In his autobiographical and ideological book Mein Kampf, Hitler claimed that it was he who had the brilliant idea of making the swastika a symbol of the National Socialist movement. Probably, for the first time little Adolf saw a swastika on the wall of a Catholic monastery near the town of Lambach.
The swastika sign - a cross with curved ends - has been popular since ancient times. He was present on coins, household items and coats of arms since the 8th millennium BC. The swastika personified life, sun, well-being. Hitler could see this archaic solar symbol in Vienna on the emblems of Austrian anti-Semitic organizations.
By christening him Hakenkreuz (Hakenkreuz is translated from German as a hook cross), Hitler claimed the fame of a pioneer, although the swastika as a political symbol in Germany appeared even before him. In 1920, Hitler, who was an unprofessional and untalented artist, allegedly independently developed the design of the party's logo, which is a red flag with a white circle in the middle, in the center of which was a black swastika with predatory hooks.
Red, according to the leader of the National Socialists, was chosen to imitate the Marxists. Seeing the 120,000-strong demonstration of the left forces under the scarlet banners, Hitler noted the active influence of the bloody color on the common man. In his book Mein Kampf, the Fuhrer mentioned the "great psychological significance" of symbols and their ability to powerfully influence a person. But it was through the control of crowd emotions that Hitler succeeded in introducing the ideology of his party to the masses in an unprecedented way.
By adding a swastika to the red color, Adolf gave a diametrically opposite meaning to the favorite color of the socialists. Attracting the attention of the workers with the familiar color of the posters, Hitler seemed to "recapture" them.
The red color in Hitler's interpretation personified the idea of movement, white - the sky and nationalism, the hoe-shaped swastika - the work and anti-Semitic struggle of the Aryans. Creative labor was mysteriously interpreted as a sign of anti-Semitism.
In general, it is impossible to call Hitler the author of the National Socialist symbols, contrary to his statements. He borrowed the color from the Marxists, the swastika and even the name of the party (slightly rearranging the letters) from the Viennese nationalists. The idea of using symbolism is also plagiarism. It belongs to the oldest member of the party - a dentist named Friedrich Krohn, who submitted a memo in 1919 to the party leadership. However, the National Socialist Bible, Mein Kampf, does not mention the name of the smart dentist.
However, Kron put a different meaning in these symbols. The red color of the banner is love for the homeland, the white circle is innocence for unleashing the First World War, the black color of the cross is sorrow over losing the war.
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In Hitler's deciphering, the swastika became a sign of the Aryan struggle against "subhumans". The claws of the cross seem to be aimed at Jews, Slavs, representatives of other peoples who do not belong to the "blond beast" race.
Unfortunately, the ancient positive sign was discredited by the National Socialists. The Nuremberg Tribunal in 1946 banned Nazi ideology and symbolism. The swastika was also banned. Recently, she has been somewhat rehabilitated. Roskomnadzor, for example, admitted in April 2015 that displaying this sign outside a propaganda context is not an act of extremism. Although the "reprehensible past" cannot be erased, even today the swastika is used by some racist organizations.