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Nazist flags

The "Blutfahne"
Neonazist flags
The "cross and circle" symbol
The swastika and the origin of nazist flag
A nazi-like Boer flag
A neofascist hungarian flag
A peculiar Combination

The "Blutfahne"

The Nazis had a standard which had been involved in Hitler's 1923 _putsch_ and had been stained with the blood of Nazis killed during the coup attempt. They called it the _Blutfahne_ and used it in cermonies to impart "virtue" on other standards by touching them with it. Source: William Crampton's _World of Flags_ (1991) p141.
roy stilling 21-NOV-1995

After the failed Munich _putsch_ attempt of 1923, one of the Nazi flags used by the would-be revolutionaries was recovered and found to be stained with blood - presumably that of one of the Nazi 'martyrs'. This became the _die Blutfahne_ and was used to consecrate future Nazi flags. The _die Blutfahne_ was physically held again the flag to be so blessed at Party rally or similar occasion. There is extant film of Hitler performing this ritual.
stuart notholt 22-NOV-1995

>From "Brian Davis, Flags of the Third Reich 3: Party & Police Units, Osprey, 1994.":

"On all ceremonial parades and gatherings the Blutfahne was always borne by Jakob Grimminger. ... Jakob Grimminger...was born on 25 April 1892. He served in the German Army during the Great War with sufficient distinction to be awarded the Imperial Iron Cross, 2nd Class. After the war [he] joined the Nazi Party and was an early member of the SS. He participated in the Munich Putsch of 9 November 1923. Later he was appointed to be the official bearer of the 'Blutfahne', and attained the rand of SS-Standartenfuhrer; he was also appointed a Councillor for the City of Munich. He survived the Second World War and the period of post-war Allied occupation, after which, it is believed, he managed to obtain work as a street sweeper. Grimminger died in Munich in obscurity and poverty on 28 January 1969, at the age of seventy-seven."

jon radel 22-NOV-1995

Neonazist flags

Nazist movements from different parts of the world have quite similar flags. They usually are red, white and black, that are the "Bismark colors" upon which was also based the Hitler's flag. The scheme is always the same: red background, a white circle in the middle and a black symbol. As in many countries (in Italy too) it is forbidden to use fascist or nazist symbols, they use new symbols reminescent of swastika.
giuseppe bottasini

The "cross and circle" symbol

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In a nazi demonstration happened at Vicenza (unfortunately in Italy) they fluttered the following flag:

It has the classic nazi scheme (red-white-black, red background with white circle and a black symbol). I remember that the "cross and circle" symbol was also used by some neofascist groups
giuseppe bottasini

This was used by neo-nazi groups in the UK in the early sixties (and probably still is). I suspect that the present users care less for the actual symbolism involved than they value its similarity to the swastika design, and substitute it for a swastika when such a design is illegal.
The circle/cross design has (like the swastika) a long and honourable usage before it was profaned by association with modern nazism. The circle/ cross is another variation of the solar disk, and is found in ancient American, Asian, and European cultures. It was also associated with Celtic Christianity. The symbol also has various meanings in alchemy and hermetic studies.
peter cawley

The swastika and the origin of nazist flag

One version of the origin of the Nazi flag is given by Francis King in "Satan and Swastika:The Occult and the Nazi Party", Mayflower Books, 1976. On p.117 it is stated that in early 1920 various designs for National Socialist flags were submitted to Hitler.

"The one finally adopted ... was designed by Dr. Friedrich Krohn, a dentist from Sternberg, .... . Krohn's design, the swastika on a white disk against a red background, was intended to symbolize the ideology of the movement, - in red its social ideal, in white its nationalism, and in the swastika 'the struggle for the victory of Aryan man'. But Krohn's flag featured a right-handed swastika, traditional symbol of good fortune, spiritual evalution and the triumph of spirit over matter. Hitler insisted on it being replaced by the left-handed swastika, regarded by occultists as the equivalent of a reversed crucifix, an evocation of evil, spiritual devolution and black magic!"

King is a well reputed author on the history of modern occult organizations. In this instance, however, he does not give sources. In "The Occult Reich" by J.H. Brennan, Signet, 1974, the same basic story regarding Krohn's participation is related (p. 86); Brennan also quotes from "Mein Kampf" where Hitler wrote:

"A symbol it really is! In red we see the social ideal of the movement, in white the nationalist idea, in the swastika is the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man."

peter cawley

Although this claim occurs quite regularly, there is in fact very little evidence for it (which probably accounts for the lack of sources). In fact, the swastika, including the so-called left handed version, is an ancient sun-wheel symbol used by peoples across the world, ranging from the American Indians to the Tibetans. They would hardly be likely to use the left-handed swastika if it was associated with evil. Similarly, the left-handed swastika appeared on the pre-war national symbols of Latvia and Finland, before there was any association with Nazism. The Manx (Isle of Man) flag is also a variation on this theme. I suspect that the story about the left-handed swastika, like the allegation of Hitler's illegitimacy, was simply Allied wartime propaganda. It is a shame that this very powerful and ancient symbol was debased by the Nazis, so that afterwards most people view it with horror.
stuart notholt

A Peculiar Combination

by Giuseppe Bottasini

Here is a very rough image of an effective flag I viewed on a TV reportage two days ago about a nazi demonstration at Moscow. The flag is based on the nazi scheme (red, a centered white disk with a black symbol); instead of the swastika there is the sickle-and-hammer device. This flag impressed me because of the merging of two well known and opposite symbols; it is an vexillological oxymoron.

Giuseppe Bottasini 09-APR-1996