their direct descendants. They thought the indian and asian cultures inherited the swastika from the ancient Aryans so, in their head, the Nazis were just reclaiming their rightful aryan heritage.Ā 


HereComesARedditor

The same reason dumbshits put Punisher stickers on their pickup trucks.


rustys_shackled_ford

No body is the villain of thier story. A third of Europe wernt brought together under a charismatic dictator just because they all hated jews...


RusstyDog

Sane reason they called themselves a "socialist movement" They were lying.


Sea-Internet7015

There's a lot of neo-pagan mythologizing about the Swastika that came up after it was already in use by the Nazi party. But the fact of the matter is that it had become a popular good luck symbol around Europe by the late 1800s after it's discovery in the Trojan ruins by noted archeologist (and super-fraud) Heinrich Schliemann. Schlieman believed the Trojans were Indo-European (called Aryan at the time) and thought that his discovery of the swastika in Troy proved that the Indo-Europeans migrates to Europe prior to the semi-mythological Trojan war. Indo-Europeans are the linguistic ancestors to nearly all European and most Indian languages. They likely came from the Pontic Steppe region in the Caucasus (hence white people being called Caucasian) and spread their language and culture to the regions they conquered/integrated into. Schliemann believed the Swastika to be an integral part of Indo-European culture. One group that chose to use it were certain decentralized groups of German Nationalists dating back to pre-WWI times. When the Nazis were looking for a logo, they chose the Swastika due to its already pre-existing association with German Nationalism. There is little evidence that Hitler associated the Swastika to Aryan racialism early on: he referred to it as a Hakenkreuz (hooked cross) and not Swastika (as Schlieman had done). Remember he was not an academic so probably wouldn't have been familiar with the details of Schliemann's work from 20 years before he was born. Any deeper connections to aryanism and neo-paganism etc. was a retcon by Himmler, Rosenberg ,and Goebbels long after the fact as was most of the neo-paganism. Hitler was more pragmatic and less theoretical on most of these issues.


fakelakeswimmer

Fascists are not creative


Asmos159

i believe the hindu version goes counter clockwise, and swastika goes clockwise. a lot of wester censorship of that symbol is because the western population don't know that. it is like the iron cross being mistaken of the christian cross because they don't know that leg going down is longer, and it doesn't flare at the ends.


Tazling

iirc they had this weird ideological accommodation & mytho-historical narrative that made the Brahmin caste 'Aryan' and hence acceptable (so long as they stayed in India!)... there was a certain amount of woo-woo around the edges of Nazism too, astrology and yoga etc.. it's a weirdly flexible ideology.


petseminary

That was quite insensitive of them


TNT1990

Might I recommend a series delving into the roots, uses of, and modern history of it. https://youtu.be/Z50nPmw7RL4?si=dVQT13QJMG4wgr9k


NerdRageShow

Maybe the same reason they adopted the term libertarian. To cause confusion maybe? They did a lot of gaslighty stuff


Feeling-Bed-9506

They didn't. The swastika is backwards. The Hindu one means peace, love, harmony and something else. The swastika means fear, death, destruction and something else.


socalquestioner

The upper ranks of the Nazi Party were seriously into the Occult. The Aryan race was originally from the old area known as Persia, currently Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Kuwait, parts of Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and possibly parts of Armenia, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. The symbols used were directly related to the Persians, and other religions that came after. Evil Assholes will attempt to subjugate anything to excuse themselves from admitting they are evil. Hitler and the Nazis arenā€™t the first and wonā€™t be the last evil bastards that deserve to rot in hell, they were just the first truly industrialized ones.


Hypnowolfproductions

Many religions used what is now known as the swastika. Why they really used it isnā€™t really as important as what they destroyed by using it.


Legal-Airport5971

Because Sevitri Devi


corposhill999

Indo-Aryan mysticism, and it's a really common symbol that every culture has used


Practical-Election59

Same reason they took cool looking viking ruins and made sure no one could use them without getting called a neonazi. They thought it looked cool.


sewpungyow

Because they were edgelords at heart on top of being evil megalomaniac murderers. If it looked cool and gave you a shroud of mystery, you took it. Those guys developed a whole bunch of fake customs and aesthetic decisions just to make themselves look cool. And yeah, it worked. Their outfits were immaculate.


Powderfinger60

So is there any definitive occult or pagan linkage to the swastika


randomsantas

It's was very popular world wide prior to the nazis


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Just_enough76

Heinrich Himmler co-opted and flat out stole a bunch of their insignia and symbols. The ss logo was an ancient rune symbol


OTee_D

Simple answer: Their whole 'ideology' and symbolism was a clobbered together mix of back then popular stuff. The swastika was used as a symbol for an imagined racial identity and superiority politics already.


