Swastika flag

Federal Republic of Germany

Name	Bundesflagge und Handelsflagge
Use	Civil and state flag, civil ensign
Proportion	3:5
Adopted	23 May 1949
Design	A horizontal tricolour of black, red, and gold.
Variant flag of Federal Republic of Germany
Name	Bundesdienstflagge und Dienstflagge der Landstreitkräfte der Bundeswehr
Use	State flag and ensign, war flag
Proportion	3:5
Adopted	7 June 1950
Variant flag of Federal Republic of Germany
Name	Dienstflagge der Seestreitkräfte der Bundeswehr
Use	Naval ensign
Proportion	3:5
Adopted	9 May 1956

The flag of Germany is a tricolour consisting of three equal horizontal bands displaying the national colours of Germany: black, red, and gold. The flag was first adopted as the national flag of modern Germany in 1919, during the short-lived Weimar Republic to 1933.

Germany has two competing traditions of national colours, black-red-gold and black-white-red, which have played an important role in the . The black-red-gold tricolour first appeared in the early 19th century and achieved prominence during the 1848 Revolutions. The short-lived Frankfurt Parliament of 1848–1850 proposed the tricolour as a flag for a united and democratic German state under a constitutional monarchy. With the formation of the short-lived Weimar Republic after World War I, the tricolour was adopted as the national flag of Germany. Sixteen years later following World War II, the tricolour was again designated as the flag of both West and East Germany divided states in 1949. The two flags were identical until 1959, when the East German flag was augmented with the coat of arms of East Germany. Since reunification on 3 October 1990, the black-red-gold tricolour has become the flag of a reunified Federal Republic of Germany.

After the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, the Prussian-dominated North German Confederation adopted a tricolour of black-white-red as its flag. This flag later became the flag of the German Empire, formed following the unification of Germany under the Prussian king who became emperor in 1871, and was used until 1918 with the end of the First World War. Black, white, and red were reintroduced as the German national colours with the establishment of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler in 1933, replacing German republican colours with imperial colours until the end of World War II.