Flag of germany

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The current German flag (in German, Bundesflagge) is one of the most important symbols of this country. It is tricolor: black, red and gold (in German, "Schwarz-Rot-Gold") and consists of three horizontal stripes of equal size. It was adopted for the first time as the national flag of modern Germany in 1919, during the Weimar Republic, being recovered by the Federal Republic of Germany on May 23, 1949 and by the German Democratic Republic.

Black, red and gold represent the colors of the uniform worn by German soldiers, called Freikorps, during the Napoleonic Wars. It was a black uniform adorned with gilt copper buttons and red decorations. These colors had already served as the password of a student society in Jena in 1817. Banned, they reappeared in 1832 on the flags waved by the crowd during the great demonstration in Hambach. They were declared German national colors in 1848, but their use as a flag was not continuous: it disappeared under the government of Otto von Bismarck and then under the regime of Adolf Hitler, to reappear after the defeat of the Third Reich in 1945, after the Second World War. World War.

The flag of the German Democratic Republic included, in addition to the three colors, the insignia of its coat of arms: a hammer and a compass, surrounded by two sheaves of wheat. Since 1990 they were once again the three colors of a reunited Germany.

This flag was designed at the beginning of the XIX century, but it had previously been used in the days of the German Confederation (1848-1866) and the Weimar Republic (1918-1933). After World War II, the flag was adopted by both the German Democratic Republic and West Germany, remaining identical until 1959, when the state coat of arms was added to the GDR.

The German national flag hasn't always been black, red and gold. Following the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, the North German Confederation adopted a black, white, and red tricolor. This flag later became the standard of the German Empire formed after the German unification of 1871 and was used until 1918, after the defeat in World War I. The black, white and red were reintroduced as the national flag for a brief period after the establishment of Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1935.

The color schemes black, red and gold and black, white and red have played an important role in German history and have various meanings. The colors of the modern flag are associated with the republican democracy formed after World War II and represent German unity and freedom.

Flag variants

Civil flag

The German national flag or Bundesflagge (federal flag, in German) containing only the three stripes black, red and gold was introduced into the West German Constitution of 1949. After the creation of the government and military flags in later years, the simple tricolor has been used as a civilian ensign. It is also used by non-federal authorities (for example, the different federal states that make up Germany) to show their connection to the federal government.

Variant of the German flag with the coat of arms, similar to the government flag. It looks at international sports events.

Government flag

The government flag of Germany is officially known as the Dienstflagge der Bundesbehörden (Federal Authorities Service Flag) or Bundesdienstflagge (Federal Service Flag) for short. It was introduced in 1950 and consists of a shield known as the Bundesschild (federal coat of arms) that overlaps the tricolor bands. The Bundesschild is a variant of the German coat of arms, the main differences being the illustration of the eagle and the shape of the coat of arms: the Bundesschild is round while the standard is not. The government flag may only be used by government authorities and its use by civilians is an offense punishable by a fine. However, the public use of flags similar to the Bundesdienstflagge (such as with the current coat of arms instead of the federal one) is allowed and these are often seen at international sporting events.

Vertical civil flag

Vertical banners

In addition to horizontal flags, many public buildings in Germany use vertical flags. Most councils display the city flag alongside the national flag in this way because many of the municipal banners exist only in a vertical format. The proportions of this flag are not specified. In 1996 a design was established for the vertical version of the government flag: the Bundesschild is shown in the center of the flag, overlapping the side bands (black and gold) by one fifth of the full width of these. When flown as a banner, black should be on the left and gold on the right. When hanging from a vertical mast, the black should be closest to the mast.

Military flags

Currently, the war flag (Kriegsflagge, in German) corresponds to a modified version of the flag used by the federal authorities, since it has a triangular recess on the outside. Throughout history, Germany has had various emblems for its military corps, which generally correspond to modified versions of its national flags.

The first flag used by the German Confederation, consisted of the national flag to which was added a black double-headed eagle in the canton on a yellow field. This flag was used between 1848 and 1867, when it was replaced by a white flag with a black cross and which had the black-white-red flag in the canton together with an iron medal. Above the cross was the eagle of the Prussian flag on a white disk. This flag underwent minor changes to the eagle in 1892 and 1903.

