Flag of Belgium

Flag of Belgium
	; ;
Vexillological symbol :	?
Aspect ratio:	13:15
Officially accepted:	January 23, 1831

The flag of Belgium is a tricolor in the colors black, yellow and red.

layout

2: 3 ^?Civic flag

The colors of the Duchy of Brabant were adopted in the Belgian flag, the vertical arrangement of the stripes is based on the flag of France . The similar color scheme with the black, red and gold of the flag of Germany is purely coincidental.

The colors are not specified by law. Album des pavillons (see literature) gives approximately the following Pantone and CMYK color values.

colour	black	yellow	red
RGB (hex)	00 00 00	FF D4 00	E0 31 2A
CMYK	0.0.0.100	0.15.95.0	0.90.80.5
Pantone	Black	116 c	186 c

Its unusual aspect ratio of 13:15 is of unknown origin. Possibly it comes from a decree of the Belgian Foreign Ministry from the 19th century, which stated that the official size of the flag was 2.60 mx 3.00 m. Flags of this scale are hoisted on some government buildings, but most of the official Belgian authorities and Belgian private individuals use flags at a ratio of 2: 3.

History and historical flags

Flag of Belgium in the Brussels Jubelpark

The flag was adopted on January 23, 1831, shortly after Belgium gained independence from the Netherlands in the 1830 Revolution . In the uprising against the Dutch, the colors played an important role as a reminder of the unsuccessful independence struggle in the Austrian Netherlands in 1789 . Back then, the Belgians used the paints in various military colors. The United Belgian States , proclaimed on January 11, 1790, carried a horizontal tricolor in the order red, black and yellow. In the same year the Brabant Revolution was crushed by Austrian troops.

The black-yellow-red tricolor was first hoisted by Édouard Ducpétiaux and Lucien Jotrand on August 26, 1830 at the City Hall of Brussels . Official recognition by the Provisional Government followed in January. The vertical arrangement was also decided.

The International Congo Society, the Congo Free State, and what would later become the Belgian Congo, all used a flag with a five-pointed yellow star on a blue background. The flag was modeled on today's flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo .

^?Tricolor flag of the United Belgian States 1790
2: 3 ^?Tricolor from 1830 in a horizontal arrangement

^? Congo Free State and Belgian Congo, 1877 to 1960

Flags of the regions and communities

Flags of the provinces

More flags of Belgium

Protesters with the yacht flag of Belgium

The Belgian tricolor with the black lion was the sea war flag between 1936 and 1940. After the navy was re-established in 1949, a new flag was introduced soon afterwards and the lion flag was only used as an official flag.

The naval war flag was introduced on February 23, 1950. The oblique cross comes from the Burgundy cross that was common in Belgian flags before the 19th century.

^?Service flag at sea
^?Naval war flag
1: 1 jack of the Navy
Navy mast pennants
Flag of the Air Force
Standard of the King

literature

Album des pavillons nationaux et des marques distinctives ; Service Hydrographique et Oceanographique de la Marine, Armand du Payrat, Brest 2000, ISBN 2-11-088247-6
Smith / Neubecker: Coats of arms and flags of all nations , Munich 1980, ISBN 3-87045-183-1

Web links

Commons : Flags of Belgium - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Flags of the World - Belgium

Flag of Belgium

Vexillological symbol :	^?
Aspect ratio:	13:15
Officially accepted:	January 23, 1831