Flag of Germany

Germany’s national flag has three equal horizontal bands: black at the top, red in the middle, and gold at the bottom. Its standard width-to-height ratio is 5:3. The plain federal flag, called the Bundesflagge, contains no eagle, shield, stars, lettering, or white separating stripes.

Read the horizontal national flag from top to bottom as black, red, and gold. Each band occupies one third of the height and extends across the whole width. The same order appears on the reverse. Belgium’s vertical stripes and the former German black-white-red flag are different designs.

The legal colors are black, red, and gold. This downloadable reference uses black #000000, red #DD0000, and gold #FFCE00. Those are the actual digital fills in the supplied artwork, not numerical codes prescribed by Article 22. Physical flag fabric, printed graphics, and screen displays require appropriate color references and proofs.

Gold is the legal and heraldic name of the lower stripe. In heraldic practice, yellow can represent gold without requiring metallic cloth or real gold thread. The Bundestag explains this distinction for its own flags. A yellow-looking reproduction can therefore express the prescribed gold color rather than a different national design.

The colors together symbolize Germany’s traditions of unity, freedom, and democracy. Their origins developed through nineteenth-century movements rather than a modern three-part symbolism code. The Basic Law names black, red, and gold but does not assign a separate official meaning to each stripe. Historical origin stories should be identified as such.

The standard horizontal federal flag is five units wide and three units high, divided into three equal horizontal bands. A 3000-by-1800-pixel master therefore has 600-pixel bands. The legal notation of 3:5 height:length means the same thing as 5:3 width:height; reversing the notation does not create another design.

Keep the width at five thirds of the height and give each stripe one third of the height. A flag measuring 150 by 90 centimeters has three 30-centimeter bands. Scale the whole design proportionally, and calculate sewing allowances, attachments, or print bleed separately from the finished visible flag.

Yes. The 1996 flag order expressly permits a banner form with three equal vertical stripes: black on the left, red in the middle, and gold on the right in the front view. That is a recognized arrangement, not permission to reverse the horizontal flag’s colors or stretch an eagle-bearing variant carelessly.

Black, red, and gold became associated with nineteenth-century movements for unity and freedom, including Hambach in 1832 and the revolution of 1848. The Weimar Republic adopted the colors in 1919, and the Federal Republic chose them in 1949. Reunification in 1990 retained the plain federal flag.

A well-known origin tradition links the colors to black uniforms, red piping, and gold-colored buttons of the Lützow Volunteer Corps. The Bundestag cautions that the origins cannot be established with certainty. Student fraternity flags helped popularize the combination, which later acquired wider political meaning beyond any one uniform or organization.

The Hambach Festival of May 27, 1832, brought black-red-gold flags into a major movement for political rights and German unity. Johann Philipp Abresch carried a flag with equal bands in the familiar order. The surviving Hambach flag is important historical evidence, but it is not the modern legal construction specification.

The imperial color combination reflected Prussian black and white together with red associated with the Hanseatic cities. It became the flag tradition of the North German Confederation and the German Empire. This historical black-white-red design differs from today’s black-red-gold flag and should not be used as its interchangeable substitute.

The Weimar Republic adopted black, red, and gold as its national colors in 1919. The decision was contested, and the merchant ensign retained black-white-red with the national colors in the upper hoist. That compromise concerned different flag functions; it does not mean the republic’s national colors were black, white, and red.

No. The Nazi regime displaced the democratic black-red-gold tradition. In 1935, it made the swastika flag the sole national flag. That emblem belongs to the history of the dictatorship, not to the present Federal Republic’s flag. The postwar choice of black-red-gold recalled the earlier movement for unity and freedom.

The Federal Republic chose black, red, and gold in 1949, recording the colors in the Basic Law promulgated on May 23. The combination had earlier historical uses, including the Weimar Republic. On October 3, 1990, the same plain federal flag continued as the flag of reunified Germany.

Both German states initially used black, red, and gold after their establishment in 1949. In 1959, the German Democratic Republic added its emblem: a hammer and compasses surrounded by a wreath of grain ears. West Germany retained the plain tricolor, which continued after reunification in 1990.

Reunification on October 3, 1990, did not introduce a new national stripe pattern. The Federal Republic’s plain black-red-gold flag continued for the reunified country. The East German emblem no longer formed part of the national flag. German Unity Day commemorates reunification, while the modern federal color decision dates to 1949.

Germany’s national tricolor developed through historical movements and constitutional choices, rather than a securely documented commission to one modern designer. Johann Philipp Abresch is associated with an important 1832 Hambach flag. That does not establish him as the sole inventor of the entire color tradition or the author of the 1949 constitutional decision.

Reproduce three equal horizontal bands in the legal order and preserve the standard 5:3 rectangle. Sewn or printed production needs suitable color proofs, materials, and finished dimensions. The flag order specifies the design but does not prescribe a universal household fabric, stitching method, or mandatory metallic material for the gold stripe.

The federal service flag, or Bundesdienstflagge, adds the Bundesschild to the black-red-gold bands, slightly toward the hoist. Its eagle faces the hoist. This is an official variant with restricted use, not the ordinary national flag for everyone. Other eagle-bearing souvenir designs should not automatically be treated as the authorized service flag.

Private individuals may generally use the plain black-red-gold national flag. It should be distinguished from the federal service flag and protected eagle or arms designs, whose unauthorized use raises separate legal issues. Ordinary private display does not turn a home, business, or sports gathering into a federal institution governed by its display timetable.

