The Jahn Connection
May years before the Nazis adopted it, the swastika had appeared in the monogram of the Turneschaft, a German Gymnastics Society founded in 1811 by the agitator Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, one of the early organizers of he Freikorps.
The swastika-like monogram of the Turneschaft was formed out of four
"Fs" opposed and joined by its bases, initials of the Society's
motto: "Frisch, Frei, Frölisch et Fromm."
 |
Coin showing four opposed F's meaning "Frisch, Frei, Frölisch and Fromm" in a swastika-like design reminiscent of a kruckenkreuz. Coined by Friedrich I., in Germany. (Wilhelm Scheuerman, Woher kommt das Hakenkreuz . Berlin: Kowolt Verlag, 1933, fig 3). |