Black red Gold

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The painting Germania adorned the Paulskirche in Frankfurt in 1848 , where it was placed in place of the organ.

According to Article 22, Paragraph 2 of the German Basic Law, black, red and gold are the colors of the flag of the Federal Republic of Germany .

The colors are traditionally traced back to the Wars of Liberation from 1813 to 1815; References to the Middle Ages are constructed after the fact, but contributed significantly to their popularization in the 19th century. The original fraternity of 1815 introduced these colors for the first time and made them a symbol of German unity. At that time the many German states were only united by the German Confederation . The goal of the students was also freedom rights and political participation. At the Hambach Festival in 1832, the black, red and gold flag was (also) used in its current form for the first time and became the symbol of a German republic .

Even before the actual March Revolution in 1848, the German Bundestag declared the colors to be the official federal colors. The Frankfurt National Assembly followed suit with an imperial law on the introduction of a German war and trade flag of November 12, 1848. After the revolution was suppressed, colors were initially banned from public life; in 1863, however, a black, red and gold flag was waving on the occasion of the Frankfurt Princes' Day . After the German War of 1866, Prussia and its allies finally founded the German federal state (first the North German Confederation , then the German Empire ). The colors black, white and red were anchored in the constitution.

In its constitution of August 11, 1919, the Weimar Republic declared black, red and gold to be the imperial colors. During this time the flag question was politically charged: opponents of the republic now mostly preferred black, white and red. In 1933, the National Socialists made these colors official again. After the Second World War, however, both German states opted for black, red and gold again.

Precursors and Legends

Emperor Heinrich VI. in the Codex Manesse with the coat of arms of the Empire (a black, red-armored eagle in the golden shield, a black, red-armored eagle as a crest on the golden crown)

In the time of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation there were no national colors; black and gold were used as imperial colors, which appeared in the coats of arms of many imperial cities ( see also city ​​colors ) and were used by the Austrian Empire until 1918.

In the time of origin of heraldry in the 12th century it became customary in an imperial -goldenen shield the ever since the ancient times used as an imperial symbol eagle to put in black. The first imperial coat of arms of this kind is documented on a silver penny from Emperor Friedrich Barbarossas between 1172 and 1190, the first color representation in black and gold under Emperor Otto IV between 1198 and 1218.

From the 14th century catches and beak were the imperial eagle red tinged . This three-colored coat of arms has its earliest evidence in the Heidelberg song manuscript ( Codex Manesse ) from around 1300 on a picture of Emperor Heinrich VI. This color scheme (a black, red-armored eagle in the golden shield) in the coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire was often referred to later when it came to explaining the origin of the colors black-red-gold.

One version of the first use of black-red-gold colors mentions the ceremony of the election of Friedrich Barbarossa as German king in 1152: Allegedly, the route from Frankfurt Cathedral to Römerplatz was covered with a carpet in black, red and gold . After the ceremony, this carpet was distributed to the population and many individual pieces were torn off. These scraps of fabric were then presented in the city as small flags.

According to Friedrich Engels and the communist politician and journalist Albert Norden , the peasants of the Landgraviate of Stühlingen are said to have rioted under the black, red and gold imperial flag in 1525 during the German Peasant War .

history

Lützow Freikorps

Exodus of the Jenens students in the War of Independence in 1813 , painted by the Swiss Ferdinand Hodler for the University of Jena , 1908

In connection with the idea of a German nation-state , the three colors appeared for the first time during the War of Liberation (1813-1815) against Napoleon I in appearance. They come from the colors of the uniforms of the Lützow Freikorps , a volunteer unit of the Prussian army under the leadership of Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow . The troops wore black uniforms with red lugs and gold-colored brass buttons . Historians cite very pragmatic reasons for this choice of color: The members of the volunteer corps, including many students and academics, were so-called self-sufficient. that is, they received no pay and equipped themselves. They were therefore dependent on dyeing clothes they had brought with them to make uniforms, and that was easiest with black as the base color. Gold-colored brass buttons were widespread and readily available. Red was the badge color for serves and advances . The Uhlans of the Freikorps carried red and black lance pennants. "Lützow's Black Jäger" were very popular with the population at the time; they owed their great fame above all to their many prominent members, such as the poet Theodor Körner , who died in 1813 and who dedicated the famous poem Lützow's wild hunt to the Freikorps (set to music in a modified form by Carl Maria von Weber ), the "gymnastics father" Friedrich Ludwig Jahn and Joseph von Eichendorff .

Friedrich Christoph Förster , the company commander of Eleonore Prochaska , reported on the further use of the colors in a letter that at the beginning of April 1813 he saw a black and red flag with golden fringes in the Dresden advertising room of the Lützow hunters. It was probably a flag made of red and black silk with golden fringes and the inscription "Mit Gott fürs Vaterland" embroidered in gold, donated by Berlin women. However, on April 8, 1813, the king refused to allow the Freikorps to go into battle under this flag. Allegedly - as you can find out in the Wöbbelin memorial at Theodor Körner's grave - under the motto From black night through red blood towards the golden sun .

Jena original fraternity

Special stamp "175 years of black, red and gold" issued by the German Federal Post Office in 1990

In 1815 the colors of the Freikorps were used for the flag of the original fraternity founded in Jena , to which some former volunteers of the Lützow hunters belonged. The enthusiastic about the idea of a German nation-state students broke after their return from the wars of liberation existing, organized by region of origin compounds ( " Country Teams ") and established a uniform, students ( " boys ") from all German countries, comprehensive fraternity - as well the German states should dissolve in favor of a German nation-state. The statutes of the Jena fraternity contained the passage:

"Bearing in mind that with youthful joys, the seriousness of life must always be considered, they chose red and black as the colors of their banner."

Flag of the original fraternity from 1816

Their flag was red-black-red with a golden oak branch in the middle and golden fringes on the edge. It was embroidered in 1816 by the "Women and Virgins of Jena" and was shown to the public for the first time at the 1817 Wartburg Festival . It is now in the Jena City Museum . On the drive to the Wartburg Festival, where participants already wore black, red and gold cockades , the Kiel student August Daniel von Binzer composed a song with the text Push on, black, red and gold live! This is the earliest mention of the black-red-gold triad.

Much has been discussed about the origin of the colors of the primitive fraternity. The current theory states that many students at Jena University were members of the Lützow Freikorps during the Wars of Liberation and continued to wear their uniforms in Jena as student uniforms in their connections. The black, red and gold uniform colors were seen as a symbol of the struggle for national liberation and were therefore used in the flag of the original fraternity.

In addition, there is also the assumption that the colors arose from the colors of the early corps ("Landsmannschaften") from which the original fraternity arose. So had z. B. the Thuringia the colors "black-red-white from below".

Decades later, some of the founders of the original fraternity voiced their own choice of colors. For example Heinrich Herrmann Riemann , former member of the Vandalia and spokesman for the original fraternity and speaker at the Wartburg Festival in 1817, on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the University of Jena in 1858:

"[...] the fraternity wore, true to its origins, the colors of the Lützower, namely black and red with gold piping ."

Co-founder Carl Horn said on the same occasion:

"The choice of the colors red and black, decorated with gold, does not come from the badges of the country teams, even if the colors of the Vandalia were red and gold."

