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The name "Black Sun" came into wider use after the publication of a 1991 occult thriller novel, ''Die Schwarze Sonne von Tashi Lhunpo'' (''The Black Sun of Tashi Lhunpo''), by the pseudonymous author [[Russell McCloud]]. The book links the Wewelsburg mosaic with the neo-Nazi concept of the "Black Sun", invented by former SS officer [[Wilhelm Landig]] as a substitute for the [[Nazi swastika]] and a symbol for a mystic energy source that was supposed to renew the [[Aryan race]].{{sfnp|Goodrick-Clarke|2002|p=148}}{{sfnp|Strube|2015|p=339}}{{sfnp|Goodrick-Clarke|2002|p=3}}
The name "Black Sun" came into wider use after the publication of a 1991 occult thriller novel, ''Die Schwarze Sonne von Tashi Lhunpo'' (''The Black Sun of Tashi Lhunpo''), by the pseudonymous author [[Russell McCloud]]. The book links the Wewelsburg mosaic with the neo-Nazi concept of the "Black Sun", invented by former SS officer [[Wilhelm Landig]] as a substitute for the [[Nazi swastika]] and a symbol for a mystic energy source that was supposed to renew the [[Aryan race]].{{sfnp|Goodrick-Clarke|2002|p=148}}{{sfnp|Strube|2015|p=339}}{{sfnp|Goodrick-Clarke|2002|p=3}}


A number of far-right groups and individuals have utilised the symbol in their propaganda, including the [[Christchurch mosque shootings|Christchurch mosque shooter]] Brenton Tarrant and Australian neo-Nazi group [[Antipodean Resistance]], and the symbol was displayed by members of several extremist groups involved in the [[Unite the Right rally]] in Charlottesville, Virginia.<ref name="UNITE-THE-RIGHT">Sources:
A number of far-right groups and individuals have utilised the symbol in their propaganda, including the [[Christchurch mosque shootings|Christchurch mosque shooter]] Brenton Tarrant, the Ukrainian [[Azov Battalion]] in from 2014 to 2015, and Australian neo-Nazi group [[Antipodean Resistance]], and the symbol was displayed by members of several extremist groups involved in the [[Unite the Right rally]] in Charlottesville, Virginia.<ref name="UNITE-THE-RIGHT">Sources:
*{{cite news |last=Porter |first=Tom |date=13 August 2017 |title=Who are the White Nationalist Groups that Demonstrated in Charlottesville? |work=Newsweek |url=https://www.newsweek.com/who-are-white-nationalist-groups-who-demonstrated-charlottesville-650162}}
*{{cite news |last=Porter |first=Tom |date=13 August 2017 |title=Who are the White Nationalist Groups that Demonstrated in Charlottesville? |work=Newsweek |url=https://www.newsweek.com/who-are-white-nationalist-groups-who-demonstrated-charlottesville-650162}}
*{{cite web |author=<!--Staff writer, no byline--> |title=Flags and Other Symbols Used By Neo-Nazi Groups in Charlottesville |url=https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/08/12/flags-and-other-symbols-used-far-right-groups-charlottesville |website=Hatewatch |publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center |date=12 August 2017}}</ref>
*{{cite web |author=<!--Staff writer, no byline--> |title=Flags and Other Symbols Used By Neo-Nazi Groups in Charlottesville |url=https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/08/12/flags-and-other-symbols-used-far-right-groups-charlottesville |website=Hatewatch |publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center |date=12 August 2017}}</ref>
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[[University of Vienna]] historian Julian Strube said that, though first depicted in the Wewelsburg mosaic, the Black Sun symbol was mainly used postwar by 1950's neo-Nazi conspiracy theorists, who exaggerated its usage as part of an occultism that included claimed super weapons. A later 1990's trend saw the symbol's adoption by various far-right groups.{{sfnp|O'Conner|2022}}
[[University of Vienna]] historian Julian Strube said that, though first depicted in the Wewelsburg mosaic, the Black Sun symbol was mainly used postwar by 1950's neo-Nazi conspiracy theorists, who exaggerated its usage as part of an occultism that included claimed super weapons. A later 1990's trend saw the symbol's adoption by various far-right groups.{{sfnp|O'Conner|2022}}