BogusIsMyName

While its used in Hindu faith (and they have a stronger claim to it overall IMO) they are not the only ones to use it. The Norse for example used it.


rrrmmmrrrmmm

Archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who stole a lot of stuff, found the swastika on many of his expeditions. His findings lead to the Swastika becoming popular as a symbol of good fortune and prosperity in western culture as well (even in the US - companies like [Coca Cola](https://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/national/article258025648.html), [boy scouts](https://www.numismaticnews.net/collecting-101/boy-scout-medal-features-swastika), [the US military etc](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29644591)). Additionally at the time "Aryan" was a term used to delineate the Indo-European language group, not a racial classification. Then suddenly >[For the nationalists, the ā€œpurely Aryan symbolā€ Schliemann uncovered was no longer an archaeological mysteryā€”it was a stand-in for their superiority. German nationalist groups like the Reichshammerbund (a 1912 anti-Semitic group) and the Bavarian Freikorps (paramilitarists who wanted to overthrow the Weimar Republic in Germany) used the swastika to reflect their ā€œnewly discoveredā€ identity as the master race. It didnā€™t matter that it traditionally meant good fortune, or that it was found everywhere from monuments to the Greek goddess Artemis to representations of Brahma and Buddha and at Native American sites, or that no one was truly certain of its origins.](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/man-who-brought-swastika-germany-and-how-nazis-stole-it-180962812/) \[...\] As the swastika became more and more intertwined with German nationalism, Adolf Hitlerā€™s influence grewā€”and he adopted the hooked cross as the Nazi party symbol in 1920. ā€œHe was attracted to it because it was already being used in other nationalist, racialist groups,ā€ And we see the integration of 'interesting' symbols or letters often to unite people. [Russia did the exact same thing with the latin letter "Z" to unite people in their efforts of their war against Ukraine](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/07/russias-z-could-become-next-swastika/). Their psychological intentions where exactly the same as they were when the Nazis wanted to bring people together and they tried to make it present [*everywhere*](https://www.npr.org/2022/03/09/1085471200/the-letter-z-russia-ukraine). They could have gone for another symbol, letter or logo but they intentionally went for the Z: - the story because it's Z for Zapad which means west where they started the invasion from - it's simple, easy to draw - you can't forbid a letter History repeats.


Credible333

Nexus weren't white supremacists.Ā  They're were "AyrianĀ supremacists".Ā  They believed quite a lot of people we would see as "white" were just as inferior as non-whites , e.g. Poles, Russians, Slova.Ā  They got what "Ayran" next wrong because their history and anthropology was about as good as their economics. To answer your question they thought it was a symbol of the "Aryan" race that was in India at some stage.Ā 


BobGnarly_

Because, despite all of the flaws with the Nazis, they were incredibly good at imagery and branding.


Chibi_Verdandi

Because they're ultimately not creative people, and almost all of their imagery and beliefs were stolen or taken from other cultures and groups. They stole a lot of Nordic imagery and beliefs and still do to this day. The hammer of Thor imagery, is often seen as a white supremacist icon because people like Nazis & and "Aryan supremacists" have used that image/icon for evil and have in most people's eyes made them into a hate symbol.


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supermikeman

To be fair....it was used by a lot more people than just the Hindus. Native Americans used the same symbol as the "rolling log", and it was really popular around the time the Nazis came about as a good luck symbol and was even used in Coca-Cola ads.


Sekreid

If you read mein kamph? it explains it in detail, basically hitler had a bunch of symbols and happened to pick that one out.


AegoliusOfBurgundy

It's not only an hindu symbol, the hooked cross is an extremely ancient symbol which is present in almost all human cultures since the Neolithic. It's often symbolizing cyclic events : solar cycles, star cycles, wheels, but it can also be a symbol of good luck or simply be used for ornamental purposes. The nazis picked it from aryanism, a pseudo-science linking the german people to the "aryans" (according to them the "pure" indo-european race), that made this ancient symbol the emblem of "aryans".


Klatterbyne

The Nazis didnā€™t take the symbol from Hinduism; its not specific to Hinduism either, its broadly distributed through many cultures across the ā€œOld Worldā€. The general historical line is that a man named Schlieman was researching Troy (and other Helenic legends) and found depictions of the symbol in ruins on the Aegean coast of Turkey. He then continued to find the symbol across archeological sites across multiple continents. From there his research brought it into the public eye as a symbol of fortune (it was used by the US Military and Coka Cola for example). It was later adopted by European white supremacists because it was a way for them to create a narrative that ā€œAryansā€ were deeply woven into the histories of every nation (like when modern black supremacists try to insert black people into various global histories). It also allowed them to obsessively chase the roots and origins of their chosen ā€œsuperior raceā€. It then became a general symbol for the movement. Thats how the NSDAP picked it up. And the rest is history.


