Hitler doesn't use the Swastika for the Nazi Flag

Assume they use a cross of Christ instead. Would a cross be stigmatized like the swastika has been OTL?

Just a thought experiment.....
 
Probably not as much. In eastern Asia, where swastikas were used as religious symbols for centuries, they still are without any qualms about that. robably Christianity would act similarly with the Cross. However, why the hell would the Nazis pick the Christian cross as a symbol? Its implications do not fit with their ideology.
 
Assume they use a cross of Christ instead. Would a cross be stigmatized like the swastika has been OTL?

Just a thought experiment.....

No because it has very obvious and well known meanings away from Nazism. It might mean that the USSR has yet more rope to try to hang Christians with but it wouldn't actually mean much in practice.
 
Probably not as much. In eastern Asia, where swastikas were used as religious symbols for centuries, they still are without any qualms about that. robably Christianity would act similarly with the Cross. However, why the hell would the Nazis pick the Christian cross as a symbol? Its implications do not fit with their ideology.

But they did pick the cross, in two ways. One, the Christian cross figured massively in Nazi Propaganda anyway, two, the Nazis didn't use the "Swastika" they used a bent cross (Hakenkreuz from the Dutch Hakenkruis). They never called it a Swastikia, and they never referred to Asian mythologies as their inspiration. The bent cross (or German Cross) was a informal logo of the Freikorps during the Weimar Republic and a symbol of luck used in the trenches of WWI, Hitler probably choose the bent cross to appeal to right-wing veterans who already regarded it as 'their' symbol. He didn't 'steal it from the Hindu's' due too some nerdish obsession with the occult, as the Robert Langdon's of the world would have us believe.

By not using the Hakenkreuz, Hitler would be robbing himself of a clever symbolic flourish that helped him associate himself with the Freikorp.
 
I prefer the classics.

WrDUu.jpg
 
One of the absolute coolest designs would still be in wide use in the western world (as noted use of the swastika in both Hindu and Buddhist symbology has not been affected that much by the Nazis choice of the symbol). The Finnish and Latvian Air Forces would have their proper insignia that predated Nazism by 20 years, and the US Army's 45th Infantry Division would still proudly wear its historical swastika patch. No doubt other uses woud be common.

Regarding the effects on the "Christian" cross, I don't see any. Christian symbology predated the Nazis by almost two millenia, and use of the "Christian " Cross by all sorts of reactionary and violent groups throughout history has not made Christians any less willing to use it. It is after all, symbolic of the key historical and theological element of Christianity.
 
But they did pick the cross, in two ways. One, the Christian cross figured massively in Nazi Propaganda anyway, two, the Nazis didn't use the "Swastika" they used a bent cross (Hakenkreuz from the Dutch Hakenkruis). They never called it a Swastikia, and they never referred to Asian mythologies as their inspiration. The bent cross (or German Cross) was a informal logo of the Freikorps during the Weimar Republic and a symbol of luck used in the trenches of WWI, Hitler probably choose the bent cross to appeal to right-wing veterans who already regarded it as 'their' symbol. He didn't 'steal it from the Hindu's' due too some nerdish obsession with the occult, as the Robert Langdon's of the world would have us believe.

By not using the Hakenkreuz, Hitler would be robbing himself of a clever symbolic flourish that helped him associate himself with the Freikorp.

I knew that they actually called it Hakenkreuz and that its use pre-dated Nazism, but thought it was taken from all the "Aryan" babble. AFAIK, it was felt like that in Fascist Italy at the time (though that does not make a proof).
 
The image of a little black mustache on a white circle in a field of red becomes a worldwide SYMBOL OF EVIL!!!

FEAR THE MUSTACHE!! FEAR IT!!!
 
No because it has very obvious and well known meanings away from Nazism. It might mean that the USSR has yet more rope to try to hang Christians with but it wouldn't actually mean much in practice.


What teg said.

That, and swastika medallions becoming popular among hippies et al.
 

MSZ

Banned
How about the Maltan Cross? Already very popular in Germany due to the Iron Cross.
 
But they did pick the cross, in two ways. One, the Christian cross figured massively in Nazi Propaganda anyway...

Really? What do you mean by "christian cross"? A vertical cross with the bottom arm longer than the top one intended to look like what people thought the cross Jesus was crucified on looked like, or any other cross used in christian symbolism such as the equal sided greek and maltese crosses? The use of greek and maltese crosses by Nazis is fully consistent with German national symbols.

Yes, on fairly rare occasions, early in their career, the Nazis did try to appeal to Christians by showing the cross as something the Nazis were protecting (from Communists, Jews, whatever), but that's not the same thing as using the "christian cross" as one of their symbols. As others have pointed out, most Nazis considered Christianity a religion for weaklings, not supermen.
 
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