Wolfsangel

Heraldic designs known in German as Wolfsangel.

The Wolfsangel on an old field boundary stone in the Deister in Lower Saxony.

The Wolfsangel ("wolf-hook") German is term for certain heraldic charges.

• the design also known as hamecon or hamecon de loup, a half-moon shape with a ring, also known as Wolfsanker ("wolf-anchor")
• the design known as cramp or crampon in English, also called Doppelhaken "double-hook"
• a crampon with a ring at the center
• a crampon with a transversal stroke at the center

All of these symbols are still found in a number of municipal coats of arms in Germany. Allegedly,^{[citation needed]} the name of both the hamecon and the crampon symbols are due to association with the parts of a historical contraption for catching wolves.^{[citation needed]} The crampon is also found as a mason's mark in medieval stonework.

In English, the term mostly refers to the latter symbol, mainly due to its use in Nazi symbolism. The association with Nazism is possibly due to the occurrence of the symbol in Hermann Löns's 1910 novel Der Wehrwolf, where the protagonist, a resistance fighter during the Thirty Years' War, adopts the symbol as his personal badge. Allegedly, the Nazis chose the symbol as the badge for their 1944 plan Werwolf ("werewolf") for a resistance movement against allied occupation based on Löns' novel.

Heraldry

The name Wolfsangel appears in a 1714 heraldic handbook, Wappenkunst, associated with a symbol distinct from the one now known under this name:

Wolffs-Angel, frantz. hamecon, lat. uncus quo lupi capiuntur, ist die Form eines halben Mondes und hat inwendig in der Mitte einen Ring.

"Wolffs-Angel, French hamecon, Latin uncus quo lupi capiuntur ("hook with which wolves are caught"), is the shape of a crescent moon with a ring inside, at mid-height"

The above quote, although, written for the Wolfsangel is referring to the Anchor (see below) for the Wolfsangel and not the Wolfsangel or “Wolf’s-hook” proper.

In modern German-language heraldic terminology, the name Wolfsangel is de facto used for a variety of heraldic charges, including

• the hamecon described above, a half-moon shape with a ring (also called Wolfsanker and Wolfshaken).
• the cramp or crampon, a Z shape or double-hook symbol (also called Mauerhaken or Doppelhaken)
• a Z or double-hook symbol with a ring or transversal stroke at the center. It is only this symbol that also goes under the name "Wolfsangel" in the context of Neo-Nazism and occultism.

The crampon symbol is found comparatively frequently in municipal coats of arms in Germany, where it is often identified as "Wolfsangel". The "crampon with central stroke" design is more rare, but is still found in about a dozen contemporary municipal coats of arms.

• 

  A heraldic hameconin the arms of the von Stein family.

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  A heraldic crampon in the municipal arms of Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg

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  Municipal arms of Erwitte, North Rhine-Westphalia

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  Municipal arms of Idar-Oberstein, Rhineland-Palatinate

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  Municipal arms of Marpingen, Saarland

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  Municipal arms of Oestrich-Winkel, Hesse

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  Municipal arms of Mommenheim, Rhineland-Palatinate

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  Municipal arms of Dassendorf, Schleswig-Holstein

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  Municipal arms of Ilvesheim, Baden-Württemberg

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  Municipal arms of Sibbesse, Lower Saxony

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  Municipal arms of Eppelborn, Saarland

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  Municipal arms of Burgwedel, Lower Saxony

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  Municipal arms of Kleinblittersdorf, Saarland

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  Municipal arms of Wedemark, Lower Saxony

Der Wehrwolf

In 1910, Hermann Löns published a classic fiction book titled Der Wehrwolf (later published as Harm Wulf, a peasant chronicle and The Warwolf in English) set in a 17th-century German farming community during the Thirty Years' War. The main character of the book, Harm Wulf, adopts the wolfsangel as a badge against the occupying forces of the ruling princes. Some printings of this book, such as the 1940 edition, showcase a very visible wolfsangel on the book cover.

Association with "runes"

While the symbol itself bears a parallel to the Eihwaz rune, none of the modern symbols now called the Wolfsangel are historically part of any runic alphabet.

