Swastikas were a big good luck symbol in the states esp like 1900 to 1930. Then the nazis came. There was (last i knew) a storefront in my home shit town that had a beautiful tiled entrance way with a border of swastikas. The latest shop had a big mat to cover it lolol
Where I lived as a child there was a park, and in the center of the park a WW1 memorial. The names of the fallen from the town were on the front, and on the back a swastika. It was erected pre-Nazism, c 1921. I know the symbol has appeared in many cultures, but its use in that place intrigued me.
Ok but what's the actual history? Do you think this was an early reference to/by the then-growing Aryan movement, or just an innocent pre-Hitler use of the symbol?
Yes, exactly. My question is about the (purported) postcard specifically. Was it for white eugenicists in the US to communicate, or had those implications not reached NY by the time this was created? (That's if it is a legit artifact and not entirely fake and created by current day supremacists.)
The US 45th Infantry Division shoulder patch was a yellow swastika on a red diamond as a tribute to the Native American population in the area.
They had it until 1939 when the connotations of it had been tainted by its use in Germany and the division changed their symbol to the Thunderbird.
As I said in the now-deleted original thread, even the Primitive Christian church occasionally used the swastika as a cross variant and a pun on the occasional sobriquet of Christ as the “Sun” of the world.
Ok, but that's just one of several very similar understandings of the symbol. Who designed (and if it's genuine, printed and sold) this 'postcard' seems very relevant to determining it's intended use/meaning?
It also *did* get lumped into mostly invented pseudohistorical ideas of Aryanism since its growing popularity at the end of the 19th century. Then againearly 20th century postcards were often *weird*
As I said, while negative versions/meanings did exist pre-Nazism, they weren’t mainstream. Most Americans probably hadn’t even heard of Hitler except as a freak who staged a shambolic coup attempt out of a beer hall in Munich before the Great Depression.
Also, several mainstream US journalists followed & reported on “Mr Hitler” extensively, and a few were warning about his ideas for DECADES!
Dorothy Thompson is a prime example of someone extremely popular/mainstream, who actually *read* his speeches and saw the writing on the wall since day one!
The swastika shows up constantly along with horseshoes and four-leaf clovers on postcards and such as a common good luck symbol prior to its adoption by the Nazis.
Yes, which is why I'm asking if this a) is a real early-20th century postcard and b) if so, if it had any Aryan connotations at that time, or was simply a patriotic-good-wishes sort of item - because there was a lot of that pablum in that era too.
Yes, that is a real WWI-era postcard, and no, it would have had no racist connotations in the US, except potentially among a very small number of Americans aware of obscure white supremacist movements in Germany. This is anodyne US patriotism.
Pre-Nazi, pretty much the only people who used the swastika in any sort of negative context were certain occult/esoteric groups. They’d flip the symbol in reverse to indicate the inversion. The Nazi version is tilted at a 45-degree angle, which IIRC was originally meant to…
Yeah, late 19th early 20th Centuries, the swastika became a good luck symbol across the Americas and Europe. Many buildings from that period had swastikas in the decoration too.
Pre-Hitler before he co-opted it. It was an ancient symbol of good luck, and still is in Asia. My city's oldest hotel, built in 1927, has it included with other Native American symbols painted on the lobby ceiling and I have seen one carved in rock at Mesa Verde National Park.
I always have to stop and explain to my HS classes that in The Great Gatsby it’s just an incredibly unfortunate coincidence that Wolfsheim’s business is called “The Swastika Holding Company” and that in the 20s that didn’t have any bad vibes at all!
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They had it until 1939 when the connotations of it had been tainted by its use in Germany and the division changed their symbol to the Thunderbird.
It also *did* get lumped into mostly invented pseudohistorical ideas of Aryanism since its growing popularity at the end of the 19th century. Then againearly 20th century postcards were often *weird*
https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/the-horrifying-american-roots-of-nazi-eugenics
Dorothy Thompson is a prime example of someone extremely popular/mainstream, who actually *read* his speeches and saw the writing on the wall since day one!
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/postcard-glorious-american-flag-lucky-73841311
Also the same era, the local football team... The Swastikas.
It really was a thing.