Black White Red
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| Vexillological symbol : |
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| Aspect ratio: | 3: 5 |
| Officially accepted: | November 8, 1892 |
The color combination black-white-red created in 1866 formed the flag of the North German Confederation and the German Reich (Kaiserreich, from 1871 to 1919) and from 1933 to 1945 the colors of the “ Third Reich ”. In the German Empire , the colors black, white and red became widely accepted national colors and formed the official national flag from 1892 onwards . After 1919 they remained the dominant colors in the trade flag of the Weimar Republic . During this time they were increasingly used by monarchists and other right-wing critics of the republic.
Outside Germany, the red-white-black color sequence is particularly widespread in the Arab world, where it is often used together with green (→ pan-Arab colors ).
Output colors and symbols
White-red
The colors white and red are widely used in heraldry . They are particularly widespread in the coats of arms and flags of the Hanseatic cities , for example in the coats of arms of Hamburg , Bremen , Lübeck , Rostock , Stralsund , Greifswald , Wismar , Braunschweig and Halberstadt . The Sachsenhorse , which has significant symbolism in northern Germany and which still forms the coats of arms of Lower Saxony and Westphalia today, also consists of a white horse on a red shield. The Holsteiner nettle leaf and the coat of arms of Brandenburg are also dominated by red and white.
The colors white and red were also used in the badges and flags of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation . The original imperial flag , which first appeared in the 12th century, showed a silver cross on a red background. Around 1350 it was replaced by the royal or imperial eagle banner. Only a red pennant on the imperial storm flag reminded of them. The combination of black, white and red was already found in the imperial racing flag , the war flag of the Holy Roman Empire. It showed a black and a silver stripe with two crossed red swords on it.
? Imperial flag of the Holy Roman Empire from the twelfth century to around 1350
Lübeck coat of arms with Hanseatic white and red as breast shield of the imperial eagle
The coat of arms of the Hohenzollern family
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White black
The colors white and black are closely related to the history of Prussia. The knights of the Teutonic Order already wore a white shield with a black cross. The important Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Hermann von Salza received the black imperial eagle as a sign of grace from Emperor Friedrich II on the occasion of his appointment as imperial prince in the Golden Bull of Rimini , which he then carried in a white shield. This was to become the Prussian eagle coat of arms. The Hohenzollern family, who later emerged as rulers in Brandenburg and Prussia , had a shield "square of white and black" as the family coat of arms.
“I am a Prussian, do you know my colors?
The flag floats in front of me in white and black!
That my fathers died for freedom, it
indicates, my colors. "
Usage and history
North German Confederation
Under the leadership of the Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck , after the dissolution of the German Confederation in 1866, the North German Confederation was formed from 22 north German states . After the accession of the southern states, the country was renamed " German Empire " in 1871 . The question of national emblems arose first with the ships that brought the Kingdom of Prussia and the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck into the Bund. In order for them to be internationally identifiable, they needed colored flags.
In an article that appeared in the Bremer Handelsblatt on September 22, 1866, Adolf Soetbeer , Secretary of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce , was the first to suggest combining the Prussian colors black and white with the Hanseatic colors white and red. The first written evidence for Bismarck's flag plans can be found a little later in the "Basic Features" of a constitution of the North German Confederation, into which he added the passage on December 9, 1866:
"Merchant ships of all states fly the same flag: black-white-red."
This solution was also advocated by the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Prince Adalbert of Prussia, on December 25, 1866 in a lecture to the King and Crown Prince. The state constitution came into effect on July 1, 1867, and provided in Article 55:
"The flag of the war and merchant navy is black-white-red."
The war flag was then changed to what was later called the Reich War Flag , but the trade flag kept the tricolor pattern . Personally, Bismarck seems to have had little interest in the choice of color. For example, a quote from him from 1871 has come down to us that expresses his fundamental disinterest: “Otherwise I don't care about the play of colors. Green and yellow and dancing fun, or the flag of Mecklenburg-Strelitz . "
The German Imperium
Even after the North German Confederation was renamed German Reich, the constitution prescribed the same colors. However, the use of the flag was not regulated further until November 8, 1892 in Paragraph 1 of the ordinance on the use of the Reich flag. Austria, which was now finally excluded from German unification, stayed with the old imperial colors of black and gold.