The earliest documented claim that the shape is runic in origin can be traced to Guido von List's alleged mental vision of 18 "Armanen runes" in 1902—which is to say that it is without historical basis. The figure he calls the "Gibor rune" has a similar shape, and he attributes to it a g sound. According to List, it is the 18th and final member of the alleged original rune row (the Younger Futhark has 16 runes).

The shape of Gibor was 'altered' in the 1930s to more closely fit with the idea that the Wolfsangel is the same as Gibor,^{[citation needed]} when in fact the form of the Gibor rune, as originally envisaged by von List is somewhat different.

Nazi symbolism

Nazi Germany

The emblems of the National Socialist movement in the Netherlands (1931-1936) and the 34th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Landstorm Nederland (1943-1945)

In Nazi Germany, the Wolfsangel was used by:

• the 2nd SS Division Das Reich^{[citation needed]}
• the 4th SS Polizei Division^{[citation needed]}
• the 34th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Landstorm Nederland
• the 60th Panzergrenadier-Division "Feldherrnhalle"^{[citation needed]}
• the Sturmabteilung "Feldherrnhalle" Wachstandart Kampfrunen (Assault Unit—SA--"Warlord’s Hall" Guard Regiment
• the Hitlerjugend^{[citation needed]}
• the NS-Volkswohlfahrt^{[citation needed]}
• the Werwolf plan of resistance against allied occupation was intended to use this symbol.^{[citation needed]}

Neo-Nazism

After World War II, the symbol was used by the following Neo-Nazi organizations:

• the "Aktion Nationale Sozialisten / Nationale Aktivisten" (ANS/NA)^{[citation needed]}
• the "Junge Front" (JF) section of the "Volkssozialistische Bewegung Deutschlands" (VSBD)^{[citation needed]}
• the "Wiking-Jugend"^{[citation needed]}
• the Swedish Vitt Ariskt Motstånd (White Aryan Resistance), which refers to the symbol as werewolf^{[citation needed]}
• the Right Wing Resistance of New Zealand^{[citation needed]}

Public exhibition of the symbol is illegal in Germany if a connection with one of these groups is apparent. In Italy, the neofascist organization Terza Posizione used a modified wolfsangel as their symbol.

The symbol of Aryan Nations (a Christian Identity church) incorporates the Wolfsangel along with a sword, cross, crown, shield, and four rays of blue on a red background.^{[citation needed]}

Popular culture

Due to its association with Nazism on one hand and "werewolves" on the other, the symbol retains has gained attractiveness in certain genres of pop culture.

The Church of Satan has incorporated the symbol as, "a talisman of power representing nature in perfect balance." Along with the Black Sun it is used on various merchandise in their official emporium of jewellery and ritual accessories.

In the supernatural TV drama True Blood, a pack of werewolves have the wolfsangel symbol branded on their bodies. In the prison drama Oz, characters belonging to the Aryan Brotherhood have the wolfsangel tattooed on them.

The symbol was once used extensively by Boyd Rice and Death In June.^{[citation needed]} The wolfsangel has also appeared in use by Ulver and Neurosis.^{[citation needed]} There are two bands called Wolfsangel, one is a Russian Folk Metal band, the other is a French white power band.^{[citation needed]}

A stylized variant of the wolfsangel symbol appears on the cover sleeve to the Electric Light Orchestra 1977 hit single "Turn to Stone".^{[citation needed]} The Uriah Heep 1980 album Conquest used a similar symbol.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Fascist symbolism
• Guido von List
• SS unit insignia

References

• K. von Alberti, Die sogenannte Wolfsangel in der Heraldik, Südwestdeutsche Blätter für Familien und Wappenkunde 1960, p. 89.
• H. Horstmann, Die Wolfsangel als Jagdgerät und Wappenbild, Vj. Bl. d. Trierer Gesellschaft für nützliche Forschungen, 1955.

External links

• Bernhard Peter, Besondere Motive: Die Wolfsangel (2004-2010)
• List of symbols outlawed in Germany
• Neonazi (Sweden) flags
• reconstruction of a medieval wolf-trap