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TOTENKOPF RING: Design & Meaning

en_rings — Fri, 15 Jul 2016 08:13:30 +0000

For Himmler the mystic, design was deliberate, and the runic symbols he selected to adorn his world held deep meaning for the Reichsfurer. Himmler’s use of the skull motif for SS regalia is well known. However, according to the conferral document, Himmler ascribed special significance to the skull’s use on the Totenkopf ring. According to the document, the Death’s Head was meant to, “remind us that we should be ready at any time to lay down our lives for the good of the Germanic people.” Himmler considered the oak leaf to be the “traditional German leaf.”
While understanding the meaning of the skull and the oak leaves is simple, deciphering the meaning behind the runes used on the rings is not as straightforward. This is because runes have had different specific meanings to different peoples during different periods in history. Too often, writers and historians super-impose legitimate, but not relevant, historical significance to Nazi symbols. For our purposes, it is meaningful to try to figure out what Himmler thought about when he approved specific runes to adorn the exterior of the Totenkopf ring.
Conventional wisdom credits Karl Maria Wiligut as the designer of the Totenkopf Ring. While no period documentation has yet been discovered to prove this, it is a reasonable assumption to make. As head of the SS department of historical studies within the Race and Settlement Office, Brigadefuhrer Wiligut (who also went by the pseudonym Karl Maria Weisthor) was the “go-to” man for design of things runic within the SS.
It is likely that Himmler’s understanding of the runic alphabet derived from Wiligut’s version of the alphabet, developed by him in 1934 for use in his pseudo- religious writings. Wiligut based his own twenty-four character runic alphabet on other historical sequences such as Elder Futhark. While some of the characters in his alphabet were identical to these historical runes, others were of his own creation.

Sig Rune. In the conferral document, Himmler writes that, “the two Sig-Runes stand for the name of our SS.” These runes flank the skull, and are framed within a triangle border. This is an easy, straight forward element of ring study, and Himmler’s definition and meaning is clear.

Hagal Rune. In the ring conferral document, Himmler states that the Hagal – Rune represents the SS’s, “unshakable faith in the ultimate victory of our philosophy.” Unfortunately, this definition is very unclear. It is interesting that the German words used in the document suggest that the ring literally serves to “hold the rune in front of the eyes of the wearer .” A more readable translation of this sentiment is that the ring is designed to help the wearer “keep in mind” or “not lose sight of’ this unshakable faith.

Swastika. The swastika’s meaning is obvious to students of the Third Reich. For purposes of the ring, Himmler grouped the symbol with the Hagai rune, which according to the ring document, also presented a reminder to the wearer of his “unshakable faith in the ultimate victory of our philosophy.”

Double Runes. Although not mentioned specifically by name, Himmler states in the award document that the pair: “diametrically opposite the Death’s head are symbols from our past of the prosperity which we will restore through National Socialism.”

Heinrich Himmler biography

en_rings — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 15:06:08 +0000

Heinrich Himmler was once memorably described by Albert Speer as, “half school master, half crackpot.” The schoolmasterly part is easy to explain, having been born in Munich on October 7, 1900 to Joseph Gebhard Himmler, a secondary-school teacher and principle. Himmler’s childhood was filled with the bookish pursuits of stamp collecting, chess, playing the harpsichord, and gardening, lie was never popular with or comfortable around members of the opposite sex.
Although Himmler was called up to serve during World War I, he never saw battle before the war ended, leaving his knightly fantasies embarrassingly unfulfilled. Perhaps this over-stimulation without climax was one reason why, after 1918 he could not return to a middle-class life. After a brief stint as a student of farming at the Munich Technische Hochschule from 1919 to 1922, Himmler abandoned gainful employment in favor of a cause he could dedicate himself to – that of a functionary in an anti-democratic nationalist political organization – the Deutsche Arheiterpartei (DAP) soon to be renamed the in NSDAP Living in Munich. Himmler took part in Hitlers Beer Hall Putsch.
Himmler joined the SS in 1925 and was appointed its deputy leader in 1927. By 1929, he was in charge of the fledgling organization (numbering fewer than 300), which at that time, served as Hitler’s personal body guard at events throughout Germany. By then, at the latest, Heinrich had become an extremist, subscribing to Germanic supremacy and anti-Semitism with an accent on the purity of the Ger¬man peasant farmer. He put his scholastic talents of application and organization he had learned at home into building the dream he was soon to make his own: to be a paramilitary leader.
His non-existent personal life ensured there was nothing to distract him. Although he married in 1928 (prompting his contemporaries to speculate that he had finally lost his virginity) marriage could not change him now. His mixture of organizational application, apparent loyalty and lack of public ambition was a hugely successful combination. By 1933, when the Nazis gained power in earnest in Germany, the SS had grown to over 50,000 members, with Himmler in charge.
By war’s end, Himmler had transformed the SS into his own personal empire that was without a doubt the most powerful political and economic element operat¬ing within the Nazi Party . The SS fielded divisions on every front, maintained its grasp of society within the boundaries of Germany proper, and had even tried to draft Hitler’s chief architect Albert Speer into its ranks (Himmler offered to make him the fifth Oberstgruppenfiihrer, a dubious honor Speer politely declined).