In 1919, the war flag was modified by incorporating the flag of the Weimar Republic in the canton of the previous version. However, this flag was never used and was replaced in 1922 by the old flag of the Second Reich, with the steel medal on it and in the canton the Schwarz-Rot-Gold flag. When the Nazis came to power, the cantonal flag was eliminated and the design of the Reichskriegsflagge was maintained until 1935, when a new flag was designed that incorporated the symbols of Nazism.

Since the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) reports directly to the federal authorities, the Bundesdienstflagge is also used as a military ground flag. In 1956 the Dienstflagge der Seestreitkräfte der Bundeswehr (German Navy flag) was introduced, which is the finished state flag in the shape of a swallowtail. This version is also used as a bow flag.

Construction of the flag

Article 22 of the Bonn Basic Law (the German Constitution) states that the federal flag must be black, red and gold. Following West German government specifications in 1950, the flag features three stripes of equal width and has width-length ratios of 3:5. It differed in this point from that used during the Weimar Republic, of ratios 2:3.

The exact colors of the German flag were not officially defined at the time of adoption and have changed since then. The federal government introduced a corporate design on June 2, 1999 that uses the colors:

Color system
RAL	9005	3020	1021
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	#000	#FF0000	#FFCC00
RGB	0, 0, 0	255, 0, 0	255, 204, 0

*The values given here are an alternate way of indicating the more complicated combination: Yellow (765g), Red 032 (26g), Black (11g), White (198g)

Gold or yellow?

Version of the German flag in which the golden strip has a metallic gold color. This version was used in some official publications before the federal government introduced the current design in 1999.

Vexillology rarely distinguishes between gold and yellow. In heraldry, both are called or ("gold", in French). In the German flag that distinction is made: the color is gold, not yellow.

When the black, red and gold tricolor was adopted in the Weimar Republic as the national flag, it was criticized by conservatives, royalists and the far right, who referred to the colors as Schwarz-Rot-Gelb ("black-red-yellow"), Schwarz-Rot-Senf ("black-red-mustard") and even Schwarz-Rot-Scheiße (" black-red-shit"). When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the black, white, and red colors used by Imperial Germany prior to 1918 were reintroduced and propaganda took it upon itself to discredit the Weimar flag, using the terms of contempt applied by conservatives.

On November 16, 1959, the Bundesgerichtshof (the Federal Court of Justice) ruled that the use of the terms "black-red-yellow" and the like "during the years of Nazi turmoil, it had taken the meaning of a malicious insult against the democratic symbols of the state" and declared it a crime. As the heraldist Arnold Rabbow explained in 1968, the colors of Germany are black, red and yellow but they are called black, red and gold.

Flag Days

The flag, according to a federal decree of March 22, 2005, must be displayed in public buildings on certain designated days:

January 27: Commemoration of the victims of National Socialism.
May 1st: International Worker Day.
May 9: Day of Europe.
May 23: Constitutional Day.
June 17: Anniversary of the 1953 uprising in East Germany.
July 20: Anniversary of the attack on the life of Adolf Hitler by the German Resistance, executed by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg with some 200 directly involved and another 300 indirectly, in 1944.
October 3: German Unity Day.
Two Sundays before Advent: National Day of mourning.

It should also fly in some states on election days for the Bundestag and the European Parliament. The Minister of the Interior, in addition, can order the use of the national flag for some notable event, such as the election of the president or the death of a prominent politician. When the flags must fly at half mast, the vertical ones are not hoisted and are place a black banner in its place as a sign of mourning.

History

Middle Ages

War Flag of the Holy Roman German Empire between the 13th and 14th centuries.

Flag of the Holy Roman German Empire since 1410.

The Holy Roman Empire (from the 10th century to 1806) had no national flag, but black and gold were used as the Emperor's colors and appeared on imperial ensigns: a black eagle on a gold background. At the end of the 13th century the eagle's talons and beak were painted red. Since the 15th century, a double-headed eagle has been used.

In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte founded the First French Empire. In response to this action, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II of the Habsburg dynasty declared himself Emperor of Austria and began to be called Francis I of Austria. He took the colors of the Holy Empire for use on the flag of the Austrian Empire. Francis II was the last Holy Roman Emperor, as Napoleon achieved its dissolution in 1806. After the end of the Holy Roman Empire, the colors continued to be used in Austria until 1918.