At a time when nationalism was growing across Europe , the national symbols of the state were very popular . This was especially true for a comparatively young nation-state like the German Empire , which was soon able to achieve considerable political and economic successes that could then also be combined with the new imperial colors. If Kaiser Wilhelm I was still opposed to these, this changed abruptly when his grandson Wilhelm II took office in 1888. Under his regiment, black-white-red became a symbol of the increased weight of the German Empire in international politics and economics and science.
Wilhelm II. Order from 1897 - for the 100th birthday of his grandfather - according to which the federal troops in future had to put on the cockade in the state as well as the one in the imperial colors was more than a symbolic act. Black and white - Red finally replaced the old national colors. Numerous associations throughout Germany made the colors their own out of patriotic enthusiasm.
Examples are the numerous veterans and warriors' associations that formed after the victorious Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, as well as the German Naval Association . The inter-corporative, largely patriotic-minded Associations of German Students (VDSt), which were later combined in the Association of Associations of German Students (VVDSt), chose black, white and red as their colors. The outbreak of World War I finally led to the final consolidation of the imperial colors as a patriotic symbol, which was sung about in countless songs and depicted on numerous postcards.
Nevertheless, the color combination was subject to constant criticism. Black, white and red were seen as “small German colors”, especially among groups with a greater German and republican tendency, which stood for the exclusion of German-speaking Austria from the German nation-state. Black, red and gold, on the other hand, were considered to be “Greater German colors”, which were used in particular in German national circles in Austria . Patriotism in the Navy was promoted with the propaganda film Proudly Waving the Flag in Black-White-Red (1916).
Weimar Republic
The Empire ended on November 9, 1918. The previous imperial constitution became obsolete with the November Revolution, after the election to the German National Assembly in February 1919, a new, democratically legitimized government was established. In the Weimar National Assembly , the members of parliament discussed the new republican Weimar constitution and thus also the question of the new imperial colors. The majority of Social Democrats , Catholics and left-wing liberals favored the national colors black, red and gold, which were linked to the German Revolution of 1848/1849 and the Frankfurt National Assembly . In addition, the German-Austrian Foreign Minister had signaled as early as 1918 that his country, which had already decided to join the German Reich, could consider the retention of the black, white and red colors as an unfriendly act. In the debates about the national colors, this great German idea was u. a. Cited by Reich Interior Minister Eduard David and Hugo Preuss as an argument for black, red and gold.
However, there was considerable resistance from both counter-revolutionary, military and nationalist forces, who wanted to keep the previous imperial colors black-white-red, and from left-wing revolutionary groups who preferred the red flag . Among the proponents of maintaining the imperial colors black, white and red, there were also the bourgeois national liberals in the National Assembly , who rejected a change of color as an "attack against national dignity". There were also supporters of the old colors in the liberal DDP and in the Catholic Center .
The so-called flag dispute , which was conducted with great passion, lasted well into the 1920s and ultimately led to numerous compromise solutions. According to the decision of the Weimar National Assembly of July 3, 1919, the national flag of the German Reich should henceforth be black, red and gold. At least as a trade flag, which is used for international recognition, in the opinion of many, the previous colors should be continued in order to avoid irritation. Finally, “black-white-red with the imperial colors in the upper inner corner” ( Gösch ) was determined as the trade flag . This solution was implemented in Article 3 of the Weimar Constitution of August 11, 1919, which came into force three days later. A similar compromise was reached in November 1920 for the even more controversial and highly symbolic Reich war flag for the military . It was not until 1926 that the service flag of the Reich authorities at sea was given a jack in the new Reich colors.
Commercial flag of the Weimar Republic
Reich war flag 1921–1933
Service flag of the Reich Sea Authorities 1921–1926
Service flag of the Reich Maritime Authorities 1926–1933
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The discussion about the German imperial colors was not over with the implementation of the resolutions of the National Assembly. As early as 1921 Gustav Stresemann , the leader of the right-wing liberal DVP , wanted to change the constitutional resolution and reintroduce black-white-red as the Reich flag through a referendum. Shortly before the final ordinances for the introduction of the new flags were issued, the cabinet had to deal with an application from the German Nautical Association and the Association of German Seamen's Associations on December 9, 1921 . These required the use of the pure black, white and red merchant ship flag on the stern and the black, red and gold jack on the bow.