Probsthan: Genesis of the German Tricolore

In contrast, Anton Probsthan , like Horn, a former vandal, Lützower hunter and co-founder of the Urburschenschaft, insisted on the colors of the vandals (blood red gold) as a manuscript in his Genesis of the German tricolor black- red-gold, which was written after 1865 and is preserved in the Dresden City Archives Origin.

Karl Hermann Scheidler from Gotha, first a member of the Thuringia and then co-founder of the Jenaische Urburschenschaft, wrote 50 years after the founding of the Urburschenschaft in the Leipziger "Illustrirten Zeitung" on August 5, 1865, page 98:

“Their colors - black, red and gold - were actually initially those of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. [...] chosen for the Lützow Freicorps [...] Those colors were, however, at the same time the old German imperial colors and also allowed a multiple symbolic interpretation [...] black to denote the night that lay over Germany during foreign rule, gold the dawn gained freedom and red the blood of the heart with which it was fought. "

The frequent reference to the “old German imperial colors”, to the “old Reichspanier”, makes one thing clear above all: The attempt was made to trace the colors back to the earlier imperial coat of arms: a red-armored (one or two-headed) black eagle in gold. However, the imperial colors were only black and gold. The red was only interpreted via the catches shown in red in the coat of arms. Many bicolors or tricolors of German states that emerged in the 19th century derived their colors from their coats of arms. This happened, for example, in Baden (gold-red-gold), Bavaria (silver-blue), Prussia (black-silver) or Hesse (red-silver). The reference to the imperial eagle representations still known to many contemporaries seemed logical and probably contributed to the popularization of the color combination black-red-gold in view of the romanticism of the old empire.

The German federal government banned by the Carlsbad Decrees all self-governing student associations from 1819 to 1848. On the occasion of the dissolution of the Jena fraternity, August Daniel von Binzer wrote the song We had built a stately house in 1819 . There it says in the 7th verse:

"The ribbon is cut, it
was black, red and gold,
and God suffered,
who knows what he wanted!"

The writing of the song in the family register of the first Wartburg Festival is the oldest written mention of the colors black-red-gold in this order. Initially, Binzer had chosen the order "Roth was black and gold" , but then corrected this by assigning the numbers 1, 2 and 3 to the colors and thus bringing them into today's order.

To this day, the student fraternities very often wear black-red-gold as the color , but the combinations black-gold-red and black-red on gold are also common. All variants also exist in the reverse order or in the reading from below (as is usual with the Jenenser, Halle and Leipziger connections).

Even Wilhelm Hauff , who in his student years in Tübingen belonged to the local fraternity or close to her at least, wrote in honor of his brother "Seni" in his poem The Seniade. A joking heroic poem in four chants from 1825 with reference to the years after 1820 as the last stanza:

"Because not a meteor that, quickly ignited,
goes down again in the black sky,
No, this red has proclaimed more beautiful,
Not vain things that blow away vain time,
The black night must sink,
A dawn flashing.
Its golden beam is already bursting out with force - that
is your sign, German fraternity! "

Hambach Festival

Abresch's "original flag" in Hambach Castle

At the Hambach Festival in 1832, many black, red and gold tricolors were shown as a symbol of the pursuit of freedom, civil rights and German unity. By then, the colors had spread widely in connection with the fraternity movement. That is why the majority of the flags at Hambach Castle were in the fraternity order “black-red-gold from below” (see illustration below) . As the main flag of the Hambach Festival, Johann Philipp Abresch made the first tricolor in the order commonly used today with the inscription "Germany's rebirth". This "original flag" from 1832 is now in the museum in Hambach Castle in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse .

In a Hambach festival song, the colors of the Lützow Equestrian Corps of the Wars of Freedom were currently reinterpreted:

"Black be mourning for eternal night,
that should surround him,
as long as he
continues his slave life under the power of a prince .
Red be the dark embers of the colors,
which he wants to kindle all around.
On thrones rubble with noble courage
The freedom to found an empire
Gold be the light of holy truth,
which he wants to spread around,
That dark powers lie no
longer inhibit the course of times. "

After the Hambach Festival and the failed Frankfurt Wachensturm in the following year, there followed a period of reactionary repression, in which the colors black, red and gold remained the symbol of democracy . Hoffmann von Fallersleben expressed his hope for change in his poem “Deutsche Farbenlehre” from 1843. The German colors were the bearers of hope for him:

Participants in the Hambach Festival in 1832 with flags in black, red and gold (in an order that is unusual today)
German color theory
A black night rests over our fatherland
and our own shame and shame brought us this night.
Oh when shines out of the darkness of the night
our hope in sparkling splendor?
And there comes a morning, we look up joyfully:
Hidden for a long time behind clouds, a red beam breaks out.
Oh when shines out of the darkness of the night
our hope in sparkling splendor?
And there is a golden light everywhere through the country,
that the night of shame and shame
and bondage finally breaks.
Oh when shines out of the darkness of the night
our hope in sparkling splendor?
For a long time we had confidence in an early dawn;
it barely began to gray and the day is dead again.
Oh when shines out of the darkness of the night
our hope in sparkling splendor?
Black, red, and gold still stand unfulfilled in the Reichs panier :
Everything can only be seen in black, red and gold, where are you?
Oh when shines out of the darkness of the night
our hope in sparkling splendor?
(from: Deutsche Salonlieder 1843 )

An alternative interpretation of the colors in the GDR was given by black with the powder fired from the wars of liberation and unification ( German Empire ), red with the blood and gold shed during and in the revolutions of 1848/1918 with both the hoped-for and golden future made high-profile sacrifices (“ I gave gold for iron ”).

March Revolution

March Revolution in Berlin, March 19, 1848
Contemporary lithograph of the battle near Kandern from the perspective of the revolutionaries on April 20, 1848, during which the Hecker uprising was suppressed

At the beginning of the so-called March Revolution of 1848, the governments of the German states made concessions in terms of symbolism: They often appropriated the previously forbidden colors black, red and gold. In his resolutions at the beginning of 1848 , with which the Bundestag wanted to reassure the people, he declared black, red and gold to be the federal colors:

"In the same way, the federal colors of the German prehistoric times can be found,
where the German Reichspanier was black, red and gold."

At that time on March 9, 1848, the Bundestag, the representation of the member states, was not yet occupied by liberal reformers. The Bundestag decided later, on March 20, that the black, red and gold flag should be used in all federal fortresses and with the federal troops.

On March 10, 1848, the black, red and gold flag also waved from St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna . The Austrian Emperor Ferdinand I felt compelled to show himself with a corresponding flag in a window of the Hofburg .

In Berlin the development was more dramatic. Barricade fighting broke out there on March 18, 1848 . Under the pressure of the events, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV promised in a proclamation on March 19 that his troops would be withdrawn from the streets of Berlin. King and Queen had to pay their respects to the coffins of the fallen insurgents , which were decorated with black, red and gold flags . On March 21st, the king rode through the city wearing a black, red and gold armband, symbolically joining the bourgeois freedom movement.

