the Viking Age was the period when the unified Scandinavian kingdoms first emerged

Swedes especially admired German prowess in science and the arts, and Germany in turn found its Nazi Party policies glorified by reference to Viking military achievements. During the 1930s the Nazi Party began using the Viking warrior images on recruitment posters, encouraging Danes to join their Viking "brothers" in the German Army, one outcome of which was the foundation of a Viking Brigade composed of Norwegian Nazi sympathizers which was sent to attack Russia toward the end of WWII. The overt use of the Vikings in promoting the Nazi image of an Aryan master race was so abhorrent to most Scandinavians that public use of Viking symbols and heritage in Scandinavia remained subdued until the end of the twentieth century.