Nazi symbolism

Heraldry

Under the Nazi regime, government bodies were encouraged to remove religious symbolism from their heraldry. Few German councils actually changed their often ancient symbols. Some, however, did, including Coburg, which replaced the Moor's head representing Saint Maurice on their arms with a sword and swastika, and Thuringia, which added a swastika to the paws of their lion.

Other symbols and insignia

Letters of the Armanen runes invented by Guido von List were used by the Schutzstaffel (SS), particularly the Doppel Siegrune, based on the historical sowilo rune reinterpreted by List to signify victory instead of the sun. Other Armanen runes used by the Nazis and subsequently by neo-Nazis include forms derived from Eihwaz, Tiwaz, Algiz and Othala.

The death's head appears on the SS-Ehrenring presented by Heinrich Himmler to favoured members of the SS, and was used as an insignia by the Death's Head Units of the SS that administered the concentration camps.

Units of the Wehrmacht used insignia including the Wolfsangel.

The Ahnenerbe research unit of the SS also used Wilhelm Teudt's neo-heathen Irminsul symbol.

Strasserism, a strand of Nazism with a Third Positionist ideology, used a crossed hammer and sword as its emblem.

Banning of symbols

The public display of Nazi symbols and gestures are today banned by law in many countries, including Australia (since 2024), Austria, Brazil, China, France, Germany (see Strafgesetzbuch section 86a), Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Ukraine.

On 9 August 2018, Germany lifted the ban on the usage of swastikas and other Nazi symbols in video games, allowing "games that critically look at current affairs" to be given an age rating instead by the manufacturer, such as USK. The move was made to bring the legislation in line with films and other arts.

Usage by neo-Nazi groups

Many symbols used by the Nazis have further been appropriated by neo-Nazi groups, including a number of runes: the so-called Black Sun, derived from a mosaic floor in Himmler's remodel of Wewelsburg, and the Celtic cross, originally a symbol used to represent pre-Christian and Christian European groups such as the Irish.

Neo-Nazis also employ various number symbols:

• 18, code for Adolf Hitler. The number comes from the position of the letters in the alphabet: A = 1, H = 8.
• 88, code for "Heil Hitler", a phrase used in the Nazi salute. Also used as a reference to the "88 Precepts", a manifesto written by white supremacist David Lane.
• 14, from the Fourteen Words coined by David Lane: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."
• 14 and 88 are sometimes combined with each other (i.e. 14/88, 8814, 1488). They are also sometimes depicted on dice.
• 271, code for Holocaust denial or minimisation. The number "references the conspiratorial claim that only an estimated 271,000 Jews were killed in the Holocaust", according to the Anti-Defamation League.

In 1997, Wolfgang Fröhlich, a Holocaust denier and former district council member for the Freedom Party of Austria, alleged that Adolf Hitler's favourite food was egg dumplings (Eiernockerl). Some restaurants in Austria started advertising the dish as a "daily special" for 20 April, which is Hitler's date of birth, and although the allegation about the dish has never been historically confirmed, some neo-fascists began eating it as a symbolic food to celebrate Hitler's birthday.