The Pickelhaube Problem: Bored Ape Yacht Club's Nazi Dogwhistle (Part 1)
The founders of Yuga Labs claim to be victims of a "crazy disinformation campaign" over alt-right concerns. Why do they refuse to address a blatant antisemitic dog whistle in their collection?
What’s a pickelhaube?
A pickelhaube is a spiked helmet worn originating from Prussia, worn by soldiers and officers of the German Empire. The ornate design of the helmet turned out to be a hindrance in the context of modernized warfare: Germans with conspicuous gold spikes accidentally turned their melons into juicy targets for enemy snipers. Among other reasons, it was discontinued from German military uniforms after the collapse of the German Empire.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club used the pickelhaube as one of their “hats” for their cartoon Bored Apes. We know that the folks at Yuga Labs, creators of the Bored Apes, are familiar with the history of the helmet because they named the trait “Prussian Helmet” and included a double-eagle on the helmet.
Why is the Prussian pickelhaube a problem?
Today, neo-Nazis use the pickelhaube and other iconography from the German Empire as a dog whistle (coded language to signal to one another). I named the Bored Ape pickelhaube as one of several troubling elements of Yuga’s artwork in the first piece I ever published about Yuga Labs when I examined the potential anti-Semitism behind one of the founder’s pseudonyms.
I hoped that Yuga would have used that as an opportunity to clarify their reasoning for using such a blatant alt-right dogwhistle. Instead, founder Wylie Aronow (“Gordon Goner”) retweeted my article because he felt it would be a shield against criticism and never spoke a word on the genuine concerns I laid forth. I had to dredge up his connections to an alt-right publisher to get Wylie to speak on any problems with his company’s products, and even at that point his responses were a panicked and paranoid nest of mistruths.
Why do you say that the pickelhaube is an alt-right or neo-Nazi dog whistle?
Prussian pickelhaubes, flags, emblems, symbols, and historical figures are often used as substitutes by German neo-Nazis because Germany outlawed explicitly Nazi symbols such as the swastika. Many of the design elements from the Prussian Imperial war flag were carried forward to the Nazi war flag, so wielding the Prussian flag signifies the historical and cultural ties between Prussia and Nazi Germany.
The Anti-Defamation League recognizes the use of the Imperial War Reichskriegsflagge by neo-Nazis. In some ways, it might be compared to the usage of the Confederate flag in the United States.
The history of Prussia festers with anti-Jewish sentiment. The laws and attitudes of the German Empire laid the foundations for the rise of the Third Reich, so its reference in modern context is thinly veiled.
I got a weird feeling in my gut on the day the Bored Ape art revealed, recognizing the pickelhaube as a dogwhistle from a popular meme that started circulating a few years ago: “Pickelhaube Kid.”
Who is “Pickelhaube Kid”?
I first saw the Pickelhaube Kid on the front page of Reddit. The image depicts a young man in a pickelhaube with a German Imperial war flag. This image hit the front page multiple times via recirculation from subreddits like r/facepalm and r/mallninjashit.
Despite the caption, it’s obvious this young person willfully intended to provoke a response knowing these symbols were appropriated by Nazis and therefore would be interpreted as such. He knew what he was doing.
Pickelhaube Kid is no anomaly. Hyperenthusiasts of Prussia and the German Empire are often labeled “Kaiserboos” and there a multiple internet communities dedicated towards worshiping the fallen German Empire.
What’s a “Kaiserboo”?
A Kaiserboo is a person obsessed with the German Empire. Kaiserboos are not simply appreciators of history: they venerate and yearn for the former glory of the German Empire. However, when you peer beneath the surface, it is obvious such fetishization of a former monarchy is cover for Nazism and other hateful ideas.
One prominent example is the YouTube channel run by “ReichTangle.” Reichtangle’s channel was formerly suspended, and now they run their content under a new channel with over 400k subscribers. Many of their videos on the new channel were repurposed to conceal the offending imagery, but still carry the reactionary sentiments of the original videos.
While I suspect many Kaiserboos would object to the label itself due to derisive connotations, it’s accurate to say many are interested in German imperialism well beyond pure historical interest.
Pickelhaubes are plastered all over Kaiserboo culture. So yes: in contemporary internet culture, a pickelhaube is a blatant Nazi dog whistle.
Hold up. Not all pickelhaubes are Nazi dog whistles. Many countries around the world use pickelhaubes for ceremonious purposes, such as Chile, Argentina, Sweden, Mexico —
Yes, but the Bored Ape pickelhaube isn’t from any of those countries, is it? We’re explicitly told by BAYC that it’s a Prussian helmet.
Even if that weren’t the case, just because an object has widespread cultural permeation doesn’t mean it cannot be looked at with a critical eye. Some of these countries conduct ceremonies to honor their connection to Prussian history. And some of these ceremonies involve music composed by Nazis such as Leopold Weninger, known for his militant arrangements of Sturmabteilung (SA) marches.
It’s somewhat unsettling to see nations marching to musical compositions cherished by Nazis, illustrating the difficulty of extricating Nazism from the cultural artifacts of the German Empire.
Some famous musicians wore pickelhaubes, are you saying they’re anti-Semitic too?
In some cases, yes. In other cases, no. It’s complicated.
Bassist Steve Priest from Sweet appeared on Top of the Pops in a pickelhaube, once wearing a swastika armband, an SS tunic, and a mustache styled after Hitler. Although Priest later claimed it was an ironic gesture, the widespread embrace of Nazi iconography in British rock during the 1970s funneled into the simmering white nationalist sentiment across England.
