The Three Arrows () is a political symbol associated with the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

(SPD), used in the late history of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

. First conceived for the SPD-dominated

Iron Front The Iron Front () was a German "extraparliamentary" and paramilitary organization in the Weimar Republic which consisted of social democrats, trade unionists, and democratic socialists. Its main goal was to defend democracy against totalita ...

as a symbol of the social democratic resistance against

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

in 1932, it became an official symbol of the Party during the

November 1932 German federal election Federal elections were held in Germany on 6 November 1932.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p762 The Nazi Party saw its vote share fall by four percentage points, while there were slight increases ...

, representing their opposition towards

monarchism Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. ...

, Nazism, and

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

. Since its inception, the symbol has been used in many different contexts by a variety of

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...

social democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

and

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

organisations.

Weimar Republic

The

(SPD) was opposed by both the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

(NSDAP) and the Communist Party (KPD). In this setting, the SPD organizer Carlo Mierendorff recruited Russian exiled physiologist Sergei Chakhotin as the propagandist of the paramilitary Iron Front, and together they developed propaganda initiatives to counter the NSDAP and the KPD in early 1932. The two launched the Three Arrows as a symbol for the social democrat militancy. The Iron Front was regarded as a " social fascist terror organisation" by the KPD. Mierendorf and Chakhotin launched the Three Arrows against the Swastika (''Dreipfeil gegen Hakenkreuz'') campaign. Chakhotin authored a book by the same name. The Three Arrows were thought to represent the struggle of the

movement against

reaction Reaction may refer to a process or to a response to an action, event, or exposure. Physics and chemistry *Chemical reaction *Nuclear reaction *Reaction (physics), as defined by Newton's third law * Chain reaction (disambiguation) Biology and ...

(referring to

and

fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

. On a widely used and publicized SPD election poster for the 6 November 1932 Reichstag elections, the Three Arrows were used to represent opposition to the Communist Party, the monarchist parties, and the

, accompanied by the slogan "Against Papen,

Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

, Thälmann". The three arrows also represented the three agents of working class strength: political (represented by the SPD), economic (represented by the

trade unions A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

) and physical (represented by the ). Chakhotin provides an even wider range of meanings, including the three elements of the movement (political/intellectual power, economic force, physical force), the three qualities demanded of fighters (activity, discipline, union), as well as the ideals of the French Revolution (). He also noted that "the figure 3 appears so often in human life, in thoughts, in personal life, and in history, that it has become a sort of 'sacred figure'." The aesthetic of the campaign and the Three Arrows symbol as such drew inspiration from Soviet-Russian avant-garde revolutionary artwork. According to Chakhotin, his inspiration for the Three Arrows was a

swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍, ) is a symbol used in various Eurasian religions and cultures, as well as a few Indigenous peoples of Africa, African and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American cultures. In the Western world, it is widely rec ...

that had been crossed over with chalk in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

. Per Chakhotin's argument, the Three Arrows and the swastika would always appear as if the three lines were imposed over the swastika rather than the other way around. The Three Arrows were adopted as an official social democrat symbol by the SPD leadership and the Iron Front by June 1932. Iron Front members would carry the symbol on their arm bands. The slogan "neither Stalin's slaves nor Hitler's henchmen" was also used by the SPD in connection with the symbol.

Use outside Germany

In August 1932, the Austrian Social Democrats adopted the Three Arrows as their combat symbol.Bund Sozialdemokratischer Freiheitskämpfer/innen, Opfer des Faschismus und aktiver Antifaschist/inn/en.
Unser Zeichen
' The Austrian socialist poet Karl Schneller dedicated the poem ''Drei Pfeile'' to the 1932 Austrian Social Democratic Party congress. The symbol was banned in Austria in 1933. During the

Nazi regime Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

, the symbol appeared on pamphlets of the Revolutionary Socialists of Austria and was used in graffiti. During 1932–1935, it was also used in Belgium, Denmark and the United Kingdom. After Chakhotin had been forced into exile to France, the symbol became used by the

French Section of the Workers' International The French Section of the Workers' International (, SFIO) was a major socialist political party in France which was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the present Socialist Party. The SFIO was founded in 1905 as the French representativ ...

