Why did Adolf Hitler choose the Swastika as the symbol for the Nazi party?

Question

Why pick that particular symbol? What is it's original meaning?

Or did he design it himself?

someone tell me please.

So how did it become so widespread among so many differant cultures then?

Why for example did eastern asians and natvive Americans both use it?

Is this because it pre-dates the Migration accross the Bering Straight?

And to the person talking about exams, i do not need to know this for an exam, although i do have a history exam tomorow, we just need to know he adopted that symbol, we don't require to know anything about its provenance i just wanted to find out.

And yes i do know that the correct name of the party was the national socialists german workers party.

Answer 1

Great set of answers, but I haven't really come across one that actually answers your question yet!!
Many years ago I bought a book 'The rise and fall of the third Reich' by author William Shearer, great book I keep going back to it.
Hitler was a very religious feller (a Christian in fact) one of the points noted in this book was the fact that Hitler as a child was a regular church attender, as he walked to church he noticed the main gates to the church had swastikas on them he discovered they were an ancient peace symbol, he used this symbol but inverted to mean just the opposite!

Answer 2

Adolf Hitler did not choose the swastika for any historical reason or for it's original good luck meaning.

Adolf Hitler and the Nazis used the reversed version of swastika to form the small letter 'h' in German.

The swastika can point right or left and has been used in either direction for many centuries.

The swastika also appeard on the original flag of Finland.

The Nazi swastika is the German letter [small] repeated.

So it's just [h] repeated = hitler [Hitler].

The history of the swastika goes back to Roman times and beyond. Quite often the swastika can be seen in Roman mosaic designs.

The swastika may also have Eastern origins - India and beyond.

Edit 1:
Swastika is a small community founded in 1908 around a mining site in northern Ontario, Canada, and today within the municipal boundaries of Kirkland.

Edit 2:
The history of the swastika spans 3000 years.

Edit 3:
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." At that time, the Swastika was still a symbol of 'Good Luck'. The watch fob was approximately 4cm x 4cm in size and is made of brass.

Edit 4:
"The Swastika" is the oldest cross and emblem in the world. It forms a combination of four "L's" standing for Luck, Light, Love and Life. It has been found in ancient Rome, excavations in Grecian cities, on Buddhist idols, on Chinese coins dated 315 B.C., and American Southwest Indians use it as an amulet.

It is claimed that the Mound Builders and Cliff Dwellers of Mexico, Central America consider "The Swastika" a charm to drive away evil and bring good luck, long life and prosperity to the possessor.

Edit 5:
The Swastika Stone near Ilkley in West Yorkshire (England) The stone overlooks the valley of the River Wharfe, and is identical to some of the 'Camunnian Rose' designs in Val Camonica, Italy - nine cup-marks in a cross shape, surrounded by a curved swastika- shaped groove. The Ilkley carving also has an 'appendage' off the east arm - a cup surrounded by a curved hook-shaped groove. It is unique on the moor (which is covered in hundreds of cup-and-ring type carvings) although there is an unfinished swastika design (more angular, without cups) on the nearby Badger Stone.

Answer 3

The Oldest Known Symbol

The swastika is an ancient symbol that has been used for over 3,000 years. (That even predates the ancient Egyptian symbol, the Ankh!) Artifacts such as pottery and coins from ancient Troy show that the swastika was a commonly used symbol as far back as 1000 BCE.

During the following thousand years, the image of the swastika was used by many cultures around the world, including in China, Japan, India, and southern Europe. By the Middle Ages, the swastika was a well known, if not commonly used, symbol but was called by many different names:

China - wan
England - fylfot
Germany - Hakenkreuz
Greece - tetraskelion and gammadion
India - swastika


Hitler and the Nazis

In 1920, Adolf Hitler decided that the Nazi Party needed its own insignia and flag. For Hitler, the new flag had to be "a symbol of our own struggle" as well as "highly effective as a poster." (Mein Kampf, pg. 495)

On August 7, 1920, at the Salzburg Congress, this flag became the official emblem of the Nazi Party.