British rockers fiddling with Nazi symbolism culminated in the adoption of the Totenkopf by Ian Stuart Donaldson and neo-Nazi punk rock in the early 1980s, funding the establishment of white supremacist terrorist organizations that thrive worldwide to this day. There is a lot of anti-Semitism in the history of British rock.
Jimi Hendrix was also once photographed alongside a pickelhaube, although I cannot find any images of him wearing one on his head (he didn’t ride motorcycles and was selective about what he wore on his head).
There’s a wider shot that shows him alongside two other men on motorcycles. One is wearing a vest with a swastika and a Stahelhelm, the other is wearing a vest with a Nazi Reichsadler and a Nazi officer’s cap. Even in the 1970s, people understood the pickelhaube’s proximity to Nazism.
This photo shoot was in poor taste, which is probably why these images are rarely found in circulation. That said, I hardly feel that it makes Jimi Hendrix antisemitic. It seems more likely he was directed to pose alongside the pickelhaube — it wasn’t part of his artistic oeuvre. The photo shoot itself is easier to classify as antisemitic. (Side note: if you have any background information about this photo shoot, I’m very interested to learn more.)
On the other hand, there are some musicians who have re-appropriated the pickelhaube for creative purposes that I would not consider anti-Semitic. One example is the cover to Edwin Starr’s 1970 album “War & Peace.” Starr wears a pickelhaube and German military uniform on the left hand side of the peace symbol.
The metaphor is pretty straightforward: war and peace are two sides of the same coin. In that sense, it’s obvious that Starr isn’t endorsing German imperialism, but using it as a critical expression of his attitude towards militarism. Check the famous lead track of the album: “War I despise / Cause it means destruction of innocent lives.”
Yeah, what about re-appropriation? Could BAYC be “taking back” the helmet?
When it comes to the pickelhaube, there’s a spectrum of interpretations depending upon who wears it and why they choose to wear it. Like the ADL says, these symbols weren’t always interpreted as racist or anti-Semitic.
I do think there can be valid reappropriations of symbols. I don’t think placing a Prussian pickelhaube atop a cartoon monkey with zero explanation (despite public outcry) qualifies as a valid means of reappropriation.
Edwin Starr had an arguably legitimate use in 1970, but it seems unlikely he would pull off the same cover in 2022 because time changed how society reflects and interprets cultural symbols. The BAYC isn’t a Motown artist in 1970 — it’s a corporate project concocted by a couple white dudes who were inspired by internet culture. And there are countless indicators that in modern internet culture, the Prussian pickelhaube serves as an antisemitic dog whistle.
I can’t recall any new usage of pickelhaubes by musicians in the last decade or so. Possibly because modern audiences, more attuned to subtle forms of sneak prejudice, may quickly identify such symbols as an alt-right signal. Thousands on Reddit mocked the Pickelhaube Kid because his Prussian gear obviously read as born out of a desire to troll folks.
We live in an age where bigotry comes cloaked in misappropriated symbolism and iconography, and internet subcultures fuel the flames of white nationalism through coded language and aesthetics.
Use of the pickelhaube in art might not be inherently antisemitic, but that it does require something we are missing from the Bored Ape Yacht Club: context.
Is there any possible context that Yuga Labs could provide that would justify their Prussian Helmet?
We’re 18 months past the release of the Bored Ape Yacht Club. If there were some vindicating rationale for the specific emblem of a reactionary, genocidal, autocratic regime to be included in an “irreverent” collection of cartoon monkeys, wouldn’t we know it by now?
I’ve exhausted opportunities to ask Yuga Labs for any explanation or contextualization of its inclusion. Their employees appear completely in the dark as to its origins and meaning.
We’re 13 months past the Coindesk interview where Yuga founder Greg Solano (“Gargamel”) explained how they designed the Ape traits inspired by techniques like Hemingway’s iceberg theory and Wittgenstein’s aesthetic philosophy. He explained that the traits were intentionally designed with an implied subtext that would give onlookers “a little tingle on their neck,” causing them to think: “Yeah, this is kind of different. This isn’t just random.”
My neck is definitely tingling when I look at the Bored Ape Prussian Helmet.
Yuga Labs is utterly silent because they know their pickelhaube carries deeply anti-Semitic connotations. Greg and Wylie’s highly specific creative choices eliminated the possibility of any convenient excuse to hide behind.
As I’ve shown in the past with the Confederate Koda, the team at Yuga Labs has no qualms fabricating vapid excuses for their edgelord imagery or deceitfully concealing their relationships with alt-right publications. So why should anyone trust whatever embellished corporate propaganda their revolving door of a PR team spins up?
Were there some innocent rationale at play — some series of unfortunate coincidences mixed in with ignorance — it would be wildly irresponsible to withhold such context for so long, especially when you are ignoring and denigrating the intelligence of Jewish people who express offense over the pickelhaube.
There should be zero doubt that the Bored Ape “Prussian Helmet” is a Nazi dog whistle. If it were anything else, reasonable people would have sprung into action to dispel rumors of malicious intent as soon as such chatter began to surface. It would have been easy to address with a quick apology and an offer to change the offending imagery, just as Yuga offered with their Rising Sun bandana.
Instead, the money got taller, their lips grew tighter, and they relinquished ownership of the contract that would permit them to easily make alterations to the art.
In Part 2, I’ll explain exactly how the pickelhaube, Prussia, and German imperialism are deployed as neo-Nazi dog whistles.
cringe
not saying there wasn't genocide but basically every nation on the planet has committed it once
it's just a damn hat you internet virgin
Bro... bro. the pickelhaube was discontinued in 1916, it was never used by the nazis nor in service during the nazi rule, it was last used in ww1, no one wore that thing in ww2 bro, i would recommend doing your research