The colors red and white also played an important role during this period. When the Holy Empire participated in the crusades, a war banner was raised alongside the imperial colors. This flag, known as the flag of Saint George, was red with a white cross, as opposed to the cross of Saint George used on the flag of England. Red and white were also the colors of the Hanseatic League between the 13th centuries and XVII. Hanseatic trading ships were identified by their red and white banners, and most League cities adopted these colors as their municipal colors. This is still noticeable in many cities that belonged to the League, such as Hamburg.

Napoleonic Wars

Members Lützowsches Freikorpspainting by Ferdinand Hodler (1909).

With the fall of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, many of the dukes and princes were united in the Confederation of the Rhine, a vassal state of Napoleon. The confederation did not have its own flag either. Instead he used, along with a green, white and blue ensign, the blue, white and red flag of France and the Imperial Standard of his "protector", Napoleon.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the German uprising against the French occupation troops was symbolized with the colors black, red and gold. The origin of this combination is attributed to the uniforms of the Lützowsches Freikorps, a volunteer unit of the Prussian army. The uniforms of these units were black with red facings and gold buttons. The choice of colors was due to the popularization of the colors used by the late Holy Roman Empire. Members of the Freikorps had to provide their own clothing and, to present an image of unity, black was chosen for being the easiest dye to apply. The gold buttons were easy to find and the banners used by the spearmen were red and black. At the same time the colors represented the way out of the darkness (black) of servitude through bloody conflict (red) into the light (gold) of freedom. As the members of this unit came from all over Germany and were mostly university students and academics, the Lützowsches Freikorps and its colors acquired great importance among the German people.

German Confederation

Demonstrators in May 1832 carrying tricoloured flags, contemporary lithography.

The Congress of Vienna of 1815 led to the creation of the German Confederation, a union of the states that survived the Napoleonic Wars. The Confederation was created to replace the Holy Empire with Francisco II as its president. The Confederacy also did not have its own flag, although the black, red, and gold tricolor is sometimes mistakenly attributed to it.

Returning from the war, veterans of the Freikorps founded the brotherhood Urburschenschaft in Jena in June 1815. The Urburschenschaft sometimes adopted a flag with three equal stripes of red, black, and red edged in gold and a gold oak branch along the black stripe. As the students of the Freikorps came from different states, the The idea of a united Germany began to gain strength among different groups throughout the Confederation. On October 18, 1817, during the fourth anniversary of the Battle of Leipzig, hundreds of members of the Urburschenschaft brotherhood and students from across the Confederation gathered in Wartburg, Thuringia, calling for a free and united German nation. The red, black and gold flag of Jena was prominently displayed at the Wartburg so its colors became the representation of a united Germany. The Confederation, sponsored by Metternich, in its determination to maintain the status quo, passed the Karlsbad Decrees in 1819, which outlawed student organizations, ending the Burschenschaften.

In May 1832, around 30,000 people demonstrated at the Hambach Festival for freedom, unity and civil rights. The colors black, red, and gold had become a well-established symbol of liberals, Democrats, and Republicans since the Wartburg Festival, and flags in those colors were used in great numbers. While contemporary illustrations show the massive use of the flag with the black stripe below and the gold stripe above, the banners of the time that have survived to this day show that the common form of use was as we know it today, with the black stripe above.

Revolution and the Frankfurt Parliament

Imperial Navy War Flag between 1848 and 1852

Revolutionaries in Berlin in March 1848

During the German Revolution of 1848-1849, revolutionaries took to the streets carrying the tricolor with them. The liberals came to power, and after long deliberation, a national assembly was formed. This became known as the Frankfurt Parliament, which decided to adopt black, red, and gold as the official colors of Germany. It was also used as a naval ensign.

In 1850, the Frankfurt Parliament was replaced by the German Confederation under Austrian tutelage, which annulled all actions of the failed parliament, including the use of the tricolor. Next, the larger issue was whether or not to include Austria in a possible future German nation since the multi-ethnic Austrian Empire complicated the dream of a Greater Germany. The proposed alternative was a Little Germany, which included all German-inhabited lands except Austria. Competition between Prussia and Austria within the Confederation led to the Austro-Prussian War in 1866. During the war, the southern states allied with Austria adopted the tricolor flag, and members of the army of those states wore armbands in the three colors of the flag. The Kingdom of Prussia and its North German allies defeated Austria and paved the way for the creation of Little Germany a few years later.

