Yes, I’m gay and I love Jews and POC, so it’s not the ideology, it’s the aesthetics and time period that completely fascinate me. I actually got my degree in German History, specializing in Nazi propaganda (yes, you can do that). I watched tons of movies, read lots of biographies and histories. I find it the most interesting era ever, even if it only lasted 12 years. I know I’m not alone in this, even here on DL, where there have been lots of discussions of the war years. Who also shares my interest?
Those Hugo Boss Nazi dress coats were fabulous. Nice lines.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | February 21, 2021 9:46 PM |
You lost, OP? Here you go. This is right up in your alley.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | February 21, 2021 9:47 PM |
There have been several threads over the last 20 years or so purely about Nazi aesthetics. Invariably they're Flamed & Freaked because posters don't separate the atrocities committed from the aesthetics.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | February 21, 2021 9:48 PM |
The Nazis were brilliant marketers. They had a simple message (blame the Jews!), a compelling 'product' ("Make Germany great again!") and a superb logo.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | February 21, 2021 9:48 PM |
[quote]Who also shares my interest?
Nope.... the DDR, however...
by Anonymous | reply 5 | February 21, 2021 9:50 PM |
[quote]The Nazis were brilliant marketers. They had a simple message (blame the Jews!), a compelling 'product' ("Make Germany great again!") and a superb logo.
So, what you're saying is that Joseph Goebbels was the Don Draper of his day?
by Anonymous | reply 6 | February 21, 2021 9:50 PM |
[quote] a superb logo
The flag with the black spider on it.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | February 21, 2021 9:50 PM |
They were definitely masters of visual presentation. There was a simplicity in their signs and banners that let the swastika or eagle dominate the attention. Red White and Black made for good visual contrast, and appeared strong and dominant.
I feel like there is a stylistic through line from the fetish wear of the Weimar Republic to Hugo Boss's designs for the SS and the Nazi Leadership - with the more sexualized elements toned down, of course.
Dress uniforms from other countries - especially overcoats, were also more appealing back then, but the Nazis did top them.
None if this takes away from the atrocities they committed, or makes them at all admirable. That should go without saying, but this being the internet, and this being a time where anything and everything gets twisted, and blown out of proportion, I do have to say it:
Just because the Nazis were well dressed, does't mean that they weren't evil.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | February 21, 2021 9:55 PM |
[quote]Just because the Nazis were well dressed, does't mean that they weren't evil.
I both want and do not want to live in a world where this has to be said...
by Anonymous | reply 9 | February 21, 2021 9:56 PM |
OP, somebody should have slapped some sense into you before you got your Nazi degree.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | February 21, 2021 9:57 PM |
Yes I am gay and a lifelong Democrat who voted for Biden, so it's not the ideology.
It's the experience and the Jell-O Slime Mold aesthetics that make me want Donald Trump for God King Emperor of the Universe for Eternity. And I'll riot if I don't get my way.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | February 21, 2021 9:57 PM |
Stylistically they were interesting. Ideologically, they really fucking sucked. I think that the word fetish isn't doing you any favors here as if one just reads the thread title it sounds as if you get off sexually from Jewish people dying while you are wearing a swastika
by Anonymous | reply 12 | February 21, 2021 10:07 PM |
Why does OP call it a fetish? It sounds like he’s just interested in a specific period of history.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | February 21, 2021 10:08 PM |
I am fascinated by the propagandist architecture of the Reich. Everything is/was overscaled and designed to make the individual small and insignificant. I made a tour of the surviving buildings several years ago and found everything to be very cold and unappealing. But, I do find the uniforms, riding pants and boots to be particularly sexy. That said, I have a hard time separating any design of the regime from the atrocities of the time.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | February 21, 2021 10:20 PM |
OP, you should check out the films of Karl Ritter (STUKAS, 1941; BEZATZUNG DORA, 1943, et al). Lusty, hearty Nazi pillots love being Nazis and killing people from the air! Available at International Historic Films (out of Chicago).
Also of note: HOCH KOPF, JOHANNES! (41), set in a Nazi military academy (lots of partial nudity in the swimming pool and locker room scenes), and Leni Riefenstahl's 1938 OLYMPIA, Part II (38), with beautiful blonde Nazi boys cavorting in their birthday suits in saunas and lakes!
