I started wondering about this for no particular reason I can think of. Who’s idea was it? Was it supposed to be symbolic of something? Did they just start passing out pamphlets at rallies titled: “Forget everything you THINK you know about public greetings!”?
Someone else said it came from Italy. Is the origin hazy, or rid it get to the Nazis through Italy?
As best as I can understand, some anonymous person in the early modern period, 1600s-1700s made up this idea that the ancient Romans did this funny salute. It’s an urban myth. There’s no evidence that real ancient Romans ever used this practice.
Anyhow, the idea floated around for a while; it shows up in paintings in the 1700s. It was picked up by several political movements in the early 20th century, including Bellamy in the United States, and Mussolini, who was a big Romaboo. The Nazis did get the idea from their Italian allies.
I don’t know. James Upham is credited with inventing the Bellamy salute and may have been inspired by the Roman Empire, or more likely by contemporary portrayals of it. Anyway, by 1930, nobody was heiling Caesar that way, but the salute was in use by American schoolchildren. On that basis, I stand by the claim that the Nazis stole it, directly or indirectly, from either the US, the Roman Empire, or Mussolini’s Italy. It’s a kind of cultural appropriation I find more palatable when done by people who don’t then proceed to violently annex most of Europe.