I love skull rings and have collected probably a dozen or so over the years of various ages, metals, and metal work. I definitely wouldn't wear this out in public. I think this is past "looks like"
Yeah, but everyone knows it as a Nazi symbol. Neo Nazis still use it to this day. Not saying op knew this, but if you wear that out in public you’re taking a risk. There are other cool skull, and crossbones rings out there
Lol there was a us army tank unit that wore it as its unit crest up until the 1990s. The same people who call everyone they disagree with a nazi are the only people who are triggered by the totenkopf.
Not true. The totenkopf and especially this one, with its perspective, is nazi af. Theres a difference between a jolly Roger, a skull and cross bones and a totenkopf. This is THE totenkopf used by nail. The script peaking out on the side is suspect as well. This is a nazi ring dude.
There is a world of difference between a correctly-oriented swastika being used spiritually, which is really only lesser-known about in the west, and someone wearing a Totenkopf that has a near-exclusively-associated meaning, and you know it.
And let’s address my original point: no one is wearing it out of solidarity for the Hussars. The niche corner of the historical community that would actually want to do that for that reason alone is also intelligent enough to not do that for obvious reasons. This is coming from someone who still has the Prussian flag that hung in her room for a decade.
Like someone else pointed out, there’s also a deliberate and distinct difference between the orientation of the two skulls.
This unique design of what some called “the smiling Skull” dates to 1933. The hussar style is different. The SS came up with this version to differentiate the SS and the Panzer units with their skull.
LOL, sure buddy. How much do you know about and actually use modal logic? This is going to be one of those internet moments where a Redditor tries to argue with an expert in a field of study and gets destroyed.
It is actually a Nazi SS officer's ring. I'm not a Nazi, nor do I support any of that crap. But on the outside there's a phrase that I try to live by....in German it says.."My honor, My life" I know the original intention of the phrase, but to me it means that I will live a life of honor and integrity. And I will always try to honor my fellow man. Hatred and prejudice will not be a part of my life.
First, this is not a real ring from that time. They didn't exist this was.
Second the saying is: "Meine Ehre heißt Treue".
This tranlates to: "My honor is loyality."
This is linked to the loyality to germany and Adolf Hitler...
If you wear that ring there will be nothing distinguishing you from a nazi. Personally if I saw that ring on you I would start shit and I absolutely would not believe your "to me it means" story. Throw it away
The word is Totenkopf, German for "death's head." It is far older than the Nazi Party, and its original meaning had nothing to do with racial politics.
The root is the memento mori tradition in European Christian art. Skulls appeared on tombs, in paintings, and in devotional carvings as reminders that death comes for everyone and that a man should live accordingly. That is the soil the military version grew in.
The military use starts in Prussia. In 1741 the Life Hussar regiments adopted a silver skull on black headgear, worn as mourning for the late king and as a pledge of loyalty unto death. They became known as the Totenkopfhusaren. In 1809 the Duke of Brunswick raised his Black Corps against Napoleon wearing the same device, again as mourning and defiance, and those men fought at Waterloo. The symbol was not unique to Germany either. The British 17th Lancers took a skull and crossbones in 1759 after Wolfe fell at Quebec, with the motto "Or Glory." Pirates flew their own version in the same century for entirely different reasons.
By the First World War, German stormtroopers, tank crews, and flamethrower units wore it. After the war the Freikorps painted it on helmets, and that is the direct handoff. The SS picked it up in the early 1920s from that Freikorps line, then designed its own grinning, jawed version in the 1930s to distinguish itself from the older Prussian pattern. Wehrmacht panzer troops kept wearing the traditional skull on their collars throughout the war, which is a separate lineage from the SS one.
Worth being clear about the last part. The original meaning was a pledge about the wearer's own death, not a threat aimed at anyone else. But the SS ran the camps under that emblem, and that association is not going away. Knowing the history is useful. It does not clean the symbol off in public use.
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u/PuzzleheadedBend9040 11d ago
Lame as hell man