Talk:Sieg Heil

message: Sieg hail simply means hail victory.
Actually, it could also be interpreted to mean "victory" [and] "salvation" (or some permutation thereof), which tracks with what the Nazi Party used to achieve their dastardly agenda.
VICTORY. Germany in the aftermath of World War I was totally defeated (the antithesis of "victory"), thus a victory [via a "do over" in the form of World War II] against those who "totally defeated" was necessary (this may have been the crux of the Nazi decision to attack the Soviet Union, as Russia was a World War I opponent of Germany).
SALVATION. Those subjected to it -- the "totally defeated" -- needed some sort of "salvation" from the very real, negative consequences of The Treaty of Versailles, and the Nazis promised to do just that
Adolf Hitler and his closest Nazi consultors (note the religious connotation of the word "consultor") aimed to do so by making 'der Führer' not only a strong political leader under the title of "Chancellor," but also in a quasi-religious sense: as a "Savior," and in turn, Nazism the new and eternal "religion" of the Reich, which points to the Nazis systematically eradicating indigenous religious practice, largely as a function of the Holocaust.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2604:CA00:12B:33F8:0:0:C6E:C8E3 (talk) 04:43, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

message: What phrase cannot be used in a tongue-in-cheek manner? We might as well add this comment to every single article from Fifty-Four Forty or Fight to Ave and it wouldn't get us anywhere.
Besides, I don't know how it is in the US, but saying "Sieg Heil" anywhere in Europe, even if you don't really mean it and think it's funny, will probably get you dirty looks OR chased out of town with pitchforks and torches OR arrested, depending on location. --Rueckk 13:03, 21 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: In the west when someone says "sieg heil", 9 times out of 10 they are being sarcastic.  --Battlefield 00:11, 22 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tongue-in-cheek?  

message: I removed the request. The article's length is appropriate to the topic. --Halcatalyst 21:35, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Deleted expansion request

message: "Sieg Heil is a German phrase, which literally means "For ensured victory", or "For The Win"."
As far as I know, Sieg Heil means "Say hail".
From dictionary.com:
v. hailed, hail·ing, hails
v. tr.
#
## To salute or greet.
## To greet or acclaim enthusiastically: The crowds hailed the boxing champion.
# To call out or yell in order to catch the attention of: hail a cabdriver.
—Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.95.130.13 (talk • contribs) 
:"Say hail"? Sounds rather questionable. "x Heil!"/"Heil x!" was a common phrase in earlier times, the latter of which is practically identical to "Hail to the x!" (e.g. "Hail to the king!" -- like "Heil dem Führer!").
:"Sieg" most likely DOES mean "Victory" here, or success in general. As much as it cries for photoshopping, "For the win!" is a pretty accurate, although incredibly humorous, translation.
:It's more of a blessing than an actual salute. Unless there's some archaic meaning I'm not aware of, "Sieg" NEVER meant "say", though, and "Heil" has little to do with "hail", although both may share linguistic roots.
:Being the politically incorrect bastard I am, the idea of an assembly of SA guards saluting Hitler and shouting "FTW! FTW! FTW!" made me giggle rather badly. I guess Germans CAN laugh about the Third Reich. — Ashmodai (talk · contribs) 22:37, 23 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: It's worth pointing out that that "definition" was added on 1 April. I changed it to "Hail victory", which seems like a good literal translation to me. Kairos 18:44, 24 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: And this is the one and only exact translation. "Sieg" means victory in German and has nothing to do with any form of the verbum "sagen" that is "say" in english. I gotta know, I'm a bloody hun :)  --217.17.197.166 14:23, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

text: "Hail victory" certainly seems acceptable to me. And "Hail" and "Heil" certainly are very close, as explained by someone else on the Nazi salute discussion page. --OliverH 14:45, 23 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I always understood the German word "Heil" to mean prosperity or according to www.leo.org, "Salvation". the verb "Hail" in German, to my knowledge is strickly "Grüßen". I think a more accurate translation would be "Victory, Salvation" - which seems like something the Nazis would say ;) Perhaps then "Heil Hitler" is something to the effect of "Our salvaging leader, Hitler" or "Hitler, our salvation" 207.112.71.9 21:23, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  For The Win? 

