What Is The Religious History Of The Swastika?
First we are confronted with the swastika in the floor mosaic of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. In his book Vom Hakenkreuz (Concerning the Swastika) Joerg Lechler shows a number of swastika representations taken from churches of Christendom. Amid the voluminous picture material, one sees a so-called “hungercloth” (fasting or Lent cloth) from Heiligengrabe, Germany, upon which Christ’s garment is covered with swastikas. The swastika appears on an altar cloth of the Maria zur Wiese Church in Soest, Germany. It is also found on the bronze monument of Bishop Bocholt in Luebeck and on some medieval coins of the Catholic dioceses of Mainz and Halberstadt and of the Erfurt bishop Heinrich (1140-1150 C.E.). On a picture in a church in Dalby (southern Sweden) the lamb representing Jesus Christ bore a swastika rather than a simple cross. A swastika was also used in the cast of the church bell of Utterslev, Denmark.
