Municipal arms of Kleinblittersdorf, Saarland Īhmed further notes that during the 17th-century Thirty Years War, groups of German militia waged a guerilla war against foreign forces under the German name Wehrwolf, and also adopted the Wolfsangel symbol as their emblem they reportedly carved the symbol on the trees from which they hanged captured foreign combatants. Peasant revolts Īcademic Akbar Ahmed writes that the Wolfsangel was adopted by 15th-century German peasants during revolts against oppressive German princes and their foreign mercenaries, and thus became an important early popular Germanic symbol of independence and liberty. ![]() However, the full Wolfsangel Ƶ-symbol has no equivalent amongst ancient runic systems but is sometimes confused as such due to its similarity to the " gibor rune", the eighteenth pseudo rune that was created by the nineteenth-century German revivalist Guido von List as part of his Armanen runes. ![]() excluding the horizontal bar) bears a visual resemblance to the proto-Germanic Eihwaz rune (meaning "yew"), historically part of the ancient runic alphabet. The symbol can be found as a medieval mason's mark. The symbol appears on early medieval banners and town seals in Germany (particularly in forested regions where wolves were present in large numbers) for example, as early as 1299 the symbol can be found on seals relating to the Lords of the German Black Forest town of Wolfach (see opposite, the seal of the widow Countess Udilhild von Fürstenberg, the sole heiress of the Lords of Wolfach) and their Wolfsangel banner eventually became the municipal coat of arms for the town (see opposite). The stylised version of the Z-shaped Wolfsangel developed into a popular medieval symbol in Germany that was associated with magical powers, and was believed to have the ability to ward off wolves. Other German names include Wolfsanker ("wolf anchor", the crescent-shaped bar holding the hook), Wolfshaken ("wolf hook"), and Doppelhaken ("double hook") French names include hameçon ("fish hook"), hameçon de loup ("fish hook for wolves") and fer-a-loup ("wolf iron"), as well as crampon ("iron hook"). Horizontal Wolfsangel as a mason's mark, 15-century church The Anti-Defamation League, and others, list the Ƶ-symbol as a hate and a neo-Nazi symbol. The Ƶ-symbol was later adopted by the Nazi Party, and was used by various German Wehrmacht and SS units such as the Waffen-SS Division Das Reich and the Waffen-SS Division Landstorm Nederland. ![]() In pre-war Germany, interest in the Wolfsangel was revived by the popularity of Hermann Löns's 1910 novel Der Wehrwolf, which follows a hero in the Thirty Years war. It became an early symbol of German liberty and independence after its adoption as an emblem in various 15th-century peasant revolts, and also in the 17th-century Thirty Years War. Įarly medieval pagans believed that the Wolfsangel symbol possessed magical powers, and could ward off wolves. The stylized symbol of the Z-shape (also called the Doppelhaken, meaning the "double-hook") can include a central horizontal bar to give a Ƶ-symbol, which can be reversed and/or rotated it is sometimes mistaken as being an ancient rune due to its similarity to the " gibor rune" of the pseudo Armanen runes. ![]() Wolfsangel ( German pronunciation:, translation "wolf's hook") or Crampon ( French pronunciation: ) is a heraldic charge in countries like Germany, the Netherlands and eastern France, which was inspired by medieval European wolf traps that consisted of a Z-shaped metal hook (called the Wolfsangel, or the Crampon in French) that was hung by a chain from a crescent-shaped metal bar (called the Wolfsanker, or the Hameçon in French). In heraldry, the vertical form of the Ƶ-symbol is associated with the Donnerkeil (or "thunderbolt"), and the horizontal form of the Ƶ-symbol is associated with the Werwolf (or " Werewolf"). Stylized horizontal (left) and vertical (centre) forms of the Wolfsangel (or Crampon), and a stylized Wolfsanker (or Hameçon) (right).
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