Himmler’s impact on world history (and his complex psychology) has been well documented in many books. However, the Reichsfuhrer may best be understood by a look at his last days. They reveal a man unable to take up arms and fulfill his dream of becoming a soldier, a man still obsessed with military rank and the trap¬pings of his office, and a man disrespected by his peers.
So it was, in the final hours of the Hitler government that Himmler slinked away from Berlin as soon as he decently could after Hitler’s birthday, making for Flensburg, the HQ of the newly minted Donitz government. Stripped of all rank and office by Hitler (who had learned of Himmler’s overtures to the Red Cross), he hoped to offer his service and expertise to post-war Germany. The former Reichsfuhrer-SS believed that he would be instrumental in the creation of a stable post-war state. After being summarily rejected by Donitz as unsuitable for any role in the new government, Himmler fled with some other SS men. Donning an eye patch, and disguising himself as a lowly NCOs in the Feldpolizei (who were being arrested as a matter of policy by the Allies) Himmler and his small team fled. Although Himmler boasted that the Allies would never find him, he didn’t last two weeks.
On May 22 Himmler, who was carrying a number of personal items engraved with the initials “RFSS” tried to get past a British checkpoint. With one glance at his forged travel documents which were stamped with the Gestapo’s official seal, “Heinrich Hitzinger’’ was arrested. The next day Himmler was taken to a deten¬tion center where he demanded to be presented to “the commandant,” to whom he whispered his real name. An initial strip-search failed to reveal his last possession – a cyanide capsule. When a doctor later tried to have a closer look at his mouth Himmler realized it was all over and bit down on the capsule and inhaled. Within moments, he was dead. Himmler was buried in an unmarked grave, like so many of his victims.

THE TOTENKOPF RING: A PRE-HISTORY

en_rings — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 17:58:23 +0000

“The award of the ring is the visible sign of our community’s inner code and loyalty to the Fuhrer and his ideology, proven in years of struggle and duty. “
Heinrich Himmler, Totenkopf ring award regulations, 10.4.1933.

Ring-Giver is an Anglo-Saxon metaphor often used to describe a King. both in fiction and throughout history. For example, in the epic-poem Beowulf King Hrothgar is referred to several times as a giver of rings. The root of the word used for ring in these epic poems referred not to a finger ring, but to rings of gold that were placed around the wrist, arm or neck. Still, the idea of kings as givers of finger rings has become a well-established bit of folklore, used by famous authors and composers including Tolkien and Wagner. Throughout history, royalty m both life and epic were givers-of-rings.
Himmler’s personal association with royalty came early on. He was christened Heinrich in honour of his father’s position as a tutor to Prince Heinrich of Bavaria, poetically marking the young Himmler with the trappings of royalty even though, independently, he had none of his own. We know that later in life, Himmler revered King Heinrich I, duke of Saxony from 912 AD and King of the German Empire from 919 until his death in 936. The king enthralled Himmler, who drew parallels between King Heinrich’s role as unifier of the German tribes and founder of the medieval German Empire, and himself … the standard-bearer of a unified Aryan people. It was even rumoured that he imagined himself to be the spiritual reincarnation of this first king of the Germanic people.

The Ring of the Nibelung by the German composer Richard Wagner

We know that Himmler read Arthurian legend, and was a huge fan of Wagner, in light of this history, and alongside Himmler’s romantic visions of kingdoms, royalty, and its knighthood, it is no surprise that Himmler decorated his profes¬sional and private lives with the trappings of medieval court… a castle for himself at Wewelsburg complete with a round table for his knights, swords and daggers, and of course, rings. Himmler was self-appointed king and his officers were his vassals. This environment must have offered Himmler a frequent mental vacation from his vassal-like service to his master, the Fuhrer.

King Arthur

For Himmler, the Totenkopf ring symbolized possession of those who wore it, similar in many ways to a wedding ring. In fact, Himmler specifically instructed the ring to be worn on the ring finger of the bearer’s left hand. The traditional wedding ring, after all, was worn on the ring finger of the right hand in Germany, and this can be seen as a deliberate statement of equivalence; the bearer was married to the SS and tied to its king, forever bound to the duties and entitled to the privileges that this union entailed. It should come as no surprise then that the first of two kingly gifts Himmler bestowed upon his knights was a ring, given in December 1933 (only later in 1937 did Himmler bestow upon them another traditional element of royal favor, the sword).
From Wewelsburg, his castle in Westphalia, Himmler hoped to see his army of well-decorated knights lead the march into a thousand-year future that Hitler had laid out, and he would help build. As we will see throughout this book, the Totenkopf Ring was an important symbol of his plan, which lasted about ten years.