In September 2021, a New Lines Magazine report on the [[Wagner Group]], a Russian [[private military company]] closely connected to the Russian government and at that time fighting in [[Second Libyan Civil War|Libya]], noted that Wagner Group members were using both the Black Sun symbol and variant of the [[Kolovrat (symbol)|Kolovrat]]. One member of Wagner said the "core of the organization is made up of people 'with these radical views and hang-ups' and described them as 'extremists,' many of whom have tattoos of pagan runes." New Lines reported photographs on social media that allegedly showed Wagner group soldiers, dressed in German World War II uniforms, reenacting scenes from [[Erwin Rommel]]'s campaign against British forces in [[Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II|Libya]] in 1942.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sturdee |first=Nick |date=2021-09-27 |title=The Wagner Group Files |url=https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-wagner-group-files/ |access-date=2022-03-26 |website=New Lines Magazine |language=en}}</ref>

The use of a black sun symbol by the [[Azov Battalion]] in a 2014-2015 version of their logo,{{sfnp|O'Conner|2022}} as well as "dubious tattoos" of some battalion members including the Black Sun and Wolfsangel has been subject of controversy. According to [[CNN]] and [[Financial Times|FT]], members generally claimed these as "pagan symbols" and denied far-right associations,<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Schipani |first=Andres |last2=Olearchyk |first2=Roman |date=2022-03-29 |title=‘Don’t confuse patriotism and Nazism’: Ukraine’s Azov forces face scrutiny |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/7191ec30-9677-423d-873c-e72b64725c2d |access-date=2022-04-21}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=CNN |first=Analysis by Tara John and Tim Lister |title=A far-right battalion has a key role in Ukraine's resistance. Its neo-Nazi history has been exploited by Putin |url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/29/europe/ukraine-azov-movement-far-right-intl-cmd/index.html |access-date=2022-04-21 |website=CNN}}</ref> while the Wolfsangel-esque logo was claimed to stand for the letters "NI" or "National Idea".<ref name=":1" /> Journalists noted that during the [[2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine]], Russian propaganda gave an outsized role to the Azov Battalion in a false narrative alleging widespread support for neo-Nazism.<ref name=":1" />{{sfnp|O'Conner|2022}} The Azov-affiliated [[National Corps]] received only 2.15% of votes in Ukraine's [[2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election|2019 parliament elections]], presidential elections that year led to the inauguration of Ukraine's president [[Volodymyr Zelenskyy]], who is Jewish.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 00:26, 22 April 2022

This article is about the neo-Nazi symbol. For the alchemical symbol, see Sol niger.

The Black Sun symbol

The Black Sun (German: Schwarze Sonne) is a Nazi symbol, a type of sun wheel (German: Sonnenrad)[1][2] employed in Nazi Germany and later by neo-Nazis and in some strains of Satanism. The symbol's design consists of twelve radial sig runes, similar to the symbols employed by the SS in their logo.[note 1] It first appeared in Nazi Germany as a design element in a castle at Wewelsburg remodeled and expanded by the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, which he intended to be a center for the SS.

Whether the design had a name or held any particular significance among the SS remains unknown. Its association with the occult originates with a 1991 German novel, Die Schwarze Sonne von Tashi Lhunpo ("The Black Sun of Tashi Lhunpo"), by the pseudonymous author Russell McCloud. The book links the Wewelsburg mosaic with the neo-Nazi concept of the "Black Sun", invented by former SS officer Wilhelm Landig as a substitute for the Nazi swastika.[3][4]

Wewelsburg mosaic

View of the mosaic's placement in Wewelsburg

In 1933, Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, acquired Wewelsburg, a castle near Paderborn, Germany. Himmler intended to make the structure into a center for the SS, and between 1936 and 1942, Himmler ordered the building expanded and rebuilt for ceremonial purposes.[5] As a product of Himmler's remodeling, twelve dark-green radially overlaid sig runes, such as those employed in the logo of the SS, appear on the white marble floor of the structure's north tower, the Obergruppenführersaal, or "General's Hall".[note 1]

The intended significance of the image remains unknown. Some scholars have suggested that the artist may have found inspiration from motifs found on decorative Merovingian disks (Zierscheiben).[note 2]

Occult conspiracy theories of early 20th century

According to historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, an early origin for the "Black Sun" concept came from Theosophy and other mystical occult movements, which was then adopted by Nazi occultists. In the 1930s, occultist Karl Maria Wiligut created cryptic "religious revelations" for Himmler, purporting an "ancient sun called Santur" and a fictionalized version of an Irminist religion, which his followers interpreted as an aspect of the conspiracy theory they believed called the Hyperboreans -- who the cult believed to be "energized" by the Black Sun.[6]