The poet Ferdinand Freiligrath wrote the poem "Black-Red-Gold", which was later set to music, on March 17, 1848 in London , which called for an armed struggle for an all-German republic . For him, too, the colors represented the heraldic colors of the coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation:

Black red Gold
In sorrows and darkness
We had to rescue them there!
Now we've set her free
Free from their coffins!
Ha, how it flashes and rustles and rolls!
Hurray, you black, you red, you gold!
Powder is black,
Blood is red
The flame flickers golden!
This is the old Reichspanier,
Those are the old colors!
Underneath we hit and get
We'll soon have young scars!
Because only the beginning has been made
The final battle is still ahead!
Powder is black,
Blood is red
The flame flickers golden!
...
Freedom is the nation
All areas are equal!
Freedom is the auction
From thirty princely hats!
Freedom is the republic!
And again: the republic!
Powder is black,
Blood is red
The flame flickers golden!
...
(from: Newer Political and Social Poems , 1849–1851)

Frankfurt National Assembly

The National Assembly in the Paulskirche
War flag at sea, 1848
Flag of Gesangverein Kindenheim ( Rhineland-Palatinate ), from 1849, detail of the black, red and gold frame

On May 18, 1848, the National Assembly met for the first time in Frankfurt am Main. 7,000 people marched through the streets decorated with black, red and gold. The hall in the Paulskirche was also decorated in these colors and equipped with the double-headed imperial eagle . The imperial administrator entered the city in July under these colors.

The National Assembly passed a law on the flag of war and trade on November 12, 1848 , which determined the colors black-red-gold. In addition to the three colors, the war flag received the "double black eagle with rounded heads , red tongues and golden beaks and the same open fangs" in a yellow upper corner on the flag pole.

When implementing this legislation it turned out that the German central authority could not enforce the trade flag against the resistance of the individual states. Only the newly established Reichsflotte carried the black, red and gold flag on their warships . However, this flag was not officially displayed to the foreign states, so that, for example, the British sea ​​power regarded it as a " pirate flag ". The imperial fleet was also dissolved again in 1852; their ships were auctioned.

The Frankfurt Constitution of the emerging German Empire , which was passed by the National Assembly on March 28, 1849 and never came into force, contained no provision about the colors (or other symbols) that were then taken for granted. The revolution was violently suppressed; on September 2, 1850, the colors black-red-gold were overtaken by the tower of Paulskirche, on August 15, 1852 by the Frankfurt Federal Palace , the seat of the Bundestag. In some German states these colors were expressly forbidden.

Nevertheless, the color remained the symbol of the republican -revolutionären and anti-monarchical movement in Germany and for many the "true" flag of Germany. For example, it was hoisted in 1863 at the German Fürstentag in Frankfurt when Austria wanted to advance the national question in its favor.

Heinrich Heine later expressed his disappointment at the failure of the democracy movement in his poem Michel after March and also refers to the colors in his criticism:

“But when the black-red-gold flag,
The Old Germanic Plunder,
reappeared, my madness vanished
and the sweet fairytale wonders.
I knew the colors in this banner
and their premonition:
From German freedom they brought me
the worst newspaper. "

The decision about supremacy in the unification of Germany was made in the German War of 1866, when Austria and Prussia and their respective allies went into battle against each other. The VIII. Army Corps, the so-called Reichsarmee , consisting of troop contingents from southern German states who fought on Austria's side, wore black, red and gold on armbands.

North German Confederation and Empire

The Kingdom of Prussia certain from now on the terms of the settlement and put signs in the symbolism. The North German Confederation formed its flag from the colors of Prussia (black and white) and the colors of the North German Hanseatic cities (white and red) into a tricolor in black, white and red. This flag was also adopted as the trade flag of the empire from the establishment of the empire in 1871. The generally recognized colors black-red-gold could not be used because the troops of the German Confederation had often marched into the field in 1866 with such armbands. But, interestingly, the imperial constitution did not set any actual national flag. It was not until the nineties that black-white-red was transferred to the role of a real “national” for the “Kauffahrteischiffe”, or “faute de mieux”, as it were. And the German-Austrians had black, red and gold as their hallmark until 1918, which had a not insignificant influence on the decisions of the young German republic to choose the tricolor of 1848.

Some right-wing extremist groups and parties also chose the colors black, red and gold as an expression of their “national opposition”. In the “guiding objectives” of the anti-Semitic group of the same name, which emerged in 1900 from the split in the German Social Reform Party , it was said: “ We need a German center, a German social reform party. Your banner is black-gold-red, the flag of the united Greater Germany (Austrian black-gold and German black-white-red united) ”.

The author Julius Langbehn , popular in ethnic and anti-Semitic circles , declared the colors black, red and gold to be “German ideal colors” in his book Rembrandt als Erzieher in 1890 . Among other things, he stated that the political development in Germany is not yet complete and that it is therefore necessary to change the national colors again:

“If one takes into account the purely intellectual and racial community that connects present-day Germany with Austria and wanted to express it in some way, then it would be advisable to adopt the Austrian yellow in the German flag first. In this way one would also get back to Schwarzrothgold. "

Overall, the entire “Greater German camp” saw black, red and gold as an expression of their own political goals. In addition to the anti-Semitic parties, this included the left-wing liberals in Bavaria, Baden and Württemberg.

The colors black, red and gold also played a not insignificant role in the Völkisch movement . There was a general tendency there to adopt the colors of the old national movement and adapt them for their own purposes. If the interpretation of the black, red and gold colors was initially taken to mean that black stands for the imperial eagle, red for its reinforcement and gold for the coat of arms, the interpretation soon changed. A change in the political ideal resulted in the development of esoteric ideas and a connection between the colors and the Germanic world of gods: According to this, the " Wotan's colors", now so called, should go back to the black eagle as Odin's sacred bird , to the red shield of the Germanic god of war Zio and the "golden flowing curls of our ancestors". Other groups made connections with folkish conspiracy theories when interpreting the colors. A so-called “German Lodge” took the view that the colors symbolize the fight against the black, red and gold Internationals. The colors black, red and gold, which were made "völkisch" in this way, were used by various folk-orientated groups, such as the " German School Association " or the "German People's Association". In 1904 and 1905 a magazine with the title “Schwarz-Rot-Gold” appeared in Stuttgart and in numerous associations the cry “Heil Schwarz-Rot-Gold!” Was a popular way of expressing one's appreciation for the color combination . Every now and then instead of the song “Wacht am Rhein” the song “Midgard” was sung:

Toast, black-red-gold live!
Hurray up! Who directs the stars in the sky,
It is he who holds our flag.
Heil, Germany, Heil!
Toast! Midgard shall live!
Hurray up! From the highest hoard of the Botten Sea,
to the Danube, Zuidersee and fjord.
Hail Midgard! Salvation!
(from: Der Deutsche Herold , Munich, undated (before 1914))

Black-red-gold in Austria

The colors black-red-gold lived on since the revolution of 1848, especially in the Austrian fraternities and the Turner movement. A propreussian or “Greater German” tendency was already noticeable in the 1860s. Significantly, the black, red and gold flag of the 1st Vienna Gymnastics Club was baptized in the Baltic Sea in 1861. The increasing popularity of the colors could not be eradicated even by bans and penalties by the government. The Austrian, German national politician Georg von Schönerer , who was an ardent admirer of Kaiser Wilhelm I and Otto von Bismarck , played a special role in the spread of the black, red and gold colors . As such, he advocated the idea of ​​uniting Austria with the German Empire. Even after the Schöneer movement had clearly lost its importance, black-red-gold remained popular and was sometimes used as a “battle color against Pan-Slavism” ( Pan-Slavic colors = red-white-blue). Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, black-red-gold was the predominantly displayed color combination, especially in the younger part of the population. With this and the wearing of the cornflower (the party flower of Schönerer) the greater German sentiment should be emphasized.

