Under a decree issued by Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick on 13 July 1933 (one day before the ban on all non-Nazi parties), all German public employees were required to use the salute.[1] The decree also required the salute during the singing of the national anthem and the "Horst-Wessel-Lied".[1] It stipulated that "anyone not wishing to come under suspicion of behaving in a consciously negative fashion will therefore render the Hitler Greeting".[1] A rider to the decree, added two weeks later, stipulated that if physical disability prevented raising of the right arm, "then it is correct to carry out the Greeting with the left arm."[8] On 27 September, prison inmates were forbidden to use the salute,[31] as were Jews by 1937.[32]
By the end of 1934, special courts were established to punish those who refused to salute.[33] Offenders, such as Protestant preacher Paul Schneider, faced the possibility of being sent to a concentration camp.[33] Foreigners were not exempt from intimidation if they refused to salute. For example, the Portuguese Consul General was beaten by members of the Sturmabteilung for remaining seated in a car and not saluting a procession in Hamburg.[34] Reactions to inappropriate use were not merely violent but sometimes bizarre.[35] For example, a memo dated 23 July 1934 sent to local police stations stated: "There have been reports of traveling vaudeville performers training their monkeys to give the German Greeting....see to it that said animals are destroyed".[35]
A lone man with his arms folded as hundreds around him perform salute at the launch of the Horst Wessel, 1936.
Under a decree issued by Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick on 13 July 1933 (one day before the ban on all non-Nazi parties), all German public employees were required to use the salute.[1] The decree also required the salute during the singing of the national anthem and the "Horst-Wessel-Lied".[1] It stipulated that "anyone not wishing to come under suspicion of behaving in a consciously negative fashion will therefore render the Hitler Greeting".[1] A rider to the decree, added two weeks later, stipulated that if physical disability prevented raising of the right arm, "then it is correct to carry out the Greeting with the left arm."[8] On 27 September, prison inmates were forbidden to use the salute,[31] as were Jews by 1937.[32]
By the end of 1934, special courts were established to punish those who refused to salute.[33] Offenders, such as Protestant preacher Paul Schneider, faced the possibility of being sent to a concentration camp.[33] Foreigners were not exempt from intimidation if they refused to salute. For example, the Portuguese Consul General was beaten by members of the Sturmabteilung for remaining seated in a car and not saluting a procession in Hamburg.[34] Reactions to inappropriate use were not merely violent but sometimes bizarre.[35] For example, a memo dated 23 July 1934 sent to local police stations stated: "There have been reports of traveling vaudeville performers training their monkeys to give the German Greeting....see to it that said animals are destroyed".[35]
A lone man with his arms folded as hundreds around him perform salute at the launch of the Horst Wessel, 1936.
Children were indoctrinated at an early age.[39] Kindergarten children were taught to raise their hand to the proper height by hanging their lunch bags across the raised arm of their teacher.[39] At the beginning of first grade primers was a lesson on how to use the greeting.[39] The greeting found its way into fairy tales, including classics like Sleeping Beauty.[39] Students and teachers would salute each other at the beginning and end of the school day, between classes, or whenever an adult entered the classroom.[40]
Some athletes used the Nazi salute in the opening ceremony of the 1936 Berlin Olympics as they passed by Hitler in the reviewing stand.[41] This was done by delegates from Afghanistan, Bermuda, Bulgaria, Bolivia, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy and Turkey.[41] The Bulgarian athletes performed the Nazi salute and broke into a goose-step;[41] Turkish athletes maintained the salute all around the track.[42] There is some confusion over the use of the salute, since the stiff-arm Nazi salute could have been mistaken for an Olympic salute, with the right arm held out at a slight angle to the right from the shoulder.[41] According to the American sports writer Jeremy Schaap, only half of the athletes from Austria performed a Nazi salute, while the other half gave an Olympic salute. According to the historian Richard Mandell, there are conflicting reports on whether athletes from France performed a Nazi salute or an Olympic Salute.[42] In football, the England football team bowed to pressure from the British foreign office and performed the salute during a friendly match on 14 May 1938.[43]
Military use[edit]
A General saluting in customary Wehrmacht style, January 1941
Only after the 20 July Plot in 1944 were the military forces of the Third Reich ordered to replace the standard military salute with the Hitler salute, as a show of loyalty in deference to the fact that it was Army officers that had been responsible for the assassination attempt.[46] The order went into effect on 24 July 1944.[46] The use of the Hitler salute by the military had been discussed as early as January 1944 in a conference regarding traditions in the military at Hitler's headquarters. Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, head of the Armed Forces, had expressed a desire to standardize the salute across all organizations in Germany.[47]
On the night of 3 January 1942, Hitler stated the following about the compromise edict of 1933:[28]
I imposed the German salute for the following reason. I'd given orders, at the beginning, that in the Army I should not be greeted with the German salute. But many people forgot. Fritsch drew his conclusions, and punished all who forgot to give me the military salute, with fourteen days' confinement to barracks. I, in turn, drew my conclusions and introduced the German salute likewise into the Army.
— Adolf Hitler, Hitler's Table Talk
Satiric responses[edit]
Satirical use of the salute dates back to anti-Nazi propaganda in Germany before 1933. In 1932, photomontage artist John Heartfield used Hitler's modified version, with the hand bent over the shoulder, in a poster that linked Hitler to Big Business. A giant figure representing right-wing capitalists stands behind Hitler, placing money in his hand, suggesting 'backhand' donations. The caption is, "the meaning of the Hitler salute" and "Millions stand behind me".[49] Heartfield was forced to flee in 1933 after the Nazi seizure of power in Germany.
