It was already popular in Germanic nationalist movements and with certain wealthy elites by the end of the 1800s is my understanding. And they certainly co-opted it from the fashion for orientalist mysticism and creating repurposed esoteric symbolism for their private societies.
The Nazis took it from there in the twenties with the formation of the party, using the colours (red, black, white) from the flag of the old German empire, and then Hitler fiddled with it a bit.
I can’t remember where it’s from, but there’s a piece of writing by Hitler where he’s doing a very ‘graphic design is my passion’ thing about what a genius he is for changing the thickness of the swastika and finding just the right size of circle. That paragraph or two are far more embarrassing than all the rest of the failed painter stuff.
Is that why they stole the swastika from Buddhists?
It was already popular in Germanic nationalist movements and with certain wealthy elites by the end of the 1800s is my understanding. And they certainly co-opted it from the fashion for orientalist mysticism and creating repurposed esoteric symbolism for their private societies.
The Nazis took it from there in the twenties with the formation of the party, using the colours (red, black, white) from the flag of the old German empire, and then Hitler fiddled with it a bit.
I can’t remember where it’s from, but there’s a piece of writing by Hitler where he’s doing a very ‘graphic design is my passion’ thing about what a genius he is for changing the thickness of the swastika and finding just the right size of circle. That paragraph or two are far more embarrassing than all the rest of the failed painter stuff.