The Bundestag explains that it uses the plain black-red-gold flag because it represents the whole people. As an independent constitutional body, it regulates its own flag display. The federal government’s service-flag rules are therefore not a reason to assume that Parliament must add an eagle to every flag it flies.

German Unity Day is October 3, commemorating reunification in 1990. Article 2 of the Unification Treaty establishes it as the national holiday. It is also a regular federal flag-flying date. The May 23 anniversary of the Basic Law is a different observance, and neither is relabeled here as a separate statutory Flag Day.

The federal decree lists recurring occasions including January 27, May 1, May 9, May 23, June 17, July 20, October 3, the national day of mourning, and federal or European elections. Additional orders and separate institutional or state rules also matter, so this baseline list is not a complete calendar for every building.

The federal building decree normally begins display at daybreak, but not before 7 a.m., and ends it at sunset. Flags that are illuminated may remain flying after sunset. These are rules for the decree’s institutional scope, with specific exceptions; they are not a universal private-household curfew on displaying the national flag.

No. On the horizontal flag, black stays at the top, red in the middle, and gold at the bottom when viewed from either face. The attachment edge appears on the opposite side from behind. Turning the cloth upside down changes that order; it is different from simply viewing the reverse.

Under the federal building decree, European and federal flags occupy the preferred positions on the left when viewed from outside toward the building. Foreign-state and international-organization flags introduce additional ordering rules. The actual arrangement depends on the event and jurisdiction, rather than a universal instruction that Germany’s flag is always centered or always first.

The federal decree requires the flag to be raised fully before it is lowered for mourning. Official practical guidance places a horizontal hoist flag’s lower edge approximately halfway up the mast. Flags that cannot be lowered receive a mourning ribbon instead. The applicable order determines the occasion and institutional scope.

A mourning ribbon is used when the flag cannot be lowered to half-mast, such as an installation with a fixed staff or a banner. It expresses mourning without changing the flag’s colors or adding a permanent national emblem. Follow the relevant institutional instructions rather than automatically combining a ribbon with a lowered flag.

The federal decree says that when the federal flag or federal service flag is lowered for mourning, the European flag is lowered too. Other international-organization and foreign-state flags are excluded from that automatic instruction. Their treatment depends on the relevant protocol and circumstances; one national mourning order does not control every foreign flag.

The Flag of Unity in front of the Reichstag has a special symbolic status. The Bundestag normally exempts it from its ordinary mourning arrangements, although exceptional lowering is possible. It can therefore remain fully raised while other parliamentary flags are lowered. That difference does not by itself indicate an error or conflicting national designs.

Article 22 of the Basic Law names the national colors, and the 1996 flag order defines forms and proportions. The federal display decree governs its own institutional sphere. Section 124 of the Administrative Offenses Act separately addresses unauthorized use of official arms and service flags; criminal protection of state symbols is another legal matter.

Public-domain status concerns copyright in the artwork; it does not authorize use of restricted official service flags or imply government endorsement. Trademark rules are separate too. A business should distinguish the plain national tricolor from protected eagle and arms designs, and assess the actual product, branding, and presentation rather than relying solely on an image license.

Keep the flag clean, dry, securely attached, and recognizable, following care instructions for its material. Repair or replace worn cloth while preserving its proportions and colors. The reviewed federal materials do not establish one compulsory private folding pattern, burning ceremony, or deadline requiring ordinary sports flags to be discarded after a tournament.

No. An institutional mourning order concerns the buildings and bodies within its scope; it does not automatically require private homes to fly flags or establish a universal right to drape every coffin. State and military ceremonies have their own arrangements. For a particular funeral, follow the responsible organizer’s applicable protocol.

Germany uses three equal horizontal bands of black, red, and gold, without an emblem. Belgium uses vertical black, yellow, and red bands. Uganda repeats black, yellow, and red in six horizontal bands and adds a crested crane in a white disk. Stripe direction, order, and emblem identify them more reliably than colors alone.

Germany’s flag emoji is 🇩🇪. It combines regional indicator D, U+1F1E9, with regional indicator E, U+1F1EA, corresponding to the country code DE. Appearance varies with the device and application, and some systems show letters. Use the supplied SVG or PNG when consistent, printable geometry is more important than a text symbol.

The photograph shows German flags at the Reichstag building in Berlin on April 7, 2020, including the large Flag of Unity in the foreground. Jürgen Federau released it under CC0. It documents parliamentary display in 2020, not the first raising at reunification or a historical adoption ceremony.

The colored reproduction of Erhard Joseph Brenzinger’s 1832 Hambach scene shows flags with gold uppermost. It is a historical illustration, not the current legal construction drawing. Preserve that distinction rather than recoloring an archival image to fit today’s specification or copying its painted stripe order into the plain national download.

Keep black at the top and gold at the bottom, with all three bands equally high. Do not substitute Belgium’s vertical pattern, the imperial black-white-red flag, or the East German emblem-bearing flag. The eagle is not required on the ordinary national flag, and its official service variant has separate use restrictions.

The package includes the plain national SVG and large PNG, construction and size sheets, vertical and reverse views, historical reconstructions, an official-variant reference, mourning and display diagrams, and comparison images. It also includes a Reichstag photograph and historical Hambach artwork. Each gallery item identifies its purpose and has a local download.

Remember three equal horizontal bands, black-red-gold from top to bottom, and a standard 5:3 width-to-height ratio. The Federal Republic adopted the colors in 1949 and retained the plain flag at reunification in 1990. October 3 is German Unity Day; an eagle identifies a different variant, not a missing feature of the national flag.