Reichskriegsflagge

Reichskriegsflagge (Imperial War Flag) was the official name of the war flag used by the German armed forces from 1867 to 1945. A total of seven different designs were used during this period.
==Imperial Germany==
The German war flag was in common use in World War I. It had Prussia's national colours of black and white, the eagle of Prussia, the Nordic cross, with the German imperial black-white red tricolour in the upper canton with an Iron Cross. In 1919, the flags of Imperial Germany were scrapped and replaced by those of the Weimar Republic: black-red-gold tricolour. 
German nationalists, such as the Nazis and Freikorps (see Marinebrigade Ehrhardt), used the old flag in protest against the Weimar Republic during the 1920s and 1930s. This included the 1920 attempt to overthrow the Weimar government, known as the Kapp Putsch. See Kapp Putsch pictures and notes from the German Federal Archive
==Use by Nazi Germany==
Designed personally by Adolf Hitler, this flag served the Heer and the Luftwaffe as their War Flag, and the Kriegsmarine as its War Ensign (the National Flag serving as Jack). This flag was hoisted daily in barracks operated by units of the Wehrmacht, and it had to be flown from a pole positioned near the barracks entrance, or failing this, near the guard room or staff building. New recruits in the latter part of World War II were sworn in on this flag (one recruit holding the flag and taking the oath on behalf of the entire recruit class with the recruits looking on as witnesses - before, this was done on the regimental colors).
 
The flag had to be formally hoisted every morning and lowered every evening. These hoisting and lowering ceremonies took the form of either an ordinary or a ceremonial flag parade. At the ordinary raising, the party consisted of the Orderly Officer of the Day, the guard, and one musician. At the ceremonial raising, one officer, one platoon of soldiers with rifles, the guard, the regimental band, and the corps of drums were all present.
The proportions of the flag are 3:5. Fusing elements of the Nazi German Flag (swastika and red background) with that of the old Imperial Reich War Flag (four arms emanating from off-center circle and Iron Cross in the canton), these flags were uniformly produced as a printed design on bunting.
Raised for the first time at the Bendlerstraße Building (Wehrmacht Headquarters) in Berlin on November 7, 1935, It was taken down for the last time by British occupation forces after the arrest of the Dönitz Government at Flensburg's Mürwik Naval School, Germany, on May 23, 1945.
Albert Speer, in his book Inside the Third Reich, stated that: "in only two other designs did he (Adolf Hitler) execute the same care as he did his Obersalzberg house: that of the Reich War Flag and his own standard of Chief of State", showing that Hitler was an avid vexillographer (flag designer).
==Use after 1945==
Selling and showing the Reichkriegsflagge of Nazi Germany is illegal in Germany according to §§ 86, 86a StGB. This covers the version used after 1935 with the swastika. The original flag used between 1871 and 1919 can be shown depending on circumstances in different German states.
Because members of the far right have been using the imperial war flag as a symbol, its use is considered to be a "breach of the public order" in seven of the German Länder. Flags will be mandatorily confiscated. In the other nine Länder, any provocative misuse of the flag can be prosceuted as an Ordnungswidrigkeit.
==Kriegsflagge==
File:War Ensign of Germany 1871-1892.svg|North German Federal Navy 1867–1871 and Kaiserliche Marine War Ensign 1871–1892 (Reichskriegsflagge)
File:War Ensign of Germany 1892-1903.svg|Kaiserliche Marine War Ensign 1892–1903
File:War Ensign of Germany 1903-1918.svg|Kaiserliche Marine War Ensign 1903–1919
File:War Ensign of Weimar Republic 1919-1921.svg|1919-21 War ensign (de facto never used)
File:Flag of Weimar Republic (war).svg|1921-33 War ensign
File:Germany-Jack-1933.svg|1933-35 War ensign
File:War Ensign of Germany 1935-1938.svg|1935-38 War ensign
File:War Ensign of Germany 1938-1945.svg|1938-45 War ensign
==See also==
* Flag of Nazi Germany
* Führerstandarte
==References==
Davis, B., and McGregor, M. (2000). Flags of the Third Reich. Missouri - Osprey Publishing Company. ISBN 1-84176-171-0
==Notes==
== External links ==
*The History of the Imperial German War Flag 1867—1921
Category:Ensigns
Category:Flags of Germany
Category:German Empire
Category:National symbols of Germany
Category:Nazi Germany
Category:Military flags
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