In addition, many anti-democratic and right-wing radical parties and political groups used the old colors to signal their counter-revolutionary political convictions to the outside world. On the right-hand side of the political spectrum, the buzzword was: “Black-white-red to death!” During the Kapp Putsch and the subsequent fighting in various areas of Germany, black-white-red badges and black-white-red badges were used Imperial war flag used by the Freikorps who sided with the putschists or sympathized with them. In the case of returning members of the Baltic Volunteer Corps, who were often deployed in the suppression of the workers' uprisings in 1919 and 1920, the combination of black, white and red badges with a painted swastika appeared for the first time , as was the case with the naval brigade that was instrumental in the Kapp Putsch Ehrhardt was taken over. It is also significant that during the “ Hitler putsch ” in November 1923 members of the military school in Munich enthusiastically tore the black, red and gold emblems from their uniform caps. This happened on the instructions of the Freikorpsführer Roßbach , who had them replaced by black-white-red. Hitler himself had designed a party flag for the NSDAP in the summer of 1920 , in which the color combination black-white-red also appeared: a white disk on a red background with a black swastika inside.
Sticking to the imperial colors was associated with illegal actions in the Reichswehr . As early as October 1919, the National Assembly had to discuss a “boycott of the new imperial colors” by the officer corps: Returning prisoners of war were greeted at the stations with black, white and red flags, which violated instructions to the contrary. The old black-white-red cockade was often carried on in the troops, although the Reichswehr Minister had imposed disciplinary sanctions on this in 1921.
A similar motivational situation as in the Reichswehr also prevailed among numerous warrior and veteran associations of former front-line soldiers, who emphatically clung to the black-white-red colors with which they commemorated the heroes of the war. Officially, the steel helmet backed the new republican form of government, but at the latest after the signing of the Versailles Treaty , the political orientation of the federal government took on clearly anti-republican features. On the first so-called “Front Soldier Day” in 1920, black-white-red was adopted as the federal color, and in 1927 there was even a call for the general reintroduction of the colors black-white-red. The tendency towards this color combination was also expressed in a song that was popular within the organization:
“We carry the black-white-red battle flag that the world once envied us for.
We raise the crown of the Vistula and the Rhine,
from which the devil does not part.
We fight for freedom, for the people and for God,
one salvation for our 'black-white-red' flag! "
In the spring of 1926 the flag dispute even led to the failure of the second cabinet under Chancellor Hans Luther . On May 5, 1926, he ordered that the embassy and consular authorities of the Reich in non-European countries should in future place the black, red and gold national flag and the black, white and red trade flag (with the black, red and gold upper corner) next to each other . After heated debates in public and in the Reichstag on May 12, 1926, Luther's government was overthrown as a result.
time of the nationalsocialism
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After the takeover of the Nazis , the proponents of the old colors had gained the upper hand again. As early as March 12, 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg issued a "decree on the provisional regulation of flag raising". It said:
"Today, when the old black-white-red flags are flying at half-mast in honor of our fallen soldiers all over Germany, I decide that from tomorrow until the final regulation of the imperial colors the black-white-red flag and the swastika flag together are to be hoisted. "
The speed at which the change to the black-white-red colors took place was also shown by the fact that von Hindenburg instructed the authorities on March 7, 1933, two days after the Reichstag elections, to celebrate the upcoming national memorial day (March 13). Black and white red flags. As early as the middle of 1933, the new imperial colors - like other state symbols - were so widespread among the population that official measures had to be taken against inflationary use. The depiction on everyday objects of all kinds was banned and the objects were withdrawn from circulation as “national kitsch”.
Even after the Reichstag elections on March 5, 1933, right-wing conservative parties and associations resisted the Nazis' sole use of the colors black, white and red. The Stahlhelm declared in a circular dated March 14, 1933:
"The proud black-white-red flag is truly not leased by a party, it belongs to the entire German people as the most sacred legacy of the 2 million best Germans who gave their lives under these colors for the people and their homeland."