Adolf Hitler expressed himself in Mein Kampf zu Schwarz-Rot-Gold: He declared that the tricolor had once had a good meaning , especially in German-Austria, as a “bourgeois party flag ” and an expression of greater German goals. In this context, however, he withheld the obvious role model that the Austrian DAP may have played, because the Austrian National Socialists naturally used black, red and gold to make their membership of the German national camp clear. Her party badge consisted, among other things, of a black, red and gold shield base. Even in 1920, on the so-called “Interstate Representatives Day”, at which Hitler was also present, room folders wore black, red and gold armbands.

Weimar Republic and Third Reich

Flag of the Reich President 1919 to 1921

With the establishment of the Weimar Republic in 1919, black-red-gold became Germany's national flag . However, the old colors black, white and red were initially used in the trade flag for reasons of international recognition ; Due to a compromise, a black, white and red basic cloth with black, red and gold in the upper left corner was adopted in July 1919. A similar compromise was reached in November 1920 for the even more controversial and highly symbolic Reich war flag for the military . This regulation was in effect until 1933, when the black, red and gold corner was removed again.

Greater German symbolism

Although conservative , monarchist forces and radical right later mocked the new national flag as black-red-yellow, black-red-mustard, black-red-mustard or crude black-red-shit and advocated the old imperial colors black-white-red , the first proposal to make black, red and gold the colors of the empire came from the political right. An essay published by the Pan-German Association on November 9, 1918 , clearly propagated these colors:

“The hour of birth of Greater Germany is approaching! […] Cheer the old black-red-gold colors! Like Vienna, decorate your houses with the black, red and gold flags, wear bows and ribbons in black, red and gold and show everyone from Aachen and Königsberg to Bozen, Klagenfurt and Laibach that we are one nation of brothers in no need separating us and danger. "

However, this appeal met with fierce opposition from within the association as well as from other right-wing groups. After initial sympathy, the fraternities also did not agree to the adoption of "their" colors as the national flag of Germany, as they understood Austria to be part of a unified Germany. The Burschentag decided in 1920:

"If the colors black, red and gold have now been declared the new imperial colors by a weak majority in the National Assembly, then these cannot be seen as the national uniform symbol of the old fraternity."

- Boys' Day 1920

Adoption in the National Assembly

Official flag of the country, 1921-1933

In reality, the colors were adopted on July 3, 1919 in the Weimar National Assembly with a very clear majority of 211 votes and 90 against. The vast majority of Social Democrats , Catholics and left-wing liberals welcomed the change to the national colors black, red and gold, which were linked to the German Revolution of 1848/1849 and the Frankfurt National Assembly . Not only those in favor of black-white-red voted against, but also the left-wing revolutionary Red Flag . From the beginning, however, the greatest resistance came from counter-revolutionary, monarchist and nationalist forces, above all from the military and civil servants, who perceived a new flag as a symbol for the revolutionary upheavals of November 1918 , which were regarded as illegitimate , and therefore rejected it in principle. Among the opponents of the introduction of new imperial colors in the National Assembly were the bourgeois national liberals , who perceived a change of color as an “attack on national dignity”. There were also supporters of the old colors in the liberal DDP and in the Catholic Center .

Polarization in the flag dispute

Various legends were used in publications from the Weimar period to explain the vehement right-wing rejection of colors. It was pointed out again and again that the colors black, red and gold were used as propaganda means by exile Germans during the World War. This so-called group "Friends of the German Republic" was financed by the French government. As recently as 1918, French planes dropped leaflets over the German front lines. These called for desertion and overthrow and were marked with black, red and gold. Polemics against the new imperial colors also came from the esoteric wing of the right wing, who saw the symbol of the triple international in the imperial flag: black stood for ultra-montane Catholicism , red for international socialism and gold for international capital. Germany submitted to everything together. Outside of Germany, black-red-gold was partly rejected by the social democrats. In the early 1920s, for example, it was customary to fly black, red and gold flags at German folk days in what was then Eger in Bohemia. The German Social Democrats in Bohemia rejected these colors and called them a symbol of the German nationalists and the bourgeoisie .

Black-red-gold became the most important identification symbol of the republic, supported by moderate forces , in the conflict of the very emotional flag dispute of the 1920s up to the takeover of the National Socialists, while the imperial colors developed more and more from the monarchist symbol to the general identification mark of the anti-republican right. This gave the two tricolors a political meaning that they did not previously have in this form. The National Socialists also chose black, white and red for their swastika flag as early as 1920 .

Reichsbanner black-red-gold

Flag of the Reich Banner Black-Red-Gold

On February 22, 1924, the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold organization was founded in Magdeburg . The Liberals ( German Democratic Party ), the Catholic Center , but above all the SPD and the trade unions were active in this . The aim was to protect parliamentary democracy, which in the Weimar Republic was under heavy pressure from right-wing and left-wing extremist forces. The main opponents were National Socialism and Communism . Its first chairman Otto Hörsing described their task as the fight against the swastika and the Soviet star.

According to the statutes, the Reichsbanner was a union of republican-minded war participants. The members combined their experiences from the First World War with their advocacy of democracy. The Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold soon became one of the largest mass organizations of the Weimar Republic, to which over three million people belonged in 1932.

In the final phase of the Weimar Republic, the clashes with the SA , the Stahlhelm and the Red Front Fighter League became increasingly hard, so that the Reichsbanner joined forces with other workers' and trade union organizations and the Iron Front was formed. Increasing militarization and the adoption of the leader principle made the organization more and more like the radical groups. In street fights and brawls 47 Reichsbanner people lost their lives.

Abolished by the National Socialists

After they came to power, the National Socialists declared black, white and red to be the national colors of the German Reich and immediately abolished black, red and gold as a national symbol, as it was the identification symbol of the hated republic. From 1933 to 1935 the black-white-red flag was shown together with the swastika flag , which was actually the party flag of the NSDAP . From 1935 only the swastika flag was hoisted.

  • Standard of the Reich President
    1921 to 1933

  • Standard of the Reich President
    1933 to 1935

  • Flag of the Reichswehr Minister 1919 to 1933

  • Reich war flag 1922 to 1933 (compromise solution on the proposal of the Reichswehr Minister)

  • Reichskriegsflagge 1933-1935 (the corner was removed in March 1933 a few days after the Reichstag election )

After the Second World War

After the end of the Second World War , all German symbols of sovereignty from the time of National Socialism were officially repealed by the first Control Council Act of November 20, 1945. According to Allied Control Council Act No. 39 from November 12, 1946 to February 23, 1951, German merchant ships operated with the modified standard "C" of the International Signal Book ( see flag alphabet ), a dovetail-shaped flag in blue -white-red-white-blue . In the deliberations on the establishment of the Federal Republic, the flag of July 20, 1944 , which shows a so-called Scandinavian cross in the national colors, was initially favored.

