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The Krohn Connection
By the summer of 1920 the swastika was commonly used in Germany as the official symbol of the Nazi (short for Hitler’s Nazional- socialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) [National Socialist German Workers’ Party]) party. Twenty five years later it became a symbol of shame and defeat for Germany. After its adoption by the Nazis, few other symbols in the history of mankind have become so widely associated with evil.
Most authors agree that it was Hitler himself who chose the swastika as a symbol of his Nazi movement. There is no agreement, however, about who influenced him into making such decision.
In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler claimed that the form in which the Nazis used the swastika [1] was based on a design by Dr. Friedrich Krohn, a dentist who had belonged to several Völkisch [2] groups, including the Germanen Order. [3]
Krohn, a dentist from Starnberg, submitted his design of a flag which had been used at the founding meeting of his own party local: a swastika against a black-white-red background. The swastika, for long time a symbol of the Teutonic Knights, had been in use by Lanz von Liebenfels, [4] the Thule Society [5] and a number of Freikorps units.
Hitler gives his own account: “Actually, a dentist from Starnberg did deliver a design that was not bad after all, and, incidentally, was quite close to my own, having only the one fault that a swastika with curved legs was composed into a white disk.” [6]
Krohn knew that the Buddhist destroverse or clockwise swastika symbolized good fortune and well being, and made his design accordingly, with the swastika’s legs pointing to the left. [7]
The majority of the Nazi leaders accepted Krohn’s design, but Hitler insisted on a sinistroverse or anti-clockwise one and changed the design accordingly, similar to the one on the right. [8]