I mean, does it immediately strike a negative note with you or are you neutral about it?
Anyone familiar with the electro/goth scene would know it’s not uncommon to see people (mostly men) wearing the Iron Cross - usually coupled with military boots, some other insignia… nothing as blatant as a swastika or anything, but it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth. As in, I feel like it’s very likely that they’re at the very least flirting with a particular ideology but don’t want to go all in, in public.
I was wondering if anyone else felt the same, or if it’s all in my head?
If there’s nothing else blatant they likely aren’t flirting with anything other than the desire to leave a sour taste in your mouth. The use of the iron cross without nazi/racist connotations dates back to the use by some biker groups in the 60s. The Anti-Defamation League cautions
In the context you describe, it’s likely just Goths jumping on an old “non-conformist” bandwagon in choosing symbols. Now in Germany the context today can be entirely different. A variant of the cross pattee used in for the Iron Cross is in current use as both a military award and as identification marking on aircraft/vehicles. I’m pretty sure the Bundeswehr isn’t stating they are neo-nazis.
Yes, you are right, although I know of its non-racist uses but I feel it can be a hint at something more sinister, at least from my own life experience.
Perhaps context is the most important. But with context in mind, if I see a very northern-looking young man with a shaved head, using this symbol as, for example, his Facebook profile picture (an example I’ve actually seen) I tend to… make some conclusions.
I associate it more with old bikers like myself. Like my Gremlin Bell, there is at least one hidden on every motorcycle I’ve ever owned and a couple I wear now and then. Not all are iron; more Maltese ---- but close enough to count.
Harley Davidson shirt/hat/belt buckle/necklace, fine.
Clothing or banner commemorating a WW1 battle, fine.
But any hint of Nazi, White Supremacist, etc and I’ll do my best to avoid that person/place.
In a darkened room could you tell the difference between an Iron Cross and a Badge of Honour of the Bundeswehr? Hell, while placed together the differences are obvious but I think that most people couldn’t identify one from the other.
When I was a skateboarder in the sixties, I wore one on a chain. It was part of the look my buds and I were going for. We definitely didn’t identify with the Nazi party. Nazis were the guys we shot at when we played army. We had a very specific sense of our “uniform”, that included white t-shirts, rolled up blue jeans and P.F.Flyer sneakers.
It’s a Nazi symbol that is less conspicuous than a Swastika. I would bet the majority of the people in question know exactly what it means. See if they have any 88 tattoos or jewelry also. That is also “safe” symbolism, although is better known these days.
The Swastika predates Nazism too. That doesn’t mean anything. When a game wants to designate Nazi Germany but doesn’t want to use a Swastika they use the Iron Cross. I’m not saying it is as exclusive as the Swastika but it definitely can and does represent Nazi Germany and I would guess the majority of people wearing one mean it in that way.
The Swastika doesn’t predate the Nazis as a specifically German symbol. The Iron Cross does.
When a game wants to designate Germany in general, they use the Iron Cross. Civ 6 uses it as the symbol for the German faction, and in that game, the German leader is Frederick Barbarossa. When a game is set during a time period when Germany was controlled by the Nazis, but the studio doesn’t want to drench it in Nazi symbols, they use the Iron Cross specifically because it’s a German symbol, and not a Nazi symbol.