Federal Republic of Germany

Federal service flag

In the West, the Parliamentary Council passed the new Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany on May 8, 1949 , which made the black, red and gold flag the national flag again. In Art. 22 GG it is expressly stated: "The federal flag is black-red-gold."

Ludwig Bergsträsser , envoy of the Social Democrats, gave the following reasons:

“The tradition of black-red-gold is unity and freedom . We want this flag to be a symbol that the idea of ​​freedom, the idea of ​​personal freedom, should be one of the foundations of our future state. "

The federal service flag of the Federal Republic of Germany also shows the federal shield, in the golden shield the red-armored, red-tongued black eagle in the three-colored flag. However, this flag may only be used by official agencies of the Federal Republic of Germany; if it is carried out publicly by private individuals, this constitutes an administrative offense according to § 124 OWiG and can be punished with a fine. The national flag consists only of the three colors.

The Deutsche Bundespost used its own service flag until November 28, 1994 . This showed a golden post horn with black contours in the red stripe, which was significantly wider than 1/3.

Some West German states - mainly those that had been merged from different individual states , such as Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate as well as Saarland  - also chose black, red and gold as their flag after the Second World War , but always in connection with the state coat of arms. While the flags of Saarland and Lower Saxony are the German colors, the colors of Rhineland-Palatinate are taken from the state coat of arms. Therefore the coat of arms of Rhineland-Palatinate is not in the center of the flag.

German Democratic Republic

Black-red-gold flag (as the flag of the GDR ) on the old town hall in Leipzig , 1956
Variant in black, wine red and gold:
flags of the Federal Republic and the GDR in front of the UN building in New York (1973)
Flag of the GDR (1959–1990)

In the Soviet Occupation Zone ( SBZ ), the question of a flag for the territory was already on the agenda at the meeting of the Second German People's Congress on March 17 and 18, 1948. During this meeting, the building entrance was already decorated with a ribbon in the colors black, red and gold. Finally, on May 18, 1948, Otto Grotewohl , the first Prime Minister of the later German Democratic Republic , declared during a meeting of the Constitutional Committee that only black, red and gold could be used as the flag, since only these colors were able to unite all Germans. Friedrich Ebert junior , son of the first German Reich President and at that time chairman of the Brandenburg State Parliament, then made the following application:

"The German People's Council wants to decide to instruct the Constitutional Committee to include in the draft constitution a provision that the colors of the German Democratic Republic are black, red and gold."

At that time, that was still intended for a Germany to be unified. Ebert justified his request as follows:

“I am of the opinion that there is no better symbol of German unity, deeply rooted in German history , than the old imperial colors black, red and gold. The fighters for Germany's unity, for a happy future for the country and the people, have rallied around this banner at all times.

Her cloth covered the bodies of those who gave their lives in the struggle against the feudal despotic monarchy of Prussia for Germany's unity and freedom. This hour commands us to resume the great tradition of German history and to unfurl the banner of German unity over the whole country. With this we also carry out the revolutionary result of the fighting of 1848. "

This proposal was accepted unanimously, exactly one hundred years to the day after the first meeting of the German National Assembly in Frankfurt am Main.

Later the hope for an early unification of Germany was dashed. After the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, the GDR was founded. Both states kept the same state flag for around ten years, something unique in the history of the states of Europe.

As of October 1, 1959, the GDR placed the GDR's national coat of arms in its flag , a golden emblem consisting of a hammer and compass , which are entwined with a wreath of ears. These should symbolize the unity of peasants, workers and the intelligentsia. Interior Minister Karl Maron justified this before the People's Chamber of the GDR on the same day with the words:

“This addition to the state flag is necessary so that the GDR, as the only legitimate German state, can also be visibly differentiated from the separate western zonal state in terms of flag management .

It is not enough that the two German states differ outwardly only in their anthem . By making our national flag hammer, compass and corn wreath, i.e. H. carries the symbols of our peaceful construction, it is demonstrated in a meaningful way for the German people as well as for the whole world that the new Germany appears under this flag, to which the future belongs and from which peace proceeds. "

Historic flag? Flag of the all-German Olympic team in 1960 and 1964, as well as the separate teams in 1968

Between 1956 and 1964 there was a joint Olympic team of the two German states; she used the black-red-gold tricolor, from 1960 (until 1968) with white Olympic rings in a red stripe.

In the Federal Republic of Germany there were initially many protests against the so-called "splitter flag" . Raising or showing the flag of the GDR was temporarily punishable in the Federal Republic of Germany. Diplomatic and consular representations of the Federal Republic abroad tried to brand the raising of this flag as an “unfriendly act” and to prevent it where possible (see: →  Hallstein Doctrine and: →  Claim to sole representation ).

It only began to develop in 1969 and 1970, first under the grand coalition and then under the social-liberal coalition as part of the New Ostpolitik . The most important all-German event of this time was the meeting of Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt with the GDR Prime Minister Willi Stoph in Erfurt . The flag and anthem of the GDR finally found protocol recognition by the Federal Republic of Germany in 1987 on the occasion of the reception of State Council Chairman Erich Honecker by Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl in front of the Federal Chancellery in Bonn .

The GDR's Deutsche Post also had its own service flag until May 1, 1973, which was similar to the flag of the Deutsche Bundespost , but carried a different post horn. However, this was also used in the early years of the Bundespost from 1947 to 1950, when it was also still called Deutsche Post .

  • Trade flag Historic flag? Trade flag, 1959-1973

  • War flag at sea Historic flag? Service flag for combat ships and boats of the People's Navy

  • War flag at sea Historic flag? Service flag of the boats of the border troops on the Elbe and Oder

  • Historic flag? Service flag of the Deutsche Post of the GDR

German reunification

GDR flag with cut out emblem
Address by Federal President Horst Köhler during a Bundeswehr deployment abroad

In the course of German reunification , the "German colors" regained great importance as symbols of the historical project. At the time of the protests against the SED regime , many GDR citizens used the black, red and gold tricolor without the GDR national coat of arms, with which they wanted to express their departure from the socialist state. In the period between the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification, there were also flags with the GDR national coat of arms cut out in a circular shape. The model for this was the Hungarians , who removed the socialist symbols in 1956. The Romanians had in December 1989 with the Revolution in December the socialist state emblem from the Romanian national flag cut out. The flag with the missing national coat of arms is still used today as a symbol by the foundation for coming to terms with the SED dictatorship .

In the draft constitution of the Central Round Table for the GDR, which was handed over to the newly elected People's Chamber and the public in the spring of 1990 , there was also a black, red and gold flag in which the old GDR national coat of arms was replaced by the symbol of the independent peace movement of the GDR “ Swords to Plowshares ”was intended as the GDR state flag.

The solemn act of reunification was also celebrated at midnight from October 2 to October 3, 1990 with the hoisting of a particularly large black, red and gold flag on a specially erected flagpole in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin: the flag of unity .