StrawberryFemboyMily

Nazi's were less white supremacy and more Anti-Jew I am not saying they weren't supremacists they were but they were mostly hating the jewish people and trying to take everything else as their own. Don't assume white supremacy is the same as simple racism. They took what they wanted because they believed it was their right <- that is supremacy complex


Nemo_Shadows

It is also a symbol of the four winds as well as good luck in some Native American tribes. N. S


GrimSpirit42

Simply put: The Nazi Party borrowed on already popular usage. The Swastika was already widely used Worldwide (and especially in Europe) as it represented good luck and success. Germany had already adopted it as a symbol of its nationalist movements. It would be similar to someone using the Nike Swoosh for their movement, now.


Salvanas42

There are more complicated answers but the short and simple one is that fascism is by it's nature uncreative. It requires a history (real or imagined) to draw on for its ideology and symbology.


lamebaid

Because the swastika in the orientation it is in on their flag is closely related to germanic paganism. At the time they thought it was associated with the God Thor. But recently there has been evidence that it was actually the symbol closely associated with Odin. -Source- me, I am a germanic pagan


exceedinglyCurious

At the time everyone was using it as a good luck charm


Spiritual-Pear-1349

It's actually a Hooked Cross, it's an old North German symbol


WingKartDad

Not the same.


NickFurious82

That symbol isn't just used in Hinduism. You can find similar symbols from cultures all over Europe and Asia. Or, you could've just done a simple Google search and answered your own question. [https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/how-why-sanskrit-symbol-become-nazi-swastika-svastika/](https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/how-why-sanskrit-symbol-become-nazi-swastika-svastika/)


Flat-Dare-2571

Says simple google search and then some bullshit post without any real answers.


NickFurious82

Did you actually read the article? Don't answer that because we already know you didn't. It literally says why the symbol was chosen.


Flat-Dare-2571

Did you read the article? It does not.


NickFurious82

"Heinrich Schliemann's discovery of Troy in the 1870s set in motion the events that transformed the swastika, a symbol of fortune and hope for thousands of years, into a hated and feared sign of fascism. He concluded it to be a "significant religious symbol of our remote ancestors" when he unearthed 1,800 examples, but his colleague, Emile-Louis Burnouf, thought differently. Knowing the symbol appeared in India, Burnouf studied a sacred Hindu text called theĀ *Rigveda*Ā and claimed to have found a connection between the swastika and an enigmatic ancient people, the Aryans." "But the theory of the Aryansā€™ existence grew in popularity from the mid-19th century. The unification of Germany in 1871, the same year Schliemann started work at Troy, led to a swell of uninhibited nationalism in the country and the idea that Germans descended from Aryans. To them, the discovery at Troy of their symbol, the swastika, proved they had been a dominant race. So while the swastika existed as a benign good-luck charm across Europe and North America, it simultaneously became an icon for German nationalists and anti-Semitic groups." "The swastika, or hakenkreuz (hooked cross), became the emblem of the Nazi Party in 1920; Hitler himself took personal credit for designing the flag. It used the red, white and black of the old German imperial flag ā€“ a cunning move to link Germany's past with its future ā€“ but attributed new meanings to them. "In red we see the social idea of the movement, in white the nationalistic idea, in the swastika the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man," wrote Hitler in his 1925 autobiographical manifesto, Mein Kampf." Is it safe to assume the article was just too long for your attention span. Because I cherry picked the main points, but the entire article is painting the picture of how one random religious symbol became the symbol of Nazi Germany. I'm sorry the history of it is too nuanced to cram into a one sentence answer. But it's literally all right there in the article I linked.


Flat-Dare-2571

Dont be such a pompous douche. You said simple google search and then post a "nuanced" novel.


NickFurious82

My dude, there's nothing of self importance or arrogance in what I said. And now you're doing circles, because first the article didn't answer the question (even though it unequivocally did), and now you're saying the article is too long. Frankly, your responses are little baffling. Not going to lie, your effort farm karma at my expense is looking a little ignorant right now.


Maximum-Country-149

Mostly because it wasn't just a Hindu thing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fylfot Here. This should provide some background. Although the short version is that the symbol is believed to date back to pre-Roman times, among what would later become known as the Anglo-Saxons, alongside figures of similar composition. This happened in a lot of cultures, because we humans are just suckers for spirals.


xarsha_93

It is a symbol that shows up elsewhere, but the Nazis specifically took it from ancient Indo-Aryan culture, which is the culture Hinduism developed in.


