So was it a Hitler salute or not?
At President Trump’s inauguration this week, Elon Musk hit his chest with his right hand and then shot his arm diagonally upward with his palm facing down. He did it twice.
It looked very similar to the salute used in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. But almost immediately a surprising variety of interpretations began to circulate.
Some commentators called it the “Roman salute.” Others described it as a “heartfelt” expression of joy or dismissed it as merely clumsy.
The Anti-Defamation League website, which campaigns against anti-Semitism, defines the Nazi salute as “an extended right arm with the palm down” and “the most common white supremacist hand gesture in the world.” Classify.
But after Musk’s unyielding salute, the Anti-Defamation League called it “not a Nazi salute, but an awkward gesture in the heat of the moment.”
Andrea Stroppa, known as Musk’s special envoy to Italy, posted on the social media platform He later deleted the post, saying people were interpreting “everything as a reference to Nazi fascism.”
In response to the criticism, Mr. Musk, who owns
The straightening salute has had very different meanings in different places and periods of history. But the interpretation of this deliberately public gesture at a time when the far right is once again on the rise was simple. This is especially true in Germany, where the salute’s history remains strongest.
‘No need to think complicatedly’
In Germany, gestures like the one Musk made are illegal, along with other symbols and slogans from the Nazi era. (On Wednesday night, anti-Musk protesters projected an image showing his salute and the words “Heil Tesla” on the facade of his company’s German factory.)
The situation for German companies was very clear.
Die Zeit, a prominent German weekly, wrote in an editorial, “A Hitler salute is a Hitler salute.”
“There is no need to make this unnecessarily complicated,” the editorial said. “A person who gives a political speech on a political stage to a partially right-wing extremist audience” – several far-right politicians from Germany, Italy, France and the UK attended the inauguration. Shaking your body and moving it at an angle several times is like giving the Hitler salute.”
“Anyone who thinks we should now look for the old ‘Roman salute’, which Musk is supposedly referring to, is above all demonstrating a willingness to reinterpret it in a benign way,” he concluded.
The “Roman salute” is actually trending on social media. With images of toga-clad actors raising their right arms with Mr Musk in the gritty film set in ancient Rome.
So was there a Roman salute in ancient times? No: There is no evidence that salutes were used in ancient Rome.
The actual history of the salute is less known and much shorter. This salute was used in late 19th-century theater productions and early 20th-century films, and later inspired fascists in Italy and Germany to use it. And it has actually been performed for decades by American school children for completely different reasons.
From silent films to European fascists
“The Roman salute is a modern invention,” said Martin Winkler, professor of classics at George Mason University in Virginia and author of “Roman Salute: Film, History, Ideology.”
He added: “There is absolutely no evidence that ancient Romans used such movements in any surviving Roman art or paintings.”
The salute first became popular in stage productions and silent films as films began using the gesture in costume dramas set in ancient Rome, Greece, and Egypt.
“This is just a simple visual gesture that was used a lot during the silent film era, when many movies were set in ancient times,” Mr. Winkler said. “Why? Because without sound, dramatic gestures and what we now think of as hyperactivity were almost omnipresent. Saluting gestures were no exception.”
This salute became a reality in 1919. Soldier-turned-Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio (who had worked on Cabiria, an Italian silent film set in antiquity) turned nationalist and invaded the coastal city of Fiume, of which it is now part. of Croatia.
He ruled Fiume for 15 months as a sort of mini-Caesar, calling his soldiers legionnaires and addressing them from his balcony. And he adopted a ritual that included a straight arm salute, called “Il saluto Romano,” or Roman salute.
“This Roman salute was similar to a thrust. “Put your fingers together and extend your arms upward, as if you were a dagger symbolically stabbing your enemy in the throat,” Mr. Winkler said. “This is a very militarized and politicized kind of gesture.”
The Roman salute was soon adopted by Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who came to power in 1922. Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party adopted this salute in 1926 and called it the German Salute.
Interestingly, both were preceded by an American salute.
salute to the american flag
To modern eyes, it would be awkward to see a group of students stubbornly saluting the American flag. But the gesture has been common for decades.
1892 – Ahead of the Chicago World’s Fair commemorating the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in America, Francis Bellamy, the son of a Baptist minister from upstate New York, wrote the Pledge of Allegiance, a version of which was adopted by many Americans. I’m reciting. Children who attend school to this day.
Bellamy saluted alongside his boss, James Upton, as the pledge was read. He stood up, placed his hand on his heart, and extended his right arm to salute the American flag. It became known as the Bellamy Salute.
The pledge itself was part of an Americanization program for immigrant children. But in 1942, while the United States was fighting the Nazis in World War II, the stretching arm gesture was abandoned. “It looked too similar to a Nazi salute,” Winkler said.
Whatever Elon Musk was trying to invoke on Monday, his salute looked very similar, if not identical, to the Nazi salute. He first placed his hand on his chest, which is not part of the Nazi salute and may be closer to what American school children did until 1942.
However, the Pledge of Allegiance salute was removed in a way that left no room for misunderstanding. In other words, the gesture became inextricably linked with the Nazis.
“The general perception among Americans was, ‘These are our enemies and we don’t want to be like them,’” Winkler said.
Mr Musk is currently courting far-right parties in several European countries. His audience in Washington on inauguration day included Tino Chrupalla, co-leader of the Alternative for Germany party. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a scion of the post-fascist movement; Nigel Farage of the UK Reform Party; and France’s Eric Zemmour to the right of Marine Le Pen in the French National Rally.
“What is happening is predictable,” Die Zeit said in an editorial. “Neo-Nazis and right-wing radicals may interpret extending the right arm as a gesture of brotherhood and empowerment.”
Emma Buvola Rome contributed to the report. Audio Production: steel berus.
