Why?

[Billy Underdog]

A general random question-thread, sometimes even without an answer needed...

The Nazi "protection squadron" Schutzstaffel was shortened to SS. Why not ß, which is the German letter for double s (aka. eszett)..?

[Charger]

The Nazi "protection squadron" Schutzstaffel was shortened to SS. Why not ß, which is the German letter for double s..?

Because then the logo looked cool with the double lightning S's...

But most likely because the double S letter is used inside a word with double s, not an acronym or an abbreviation which was the case here.

[Sabbabbath]

The Nazi "protection squadron" Schutzstaffel was shortened to SS. Why not ß, which is the German letter for double s..?

Because then the logo looked cool with the double lightning S's...

But most likely because the double S letter is used inside a word with double s, not an acronym or an abbreviation which was the case here.

Actually there are many German words with double-s, e.g. "Wasser" = water, or (importantly for the Nazis) "Rasse" = race. But compare: "Spaß" = fun. Whether you use "ss" or "ß" in a word depends on how the vowel before the ss/ß is pronounced. Thus, "ß" is not an abbreviation for "ss", and, as Charger already mentioned, never used as such. And yes, I am sure the Nazis wanted the abbreviation to look martial.

[Zzzptm]

Great sketch comes to mind... "Are we the baddies?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLJUocaDYw0

[Charger]

Actually there are many German words with double-s, e.g. "Wasser" = water, or (importantly for the Nazis) "Rasse" = race. But compare: "Spaß" = fun. Whether you use "ss" or "ß" in a word depends on how the vowel before the ss/ß is pronounced. Thus, "ß" is not an abbreviation for "ss", and, as Charger already mentioned, never used as such. And yes, I am sure the Nazis wanted the abbreviation to look martial.

Oh I forgot you were German!

Thanks for adding...I'm really not very good in deutsch...my knowlage of the language limits pretty much in car lingo as I have bought few cars from there...

[Zzzptm]

Most of my German comes from reading WW2 primary source documents. The rest comes from translating Puhdys lyrics.

[Sabbabbath]

Most of my German comes from reading WW2 primary source documents. The rest comes from translating Puhdys lyrics.

LOL, I am sure your German is VERY special!

[Zzzptm]

Most of my German comes from reading WW2 primary source documents. The rest comes from translating Puhdys lyrics.

LOL, I am sure your German is VERY special!

Given how the Nazis used "special" as a constant euphemism for their brutality, I'd say "sonder-" is an important part of my German vocab.

[Sabbabbath]

Most of my German comes from reading WW2 primary source documents. The rest comes from translating Puhdys lyrics.

LOL, I am sure your German is VERY special!

Given how the Nazis used "special" as a constant euphemism for their brutality, I'd say "sonder-" is an important part of my German vocab.

Oh yes, the Nazis loved that prefix! It is horrible to see that many terms of the Nazi vocabulary are recently being made more popular again by the AFD, the fascist party that is now in the parliament. And of course that's not a linguistic problem; racist violence has vastly increased at the same time.

[Charger]

And of course that's not a linguistic problem; racist violence has vastly increased at the same time.

Which ofcourse is a direct result of the terrorist attacks over Europe. Those two always go hand in hand...

[Sabbabbath]

And of course that's not a linguistic problem; racist violence has vastly increased at the same time.

Which ofcourse is a direct result of the terrorist attacks over Europe. Those two always go hand in hand...

"Indirect" would be more correct than "direct", but I get your point. Well, I don't know about your country, but in Germany, Nazis are currently not talking THAT much about terrorism. More prominent are their claims that refugees are too expensive, refugee men rape German women, refugees are simply people who don't belong "here", and the "Deutsches Volk" (or white race) is becoming extinct. But yes, they also mention terrorism, and associate being-a-refugee with being-a-terrorist, which is pretty ironic given that a huge amount of refugees have been victims of terrorism themselves.

[Billy Underdog]

Not to mention that alot of terrorists are second and third generation "immigrants" disconected from their heritage, but feel a need to fight for a cause they don't fully grasp the reality of. Very much the same way of thinking as Nazis, really.

You keep saying guns aren't the problem, people are. Well, let's stop people from getting guns then. Problem solved...

[Zzzptm]

German nationalism is such a complicated mess... I just finished writing up a bit about how the German-Austrian Republic wanted to join with Germany prior to the Treaties of Versailles and Saint-Germain blocked those moves. Had they been allowed to join, then Austria, South Tyrol, Sudetnland, and German-majority parts of Bohemia and Moravia that were not formally associated with Czechoslovakia immediately after WW1 would have joined with Germany.

I wonder if Germany would have been as revanchist as it was historically if those areas had been allowed to join with the whole German state.

[Sabbabbath]

Yes, German nationalism is definitely one of the craziest and most evil beasts ever to populate the earth. I think it was a huge mistake to allow Germany to rearm after WW1.

As for Islamist terrorists and their leaders, many of them are in fact clerical fascists. There are significant similarities to (many) European Nazis in terms of antisemitism, misogyny, racism, and a deep-seated hate against liberalism and equality. 

[Billy Underdog]

As for Islamist terrorists and their leaders, many of them are in fact clerical fascists. There are significant similarities to (many) European Nazis in terms of antisemitism, misogyny, racism, and a deep-seated hate against liberalism and equality. 

An anti semitic muslim, that's just too laughable. Semitic is the name for a branch of the Afroasian languages, in witch Arabic is part of. Using semitic to refer to culture or ethnicity are obsolete to any serious scolar.
So an anti semitic muslim is essentially an anti Arabic muslim. Go figure...
Just goes to show that these people have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. The correct term would've been anti Hebrew or anti Jewish.