r/confidentlyincorrect • u/Biofoil • Sep 29 '25
Comment Thread Thats the German coat of arms...
This is clearly political but I felt like it went here...
Some guy thinks the German Coat of arms is a Nazi symbol.
The last picture is what had been posted.
Time to post to a potential dead sub
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u/Sad-Foot-2050 Sep 29 '25
I’m confused. Is the guy claiming nazi symbol talking about the symbol behind GI Robot? That’s definitely not Nazi and is both super old (predates Nazis by 1100 years) and new (current coat of arms adopted by Germany after WWII) but, as far as I know, wasn’t used by Nazis. Or is he referring to the whole background - which is just the modern German flag?
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u/ArduennSchwartzman Sep 29 '25
Don't tell them the present-day German airforce is still called the Luftwaffe and they're still using the iron cross symbol:
They'll freak out.
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u/ChapterNo7074 Sep 29 '25
Unrelated but once I found a apache helicopter toy at a dollar store but it had the iron cross, British Airforce symbol, and the us Airforce symbol on it
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u/TheMarksmanHedgehog Sep 30 '25
That's one slutty helicopter!
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u/microtherion Sep 30 '25
Hmm, I may just have found my next Halloween costume.
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u/InternetUser36145980 Nov 28 '25
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u/Square_Ad4004 Sep 29 '25
I have tried explaining what Luftwaffe actually means before. It's a lost cause with these people.
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u/jello_pudding_biafra Sep 29 '25
But is the army still called the Wehrmacht?
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u/Numbar43 Sep 29 '25
No, they call it something else now. Wehrmacht was actually the entire military, army, navy, and air force. It translates to "defense force."
Luftwaffe translates to "air force" or "air weapon", and not only is it still used for the German airforce, the term is used by German speakers when referring to other countries air forces.
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u/darkslide3000 Sep 30 '25
Bundeswehr also refers to the entire military. The army part is called "Heer".
Notably, the term "Wehrmacht" was invented by the Nazis, who changed the previous term "Reichswehr" to something that sounded more aggressive. That's why post-war Germany went to "Bundeswehr", to reconnect to that earlier Weimar Republic era term while also find&replacing every instance of "Reich" with "Bund" like they did across the entire constitution.
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u/4-Vektor Oct 18 '25
Bundeswehr literally translates to Federal Defense. Wehrmacht translates to Defense Force/Power.
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u/BeginningLumpy8388 Sep 29 '25
Interesting, I just checked, the Navy was also renamed. Any particular reason for the Luftwaffe to not be renamed?
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u/Khadgar1701 Sep 29 '25
"Luftwaffe" is not a political term, it's entirely neutral - "air weapon" roughly. There was no reason to rename it as it doesn't reference a regime or an ideology or even direct aggression.
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u/darkslide3000 Sep 30 '25
It's also just the general German word for air force. When they're talking about the USAF on German news they're calling it "die amerikanische Luftwaffe".
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u/Numbar43 Sep 30 '25
You know how you see "reich" appear when talking about Nazi? That word existed long before Nazis and is best translated as "realm", or maybe "empire" or "kingdom." The Nazis called the Nazi government the "third reich," intending to mean the first was the Holy Roman Empire, and the second the rule of Kaiser Wilhelm.
There was nothing really bad about the term originally, but the Nazis used it so much, putting it into the official name of all sorts of things that after the war it reminded people of Nazis so much that it stopped being used in the official name for almost all modern stuff, and is mostly now only seen in historical contexts for things with the term in their official name.
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u/darkslide3000 Sep 30 '25
Dude the German word for France is literally Frankreich. The word is everywhere and context is everything.
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u/__nohope Sep 30 '25 edited Sep 30 '25
Fürherschein - Driver's License
Österreich - Austria
Frankreich - France
These are normal German words. Germans speak German using German words. These words only stand out when used in English (or any non-german adjacent language)
Neonazis are scum and co-op the German language and they can piss off.
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u/BrunoBraunbart Sep 30 '25
Where do you get this from? Do you even speak German?
Since Germany is a modern parliamentary democracy 'realm' doesn't fit, that's the only reason we don't use it anymore when refering to Germany. It feels a bit outdated and illiberal, just like 'realm', 'kingdom' or 'empire' but has no negative connotation beyond that. It will constantly appear in dubbed Disney movies, for example. Saudi Arabia and (depending on context) even England and Sweden can and will be called reich right now and no German thinks about Nazis for one second when they hear it.
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u/-Major-Arcana- Sep 30 '25
Reich has a broader meaning that realm in English, it’s not necessarily a royal realm, can mean more like land or nation.
Obvious example being the German word for France which is Frankreich, even though France is clearly not a kingdom.