In general, the use of national symbols in Germany's political culture is still more reserved than in many other European countries. The memory of the misuse of such symbols in the 20th century is still present, so that many seem to be unable to deal with them in an unbiased manner. This reluctance also includes the colors black, red and gold, although the two world wars were fought under different colors. In recent years, however, there has been a cautious trend that it is becoming more "normal" for Germans to commit to Germany and also to show their national colors, especially at international sporting events from the 1990s onwards. A real boom in Germany flags developed at the 2006 World Cup . In addition, many Germans use the flags of their federal states or other regional flags.

The German ISAF troops in Afghanistan ran the risk of their vehicles being confused because of the similarity to some of the country's flags . Therefore, the white lettering "Germany" on Darī was added to the image of the federal flag .

Use in right-wing populist demonstrations

Demonstration in Chemnitz (August 27, 2018)

With the advent of Pegida , the German tricolor (partly upside down), but also the Wirmer flag, was used more and more frequently in demonstrations by right-wing populists and right-wing extremists. This was also the case with the riots in Chemnitz in 2018 . Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier took this as an opportunity to criticize in his speech on November 9, 2018:

"In particular, it was the flag of the republic that was targeted by their enemies and that they repeatedly dragged into the mud: black, red and gold, the colors of the German freedom movement since the Hambach Festival of 1832. That alone is reason enough to get 9 November 1918 out of the historical-political sideline! Anyone who despises human rights and democracy today, who rekindles old nationalist hatred, certainly has no historical right to black, red, and gold. We must never leave these colors to those who despise freedom! But let us be proud of the lines of tradition they stand for: black, red and gold, that is democracy and law and freedom! "

Further use

The principalities of Reuss-Greiz, Reuss-Gera and Waldeck-Pyrmont

Flag of Waldeck-Pyrmont in the Waldeck Castle Museum

Three principalities of the German Confederation and the later German Empire used black, red and gold as the national colors.

In 1814 the Prince of Waldeck- Pyrmont ordered his militiamen to wear a black, yellow and red cockade as a sign of identification . Yellow and black were the colors of the principality as early as the 17th century. The picture of a flag in the archive of Bad Wildungen shows a red-yellow-black flag with a black star in the center and the year 1775. Since it is assumed that Wildungen did not have its own flag, but used the flag of the country, this is the principality assigned. In 1830 Waldeck sent a battalion to the army . This used the black, red and gold, horizontal tricolor. From around 1890 the prince's coat of arms was also used in its standard .

The national colors can also be found in the 5th stanza of the " Waldecklied ":

“Black-red-gold are my national colors,
dark night follows golden dawn.
For Alldeutschland Waldeck's sons died,
keeping German faith until death. "

The flag was retained even after the principality was converted into a free state in 1918, until it was finally incorporated into Prussia in 1929.

The colors of the Princely House of Reuss were black and gold as early as the 17th century. Red has also been used as the third color since the times of the Rhine Confederation . In 1820 black, red and gold were set as the national colors of the Reuss principalities. While the older line used the colors for their flag as horizontal stripes, the younger line showed the tricolor in the French style, i.e. in a vertical arrangement. The two principalities were converted into free states in 1918. In 1919 the two Reuss states became the People's State of Reuss , which used the black, red and gold, horizontal tricolor. In 1920 he was incorporated into Thuringia .

Unofficial flags

Despite the prohibition of the unauthorized use of the federal service flag or one of these confusingly similar-looking flags, such as. B. the German federal flag with the federal coat of arms of Germany according to § 124 OWiG, this unofficial flag (also referred to as "federal coat of arms"), very often in the context of international sporting events, such. B. a soccer world championship, used by the German fans. However, since this type of use is considered " socially adequate " and therefore not illegal, it is tolerated and not punished as an administrative offense .

A black, red and gold flag with the Turkish, white crescent and five-pointed star in the red stripe, sometimes going beyond it, is used as a symbol of the German-Turks, especially at football matches . This flag has no official background, but is used by private individuals or as a catchy symbol in the media.

Black-red-gold or black-red-yellow?

In a judgment from 1959, the Federal Court of Justice stated:

"[The] designation of the federal colors as black-red-yellow, combined with the harmless discussion of whether 'gold is a color' [...] represents [...] the repetition of one of the most malicious Goebbels' slogans against the federal colors embodied constitutional ideas of liberal democracy. The phrase 'black-red-yellow' has [...] acquired through years of Nazi agitation the meaning of a malicious abuse of the democratic state symbol. "

This decision from 1959 is opposed by a decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of September 15, 2008. Here the court upheld the complaint of a neo-Nazi who had been convicted by various criminal courts for having called the colors of the German national flag in a public speech as "black-red-mustard", as right-wing extremists did in the Weimar Republic .

Version in black-red-gold

With heraldic consideration, however, what Arnold Rabbow concisely formulated can be represented:

"In practice, the German flag colors are black-red-yellow, just like in the Weimar period, but they are called black-red-gold."

The Flag Act of 1848, on the other hand, expressly designated the lowest stripe of the flag as yellow .

In heraldry, a distinction is made between “colors” (blue, red, purple, black, green) and the “metals” gold and silver, which are usually represented by yellow and white. The rule is that color must not follow color and metal must not follow metal. Nevertheless, the heraldic point of view is not mandatory. The federal flag represents a heraldic offense because the colors black and red follow one another; The golden stripe should be correctly positioned between the two colors , as with the flag of Belgium . In 1848, however, the German National Assembly deliberately defied the rule in favor of the color sequence that had already become common at that time. There has also been a flag with a golden third stripe in the plenary hall of the German Bundestag since 1949 . The government of North Rhine-Westphalia gave the original flag to Parliament on the occasion of its first meeting in Bonn as a replica of the so-called Hambach main flag; due to signs of wear and tear, it was replaced by a true-to-original replica during the parliamentary summer break in 1999. The third stripe of the Hambach main flag from 1832, which has been preserved, is woven with gold thread as is the case, for example, of the flag from 1848 in the Rastatt City Museum. Since the order on German flags of November 13, 1996 (Federal Law Gazette I, p. 1729) speaks of "gold-colored" and the flags in Appendix 1 (p. 1730) are also depicted in this way, the (rare) depiction with a metallic color is not only historically justifiable, but also preferable from a legal point of view. When the heraldist Rabbow pointed out that only black, red and yellow flags could be seen, but that the Federal Ministry of the Interior nevertheless followed the practice of the Weimar Republic and stipulated a gold-colored stripe in the flag patterns, he received the following reply from the ministry at the time: "... The fact The fact that, despite the designation 'gold', the flags do not actually show gold, but yellow, is solely due to the fact that the production of a textile gold was previously not technically possible. With all official samples, however, the greatest value is placed on the fact that where the flag color is designated as 'gold', gold and not yellow is actually shown in the display, as far as this is technically possible. ”The Brandenburg Public Prosecutor Erardo In any case, Rautenberg acquired a German flag for its headquarters in Brandenburg an der Havel in 2009, with the third stripe made of gold lurex.

