paws of their lion. Nazi occultist Karl Maria Wiligut believed that heraldry began in the world of the Germanic gods, and was created by Wotan, the god of war. This was influenced by the pre-Nazi occultist Guido von List, who held the same belief about heraldry. Runic letters Letters of the historical runic alphabet and the modern Armanen runes have been used by Nazism and neo-Nazi groups that associate themselves with Germanic traditions, mainly the Sigel, Eihwaz, Tyr; c.f. Odal (see Odalism) and Algiz runes. The fascination that runes seem to have exerted on the Nazis can be traced to the occult and author , one of the important figures in Germanic mysticism and runic revivalism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1908, List published in ("The Secret of the Runes") a set of 18 so-called "Armanen Runes", based on the Younger Futhark, which were allegedly revealed to him in a state of temporary blindness after a cataract operation on both eyes in 1902. In Nazi contexts, the s-rune is referred to as "Sig" (after List, probably from Anglo-Saxon ). The ", while not a rune historically, has the shape of List's "Gibor" rune. Runic "SS" was the symbol of the Schutzstaffel. Food as symbol In 1997, Wolfgang Fröhlich, Holocaust denier and former district council member for the Freedom Party, alleged that Adolf Hitler's favorite food was egg dumplings. Some restaurants in Austria started advertising the dish as a "daily special" for the 20th of April, which is Hitler's date of birth. Accordingly, many neofascists have taken to celebrate Hitler's birthday by eating Eiernockerl, though the allegation about the dish has never been historically confirmed. Other symbols Other symbols employed by the Nazis include: The eagle atop swastika (German: Reichsadler), the formal symbol of the Nazi Party The SS bolts, the runic insignia of the Various runes from the runic script, such as the Odal/Othala, Algiz/Leben, Tyr/Tiwaz runes and other rune-like symbols such as the The black SS uniform The brown shirts of the The death's head insignia of the and concentration camp units The Black Sun (German: Schwarze Sonne/Sonnenrad) used by Heinrich Himmler of the SS. The crossed hammer and sword of Strasserism, a strand of Nazism that has a Third Positionist ideology. The broken sun cross swastika. The Celtic cross, which was originally a symbol used to represent pre-Christian and Christian European groups such as