In Mein Kampf, Hitler described the Nazis' new flag: "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, and, by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work, which as such always has been and always will be anti-Semitic." (pg. 496-497)

Because of the Nazis' flag, the swastika soon became a symbol of hate, antisemitism, violence, death, and murder.

Answer 4

It was an established symbol, going right back to Roman times in Europe, (There is a 1st Century Roman0-British Swastika brooch in Derby museum) and also occurs in Eastern religions (I have a book by Kippling, published in 1911, with swastika's all over the cover - he was no Nazi - it was a book of stories set in India, and used it to give an Indian feel to the book!)

If you look carefully, Hitler did something odd with the Swastika - he reversed it's rotation, making it go anti-clockwise, or widdershins. Some say he was deliberately taking what had always been a positive symbol of good luck and turning it into an invocation of dark forces!

Answer 5

The swastika (from Sanskrit svástika स्वास्तिक ) is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing or left-facing forms. The term is derived from Sanskrit svasti, meaning well-being. The Thai greeting sawasdee is from the same root, carrying the same implication.

It is a widely-used symbol in Dharmic religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism). Hindus often decorate the swastika with a dot in each quadrant. In India, it is common enough to be a part of several Devanagari fonts. It is also a symbol in the modern unicode. It is often imprinted on religious texts, marriage invitations, decorations etc. It is used to mark religious flags in Jainism and to mark Buddhist temples in Asia.

Archaeological evidence of swastika shaped ornaments goes back to the Neolithic period. In 1920 the swastika was appropriated as a Nazi symbol, and has since then become a controversial motif as a consequence. In the Western world, it is this usage as a symbol of Nazism that is most familiar, and this political association has largely eclipsed its historical status in the East.

Answer 6

The original symbol is a Hindu symbol that.....

The swastika is an anciet symbol of auspiciousness, good fortune, and protection. The root, "Swasti." literally means "auspicious." Besides being used as a symbol for Vishnu, it also represents the eternal wheel of life which rotates upon an unchanging center, God. In India, it is not uncommon to find Swastikas marked on buildings and animals. Some Hindus believe it protects them from evil sprits and natural disasters.

It is important to undestand that the Hindu swastika pre-dates the swastika of Nazi Germany by centuries. In fact, the Nazi symbol is actually drawn in the recerse of the Hindu one.

This excerpt is from "Interdisciplinary Thematic Unit: World Religions" by Teacher Created Resources.

In my opinion, Hitler chose the swastika because of it's meaning of good fortune, then bastardized the symbol in his own way.

Answer 7

Stratmanreturns is right on target. And did you know that the American Indians used the swastika in their own art before the Europeans came to America? It's an age old symbol that has been adopted by many groups, the Nazis just being the most recent and most obnoxious group.

Answer 8

I just hope this is no homework you are ditching here... What I know is that Hitler commanded his people to find a arian symbol, with the purpose of showing the Nacional Socialist party as the heir of arian knowledge and culture. They came up with this swastika (wich you can find in a lot of Budist temples and Hindu symbolism, and turned it the other way round, in order to show they were the good old arians, with a twist. Of course I am over simplifying here, but I hope this helps.

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Answer 9

He would have liked to take credit for designing it. Sources I have found show that it is a "mystic" and "ancient" symbol. He chose it to represent the Nazi Party and Anti-Semitism. He had people, well versed in applying propaganda. Its a cross with equal 90 degree bends, toward the right or clockwise. There is an ancient one associated with the lore of India, the arms are bent to the left or counterclockwise. I feel one thing important to note, again was "propaganda". so the roots are ancient before his time, and he perverted the symbol. and now it is "marked" and ruined of any true meaning it originally had. Please not the difference between the "two" distinct symbols.

Answer 10

Oddly enough a while back there was some logic behind it. It's meant something like upside down. He didn't make it up, I think it was a symbol of something and when he changed it, the origninal meaning of the symbol became the opposite meaning. If that makes any sense.