The Washington times., 1923-08-11
GERMAN COLORS
HAVE ORIGIN
|NH|STORY
Black, Red and Gold Flag Has
As Good Right to Fame
As Predecessor.
By s. ID. WEYER,
International News Service,

BERLIN, Aug. 1l.-Wa1kinE
through the streets Of Berlin today
one was struck by the ample dis
play of the new colors Of the re-
public-black, red and gold-from
housetopsl and windows. In nor
NAL times and in a normal country
such an observation would hardly
be worth regarding on a national
holiday Of the first order.
But in present-day Germany,
where most things are still out of
joint and the normally" Of other
lands is a Utopia, a flag question.
become a serious one in the strug-
new order.
There were many in postwar
Germany who bitterly condemned
the bold procedure Of swapping the
flag after a national catastrophe.
The black, red and gold was dis
credited for some considerable time
after the Constitutional Assembly
at Weimar, in 1919, voted for the
adoption Of new national en-
blem for a new form Of govern
ment.
An Interesting History.
But this flag, too, has an inter-
esting history. It Is not, as ignor-
ant reactionaries have charged. a
"willful invention Of the socialists
and the Jews, a mockery OF the
old colors that had floated over the
glories of the Wilhelminian era.
All through the romantic Middle
Ages black, red and gold had been
the colors of the old German en-
nire. successor to the Holy Ro-
man Empire" They symbolized
the black eagle, with red tongue
and claws, in the golden field.
To carry. the imperial flag In
battle-a golden cloth attached by
a black eagle to the red shaft-was
the highest privilege reserved to the
noblest Of the land.
One October night, in 1917, a
merry rowd Of students, wearing
the black, red and gold on their
caps and fraternity banners, cele.
brated the tercentenary of Luther S
Reformation on the romantic hills
of the Wartburg. One Of the fea-
lures of the celebration was the
throwing of reactionary books and
pamphlets into a bonfire.
That act Of youthful exuberance
was the signal for the reactionary
government to put a ban on the
academic youth of the country and
especially on the black, red and
gold as dangerous revolutionary
emblem"
Return of COlOTs.
But when, in 1848, the people
rose up against reaction and un'
constitutional restraint they resur.
rected these colors; and the King
Of Prussia, riding through the
streets of Berlin to proclaim to his
subjects the birth of constitu-
tional parliamentary government
wore a broad ribbon of black, red
and gold round his arm.
Thus, when it comes to passing
Judgment in the case of black, red
and gold versus black, white and
red, the former may easily be
proved to have older and better
rights than the younger competitor
which can trace it's lineage back
only to 1871, after the Franco.
| Prussian war, when the Wilhel
minian empire was founded.
Some adINCsaries of the new
flag have argued that France
mother and model Of modern revo
lutions, did not commit the "sacri
lege" Of changing the flag in a
momentous hour of her history,
| But, as a matter of fact, the French
| national assembly by an official
| decree put the tricolor in place OF
| the old white Bourbon banner
streWn with golden Iilies