In another circular dated March 18, 1933, the combat front declared :
“The news from the country consistently shows that the people, and also in National Socialist constituencies, want the old colors black, white and red as the imperial colors. In these days, at most weeks, until the official decision on the flag issue, it will therefore be useful, as soon as there is any reason to flag, to adapt the exterior street image to the popular perception for the colors black-white-red.
After Hindenburg's death on August 2, 1934, Hitler combined the offices of Reich President and Reich Chancellor in his person as "Führer and Reich Chancellor". Soon the position of the NSDAP seemed so solid that further measures could be taken towards the unification of party and state. In the course of this development, the party flag with the swastika became the sole national flag of the German Reich. The Reichsflaggengesetz of September 15, 1935 stated:
"The imperial colors are black-white-red."
“The imperial and national flag is the swastika flag. It is also the trade flag. "
A public comment by Hermann Göring in his function as President of the Reichstag illuminates the political implications of this decision, through which the old Reich colors were also effectively withdrawn from the supporters of German national parties. The conservative right, which claimed black-white-red and wanted to make these colors the national flag (see above), was thus degraded to insignificance:
“The old flag, it was rolled in honor. She belongs to a past Germany of honor. [...] The respect that we have for the old black-white-red flag forces us to prevent and prevent these colors and this flag from being degraded to a party pennant under which the reaction is hidden as a sign of victory. "
An interesting side aspect of the use of black-white-red colors is their use in Soviet propaganda. Apparently in order to take into account the “Wilhelmine” concept of order of officers of the German resistance, black-white-red was made the colors of the National Committee Free Germany , founded in 1943 . The lettering "NKFD" was on a white background that was between a black and a red stripe. Likewise, leaflet propaganda, which often appealed to the national responsibility of German officers, was usually framed with black, white and red stripes. In addition, so-called “ front officers ” of the NKFD were equipped with an armband in black, white and red, with the words “Free Germany” in the white central stripe.
The German symbols of sovereignty introduced during the time of National Socialism were officially repealed after the end of the Second World War by the first control council law of the allied victorious powers of November 20, 1945.
After the Second World War
After the collapse of the German Empire as a result of the lost Second World War, the colors black, white and red no longer played a role as the emblem of the German states. Despite some fears, there was no flag dispute like the one that had been waged in the Weimar Republic . Both the general lack of interest in the colors black-white-red as well as the propagation and support of black-red-gold by all state-sponsoring parties led to a stabilizing influence on the national colors in the flag of Germany .
However, up until the early 1960s, a not inconsiderable proportion of the population (even 43% in 1955) spoke out in favor of black, white and red as the preferred color combination. Black-white-red was in any case a symbolic expression for clinging to an imperial idea, as it was widespread among the supporters of right-wing conservative circles. In the "Conservative Manifesto" written in 1946 by Hans Zehrer and Otto Schmidt-Hannover (a close associate of Hugenberg in the DNVP), which called for the establishment of a federalist German state, the basic structure of which was to be based on the model of the British parliamentary monarchy, it said among other things:
“A new, independent German state will have to renew the symbols that were an expression of its sovereignty and independence. In agreement with many Germans who are politically different, we take the view that this state should again fly the flag under which it was founded in the previous century, the colors black-white-red. "
The overall lack of response in the population for black, white and red, as well as the rigorous intervention of the authorities against the old colors, prevented greater dissemination. In 1950, for example, the Presidium of the Bundestag even had a door sign in front of the DRP- NDP parliamentary group removed, showing a black-white-red sloping bar.
Subsequent uses of black-white-red colors were therefore essentially limited to the use of smaller party symbols such as pins. However, some traditional private clubs used black, white and red as club colors long after the Second World War, such as the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People (DGzRS) to this day . The Automobile Club of Germany (AvD) switched to red and white a few years ago.
In contrast , right-wing extremist parties such as the Republicans or the DVU that emerged in the 1980s were often based on the federal colors black-red-gold, meaning black-white-red on the one hand on the sector of democratic-constitutional monarchism in German-speaking countries and on the other the extreme right was pushed back.