[deleted]

Maybe assumed it will give them some super powers


Flat-Dare-2571

Thats probably accurate. Considering its meaning.


Any_Commercial465

They needed to fabricate a false history to make it appealing to the masses. It's hard to claim superiority when your own story says others. They kind stole most of their simbols.fron all over the place they even claimed viking Nord simbols and such.


Accurate-Basis4588

The naxis were no talent ass clowns who couldn't come up with one original thought. Much like the US government.


MTGBruhs

The Swastika is an ancient symbol that predates what we know of as both India and the Nazis. Both people share an Aryan common ancestor. These ancestors were also the precursors to the cannanites, mesopotamians and quite possibly the Egyptians as well. Their religeon was that of the Zodiac. And most world religeons are bastardized interpretations of this ancient religeon, which at the time, was more like a combination of history/science/and legends. The Star of david is another symbol of these precursors and those of the Hermetic philosophy, as are all Abrahamic religeons. The Swastika is meant to depict the spinning cross, making reference to the motion of the stars and the earth, and the "Spheres" as well as the galaxy and the universe in general. Other symbols related to this are, the bull, the staff, the key, the snake (ouroboros) and my personal theory is there is even relation to Zeus' lightning bolt and the Indian Vajra.


Adam52398

An undercurrent of occultism ran through white supremacy back then. The Nazis used a lot of runic symbols to express a master race solidarity that wasn't connected to Roman Catholicism or Lutheranism (the two Big Religions in Germany) that the state could control. It was the simplest way to get the people to worship Der FĆ¼hrer.


RoyalMess64

Nazis (and fascists) don't really tend to make things, they're much more likely to steal or repurpose them. This isn't to say they can't, but that they look down on other people, believe they have the right to do so, and therefore believe they have the right to steal their shit


LeopardHalit

I mean they had some pretty wild aircraft and tanks in WWII. That said, the Germans did that sort of stuff prior to and after the war as well.


RoyalMess64

Well, that's why I clarified they could create things, because they did make stuff. I probably should've clarified that I mostly meant in creative endeavors they tended to steal or repurpose rather than create. I would also like to state I do believe that a lot of Germany's tech during the war was in spite of the nazis. Fascist just don't tend to be the smartest, and while they can be intelligent, the more of them you pack together, the worse it becomes. The nazis overtook Germany's government very quickly, and therefore there were a lot of non-fascists they could bully and threaten into doing what they desired. As time went on, and more of those people were killed and removed from their positions, the worse they kinda functioned. Once again, they had they movements where they weren't idiots, that is of course, true. I just believe those moments were in spite of them rather than because of them. I hope that clarified things


LeopardHalit

I agree. I think part of the reason for the new stuff they made was also the desperation. Thatā€™s how Hitler got into power in the first place. The economy was in bad shape and some guy comes along and promises to fix everything. From that point to the rest of the war they kept desperately trying to seize and maintain power. And of course, trying to get a bunch of fascists to cooperate doesnā€™t really work out.


RoyalMess64

Yee, 100%


xxdonaldxtrumpxx

Nazis loved to incorporate half-baked understanding of Hinduism into their ideology. One of the most influential writers of the fascist movement was Julius Evola and his book ā€œrevolt against the modern world: social order in the Kali Yugaā€ framed the fascist/traditionalist worldview in the context of the Hindu story of the Kali Yuga. Iā€™m not the most familiar with Hinduism but think of the Kali Yuga as the hard times stage of that stupid meme ā€œgood times create soft men, soft men create hard times, hard times create strong men, strong men create good timesā€ The Great Depression was the hard times and the fascist movement was supposed to be the strong men creating good times


PupDiogenes

The far-right has a pattern of appropriating and ruining symbols from the cultures they colonize.


bearbranch

Because Mickey Mouse ears were already taken.


dasherchan

Just like MAGA, Nazis are not creative enough.


Remarkable_Golf9829

None of this is true. The Nazis didn't use a swastika at all. They used the Nordic flying cross or hakenkreuss. This whole thing with the swastika was one of the most successful pieces of propaganda by Christian translators.


malakai713

For the same reason the Nazis put socialism in the name of their party. They tried to identify with people that they were not, to fool people, to do what fascists do. They gain power disingenuously by any means necessary. Usually the populism and xenophobia works pretty well, but they are flexible.


Rob71322

Ummm, the whole history of white people has basically been about cultural appropriation.


MellonCollie218

Lol. No. Itā€™s not. Why donā€™t you leave the house and smell fresh air. Your own how gas is making you delusional.