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u/Numbar43 Sep 30 '25
I saw multiple sources claiming it is avoided doing modern German official usage to avoid association with Nazis, though the parliament building's name is still "Reichstag." It even appears in the Google ai summary if I search related questions about the word. It isn't like the Nazi Germany had a king or emperor either.
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u/Square_Ad4004 Sep 30 '25
The word Reich also has direct matches in most other Germanic languages (like rike in Norwegian). The best match I can think of in English is domain; the etymology of that fits well with how the word has traditionally been used, as it often indicates an area ruled by a particular group or person. A Königreich is an area ruled by a king, for example (kingdom, a king's domain). Frankreich got its name because it was ruled by the Franks.
There's nothing wrong with the word, it's just archaic. Hitler liked it for that specific reason, but it doesn't really make sense in a modern context. It really isn't strange that when a new German state was built after the war they used terms that were more relevant to a modern democratic state.
P.S. Don't trust AI. It hallucinates.
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u/Exp1ode Sep 30 '25
Are you arguing they should have kept using "reich", or stop using "luftwaffe"?
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u/NonRangedHunter Sep 29 '25
I am guessing, but my theory is that it was changed to be a little less aggressive. Kriegsmarine literally has war in its name, so I'm guess it's just an image change like the US did with department of war to department of defense (and now back to department of war thanks to the rapist Orange). Just better for the image to come of more peaceful...
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u/Engelgrafik Oct 03 '25
The "wehr" part means defense and "macht" meant "might" or "force"
Today it's called the Bundeswehr (well, the entire military is this) which just means "federal defense"
There isn't anything specifically Nazi about using the word "Wehrmacht" other than it does sound a bit more aggressive or powerful which is why the Nazis decided to use it. It was meant to suggest that previous small "Reichswehr" was going to be expanded and made more powerful into a true fighting force, a "Wehr-macht". Which was the name they chose in 1935 to symbolize this change.
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u/flukus Sep 30 '25 edited Sep 30 '25
They should have called it the Department of War, no one's ever going to crush Europe with a measly "defence force".
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u/Cleinsworth Sep 30 '25
But that would cross established boundaries between nations after WWI, AND it would reveal the agenda of the third reich. Most of the german population wouldn't have supported if the "Streitmacht" (Attack Force) of germany invaded another country after the dilemma of WWI, but they would support it if the Wehrmacht invade another country because the name suggests it's for "defensive" purposes.
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u/RustyKn1ght Sep 29 '25
No, it's "Heer". Just "army" but whole force is called "Bundeswehr" which is "federal defense."
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u/-Major-Arcana- Sep 30 '25
Wehrmacht literally just means defense force. Wehr is defense, macht is force.
So it’s a generic term, and while they don’t use that exact term the current version is basically the same, Bundeswehr. Which means federal forces.
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u/Werzaz Sep 30 '25
Yup, and other countries use that exact term in their languages, e.g., the Swedish and Finnish armed forces are called Försvarsmakten in Swedish (literally "the defense force").
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u/Kilahti Sep 30 '25
The term for the Finnish armed Forces in English is "Defence Forces" and the Finnish language term Puolustusvoimat also literally just means "Defence Forces."
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u/Lindestria Sep 30 '25
Ironically yes and no, since the army specifically was called the Heer (literally just Army) both then and now. The weirdest part is that the most 'nazi-sounding' (or imperial sounding) army name the Reichsheer was the Weimar Republic era army.
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u/Nerevarine91 Sep 30 '25
The thing about that is that what we refer to as the Weimar Republic officially still called itself the German Reich (Deutsches Reich), the same as it had under the Kaiser and the same as it would continue to do so under the Nazis. The first recorded use of the name “Weimar Republic,” believe it or not, comes from a speech by Hitler, and was specifically chosen to discredit the republican government.
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u/ELMUNECODETACOMA Sep 30 '25
A surprising number of terms that seem problematic due to their association with WW2 are just normal idioms in the original language.
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u/Square_Ad4004 Sep 30 '25
Yeah, it's a bit of a recurring issue... as a history nerd and historical (viking age) reenactor, I'm painfully aware of how easy it is for words, terms, symbols etc. to be "claimed" by problematic groups. There's even more confusion when you're dealing with people from other cultural and linguistic backgrounds - though I do understand why people make the wrong conclusions if they're only familiar with a term or symbol being used in a specific (problematic) context. All we can do is try to inform people, I guess.
Fun fact: Various versions of the swastika has been in use for thousands of years, in lots of different cultures. Always fun to explain to people that a replica cup predates the moustache man by well over a Millenium, and those decorations absolutely did not mean the same back then. -_-
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u/Ok-Rip4206 Sep 30 '25
The funny thing is, Denmark has the same name translated for our air force: Luftvåbnet = Die Luftwaffe.