North German Confederation and German Empire

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Flag of the navy and trade of the German Confederation of the North (1867-1871) and national flag of the German Empire (1871-1918). It was also used as an international flag between 1922 and 1933 in the Republic of Weimar and as a co-official flag between 1933 and 1935 (Nazi Germany).

The so-called «imperial flag» (Reichsflagge), or simply the «black-white-red» due to its colors (Schwarz-Weiß-Rot), was the Official flag first adopted by the North German Confederation as the flag of trade and the Imperial Navy, and later as the national flag of the German Empire. In addition, it served as the international flag of Germany during the Weimar Republic (the national being the republican flag) and as the national flag of Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1935 (which, despite its official status, was increasingly replaced by the Nazi flag)., until the latter became the only official flag).

After the dissolution of the German Confederation, Prussia formed its unofficial successor, the North German Confederation, in 1867. This coalition consisted of Prussia, the largest member state, and 21 other north German states.

The flag issue arose from the navy sector, whose members wanted to have an internationally recognized identity. Virtually all the ships of the confederation belonged to Prussia and to the three cities of the Hanseatic League on German territory: Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck. Based on this fact, it was proposed that the new flag combine the colors of Prussia (black and white) and those of the Hanseatic League (white and red). When the confederation was established, a black, white and red tricolor flag was approved as a civil and military ensign.

King William I of Prussia was pleased with the choice of colors, as red and white were also the colors of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the predecessor state of the Kingdom of Prussia. The absence of gold from the flag he made it clear that this new German state would not include the "black and gold" monarchy of Austria. Following the Franco-Prussian War, the remaining southern states allied with the North German Confederation, leading to the unification of Germany and the enthronement of the Prussian king as emperor of the new state in 1871. In creating the new Empire, they maintained the black, white and red as national colors, officially adopting the flag in 1892.

Weimar Republic

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Flag of the Republic of Weimar (1919-33)

After the declaration of the German Republic in 1918 and the revolutionary period that followed, the so-called Weimar Republic was founded in August 1919. To show a continuity between the anti-monarchy movement of the 19th century and the new democratic republic, the old republic was designated black, red and gold flag as the ensign of Germany in the Weimar Constitution. The black, white and red tricolor was retained as the civil ensign with the black, red and gold in the upper left corner.

This change did not go down well with many in Germany, where the new flag was seen as a symbol of humiliation after the German defeat in World War I. In the Reichswehr, the German army, the old colors continued to be used in various ways. Many conservatives wanted the return of the old colors while royalists and the extreme right went further and described the new flag with contempt (see Gold or yellow?). The black, white, and red flag was reintroduced in 1922 to represent Germany at diplomatic missions abroad.

Symbols of Imperial Germany became those of monarchists and nationalists protesting against the republic and were used by organizations created by these groups, such as the Stahlhelm and the Bund der Frontsoldaten. Many nationalist political parties during the Weimar period, such as the National People's Party of Germany and the National Socialist German Workers' Party (the Nazi Party), used the imperial colours, a practice that is continued today in the National Democratic Party of Germany.

On February 24, 1924, members of the Weimar Coalition parties (Center, DDP, and SPD) founded the organization Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold in Magdeburg. This organization was created to protect the weak German democracy, which was under constant pressure from both the extreme right and the extreme left. Through this organization, the black, red and gold tricolor became not only the symbol of German democracy but of resistance against political extremism as well. The first director of the organization Otto Hörsing defined it as "the scourge of the swastika and the Soviet star".

Due to the growing conflicts between the communists and the Nazis, the increasing polarization of the German population and a number of other factors led to the collapse of the Weimar Republic in 1933 with the rise to power of the Nazi Party and the appointment of Adolf Hitler as German chancellor.