Another example is a cartoon by New Zealand political cartoonist David Low, mocking the Night of the Long Knives. Run in the Evening Standard on July 3, 1934, it shows Hitler with a smoking gun grimacing at terrified SA men with their hands up. The caption reads: "They salute with both hands now".[50]
Sieg Heil[edit]
On 11 March 1945, less than two months before the capitulation of Nazi Germany, a memorial for the dead of the war was held in Marktschellenberg, a small town near Hitler's Berghof residence.[54] The British historian Ian Kershaw marks that the power of the Führer-cult and the 'Hitler Myth' had vanished which is evident from a report given in the little Bavarian town of Markt Schellenberg on March 11, 1945:
"When the leader of the Wehrmacht unit at the end of his speech called for a Sieg Heil for the Führer, it was returned neither by the Wehrmacht present, nor by the Volkssturm, nor by the spectators of the civilian population who had turned up. This silence of the masses ... probably reflects better than anything else, the attitudes of the population."[54]The Swing Kids (German: Swing Jugend) were a group of middle-class teenagers who consciously separated themselves from Nazism and its culture, greeting each other with 'Swing-Heil!' and addressing one another as 'old-hot-boy'.[55] This playful behaviour was dangerous for participants in the subculture; on 2 January 1942, Heinrich Himmler ordered that the leaders be put in concentration camps to be drilled and beaten.[55]
Post-1945[edit]
Today in Germany, Nazi salutes in written form, vocally, and even straight-extending the right arm as a saluting gesture (with or without the phrase), are illegal.[56][57] It is a criminal offence punishable by up to three years of prison (Strafgesetzbuch section 86a).[57][58] Usage for art, teaching and science is allowed unless "the existence of an insult results from the form of the utterance or the circumstances under which it occurred".[58] Use of the salute has also been illegal in Austria since the end of World War II.Usage that is "ironic and clearly critical of the Hitler Greeting" is exempt, which has led to legal debates as to what constitutes ironic use.[59] One recent case involved Prince Albrecht of Hanover, who was brought to court after using the gesture as a commentary on the behavior of an unduly zealous airport baggage inspector.[59] On 23 November 2007, the Amtsgericht Cottbus sentenced Horst Mahler to six months of imprisonment without parole for having, according to his own claims, ironically performed the Hitler salute when reporting to prison for a nine-month term a year earlier.[60] The following month, a pensioner named Roland T was given a prison term of five months for, amongst other things, training his dog Adolf to raise his right paw in a Nazi salute every time the command "Heil Hitler!" was uttered.[61]
Modified versions of the salute are sometimes used by neo-Nazis. One such version is the so-called "Kühnen salute" with extended thumb, index and middle finger, which is also a criminal offence in Germany.[62] In written correspondence, the number 88 is sometimes used by some neo-Nazis as a substitute for "Heil Hitler" ("H" as the eighth letter of the alphabet).[63] Swiss neo-Nazis were reported to use a variant of the Kühnengruss, though extending one's right arm over their head and extending said three fingers has a different historical source for Switzerland, as the first three Eidgenossen or confederates are often depicted with this motion. Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon often raise their arms in a Nazi-style salute.[64][65]
On 28 May 2012, BBC current affairs programme Panorama examined the issues of racism, antisemitism and football hooliganism, which it claimed were prevalent among Polish and Ukrainian football supporters. The programme, titled Euro 2012: Stadiums of Hate, included recent footage of Ukrainian supporters giving the Nazi salute and shouting "Sieg Heil". The two countries hosted the international football competition UEFA Euro 2012.[66]
On 16 March 2013, Greek footballer Giorgos Katidis of AEK Athens F.C. was handed a life ban from the Greek national team for performing the salute after scoring a goal against Veria F.C. in Athens' Olympic Stadium.[67]
In April 2014, the Supreme Court of Switzerland ruled that Nazi salutes do not breach hate crime laws if expressed as one's personal opinion, but only if they are used in attempt to spread its ideology.[4][5]
On 18 July 2015, The Sun published an image of the British Royal Family from private film shot in 1933 or 1934, showing Elizabeth II (then a young girl) and the Queen Mother both performing a Nazi salute, accompanied by Edward VIII, taken from 17 seconds of home footage (also released by The Sun).[68] The footage ignited controversy in the UK,[69] and here have been questions as to whether the release of this footage was appropriate.[70] Buckingham Palace described the release of this footage as "disappointing",[71] and has considered pursuing legal action against The Sun,[72] whereas Stig Abell (managing director of The Sun) said that the footage was "a matter of national historical significance to explore what was going on in the [1930s] ahead of the second world war."[73]
In popular culture[edit]
- In a running gag in Hogan's Heroes, Colonel Klink often forgets to give the Hitler salute at the end of a phone call; instead, he usually asks, "What's that?" and then says, "Yes, of course, Heil Hitler".[74] In the German language version of the show, called Ein Käfig Voller Helden (A Cage Full of Heroes), "Col. Klink and Sgt. Schultz have rural Gomer Pyle-type accents", and "stiff-armed salutes are accompanied by such witticisms as "this is how high the cornflowers grow".[75] The "Heil Hitler" greeting was the variant most often used and associated with the series; "Sieg Heil" was rarely heard.
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.