However, on the basis of the decision of the Federal Cabinet of June 2, 1999, the corporate design of the federal government was developed. For the technical description, the federal government currently uses the following RAL color values , with their correspondence in the Pantone and CMYK system for word and image trademarks ("logos") and RGB for online media:

colour RAL Pantone CMYK RGB (hex and color)
black 9005 jet
black
0A 0A 0D 		Black 0-0-0-100 00 00 00
red 3020
traffic
red C1 12 1C 		485 0-100-100-0 FF 00 00
gold 1021
Rapeseed yellow
EE C9 00 		Yellow: 765 g, Red 032: 26 g, Black: 11 g,
transp. White: 198 g, alternative 7405 		0-12-100-5 FF CC 00

Black-red-yellow flags with no direct German reference

As the color of blood, red is one of the most common colors used in flags. Yellow as a symbol of wealth is also often found. Black occurs mainly in the Pan-Arabic colors (black-white-red) and in flags with an African background, where black stands for the skin color of the population. The combination of black with the Pan-African colors green-yellow-red can be found again and again, for example in the flags of Mozambique and Zimbabwe .

Germany's neighbor Belgium uses a vertical black-yellow-red tricolor. The colors of this flag come from the coat of arms of the Duchy of Brabant ( Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation ), a golden lion, armed in red, on a black background, and therefore has a historical connection to the German national colors.

Another tricolor in the colors used the Transcaucasian Democratic-Federal Republic , which existed between April 22 and May 28, 1918. The order of their flag was yellow-black-red.

Papua New Guinea used a. a. the colors black, red and yellow in its flag , which shows parts of the old coats of arms of the two former colonies from which Papua New Guinea arose - from German New Guinea and British New Guinea . In addition, these colors traditionally play a role in the country's folk art.

The Venezuelan state of Miranda has had a black, red and yellow tricolor flag with six white stars and in the jack a sun with an olive wreath and the state motto Libertad o Muerte since 2006 . The three colors symbolize the different population groups in the state. This flag, whose resemblance to the German flag is coincidental, goes back to the historical military flag of Francisco de Miranda . The President of the Venezuelan Symbolism Association said:

"[...] Because of its obvious resemblance to the flag of the Federal Republic of Germany, the proponents of the new flag - which had been announced months before and has been discussed in friendly forums since then - had to add an element of their own to it; they decided on six five-pointed stars [...]. "

Flag of Flemish Brabant.svg
Flemish Brabant
Flag of Miranda state.svg
Miranda
Bandera del Ejercito Colombiano de Miranda.svg
Miranda

The municipality of Tetovo in North Macedonia has a horizontal tricolor with a wide red and a narrow black and yellow stripe. Red is a color traditionally used by both major Tetovo populations, Albanians and Macedonians . With the Albanians in connection with black, with the Macedonians in connection with yellow.

The People's Progressive Party PPP in Guyana uses a vertical tricolor in black, red and yellow. In addition to green, these colors can also be found in the flag of Guyana .

The tribes of the Seminole and Mikasuki in Florida fly a flag with four horizontal stripes in white, black, red, and yellow; with some uses the seal of the respective trunk is in the center.

The Australian Aborigines use a horizontally split black and red flag with a yellow disc in the center.

Flag of Besançon.svg
Besançon
People's Progressive Party-Civic Flag (Guyana) .svg
People's Progressive Party (Guyana)
Flag of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida.svg
Seminoles and Mikasuki (each in the colors white-black-red-yellow)

See also: Flag of Angola , Flag of Brunei , Flag of East Timor , Flag of Uganda

See also

literature

  • Klaus Asche , Peter Kaupp , Ernst Wilhelm Wreden (eds.): 175 years of the Jena fraternity. Mainz / Göttingen / Berlin 1990.
  • Hans Bongardt: Black-Red-Gold? Student novel from the time of the first demagogue persecution. Berlin 1920.
  • Federal Agency for Civic Education (Hrsg.): German coats of arms and flags - symbols in the democratic state. Franzis, Munich 1991, 1998.
  • Otto Busch, Anton Schernitzky: Black-Red-Gold. The colors of the Federal Republic of Germany. Your tradition and meaning. Offenbach 1952.
  • Eduard David: About the flag of the German republic. Their significance in the past and present. Stuttgart, Berlin 1921.
  • Wilhelm Erman: black red gold and black and white red. Frankfurt 1925.
  • A. Friedel: German state symbols. Athenaeum, Frankfurt am Main / Bonn 1968, 1969.
  • Helga Gotschlich: Between fight and surrender. On the history of the Reich Banner Black-Red-Gold. Dietz, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-320-00785-8 .
  • Falk Grünebaum: German colors. The development of black-red-gold with special consideration of the fraternity. In: Friedhelm Golücke , Peter Krause , Klaus Gerstein (eds.): GDS archive for university and student history. Volume 7. Würzburg / Paderborn 2004, ISBN 3-89498-151-2 .
  • Berndt Guben: Black, Red and Gold. Ullstein, Berlin / Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-550-07500-6 .
  • Jörg-M. Hormann, Dominik Plaschke: German flags. History, tradition, use. Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-89225-555-5 .
  • Peter Kaupp: "Let us wear a color, the color of the fatherland." From the colors of the Jenaische Urburschenschaft to the German colors. A contribution to the early history of black-red-gold. In: Yearbook of the Hambach Society 1990/91. Pp. 9-44.
  • Landtag Rhineland-Palatinate (Ed.): Symbol for freedom, unity and democracy: The Hambach flag in the Landtag Rhineland-Palatinate. Mainz 2007.
  • Walter Leonhard: The great book of heraldic art - development, elements, motifs, design. 2nd Edition. Munich 1978, ISBN 3-8289-0768-7 .
  • Ottfried Neubecker: Flags and Flags. Leipzig 1939.
  • Ottfried Neubecker: Heraldry. Augsburg 1990.
  • Ottfried Neubecker: The coat of arms of the German Democratic Republic. In: Archivum Heraldicum. Lausanne 1956, ISSN  0004-0673 , pp. 2-3.
  • Peter Reichel : Black-Red-Gold. A brief history of German national symbols after 1945. CH Beck, Munich 2005.
  • Erardo Cristoforo Rautenberg : Black-Red-Gold: The symbol for the national identity of the Germans! In: Messages from the Federal Archives. Issue 3-2002, pp. 5-21; Yearbook of the Hambach Society 2003. pp. 227–246; 2008 updated version published by the Brandenburg action alliance against violence, right-wing extremism and xenophobia ( PDF file , 2.31 MB).
  • Karl Rohe : The Reich Banner Black Red Gold. Droste, Düsseldorf / Münster 1966.
  • Jan Schlürmann : The “ Wirmer Flag ” - the changeful history of a forgotten symbol of German Christian democracy. In: Historical-Political Messages. Archive for Christian Democratic Politics 22 (2015), pp. 331–342.
  • Harry D. Schurdel: Flags & Coat of Arms Germany. Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-89441-136-8 .
  • Jens Thomas: Anti-Anti-Flag. About the new normalization of national colors. In: Testcard # 16 “Extremism”. Mainz 2007, ISBN 978-3-931555-15-3 .
  • Veit Valentin , Ottfried Neubecker: The German colors. Leipzig 1929.
  • Hans Volquartz: The insignia of the Jenaische fraternity and their history 1815-1965. Pöppinghaus, Bochum-Langendreer 1965.
  • Paul Wentzcke: History of the German fraternity. Heidelberg 1919.
  • Paul Wentzcke: The German colors, their development and interpretation as well as their position in German history. 2nd revised edition. Heidelberg 1927, 1955 (special edition of the sources and representations on the history of the fraternity and the German unity movement, volume 9).
  • Egmont Zechlin : Black-Red-Gold and Black-White-Red in Past and Present. Berlin 1926.

