The overall purpose of Germany's Reichsnährstand, or State Food Society (1933-1945), was to achieve autarchy, or self-sufficiency, a core principle of nationalist ideology. Its emblem symbolized this purpose: a wheat ear, representing food abundance, next to a sword, representing its defense, against a background of the swastika, an ancient symbol of the circulation of sunlight, cosmic rotation, and the course of the year. By the outbreak of World War II, Germany was producing over 80% of its own food.