Bavarian Soviet Republic

Flag of the Soviet Republic of Bavaria

The Bavarian Soviet Republic has its roots in the defeat of the German Empire in World War I and the resulting social tensions, which led to the October Revolution of 1918. Riots broke out at the end of October 1918 by sailors of the German war fleet in Kiel and other ports. In early November these riots spread civil unrest throughout Germany. On November 7, 1918, the first anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia, Ludwig III of Bavaria fled the Munich Residence with his family, and Kurt Eisner, a politician from the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany. (USPD for its acronym in German), proclaimed the People's State of Bavaria, of which he became Minister-President. The fall of the Wittelsbach dynasty marks the end of the Kingdom of Bavaria.

Although Eisner postulated the creation of a socialist republic, Eisner distanced himself from the Russian Bolsheviks, stating that his government would protect the right to property.

Revolutionary soldiers waving the red flag in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on November 9, 1918.

Marked by the controversy of a program bordering on the utopian, the Eisner government suffered attacks from the left and the right, and the USPD was defeated at the polls in the elections of January 12, 1919, remaining as the party Parliamentarian with the least representation, in sixth place, with 3 seats out of a total of 180 and 2.53% of the votes. On February 21 of the same year, on his way to parliament to announce his resignation, he was shot twice in the back by Anton Arco-Valley, a 22-year-old army officer, a reactionary nationalist.

It was a short-lived unrecognized socialist state that arose in Bavaria during the November Revolution of 1918–19, which brought down all of Germany's monarchs. It took the form of a Soviet republic or workers' councils. It was established on April 7, 1919 after the fall of Kurt Eisner's People's State of Bavaria, and aspired to independence from the recently proclaimed Weimar Republic. She was overthrown in less than a month, on May 3 of the same year, by elements of the Reichswehr as well as the paramilitary Freikorps.

Nazi Germany

Main article: Flag of Nazi Germany

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National Flag of Germany (1935-1945)

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Used next to the flag of the swastika between 1933 and 1935 and then forbidden by «reactionary».^{[chuckles]required]}

With the establishment of the Nazi regime in Germany on March 5, 1933, the black, red, and gold flag was abolished and the black, white, and red flag was reintroduced alongside the Nazi flag. In 1935, one year after the the death of President Paul von Hindenburg and the self-proclamation of Hitler as Führer, ended with the use of the two flags; only the Nazi remained as the national flag of Germany, while the tricolor was banned as "reactionary".^{[citation required]}

The Nazi flag design was introduced by Hitler as a party flag in the summer of 1920. It was a flag with a red background, with a white disk in the center and a black swastika in the circle. In addition to the union with the Empire through colors, the flag had other meanings, as Hitler wrote in his work "Mein Kampf": white for nationalism, red as a provocation to the socialists and the swastika to represent the Aryan race.

A version of the flag with the circle and swastika offset from the center was used as the ensign of the civilian navy and the Kriegsmarine. The flag with the centered white disc was used among German civilians and members of the German Army. land and air.

From 1933 until at least 1938, before any official flag could be used, he had to take part in a ceremony in which he played the Blutfahne (blood flag), the flag used by Nazi paramilitaries in the failed Munich Putsch of 1923. This ceremony took place at each Nuremberg Congress. What is not known is whether the tradition was continued after the last Nuremberg Congress in 1938.

At the end of World War II, the first law passed by the Allied Control Council outlawed all Nazi symbols and canceled nearly all major laws passed since 1933. Possession of swastika flags is prohibited in most countries. Western countries since then, especially in Germany.

Postwar

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Pendon C (1946-49)

After the defeat of Germany in World War II, the country was placed under Allied control. Although there was neither a German government nor a German flag, ships of this nationality were required by international law to have some identifying banner. As a provisional flag, the Allied Council created a banner in the colors of the flag representing the letter C in the International Code of Signals, ending in a "swallow's tail". This ensign was known as the "Pendon C" (C-Doppelstander, in German). The Council ordered that "no ceremony should be carried out to this flag, which should not be saluted by any military or merchant ship of any nationality". changed the letter C to E.

West of the Oder-Neisse line, the German states reorganized under occupation control and new governments were established. In the US occupation zone, the northern halves of the states of Württemberg and Baden joined to form Württemberg-Baden in 1946, which adopted the black, red, and gold tricolor as its flag. The choice of this flag was not based in the historical use of it, but in the combination of the colors of the states that had joined. In 1952 Württemberg-Baden became part of the current state of Baden-Württemberg, whose flag is black and gold.

