The Secret History Behind Germany's Flag

Germany's flag carries two revolutions in one cloth.

Black, red, and gold weren't chosen by a king or a committee. They trace back to the Napoleonic Wars, to a volunteer corps of German students and patriots led by Prussian major Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow, who fought Napoleon's army between 1813 and 1815 wearing black uniforms with red facings and gold buttons — the only uniform color the ragtag volunteers could all agree on and afford. After the fighting, veterans of that corps adopted black-red-gold as a symbol of liberty, and the colors spread through the democratic movements of the 1830s and the revolutions of 1848, worn by people demanding one united Germany.

The eagle has watched over the nation since long before that, a symbol going back to the days of the Empire. Two dates matter most for the flag as we know it: January 18, 1871, the birth of the German Empire, and October 3, 1990, the day East and West Germany reunified — the date printed on every Germany design in our catalog.

A uniform born from wartime necessity, worn by student volunteers, that ended up defining a nation's flag.

Shop the Germany collection → — or explore the story behind any other country's flag on our free Flag Story Cards page.