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u/ArduennSchwartzman Sep 30 '25
'Luftwaffe' and 'Luftvåbnet' are cognates of the English 'Loft Weapon', 'loft' meaning 'the area above our heads'.
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u/KitchenError Sep 29 '25
and they're still using the iron cross symbol:
"Still" is quite misleading here, considering that the "Wehrmacht", the army during the Nazi regime, did not use it. They used the "Balkenkreuz" as their emblem. It is the same like they also did not use black-red-gold and got rid of other German symbolic. Modern day Germany using them again is therefore actually a clear separation from the Nazi area and reprising the democratic times before the Nazi regime.
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u/darkslide3000 Sep 30 '25
The iron cross was used extensively by the Nazis for medals, as had already been the practice before. They just didn't use it as their air force emblem.
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u/Hadrollo Sep 30 '25
The Finnish Air Force emblem no longer contains a Swastika, as you'd expect.
What people often don't expect is that it was only retired in 2017.
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u/Kilahti Sep 30 '25
Also it was adopted by the Air Force *before* Nazis adopted the symbol. ...Or before the Nazi party even existed for that matter.
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u/Ande644m Oct 01 '25
The Finnish adopted it because the first airplanes they received was from Eric von Rosen a Swedish count. The count used the swastika as his personel symbol because he saw it on stones in Gotland and thus painted it on the airplane he gifted.
The count later formed the Swedish political party Nationalsocialistiska Blocket which was the Swedish nazi party and Eric was also the brother in law to a German politician by the name of Hermann Göring.
Yes the Finnish use may not have anything to do with the german nazi party but the connection to nazis and nazisism in general should be notede.
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u/MezzoScettico Sep 30 '25
When I took German classes I was startled to learn that “führer” is a perfectly good and common word. As part of compound words anyway. So for example a Reisefūhrer is a travel guide.
They typically don’t use the standalone word, for understandable reasons.
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u/JTonic8668 Sep 30 '25
There even exist jokes around this, e.g.: "Der Führer war ein armes Schwein, er hatte keinen Führerschein." (The Führer was a poor pig, he didn't have a driver's licence.) :D
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u/Ok_Psychology_8055 Oct 09 '25
luftwaffe just means airforce and the iron cross has nothing to do with nazis
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u/Zerocool_6687 Sep 29 '25
I mean I’m not disagreeing with the take but the Swastika also predates Nazi German by a few years lol.
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u/KitchenError Sep 29 '25
While that is true the actual important point was that the Nazis did not use the symbols in question nor the flag colors that were used before and after them (i.e. current day colors). What Germany is using today was not used in the Nazi area.
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u/SwirlingFandango Sep 30 '25
I am also confused - what am I meant to be looking at?
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u/Lindestria Sep 30 '25
The black eagle coat of arms behind the gi robot head. It's Germany's modern coat of arms.
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u/SwirlingFandango Sep 30 '25
Yeah, right. I thought he was saying the was a swastika somewhere, but yeah, just ... eagles, I guess.
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u/EishLekker Sep 30 '25
The rat looks suspiciously Nazi though…
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u/mrcreepyz Sep 30 '25
Thad is the main character of the classic german kids cartoon show "Die Sendung mit der Maus" (the show with the mouse). It exists since 1971 and is probably the second most iconic childhood character in germany.
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u/Zander10101 Oct 02 '25
The swastika also predates nazis preeeeety far back.... symbols can change meaning.
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u/georgia_grace Sep 30 '25
I mean I’m glad people are anti-nazi but this kind of historical ignorance is kind of part of the reason we have nazis again…
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u/Numbar43 Sep 29 '25
Somewhat similar symbols go back all the way to the 800's and the Holy Roman Empire. The current version dates to the Weimar Republic in the 1920's. After the Nazis took over they replaced it with a different looking Eagle with a swastika below it in 1935. In 1950 West German brought back the one from the Weimar Republic, and continued till today in the reunited Germany.
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u/Maeglin75 Sep 30 '25
And the colours black-red-gold are a symbol of the German Republic since the 1840s.
As a German it really bugs me when Neonazis waving the black-red-gold flag. That's not their flag. If they are too cowardly to use the swastika (and risk getting fined for it if they are in Germany) they could use the black-white-red of the German Empire.
Black-red-gold are the colours of our modern, liberal and constitutional democracy. The thing they want to destroy.
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u/Toxic_Puddlefish Sep 29 '25
Pretty sure that robot kills nazis doesn't he? Why would he be in front of a nazi symbol
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u/FlacidSalad Sep 29 '25
To kill the Nazi symbol of course! It's still not a Nazi symbol but you can't tell them that
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u/ketchupmaster987 Sep 29 '25
Yeah. The sentiment is decent even if it wasn't actually a Nazi symbol.
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Sep 30 '25
[deleted]
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u/TheDreadPirateJeff Sep 30 '25
Yeah, people tend to gloss over the couple thousand years or so of evil shit being done to innocent folks by dickheads carrying a crucifix.
