Quote Originally Posted by Sakkura
Actually the Nazis used both types. Beats me why Germans tossed out one of them after the war and kept the other.

The Tatzenkreuz was also referred to as the Eisernes Kreuz in German (when used as a decoration), hence the English name Iron Cross.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisernes_Kreuz
The Iron cross form (aka Tatzenkreuz) was only used on german medals, and according to wikipedia a quite long time.
AFAIK the Tatzenkreuz/Iron cross form was never used as a symbol on military materials/gear (like aircrafts, tanks, uniforms), and it was never used as a propaganda thingy by the nazis (unlike the Balkenkreuz). This may be the reason why the Bundeswehr took it as their symbol today, and if they want to be related to some former german military organisation (but officially they are "in tradition" to noone, also "standalone" in history), its the old Reichwehr from the Weimarer republic (first democratic - at least on the paper - governorment germany ever had).

Im not a history prof. and my favourite history scenarios are the diadochi and arround, but what Ive written should be ok like it is.