by Alfred E. Newman

Created on: July 14, 2009   Last Updated: July 21, 2009

Until early in the 20th century the swastika was a good luck charm, it could be found on coins and pottery from 1000 BCE. Charles Lindbergh painted it inside the nosecone of the Spirit of St. Louis when he made his historic solo flight across the Atlantic ocean. One of the oldest symbols know to mankind it is a prehistoric symbol predating all known formal religions. This connection between almost all developed cultures, this common heritage of humanity is found in Western Europe until the early years of the last century, a traditional symbol for the highest knowledge of humankind. It symbolizes the expanding universe of the relative sphere of life.

Symbolizing the expanding universe of the relative sphere of life, the swastika predates even the Egyptian Ankh, used for more than 3,000 years. Showing up on pottery and coins from Troy, proving it was common as far back as 1000 BCE. During the following one thousand years, the swastika was used by many cultures around the world. China, Japan, India, and southern Europe are just a few cultures that used the swastika; Native Americans used the swastika as a symbol, but it is not known for how long.

Swastika comes from the Sanskrit svastika - 'su' meaning 'good', 'asti' meaning 'to be and 'ka' as a suffix. The swastika, in many cultures, through the past 3,000 years it has represented life, sun, power, strength and good luck, until the Nazi Party subverted the swastika into a symbol of hate. Throughout the early twentieth century, it was a symbol with positive connotations, it was found as a decoration on cigarette cases, postcards, coins and even buildings. The 45th Division, from Oklahoma, used it on their orange shoulder patch until after World War I, and the Finnish air force used it until after World War II.

Germany did not unify until 1871, while around it countries grew larger and formed into empires. German nationalists, in the mid-nineteenth century, began to use the swastika because it had ancient Aryan/Indian origins, representing a long Germanic/Aryan history. The swastika, used to counter the feeling of vulnerability and the stigma of a youthful empire, can be found on nationalist German volkisch periodicals even the German Gymnasts' League used it well into the nineteenth century. At the start of the twentieth century, the swastika was a common symbol of German nationalism and it could be found in a multitude of places.

In 1920 Adolf Hitler decided his Nazi Party needed a powerful symbol and used

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