Flag of Germany: Black, Red and Gold of European Unity

National flag of the Federal Republic of Germany

The national flag of Germany is a tricolour consisting of three equal horizontal bands displaying the national colours of Germany: black, red, and gold (German: Schwarz-Rot-Gold). The flag was first sighted in 1848 in the German Confederation. The flag was also used by the German Empire from 1848 to 1849. It was officially adopted as the national flag of the German Reich (during the period of the Weimar Republic) from 1919 to 1933, and has been in use since its reintroduction in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949.

Since the mid-19th century, Germany has had two competing traditions of national colours, black-red-gold and black-white-red. Black-red-gold were the colours of the 1848–1849 Revolutions, the Weimar Republic of 1919–1933 and the Federal Republic (since 1949). They were also adopted by the German Democratic Republic (1949–1990).

The colours black-white-red appeared for the first time in 1867 in the constitution of the North German Confederation. This nation state of Prussia and other north and central German States was expanded to the south German states in 1870–71, under the name German Empire. It kept these colours until the revolution of 1918–19. Thereafter, black-white-red became a symbol of the political right. The Nazis (National Socialist German Workers’ Party) re-established these colours along with the party’s own swastika flag in 1933. After World War II, black-white-red was still used by some conservative groups or by groups of the far right, as it is not forbidden, unlike specific Nazi symbols such as the aforementioned swastika.

Black-red-gold is the official flag of the Federal Republic of Germany. As an official symbol of the constitutional order, it is protected against defamation. According to §90a of the German penal code, the consequences are a fine or imprisonment up to three years.