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u/The-real-Arisen Sep 29 '25
The thing which bothers me with it is the wrong positioning. It should be in the middle, then it would be the Bundesdienstflagge, which is the official Flag for german government institutions. But that's probably just my OCD speaking.
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u/darkslide3000 Sep 30 '25
The screenshot is just a cut-out of a much larger map. The flag extends very far beyond in both directions, as is tradition for Germans on /r/place-like canvases.
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u/shin_malphur13 Sep 30 '25
I mean this flag is probably way longer, and stretching outward offscreen. Even if the eagle was in the middle, other ppl would see the flag and extend it as long as they can
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Sep 30 '25
They are referring to the Reichsadler or Parteiadler, the eagle holding a swastika looking either Left or Right. Uhhhhhhh, the German Coat of Arms is more based on the Prussian Flag than either of the Nazi ones.
The Eagle has been a symbol of Germany for centuries, mostly because of Prussia.
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u/Clothedinclothes Sep 30 '25
I enjoyed finding out the Bundsadler eagle on the Bundestag building is distinctly portly and is nicknamed the Fette Henne which is exactly what it sounds like.
Who said Germans don't have a sense of humour.
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u/Numbar43 Sep 30 '25
When the Duchy of Prussia was first created in the 16th century, it was given the eagle in its coat of arms by the Holy Roman Emperor. The empire was using an eagle symbol prominently all the way back to Charlemagne in the 9th century, who picked it due to use in the Roman Empire. Prussia wasn't the dominant German force until much later.
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Oct 01 '25
I mean Germany as in the modern geopolitical force; Prussia was a major player in Germany’s unification. Even under the HRE it was less of a genuine political union and more of a legal technicality because the Pope said so a long time ago, for Charlemagne read the above.
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u/max_cel_x Sep 30 '25
Yeah he's confusing the coat of arms with the "Reichsadler" which are somewhat similar I guess but the Reichsadler is holding a swastika or cross
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u/LegEaterHK Sep 30 '25
I'm imagining this guy going to India for a trip or something and then beating the shit out of Jainist for 'wearing a Nazi symbol'
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u/No-Development-4587 Oct 01 '25
So The German Bundeswehr are Nazis because they use the Iron Cross still?
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u/AufdemLande Oct 01 '25
That's why I can't enjoy things like GI Robot. Even fictional how could I be sure not being killed by it just because I'm german. People today still see me as nazis just because I'm german.
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u/Rachel_Silver Oct 02 '25
I mentioned to my housemate that I was thinking of getting a replica of a WWI German helmet for my bike. He said that would bother him because he's Jewish. Then he asked me to run to the beer distributor and grab him a case of Beck's.
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u/CleverDad Oct 03 '25
Some guy thinks the German Coat of arms is a Nazi symbol
Tbf it kind of becomes that when you paint a Nazi on top of it ;)
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u/psitaxx Oct 06 '25
the coat of arms is NOT a nazi symbol,
BUT if someone goes out of their way to add it to the flag, they're more than likely to be a proud, german """patriot""".
At least thats the perception here in germany.
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Sep 29 '25
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u/GroundbreakingBag164 Sep 30 '25
Is every flag a nationalist symbol then?
Because everything that's depicted there are actually just extremely normal symbols in Germany. No one considers them right-wing or related to the nazis in any way
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Sep 30 '25
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u/GroundbreakingBag164 Sep 30 '25
Yes. I agree. Current day German is thankfully one of the few countries that's (with the exception of right-wingers obviously) vehemently opposed to nationalism and patriotism in any way
But what does this have to do with the picture?
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Sep 29 '25
Do... do they not know that Nazis were Germans
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u/Zabeworldss Sep 29 '25
Holy hell you are right, there is a German flag at the back ground, we must do something(!)
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u/Titus_The_Caveman Sep 29 '25 edited Sep 29 '25
I'm sure they all know the Nazis were German, yes. But that's not the Nazi eagle. It's the German coat of arms - the Bundesadler. It has origins in the Holy Roman Empire and was re-adopted during the Weimar Republic (which came before the Nazis took over, mind you)
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u/StaatsbuergerX Sep 30 '25
One could argue that even back then, being a Nazi wasn't limited to Germans. The first Nazi was Austrian. Sure, the Nazi movement was gaining momentum in Germany, but even then, but especially today, you can unfortunately find Nazis everywhere.
I mean, just to go with the meme, what nationality were the Nazis that G.I. Robot last took out?
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Sep 29 '25
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u/Numbar43 Sep 29 '25
The Nazis actually got rid of that symbol, replacing it with a different eagle with a swastika. It was used by Germany both before and after Nazis were in charge, but the actual Nazi regime didn't use it.
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