The Third Reich was totally "Masc 4 Masc."
by Anonymous | reply 15 | February 21, 2021 10:25 PM |
I have an obsession with art and politics in Weimar Germany, and in post-'45 Germany ('45 through the fall of the Wall). Unfortunately I have friends who interpret that as a Nazi fetish. A friend one Christmas gave me a 1200-page history of Auschwitz. No I have not read it. 1200 pages of precisely how the Nazis handled prisoners isn't my speed, to say the least.
As you can imagine "Babylon Berlin" is quite near and dear to my heart. (that club really existed, though it didn't have a brothel in the basement, it was owned by the Armenian mob.)
Fun fact: the "telephone bar" featured in Cabaret remained open through the Nazi era, and was bombed to smithereens by the Allies in 1944.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | February 21, 2021 10:28 PM |
[quote] I find it the most interesting era ever, even if it only lasted 12 years.
It must be a shithole hellhole where you live, OP. Under the burning, searing light of a domineering evil mother, anything goes for you, OP.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | February 21, 2021 10:29 PM |
Years ago i found a book about homoerotic art of the third Reich that was a very interesting art/history book, that I wish I had purchased. I've never been able to find it again since.
Just tried to look for it via google and amazon to link here, but again could not find it.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | February 21, 2021 10:33 PM |
Sometimes when I jerk off, I wish there were more Nazi porn to masturbate to.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | February 22, 2021 5:37 AM |
OP, It's amazing how you can type with your right hand halfway up the air.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | February 22, 2021 8:38 AM |
[quote]posters don't separate the atrocities committed from the aesthetics
The aesthetics are inextricably linked to the atrocities. As others mentioned, their aesthetics were part of their branding, making themselves seem professional, stylish, impressive, and threatening all at once. You can't have the Nazis without their aesthetics.
OP wasn't much of a student if he managed to get himself suckered by Nazi branding decades after they were all but destroyed.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | February 22, 2021 8:53 AM |
Bump
by Anonymous | reply 22 | February 22, 2021 4:10 PM |
OP types bottom.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | February 22, 2021 8:40 PM |
I'm currently watching The Man In The High Tower. All that throwing hands up in the air is exhausting. To paraphrase the tag line for "Evita on Broadway", "How was someone able to seduce an entire country?" Did the Germans go along to get along?
by Anonymous | reply 24 | February 22, 2021 8:45 PM |
We can relate OP, we have the same fetish.
But without the gay, and love for Jews and POC.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | February 22, 2021 8:51 PM |
The AfD will welcome you with open arms, fraulein OP.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | February 23, 2021 6:34 PM |
Always had an interest in terms of graphic design, visual identity, and menswear. That's an observation not an affiliation btw.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | February 23, 2021 6:36 PM |
I'm the OP. I was locked out to making comments, maybe because of starting this thread? By fetish, I meant that it really fascinates me and it is a bit furtive, since I keep propaganda pictures on my computer that would make a random person think I was a Neo-Nazi. But I'm not. I certainly don't hang them on my walls (like Jay Carney and his Soviet propaganda posters). And I collect books about the era. I think you CAN separate the art/architecture from the atrocities, I mean, I do. There is nothing sexual about my interest - I'm not into uniforms or boots or anything like that. Anyway, not sure why I started this thread, should have expected a lot of abuse, but some people had interesting comments.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | February 23, 2021 7:01 PM |
Hi Milo.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | February 23, 2021 7:10 PM |
I am like Milo in that I have only ever dated men of color. Despite my "fetish", I'm not really into the blond Aryan type.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | February 23, 2021 7:15 PM |
[quote] Did the Germans go along to get along?
Hitler was a false God offering false promises at a time when many people struggled to make ends meet.
And look at OP, dazzled by the Nazi aesthetic. How shallow. Like it's ok to separate the fashion appeal from the bigoted, violent, murderous Nazi lifestyle.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | February 23, 2021 7:58 PM |
DL, because of my fetish, I'm going to put this on my car, but I don't want any problems. Do you think it will be OK? It's just because aesthetics.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | February 23, 2021 9:25 PM |
NP, r33. Just get a bumper sticker that says, "I'm only into the aesthetics, not the atrocities" and everyone will understand.
by Anonymous | reply 34 | February 23, 2021 10:01 PM |