After the war, two other states were created that chose the black, red and gold tricolor as their state ensign alongside the state coat of arms: Rhineland-Palatinate in the French zone and Lower Saxony in the British zone. These two States were formed from parts of other pre-war states and it was very difficult to create a flag that combined all the colors of the component regions. This led to the use of the tricolor for two reasons: the colors were not related to any previous state, and the use of the flag of the Weimar Republic was the symbol of a new democracy.

Germany divided

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Flag of the German Democratic Republic between 1949 and 1959 and the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 until today.

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Flag of the German Democratic Republic (1959-90)

Flag proposed by the conservatives with a Scandinavian style, as taught by Western Germany in 1948, similar to the flag of Wirmer.

Flag of the Unified German Team, used between 1960 and 1968.

With relations between the Soviet Union and the United States deteriorating, the three western Allied-controlled areas were unified in 1948 to allow for the creation of a new German state. This was the Federal Republic of Germany, also known as West Germany or simply Germany. On the other hand, the east occupied by Soviet forces became the German Democratic Republic, commonly known as East Germany.

During the preparation of the new West German constitution, the national symbols were discussed in August 1948, at a meeting at Herrenchiemsee. Although there were objections to the creation of a national flag before the reunification with the East, it was decided to proceed with the implementation of one. This was mainly motivated by the fact that in East Germany it had already been decided in 1946 to use the black, red tricolor and gold.

Although there were numerous proposals for the West German flag, the final choice was made between two designs using black, red, and gold. The Social Democrats proposed the reintroduction of the Weimar flag, while the Conservatives supported the design by Erns Wirmer, member of the Parlamentarischer Rat. Wirmer made a variant of the flag of the German Resistance that his brother Josef had designed, convicted and executed after the failed attempt against Hitler on July 20, 1944. Finally, the tricolor was chosen to represent continuity with the Weimar Republic. Approved the Constitution on May 23, 1949, the tricolor was adopted as the official flag of West Germany.

Although the use of the black, red, and gold flag in the Soviet-occupied zone was proposed, the use of the former black, white, and red as the national flag of East Germany was approved by the Second People's Congress. This choice was based on the use of these colors by the National Committee for a Free Germany, an anti-Nazi organization that had been founded two years earlier on Soviet territory. In 1949, the black, red, and gold tricolor replaced the previous one when the Democratic Republic was officially formed on October 7. From that year until 1959, the flags of the two Germanies were identical. On October 1, 1959, the East German government changed the flag by adding the coat of arms to it. In West Germany, the changes were seen as a deliberate attempt to divide the German people in two. Until the late 1960s, the use of this flag, known as the Spalterflagge ("dividing flag"), was prohibited in West Germany and West Berlin.

From 1956 to 1964, both West and Democratic Germany attended the Olympic Games as one team, known as the Germany Unity Team. After the change in the East German flag in 1959, neither country accepted the flag of the other, so a new one was used from 1960, with the three national colors and the Olympic rings in white on the red band.

From 1989 to today

The flag of East Germany with the cut shield.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, many East Germans cut the coat of arms from the flag in the same way that the Hungarians had done in 1956 and the Romanians after the fall of Ceauşescu. This act involved the use of of the black, red and gold flag as a symbol of a united and democratic Germany. Finally, on October 3, 1990, when the territories of the Democratic Republic were absorbed into the Federal Republic, the tricolor became the flag of reunited Germany.

The former black, white and red flag of the German Empire is still in use among German royals seeking the peaceful reinstatement of a parliamentary monarchy. However, this flag is used most often by members of the extreme right german. As the swastika is illegal in Germany, neo-Nazis have been forced to use the imperial tricolor, which the Nazis themselves banned in 1935. The ban on Nazi symbols in some countries is the main cause of many World War II-based video games. World Cup do not display the Nazi flag, replacing it with the pre-1918 flag.

In Germany, the use of the flag and other national symbols is relatively sparse due to a reaction against the Nazi Party's expansion of flag use and against its nationalist rage. The flag is used primarily by official authorities in special occasions and citizens at sporting events. In some states like Bavaria and Schleswig-Holstein and some sub-state regions like Baden and Franconia, the inhabitants prefer to use the regional flags instead of the national one.