the twentieth century its history should not be overlooked by designers
who can learn valuable lessons from how and why it was used.
Before 1920 the swastika’s symbolism was convoluted, but was at
all times benign. Even in the United States it was indigenous to cave
dwellers—one was found in the excavation of a prehistoric tomb in what is
now Ohio. During the nineteenth century certain native American tribes
embroidered the mark on blankets and ceremonial attire, and decorated
pottery and ceramics with it. It was adopted as a ubiquitous design motif
and was still in currency until a few years after the Nazis came to power in
Germany in 1933. The swastika as a good luck symbol was adopted by
American merchants and manufacturers on packaging, wrappers, and in
advertising. It was frequently used as an architectural ornament, and was
also popular as an ornament or border in prewar typeface books. The
swastika was as common a graphic design motif in the 1920 s and 1930 s as
the lozenge, leader dot, and sawtooth rule are in contemporary design.
Hitler was a wannabe architect, painter, and dabbler in commercial
arts, but as leader of his movement he was the quintessential art director too.
His understanding of symbolism, propaganda, and design is clear upon
reading excerpts from Mein Kampf(“my struggle”), in which—though it was
written in stupifyingly formal prose replete with euphemisms and epithets
that enforce his own self-styled heroism—he convincingly argued the need
for a powerful symbol/emblem/logo for his nascent party. “The lack of such
symbols,” he wrote, “had not only disadvantages for the moment, but it was
unbearable for the future. The disadvantages were above all that the party
members lacked every outward sign of their belonging together, while for
the future it was unbearable to lack an emblem that had the character of a
symbol of the movement and that as such could be put up in opposition to
the communists.” Hitler recalled the first time he witnessed a large
communist party rally, where he saw a sea of red on flags, scarves, and
flowers among the one hundred thousand in attendance. “I personally could
feel and understand how easily a man of the people succumbs to the
suggestive charm of such a grand and massive spectacle,” he wrote.
It is uncertain who actually suggested that the swastika be adopted
by the Nazis—Hitler likes to take the credit—but its redesign as the party
emblem and flag are documented fairly well in Mein Kampf:“Suggestions
were made from all sides which, however, were better meant than they were
successful,” wrote Hitler. “For the new flag had to be as much a symbol of
our own fight as, on the other hand, it had to have an effect as great as that
of a poster....In hundreds of thousands of cases, an effective emblem can
give the first impetus for the interest in a movement.” Hitler’s brief color
analysis in Mein Kampfread like a term paper on semiotics: “White is not a
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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