So it was a Hitler salute or what?
Elon Musk, speaking at President Trump's inauguration this week, clapped his right hand to his chest before clapping his arm diagonally up, palm down. He did it twice.
It was very similar to the salute used in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. But almost immediately, a surprising number of different comments began to circulate.
Some commentators have called it the “Roman salute”. Others described it as a “heartfelt” expression of joy or just plain awkward.
The website of the Anti-Defamation League, which campaigns against anti-Semitism, determines The Nazi salute is defined as “the outstretched right arm palm down” and ranks it as “the most common white supremacist hand gesture in the world.”
But after Mr Musk's stiff-arm salute, the Anti-Defamation League called it “not a Nazi salute, but an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm”.
Andrea Stroppa X, who is known as Mr Musk's emissary in Italy, wrote on the social media platform: “Starting with the Roman salute, the Roman Empire is back.” He later deleted the post, saying people were interpreting it “as a reference to Nazi-fascism.”
Mr. Musk, the owner of X, wrote in response to the criticism: “Everyone is Hitler” attack is tired.
The straight arm salute has meant many different things in different places and times in history. But at a time when the far-right is on the rise again, the gesture's deliberate and obvious interpretation was simple – especially in Germany, where the greeting's history continues to be strongest.
“No need to make it complicated”
Mr Musk's gestures are illegal in Germany, along with other Nazi-era symbols and slogans. (On Tuesday night, anti-Musk protesters showed a video of him saluting and the words “Heil Tesla”. to the facade of the company's German factory.)
The situation for the German establishment was very clear.
“A Hitler salute is a Hitler salute, a Hitler salute” Die Zeit, a popular German weekly newspaper wrote in an editorial.
“There's no need to make it unnecessarily complicated,” the editorial said. “Anyone who makes a political speech in front of a partially right-wing extremist audience on the political stage” — several far-right politicians from Germany, Italy, France, and England attended the inauguration — “anyone who raises their right arm in a swing and at an angle does the Hitler salute several times “.
“Anyone who now thinks they should discover the old 'Roman salute' as a Musk reference is, above all else, demonstrating their willingness to reinterpret it in a benign way,” he said.
The “Roman salute” is indeed popular on social media – along with images of toga-clad actors raising Mr Musk's hand in grainy films set in ancient Rome.
But was there a Roman salute in ancient times? No: There is no evidence that the salute was ever used in ancient Rome.
The true history of the salute is little known and even shorter: it was used in late 19th-century theater plays and early 20th-century films, then inspired its use by fascists in Italy and Germany. And it's actually been performed by American schoolchildren for decades, for completely different reasons.
From silent films to European fascists
“The Roman salute is a modern invention,” said a professor of classics at George Mason University in Virginia.The Roman salute: cinema, history, ideology.“
“There is no evidence from Roman art and paintings that the ancient Romans ever used this gesture,” he said.
The salute first became popular in stage plays and silent cinema, when films began using the gesture for costume dramas set in ancient Rome, Greece, and Egypt.
“It's just a visual gesture that was heavily practiced during the silent film era, when many films were made in antiquity,” Mr. Winkler said. “Why? Because in the absence of sound, dramatic gestures and what we would now consider excessive movement were almost everywhere. Greeting gestures were no exception.”
In 1919, Salam made a breakthrough in real life. Italian soldier and poet Gabriele D'Annunzio turned nationalist (“worked on”Cabiria,” an Italian silent film set in antiquity) occupied Fiumea coastal city that is now part of Croatia.
He ruled Fiume for 15 months as a kind of mini-Caesar, calling his soldiers legionnaires and addressing them from his balcony. And he adopted a ceremony that included a straight-arm salute, which he called “Il saluto Romano,” or the Roman salute.
“The Roman salute was like a stabbing: you extend your arm with your fingers at an upward angle, as if it were a symbolic dagger at the enemy's throat,” Mr. Winkler said. “It's a very militarized, politicized kind of gesture.”
The Roman salute was soon adopted by Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who came to power in 1923. Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party adopted it in 1926, calling it the German salute.
Interestingly, both were preceded by an American salute.
Salute to the American flag
To modern eyes, it would be horrifying to see a group of schoolchildren saluting the American flag with stiff arms. But the gesture was commonplace for decades.
In 1892—on the eve of the Chicago World's Fair, which marked the 400th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in America—Francis Bellamy, the son of a Baptist minister from upstate New York, wrote the Pledge of Allegiance, a version read by many Americans. school children to this day.
Along with his manager James Upton, Bellamy also gave a salute to accompany the reading of the pledge: Stand up, put your hand over your heart, then extend your right arm to salute the Stars and Stripes. known as Hello Bellamy.
The pledge itself was part of it Americanization program for immigrant children. But in 1942, when the United States was fighting the Nazis in World War II, the outstretched arm gesture was abandoned. “It looked very close to the Nazi salute,” Winkler said.
Whatever Elon Musk tried to call out on Monday, his salute looked pretty close to the Nazi salute, if not quite the same. He first placed his hand on his chest, which is not part of the Nazi salute and may have been closer to what those American schoolchildren did before 1942.
But the salute of the pledge of allegiance was canceled in such a way that there was no room for misinterpretation: the gesture was inextricably linked to the Nazis.
“The general American perception was, 'These are our enemies, and we don't want to be like them,'” Winkler said.
Mr. Musk now to meet with far-right parties in several European countries. Among his audience in Washington on inauguration day were Tino Chrupalla, co-chairman of Germany's Alternative for Germany party; Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose party is from the post-fascist movement; Nigel Farage of the British Reform Party; and even France's Eric Zemmour, who is to the right of Marine Le Pen of the French National Rally.
“What is happening now is predictable,” Die Zeit said in an editorial. “Neo-Nazis and right-wing radicals may interpret the outstretched right arm as a gesture of brotherhood and empowerment.”
Emma Bubola Contributed to the report in Rome.