Germany Flag

Three equal horizontal stripes of black, red, and gold make up the German federal flag. The colours derive from the uniforms of the Lützow Free Corps during the Napoleonic Wars — black coats with red facings and gold buttons.

The proportions are 3:5 (height to width). The federal eagle (Bundesadler) appears on the state flag variant, but the civil flag uses only the tricolour.

Black, red, and gold first flew together during the 1848 Frankfurt Parliament, symbolising liberal German unity. The Weimar Republic adopted the tricolour in 1919, but the Nazi regime replaced it with the swastika flag in 1935.

West Germany re-adopted black-red-gold in 1949 with the founding of the Federal Republic. East Germany used the same colours but added a state emblem 1959–1990. After reunification in 1990, the plain tricolour became the flag of unified Germany.