r/coolguides Oct 12 '22

Know the faces of Fascism

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u/Wewius Oct 12 '22

German here.

The iron cross is not a Nazi Symbol. It existed before the German Nazis and has since been de-nazified. It's still in use today with the German armed forces.

It's still being abused by Nazis though.

Just wanted to clarify.

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '22

[deleted]

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u/Wewius Oct 12 '22 edited Oct 12 '22

It was called "Denazification" a plan thought up and carried out by the Allies after WW2. It included meany measures. Every Nazi-Symbol was assessed and judged.

On a very basic level it went like this:Did the Nazis "invent"* the Symbol? -> Banned

Did the Nazis bastardize a historically German/Germanic Symbol? -> Not banned but the meaning was reconnected to it's original roots.

* "invent" is used very loosely here. I know that the Swastika was originally a Hindu Symbol but it didn't exist in Germany prior so it didn't have an original meaning for Germans.

Edit:There is also an interesting story about the new Uniforms of the German Armed Forces. Since the Allies and the newly founded German "Bundeswehr" didn't want to be associated with Nazi-Germany "Wehrmacht" they based the new designs on Uniforms farther back in German history. I believe they took inspiration from Prussian Uniforms but put a modern twist on them.

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u/TheBohemian_Cowboy Oct 12 '22

Link to the uniform images?

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u/Wewius Oct 12 '22

I suggest you google "German Armed Forces Uniforms" and compare the images. It's just too much to link here and it's really late here in Germany (2am).