Web links

Commons : Black-Red-Gold  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ George Henry Preble: The symbols, standards, flags, and banners of ancient and modern nations . undated (before 1900), reprinted by Flag Research Center, Winchester, USA.
  2. ↑ See: Friedrich Engels : The German Peasant War (1870). Frankfurt 1970, p. 91.
  3. ↑ See: Albert Norden : Um die Nation . Berlin 1953, p. 17.
  4. ^ Veit Valentin, Ottfried Neubecker: The German colors. Leipzig 1929, p. 14 f.
  5. ^ Heinrich von Treitschke : German History in the Nineteenth Century , Vol. 3: Until the July Revolution. Hirzel, Leipzig 1885 ( digitized version and full text in the German text archive ), p. 756.
  6. ↑ Historisch-Kritisches Liederlexikon: We had built a stately house - Edition A.
  7. ↑ http://www.dradio.de/dlf/sendung/kalenderblatt/627376/
  8. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume 2: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1960, p. 595.
  9. ↑ Princess Marie zu Erbach-Schönberg, Princess von Battenberg: Decisive years . Publishing house of "Litera" AG, Darmstadt 1923, p. 127 .
  10. ↑ Key objectives for a German social reform party . 0.0.0 J. BA ZSg. 1 E / 24
  11. ↑ Wentzcke: Emblem and colors of the Reich , vol. 1. Frankfurt / Main 1939.
  12. ↑ Truck: Your signs of victory . In: Der neue Wille, H. 2., P. 23 ff. 1918.
  13. ↑ leaflet "Call for entry into the 'Deutsche Loge'", 0.0.0)
  14. ↑ Book: 50 Years of the Anti-Semitic Movement, Munich 1937
  15. ^ Letter from the "Deutschvölkische Mittelschüler" No. 21 2/1897
  16. ^ Francis L. Carsten: Fascism in Austria. From Schönerer to Hitler. Munich 1978, p. 10
  17. ↑ Eduard Pichl: Georg Ritter von Schönerer. Vienna 1940, p. 179.
  18. ↑ Paul Wentzcke: Emblems and colors of the Reich, vol. 1. Frankfurt / Main 1939, p. 93.
  19. ↑ Arnolt Bronnen: Arnolt Bronnen is on record. Berlin / Weimar 1985, p. 27
  20. ↑ Mein Kampf , 1927, p. 137.
  21. ↑ Behrendt: Political Activism. Leipzig 1932.
  22. ↑ Alldeutsche Blätter, No. 45 / 09-11-1918, p. 358 ff.
  23. ↑ Hubricht: Black-White-Red , Alldeutsche Blätter, No. 38 / 20-09-1919.
  24. ^ Hans-Georg Balder: Frankonia-Bonn 1845-1995. The story of a German fraternity. WJK-Verlag, Hilden 2006, ISBN 3-933-892-26-0 , p. 485.
  25. ↑ Member of Parliament Kahl ( DVP ) in the National Assembly on July 2, 1919. Stenographic reports , vol. 327, p. 1227.
  26. ^ August Winnig : The Reich as Republic 1918–1928. Stuttgart / Berlin 1928.
  27. ^ The MP Graefe in the Reichstag on May 12, 1926. Stenographic reports. Vol. 390, p. 7200.
  28. ↑ Ernst Schultze: Black-Red-Gold. Zentralverlag Berlin, 1922.
  29. ^ Flag of July 20, 1944
  30. ^ German Society for Post and Telecommunication History e. V .: Post and Telecommunications History , 1st year, issue 2/1995, ISSN  0947-9945 , p. 27.
  31. ↑ Flags of the World - Olympic Flags (Germany)
  32. ^ German Society for Post and Telecommunication History e. V .: Post and telecommunications history , 1st year, issue 2/1995, ISSN  0947-9945 , p. 28.
  33. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff: Pegida assumes the legacy of July 20th . In: Die Welt , January 20, 2015. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
  34. ^ Wording of the speech by Frank-Walter Steinmeier on November 9, 2018 on Süddeutsche Zeitung, online edition November 9, 2018 , accessed on November 9, 2018.
  35. ↑ Flags of the World - Waldeck-Pyrmont 1815-1929 (Germany)
  36. ↑ Flags of the World - Principalities of Reuss-Gera and Reuss-Greiz 1778-1919 (Reuss, Germany)
  37. ↑ "Federal coat of arms flag" as house decoration , Portal protokoll-inland.de 9. (Federal Ministry of the Interior), February 12, 2011 polling September 2016
  38. ↑ Spiegel Special 02/2008: Allah in the Occident
  39. ^ BGH, judgment of November 16, 1959, Az. 3 StR 45/49.
  40. ↑ BVerfG, decision of September 15, 2008 , Az. 1 BvR 1565/05, full text.
  41. ^ Heribert Prantl: Flag mockery legal. Schwarz-Rot-Mostrich , Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 31, 2008 ( Memento from November 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  42. ^ Arnold Rabbow: Black-Red-Gold or Black-Red-Yellow? In: New Heraldic Messages of the Heraldic Association "Zum Kleeblatt" from 1888 in Hanover, Yearbook 1968/69, double volume 6 and 7, p. 32.
  43. ^ Law on the introduction of a German war and trade flag of November 12, 1848, Reichs-Gesetz-Blatt, 5th issue, issued in Frankfurt a. M., November 13, 1848. Article 3: "The German trade flag should consist of three horizontal, black, red, and yellow stripes of the same width, like the war flag, but with the difference that it does not bear the Reich coat of arms."
  44. ^ Arnold Rabbow: Black-Red-Gold or Black-Red-Yellow? In: New Heraldic Messages of the Heraldic Association "Zum Kleeblatt" from 1888 in Hanover, Yearbook 1968/69, double volume 6 and 7, p. 31.
  45. ↑ Picture with the flag in front of the building of the public prosecutor's office in Brandenburg
  46. ^ Heribert Prantl: Black-Red-Melon Yellow. False flag , Süddeutsche Zeitung, December 22, 2012
  47. ↑ Corporate Design of the Federal Government - Colors ( Memento from October 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  48. ↑ The specified RGB color values ​​correspond to the official sRGB values ​​of the RAL colors. In addition, the official CIE xyY values ​​are shown, converted into sRGB with absolute colorimetric rendering intent ; the yellow hue had to be slightly adapted to the sRGB gamut . Since the corporate design for online content is defined differently (see RGB colors on the right), this is only to be understood as a guide to the appearance of printed flags.
  49. ^ Flags of the World - Colors of the Belgian flag
  50. ^ Smith / Neubecker: Coats of arms and flags of all nations. Munich 1980, ISBN 3-87045-183-1 .
  51. ↑ Translated comment from Flags of the World - Miranda State (Venezuela)
  52. ^ Flags of the World - People's Progressive Party
  53. ↑ Native American Flags - The Seminole Tribe of Florida ( Memento from October 26, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  54. ^ Homepage of the Miccosukee Seminoles of Florida
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on May 15, 2005 in this version .