Editing Swastika (section)

===Nazism===

{{Further|Fascist symbolism|Nazi symbolism|Occultism in Nazism}}
{{multiple image
| perrow            = 3
| total_width       = 300
| caption_align     = center
| title             = Nazi Party Emblems
| image1            = NSDAP-Logo.svg
| caption1          = Party badge
| image2            = Parteiadler Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (1933–1945).svg
| caption2          = [[Parteiadler]] ("Party eagle")
| image3            = Golden Nazi Party Badge.svg
| caption3          = [[Golden Party Badge]]
}}

Before the Nazis, the swastika was already in use as a symbol of German {{lang|de|völkisch}} nationalist movements ({{lang|de|[[Völkisch movement|Völkische Bewegung]]}}).
In [[Weimar Republic|post-World War I Germany]], the newly established [[Nazi Party]] formally adopted the swastika in 1920.<ref name="holocaust2009" /><ref>{{cite news |last=A. |first=Aleksandra |date=18 March 2018 |title=Planted in 1933 this mysterious forest swastika remained unnoticed until 1992 – it was then quickly cut down |url=https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/03/18/mysterious-wwii/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240730015500/https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/03/18/mysterious-wwii/ |archive-date=30 July 2024 |access-date=10 September 2018 |newspaper=The Vintage News }}</ref> The Nazi Party emblem was a black swastika rotated 45 degrees on a white circle on a red background. This insignia was used on the party's flag, badge, and armband. [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] also designed his personal standard using a black swastika sitting flat on one arm, not rotated.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Der Flaggenkurier |journal=Zeitschrift der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Flaggenkunde |location=Achim und Berlin |number=16/2002 bis 30/2009 |issn=0949-6173|language=de}} [{{cite journal |title=The Flag Courier |journal=Journal of the German Society for Flags}}]</ref>

{{multiple image
| align = right
| direction = horizontal
| image1 = Flag of the NSDAP (1920–1945).svg
| width1 = 120
| caption1 = The flag of the [[Nazi Party]] (National Socialist German Workers' Party, NSDAP)
| image2 = Flag_of_the_German_Reich_(1935–1945).svg
| width2 = 120
| caption2 = The national flag of [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] (1935–1945), which differs from the NSDAP flag in that the white circle with the swastika is off-center
}}

In his 1925 work {{lang|de|[[Mein Kampf]]}}, Adolf Hitler writes: "I myself, meanwhile, after innumerable attempts, had laid down a final form; a flag with a red background, a white disk, and a black hooked cross 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 hooked cross."

When Hitler created a flag for the Nazi Party, he sought to incorporate both the swastika and "those revered colours expressive of our homage to the glorious past and which once brought so much honour to the German nation". (Red, white, and black were the colours of the [[Flag of the German Empire|flag of the old German Empire]].) He also stated: "As National Socialists, we see our program in our flag. In red, we see the social idea of the movement; in white, the nationalistic idea; in the hooked cross, the mission of the struggle for the victory of the [[Aryan race|Aryan]] man, and, by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200601.txt |title=text of ''Mein Kampf'' at Project Gutenberg of Australia |publisher=Gutenberg.net.au |access-date=2 March 2010}}</ref>

The swastika was also understood as "the symbol of the creating, effecting life" ({{lang|de|das Symbol des schaffenden, wirkenden Lebens}}) and as "race emblem of Germanism" ({{lang|de|Rasseabzeichen des Germanentums}}).<ref>Walther Blachetta: {{lang|de|Das Buch der deutschen Sinnzeichen}} (The book of German sense characters); reprint of 1941; p. 47</ref>

The concepts of [[racial hygiene]] and [[scientific racism]] were central to Nazism.<ref>{{cite book |title=Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis |page=[https://archive.org/details/racialhygiene00robe/page/n265 220] |publisher=Harvard University Press |author=Robert Proctor |url=https://archive.org/details/racialhygiene00robe|url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-674-74578-0 |date=1988 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil, and Russia: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil, and Russia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iX0IOWHsoAUC |page=43 |author=Mark B. Adams |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1990 |isbn=978-0-19-536383-8 }}</ref> High-ranking Nazi theorist [[Alfred Rosenberg]] noted that the [[Indo-Aryan peoples]] 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 proximity of races. The Nazis co-opted the swastika as a symbol of the Aryan master race.

On 14 March 1933, shortly after Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany, the NSDAP flag was hoisted alongside Germany's national colours. As part of the [[Nuremberg Laws]], the NSDAP flag{{snd}}with the swastika slightly offset from centre{{snd}}was adopted as the sole national flag of Germany on 15 September 1935.<ref>[[James Whitman|James Q. Whitman]], "Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law", (Princeton: [[Princeton University Press]], 2017), p. 28.</ref>

<gallery>
File:Treu Deutsch Nr. 11 12 10. September 1918 Nachrichten des Deutschen Volksrates Einheit völkischer Verbände Herausgegeben von Dr. Heinrich Pudor. Hakenkreuz early swastika Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig (City Museum) 2015 adjusted.jpg|[[Heinrich Pudor]]'s ''völkisch'' ''Treu Deutsch'' ('True German') 1918 with a swastika. From the collections of Leipzig City Museum.
File:Pre-Nazi Swastika. Stahlhelm M 1916 mit Hakenkreuzbemalung. Marinebrigade Ehrhardt. Lüttwitz-Kapp-Putsch 1920. Deutsches Historisches Museum.jpg|German World War I helmet with swastika used by a member of the [[Marinebrigade Ehrhardt]], a right-wing paramilitary free corps, participating in the [[Kapp Putsch]] 1920
File:Standarte Adolf Hitlers.svg|[[Personal standard of Adolf Hitler]] (a [[war flag]] or {{lang|de|Standarte}} in German) used from 1934 to 1945
File:Deutsches Reich Mother's Cross of Honour.jpg|[[Cross of Honour of the German Mother]] (1939–1945) given to German mothers of four or more children
</gallery>

[[File:Flight Lieutenant Dennis Barnham of No. 601 Squadron RAF in the cockpit of his Supermarine Spitfire Mk VB at Luqa, Malta, with Pilot Officer M H Le Bas, June 1942. GM1001.jpg|thumb|Swastikas marking downed {{Lang|de|[[Luftwaffe]]}} aircraft on the fuselage of a [[Supermarine Spitfire]] of [[No. 601 Squadron RAF]]. A {{Lang|la|[[fasces]]}} indicates a {{Lang|it|[[Regia Aeronautica]]}} aircraft.]]During World War II it was also common for Allied pilots to use small swastikas to mark air-to-air victories on the sides of their aircraft, and at least one British fighter pilot inscribed a swastika in his logbook for each German plane he shot down.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/10764884/Battle-of-Britain-heros-medals-to-go-under-the-hammer.html|title=Battle of Britain hero's medals to go under the hammer|first=Miranda|last=Prynne|date=14 April 2014|via=www.telegraph.co.uk|access-date=6 April 2018|archive-date=14 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180414083020/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/10764884/Battle-of-Britain-heros-medals-to-go-under-the-hammer.html}}</ref>