Goodrick-Clarke noted that earlier Theosophist writers like Helena Blavatsky and Guido von List imagined various 'cosmogenies' and occult ideas of a "central sun", which ranged from astrology to extreme ideologies about "Aryanness". One interpretation by the mysticist Peryt Shou perceived a connection between the Age of Aquarius and the postwar fate of German territorial expansion, while von List would end up influencing Wiligut's myth about the Black Sun.[6] Later neo-Nazi ideologists like Miguel Serrano would combine Holocaust denial conspiracy theories with esotericism about fictional continents, "Hyperboreans", and other motifs that had been popular with some early 20th-century Orientalists.[7]

Neo-Nazism

A leather belt with the black sun symbol as belt buckle. The item is from the 2010s.

The Black Sun symbol is widely used by neo-fascist, neo-Nazi,[8] the far-right and white nationalists. The symbol often appears on extremist flags, t-shirts, posters, websites and in extremist publications associated with such groups. Modern far-right groups often refer to the symbol as the sun wheel or Sonnenrad.[5][9][10]

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) database of hate symbols, "One sonnenrad version in particular is popular among white supremacists: two concentric circles with crooked rays emanating from the inner circle to the outer circle. Often white supremacists will put another hate symbol such as a swastika in the center of the inner circle."[11]

The name "Black Sun" came into wider use after the publication of a 1991 occult thriller novel, Die Schwarze Sonne von Tashi Lhunpo (The Black Sun of Tashi Lhunpo), by the pseudonymous author Russell McCloud. The book links the Wewelsburg mosaic with the neo-Nazi concept of the "Black Sun", invented by former SS officer Wilhelm Landig as a substitute for the Nazi swastika and a symbol for a mystic energy source that was supposed to renew the Aryan race.[3][4][12]

A number of far-right groups and individuals have utilised the symbol in their propaganda, including the Christchurch mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant, the Ukrainian Azov Battalion in from 2014 to 2015, and Australian neo-Nazi group Antipodean Resistance, and the symbol was displayed by members of several extremist groups involved in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.[13]

Along with other symbols from the Nazi era such as the Wolfsangel, the Sig Armanen rune, and the Totenkopf, the black sun is employed by some neo-Nazi adherents of Satanism.[14] Scholar Chris Mathews writes:

The Black Sun motif is even less ambiguous. Though based on medieval German symbols, the Wewelsburg mosaic is a unique design commissioned specifically for Himmler, and its primary contemporary association is Nazi occultism, for which Nazi Satanic groups and esoteric neo-Nazis adopt it.[14]

University of Vienna historian Julian Strube said that, though first depicted in the Wewelsburg mosaic, the Black Sun symbol was mainly used postwar by 1950's neo-Nazi conspiracy theorists, who exaggerated its usage as part of an occultism that included claimed super weapons. A later 1990's trend saw the symbol's adoption by various far-right groups.[15]

See also

References

Informational notes

  1. ^ a b Scholar Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke describes this "unique SS sun wheel design" as "a black disk surrounded by twelve radial sig-runes".[3]
  2. ^ According to Goodrick-Clarke, "[i]t has been suggested that this twelve-spoke sun wheel derives from decorative disks from the Merovingians of the early medieval period and are supposed to represent the visible sun or its passage through the months of the year. These disks were discussed in scholarly publications during the Third Reich and may well have served the Wewelsburg designers as a model."[3]

Citations

  1. ^ Grumke & Wagner (2002), p. 207.
  2. ^ Goodrick-Clarke (2002), p. 125.
  3. ^ a b c d Goodrick-Clarke (2002), p. 148.
  4. ^ a b Strube (2015), p. 339.
  5. ^ a b Goodrick-Clarke (2002), pp. 148–150.
  6. ^ a b Goodrick-Clarke (2002), p. 136.
  7. ^ Goodrick-Clarke (2002), p. 189.
  8. ^ Luhn, Alec (30 August 2014). "Preparing for War With Ukraine's Fascist Defenders of Freedom". Foreign Policy.
  9. ^ Grumke & Wagner (2002), p. 219.
  10. ^ Sources:
  11. ^ "Sonnenrad". Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  12. ^ Goodrick-Clarke (2002), p. 3.
  13. ^ Sources:
  14. ^ a b Mathews (2009), p. 153.
  15. ^ O'Conner (2022).

Bibliography

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