Some political minority groups still use the colors today to refer to earlier times in German history. The colors continue to be used as an advertising symbol by parties that are primarily part of the national trend, often exclusively, but often also in combination with the federal colors black, red and gold .
Showing this historic flag does not have to be an expression of right-wing extremist sentiments. "The use of the Reich War Flag does not meet an offense of the Criminal Code or the Administrative Offenses Act," says the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Nevertheless, the flag can be secured under police and regulatory law "if this is the necessary, appropriate and proportionate measure in specific individual cases to ward off specific dangers to public safety and order". This regulation is aimed at the activities of neo-Nazis. In contrast, in 2005 the Administrative Court of Baden-Württemberg declared the seizure of a black-white-red imperial flag to be unlawful. As a justification, the court stated that simply showing the Reich flag in public neither fulfills the criminal offenses of Section 86a of the Criminal Code (use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations) or Section 130 of the Criminal Code (incitement to hatred), nor a disruption of public safety and order in the sense of state law constitutes general clauses under police and regulatory law. A political provocation that might be intended with the use of the flag is to be accepted as long as the danger threshold is not exceeded.
Other uses
The colors black, white and red can also be found in the flags of other countries. Upper Volta , today's Burkina Faso , ran a black-white-red national flag from 1959 to 1984 . But the flags of many Arab states are also based on these colors. They belong to the Pan-Arab colors , which among other things go back to the red-white-black Arab liberation flag that was created in Egypt . Red-white-black stripes make up the flag of Yemen today , but the flags of Egypt , Iraq , Syria and Sudan also use them as a base.
Flag of Upper Volta (historical)
See also
literature
- Georg Franz-Willing : Crisis year of the Hitler movement. KWSchütz-Verlag , Preußisch Oldendorf 1975, ISBN 3-87725-078-5 .
- Volker R. Berghahn : The steel helmet. Association of Front Soldiers 1918–1935. Droste, Düsseldorf 1966.
- Ernst H. Posse: The political fighting alliances of Germany. 2nd expanded edition. Junker & Dünnhaupt, Berlin 1931.
- Heinrich Hildebrandt, Walter Kettner: Stahlhelm-Handbuch. 4th improved edition. Stahlhelm-Verlag, Berlin 1931.
- Arnolt Bronnen : Rossbach. Rowohlt, Berlin 1930.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl Schultz: The German flag. Berlin 1928, pp. 66-75.
- ↑ Sebastian Diziol: "German, become members of the fatherland!" The German Navy League 1898-1934. Solivagus-Praeteritum, Kiel 2015, ISBN 978-3-9817079-0-8 , pp. 298-306.
- ^ Hugo Preuss: State, Law and Freedom: from forty years of German politics and history . Georg Olms Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-487-42079-0 , p. 398–400 ( google.de [accessed on September 23, 2017]).
- ↑ Member of Parliament Kahl ( DVP ) in the National Assembly on July 2, 1919. Stenographic reports , vol. 327, p. 1227.
- ↑ Files of the Reich Chancellery
- ^ A. Rabbow: dtv lexicon of political symbols. Munich 1970.
- ^ Karlheinz Weißmann: Black flags, rune signs. Düsseldorf 1991, p. 183.
- ↑ Against national kitsch. In: Völkischer Beobachter No. 203 / 22-07-1933.
- ^ Hectographed circular of the combat front black-white-red from March 14, 1933, BA ZSg. 1 E / 11.
- ^ Hectographed circular of the combat front black-white-red from March 18, 1933, BA ZSg. 1 E / 11.
- ^ Arnold Rabbow: dtv lexicon of political symbols. Munich 1970.
- ↑ Yearbook of Public Opinion 1947–1955 , p. 158.
- ^ Adolf von Thadden : The ostracized right. KWSchütz-Verlag, Preußisch Oldendorf 1984, ISBN 3-87725-111-0 , p. 53.
- ↑ Right wing strong. In: Der Spiegel. No. 2 / 12-01-1950, p. 5.
- ↑ Administrative Court of Baden-Wuerttemberg, decision of 15 June 2005, file number: 1 S 2718/04.