Why did Adolf Hitler choose the swastika as a symbol for the German flag in the 1930's?

Question

I've done my own internet research on the origins of the swastika symbol,and discovered that the symbol & the word itself are Hindu symbols from India,and that it originally meant something good,not evil,so,why did Adolf Hitler choose this symbol? It became a despised symbol after World War II,but,I don't know why he chose it.

Answer 1

As a Hindu I've done research on it myself. It has become popularized in the time as being a symbol of good luck, good fortune. Which is just as it is still used in Hinduism today. In fact my ishtadev (personal name/form of God) is usually associated with the symbol...my ishtadev is Ganesh (symbolizes God removing obstacles for the devotee).

Add this notion with the popularized theory at the time that Aryans had invaded northern Indian and were most likely Germanic peoples (of which this theory is now considered questionable by archeologists who have found no evidence that north India was ever invaded by peoples in ancient times and that the Aryans are the north Indians and have been right there as they always have been and the Dravidians in the south have been right there were they've always been....atleast that's what the scientific evidence is now revealing...lots of books on the subject if you ever want to read it).

So since the "German" people were supposedly the Aryans and the Aryans were the supposed authors of the Vedas that they brought into the barbaric India (you know because brown skinned people couldn't possibly create such a complex religion as the Vedic religion/Hinduism is, only European white folk could...kinda racist when you think of it, huh? For the record my family ancestry has no Indian roots, but my family is very religiously diverse which is why I was able to explore and find my own religion to practice and thus I explored and eventually found Hinduism and fell in love with it and how it matched what I already believed and related to my own experiences of the divine, etc).

So Adolf Hitler probably adopted the swastika for
1) it was a symbol of good luck and good fortune and he wanted to ensure that the Third Reich was bestowed with such luck
2) it reemphasized their belief that the German people were the superior Aryans that the false Aryan Invasion Theory suggested (which gave the sense that the German people were invincible).

You know, though, if Hitler and other Nazi leaders had even bothered to study Hinduism they'd know that the Hindu concept of luck isn't the same as in the western world. The "luck" Hindus want is spiritual not material or physical. Ganesh removes obstacles that impede our spiritual progress, but will place obstacles in our way that keep us from reaching our spiritual progress. That and if they'd bothered to study Hinduism they'd know about the Law or Karma. You can't go around doing all that they did to innocent people and not expect the universe to administer justice back upon you...and with it being so horrific you can't expect the universe to just wait until your next life. Plus the fact that the war was started on lies also had something to do with it, too, I'd imagine. Germany invaded Poland after Poland supposedly invaded Germany. We now know through historical evidence that Poland never invaded Germany, it was all just a lie to cover up to the rest of the world the invasion of Poland by German (good excuse basically). Hitler and the German leaders violated the Ten Commitments of which the first is Ahimsa - do not injure, cause harm, nonviolence and the second is Satya - be truthful. Just goes to show why it's important to study the full depths of a religion, it's mythologies, theologies, and philosophies. Otherwise you could be so misinformed so as to misuse parts of it and thus bring about "bad luck" upon you.

For the record the colors Red, White, and Black were the colors of Prussia....the largest of the German states before German unification and the first flag of Germany (German Confederation) was Red, White, and Black (the Prussian flag). It was changed after WWI and then changed back to the original colors by Hitler (sort of a sense of German pride type of thing) and of course it was changed back to its post WWI flag after WWII and remains that flag today.

Coincidently the swastika is only despised in the western world. In eastern cultures, which were unaffected by the Nazis in WWII, the symbol remains what it always has been and is still used in the religions that have always used it in its various forms: Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism. I own a small tray that I purchased on the internet from India (made in India) that came with small containers to hold kumkum and vibhuti (sacred powders...kumkum makes the red dot on the forehead). The base of the tray has an Om symbol with rays like the sun radiating outward. The rim of the tray is decorated with flowers and swastikas and each of the little containers has a Ganesh symbolic image on the lids. Just to give you one example of how the symbol is still used. Hindus living in the west often keep the symbol only within the confines of their home temple rooms and altars, but in India and throughout the east it is common to see the symbol used on the outside of temples, decorated in front of doorways, and so on. It isn't viewed with the same despise as itis in the west. Perhaps someday it will once again retain its good status in the west. Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains in the west are trying.

Great question. Thanks for asking.

Peace be with you.

Answer 2

An ancient cosmic or religious symbol formed by a Greek cross with the ends of the arms bent at right angles in either a clockwise or a counterclockwise direction.
Such a symbol with a clockwise bend to the arms, used as the emblem of the Nazi party and of the German state under Adolf Hitler, officially adopted in 1935.

Answer 3

Hitler was confused.

His claim of 'Aryan' background for blond haired, blue eyed people is actually not correct. He further confused everything by linking the swastika with Aryan roots.

The LANGUAGE history of Indo-European culture has followed a path from India (originating with the Sanskrit) to the Caucasus Mountains and beyond, but the ethnic background of the people is somewhat different.

Just goes to show you that people can appropriate a symbol and wreak havoc.

Now if I could just restore the reputation of black women after the drubbing applied by the rap and hip hop people . . .

Answer 4

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. It was also widely believed that the Indian caste system had originated as a means to avoid racial mixing.

The concept of Racial purity was an ideology central to Nazism though it is now considered unscientific. For Rosenberg, the Aryans of India were both a model to be imitated and a warning of the dangers of the spiritual and racial "confusion" that, he believed, arose from the close proximity of races.

Answer 5

Because the swastika (originally pronounced swas-teeka). was a native or pagan sign for good luck or good fortune. He whacked it out of shape though because the little legs that fly off in the one direction used to go in the other before he got ahold of it.

I heard, in an effort to bring good luck to his family, a man planted wine bottles in the original formation above his home on a hill and the next year Hitler was born in this town. It's wierd huh?

Answer 6

The swastika was the symbol of a race of fair-haired light-skinned people said to have come to India from the east ( possibly "Europe" ) who came to be the rulers of the region, hence they were the "Master Race". They were said to be powerful scientists and spiritualists, far advanced of any other ancient people, think people of Atlantis. He wanted to re-create the dominance of this race which he believed were the "pure-blood blonde blue eyed Germans".

Answer 7

I dunno for certain... But, if you notice the swastika is different in Indian tradition than is Hitler's swastika...And remember he thought he was great - so why not use a great symbol?

If you take a look at linguistics map - the Indian sub-continent through Germany are all a part of the Indo-Aryan languages...maybe some of the foils of travelling in the really, really old days?

Answer 8

hello my answer is this, my father was a ww2 veteran and ws in the hitlers war, this was my daddys answer when i asked the same question, the swastica stick was an astrology symbol that hitler believed he was deeply into astrology and when it is turned up which is the way that it was held during war it meant good luck and when it was turned down it meant bad luck, hitler wanted power if i can help email me, mystical

Answer 9

Hitler thought he was good. Remember that very, very few evil characters in history actually thought of themselves as evil.

Answer 10

If you actually look at that symbol, it is actually 2 lightining bolt from the mythological god Thore, which represent power. Thus you understand the SS.