. The Three Arrows remained the symbol of the French socialists until the 1970s, when it was substituted with the

fist and rose The fist and rose, sometimes called the rose in the fist or fist with a rose, is an emblem used or formerly used by a number of Left-wing politics, left-wing and Centre-left politics, center-left parties and political organizations around the wo ...

symbol. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the Three Arrows became the official party logo of the

Social Democratic Party of Austria The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...

() in 1945. The symbol had been modified to include a circle, and the symbolism changed to represent the unity of industrial workers, farm workers and intellectuals. The Three Arrows remained a prominent symbol of the Social Democratic Party of Austria until the 1950s. According to the modern SPÖ, the Three Arrows represent opposition against fascism, capitalism and clericalism. The Portuguese Democratic People's Party, created in 1974 in the aftermath of the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...

, which put an end to the 48-year-long dictatorship in Portugal, and renamed itself the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

in 1976, uses an adaptation of the Three Arrows as its logo since its foundation. However, its arrows are pointing upwards, and each have a different colour (previously black, red and white; the white having been replaced by orange). According to party members involved in the discussions about the choice of symbols, the Arrows were chosen as a way to differentiate the party from its main rivals' easily recognizable logos: The

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

's raised fist and

rose A rose is either a woody perennial plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...

, and the Communist Party's

hammer and sickle The hammer and sickle (Unicode: ) is a communist symbol representing proletarian solidarity between industrial and agricultural workers. It was first adopted during the Russian Revolution at the end of World War I, the hammer representing wo ...

. It is also supposed to stress the resistance to and rejection of fascism and Nazism. The Three Arrows were adopted by socialist and antifascist organizations in Poland. In the 1930s the symbol became an emblem of two political parties:

Polish Socialist Party The Polish Socialist Party (, PPS) is a democratic socialist political party in Poland. It was one of the most significant parties in Poland from its founding in 1892 until its forced merger with the communist Polish Workers' Party to form ...

() and

General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland The General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland (, ) was a History of the Jews in Poland, Jewish socialist party in Poland which promoted the political, cultural and social autonomy of Jewish workers, sought to combat antisemitism and was generally oppos ...

(). The Three Arrows symbol is popularly used within the antifa movement in the United States, along with flags based on the symbol of

antifa in Germany Antifa () is a political movement in Germany composed of multiple far-left, Leaderless resistance, autonomous, militant groups and individuals who describe themselves as anti-fascist. According to the German Federal Office for the Protection of ...

. Sections of the

American Left The American Left refers to the groups or ideas on the left of the political spectrum in the United States. It is occasionally used as a shorthand for groups aligned with the Democratic Party. At other times, it refers to groups that have soug ...

, including the Young People's Socialist League, have adopted the Three Arrows as a logo. File:SFIO.svg, Logo of the

(SFIO) File:Congrès national extraordinaire de la SFIO - Montrouge, mars 1946.jpg, Extraordinary National Congress of the SFIO, March 1946 File:Polish Bund logo, 1947.svg, Logo of the

File:Polish Bund 50 year anniversary celebration, 15 November 1947.jpg, Meeting of the Bund in Poland, 15 November 1947 File:New Socialist Centre In New York 1933 Crop.jpg, Meeting of the Bronx

Socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

Centre, November 1933 File:Akcja Socjalistyczna, Gdynia przed 1939.jpg, Demonstration of ( Socialist Action), a paramilitary organization of the

, before 1939 File:Logo of the PSLI.png, Logo of the Socialist Party of Italian Workers (PSLI) File:Partido_Social_Democrata_Logo.svg, The current logo of the

in Portugal, inspired by the German Social Democrats' Three Arrows File:Flag of the Social Democratic Party of Austria.svg, The current flag of the

References

{{authority control 1932 in Germany Anti-communism in Germany Anti-fascism in Germany Democratic socialism in Europe Social Democratic Party of Germany Social democracy in Europe Socialist symbols

Weimar Republic

Use outside Germany

See also

References