message: Well... as far as I know (and from what I can say as a native speaker and citizen) the greeting was used in ancient Rome, greeting Caesar (well I got that from my Latin classes at school.) It was "Salve Caesar" back then and the gesture was the same.
I never really gave this a deeper thought, but now I will. I would actually consider "Heil Hitler" a means of originally greeting him and wishing him well. Greeting others naturally kept him in the memory of the populace and I'd say that it was still directed towards Hitler.
Sieg Heil therefor is a combination out of two things: Wishing Hitler well and hoping for victory.
Concluding I cannot give a better translation. I do not know whether or not "hail" would be completely right, but "salvation" surely isn't.
I would tend towards the translation "hail". This got the following reason: There is a Catholic prayer entitles "Hail Mary". The Latin version (and the translation) is "Ave Maria". "Ave" is another word for "Salve" that was used in ancient Rome (as described above).
If you want it literally I would personally tend to the translation "Victory Hail".Janet1983 03:16, 13 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Ancient Greeting

message: "When meeting someone, it was customary in Nazi Germany to give the Hitler salute and say the words "Sieg Heil"."
That's not correct. When giving the Hitler salute you were expected to say "Heil Hitler" and not "Sieg Heil". "Sieg Heil" was mainly used on events of the NSDAP and not as a normal greeting.--217.85.114.224 12:04, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I also find it difficult to believe that it was actually common for people to say this to each other—Nazi officials, yes, but the average person? I don't believe it. Sounds like more of the "If it's about Nazis, anything's believable" kind of statement. (I read once it was only after the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 that Hitler made it mandatory for Army officers to greet each other with "Heil Hitler", but even then they only did it if there was a SS officer or known regular-army Nazi fanatic present.) Historian932 (talk) 04:25, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: This is found in Hitler salute article. And yes, it is unlikely for the Wehrmacht to stay so reluctant, if all the civilians would indeed use it in a "customary" manner. But still, I think that the "average person" generally supported Hitler, whether they used the greeting or not. --Kubanczyk (talk) 09:55, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sieg Heil as a greeting 

message: I know everyone thinks of this as a Nazi slogan, and technically it was, but since "hail victory" sounds more like a battle cry or something you'd shout at a sports game, why would it be offensive? Surely this existed before the '20s? Does everything the Nazis touch turn to s%#t? Brutannica (talk) 20:05, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Y'know, this reminds me of many a college cheer. For example.... "RRRRR" - "YOU"! (Someone says the first letter, someone else says the second.) 68.36.215.251 (talk) 05:16, 8 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Interestingly, Rutgers uses a lot of red, white, and black in its school-oriented merchandise. Those happen to be similar colors to those of the Nazi flag. But the colors are pre-Nazi in origin (at least the red part is, which is the most important Rutgers color). 68.36.215.251 (talk) 05:17, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

text: "Banned" does not really cut it. See :de:Schwarz-Weiß-Rot or German flag#Weimar Republic. Yaan (talk) 08:12, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Is this completely a Nazi association?

message: This is inaccurate
First of all...a Catholic Yugoslavia?!?!?!
The author probably means the Catholic parts of Yugoslavia-- i.e. Croatia and Slovenia-- as opposed to the Orthodox and Muslim parts of Yugoslavia; Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and most of Bosnia, not very difficult to assess. Venqax (talk) 17:05, 24 May 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: I've moved the entire section, including this mention, to the Roman salute. I don't see how these various salutes are connected to "Sieg Heil". In case Ustase used a different gesture, or were not influenced by Italians/Germans on that, continue on that page. --Kubanczyk (talk) 20:43, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  In Catholic Yugoslavia during World War II, the Ustaša used a salute very similar to the Sieg Heil as Za dom! Spremni!