Flag of Germany

The national flag of Germany is made up of three equally sized horizontal bands bearing the national colors of Germany, which are black, red, and gold.

Symbolism

Germany’s black-red-gold tricolor scheme had always played a prominent role in the country’s history and has held various meanings through time. These colors are associated with the republican democracy that has been established after World War II. Now, more than ever, these colors stand for German unity and freedom.

Specifications

Article 22 of the German constitution defines the federal flag as black, red, and gold
West Germany government in 1950 had specified that the federal flag should consist of three bars of equal width, with a length-width ratio of 3:5

In 1999, the federal cabinet created a corporate design for the German government which uses the following colors:

Scheme	Black	Red	Gold
RAL	9005 Jet black	3020 Traffic red	1021 Cadmium yellow
HKS	0, 0, 0	5.0PB 3.0/12	6.0R 4.5/14
CMYK	0.0.0.100	0.100.100.0	0.12.100.5
Pantone	Black	485	7405
HTML	#000000	#FF0000	#FFCC00

History

Medieval Period	The Holy Roman Emperor featured the colors black and gold in his imperial banner in the form of a black eagle in a golden background. The claws were colored red by the end of the 13 th or 14 th century.
Napoleonic Wars	The struggle of Germany against the French forces was strongly signified by the colors black, red, and gold. This was mostly attributed to the uniforms worn by the volunteer unit of the Prussian Army, the Lützow Free Corps.
German Confederation	The German Confederation was formed after the Napoleonic Wars to loosely unite all the remaining German states. The last Holy Roman Emperor, Francis I of Austria, was seated as the confederation’s president. Although it did not have a flag of its own, the black-red-gold tricolor was often mistakenly attributed to it.
Jena Urburschenschaft Fraternity	Founded by the veterans of the Lützow Free Corps in June 1815, it adopted a flag with three equally sized horizontal bands of red, black and red with gold trimmings. It also featured a golden oak across the black band. The idea of a unified Germany gained much momentum within the fraternity, subsequently strongly associating the tricolor with this desire.
Frankfurt Parliament	After the Revolutions of 1848, the liberals took power and formed the Frankfurt Parliament. It declared the black, red, and gold tricolor as the colors of Germany and passed a law which makes the black, red, and yellow tricolor as its civil ensign.
Austro–Prussian War	The black, red, and gold tricolor figured prominently in this was as both contending forces wore these colors.
North German Confederation,	Formed after the dissolution of the German Federation, it consisted of Prussia and 21 North German states. Combining the colors of Prussia with Hanseatic colors, the coalition adopted a horizontal black-white-red tricolor flag as its civil and war ensign. Later on, the remaining South German states allied with the coalition, consequently uniting Germany.
German Empire	As Germany’s flag until the collapse of the empire in 1918.
Weimar Republic	Adopted the black, red, gold tricolor as its national flag. However, it was strongly opposed by the conservatives, monarchists and the far right. They saw it as a symbol of humiliation after Germany’s defeat in World War I.
Nazi Germany	The black, white, red tricolor was reestablished. Together with the flag of the Nazi party, the swastika, the regime declared these two as legal flags of Germany.
Post World War II	The reorganized German states predominantly adopted the black, red, gold tricolor in their flags for various reasons.
East and West Germany	The black, red, gold tricolor was declared the flag for both East and West Germany. The flag remained the same until socialist symbols were added to the East German flag in 1959.
1989 to present	The black, red, gold tricolor has remained as the national flag of Germany since the reunification of East and West Germany on October 3, 1990.

Flags of the World

Flag of Germany