Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: When was the modern German flag designed?
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 Lateran Treaty was signed in 1929, papal authorities decided to use the 1825 merchant flag as the state flag of the soon to be independent Vatican City state. However, the official drawing in the constitution used a drawing of the square 1862 infantry flag as a template. The treaty came into effect on 7 June 1929, and with it the newly-square Vatican flag.
The flag of Vatican City was adopted on June 7, 1929, the year Pope Pius XI signed the Lateran Treaty with Italy, creating a new independent state governed by the Holy See. The Vatican flag is modeled on the flag of the earlier Papal States. The Vatican (and the Holy See) also refer to it, interchangeably, as flag of the Holy See.
In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte declared the First French Empire. In response to this, Emperor Francis II of the Habsburg dynasty declared his personal domain to be the Austrian Empire and became Francis I of Austria. Taking the colours of the banner of the Holy Roman Emperor, the flag of the Austrian Empire was black and gold. Francis II was the last Holy Roman Emperor, with Napoleon forcing the empire's dissolution in 1806. After this point, these colours continued to be used as the flag of Austria until 1918.
The first Olympic flag was presented to the Jr National Olympics at the 1920 Summer Olympics by the city of Antwerp, Belgium. At the end of the Games, the flag could not be found and a new Olympic flag had to be made for the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. Despite it being a replacement, the IOC officially still calls this the "Antwerp Flag" instead of the "Paris Flag". It was passed on to the next organizing city of the Summer Olympics or Winter Olympics until the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway, when a separate Olympic flag was created to be used only at the Winter Olympics "(see below)". The 1924 flag then continued to be used at the Summer Olympics until the Games of Seoul 1988 when it was retired.
On 1 August 1934, a new law stated that on Hindenburg's death the presidency would be abolished, and its powers merged with those of the Chancellor. From that day onward, Hitler would be known as Führer and Reich Chancellor. As head of state, Hitler became supreme commander of all armed forces. Hindenburg died the following day. (The new office was confirmed by a plebiscite on 19 August 1934.) Blomberg, on his own initiative, introduced the Oath of 2 August 1934: "I swear by God this sacred oath that I will render unconditional obedience to the Führer of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler, the commander in chief of the armed forces, and, as a brave soldier, will be prepared at all times to stake my life for this oath." (In 1939, God was removed from the oath.) The Reichswehr was reorganized as the Wehrmacht on 21 May 1935, bringing the army, navy and air force under unified command.
The red-white-red Latvian flag () is first mentioned in the medieval "Rhymed Chronicle of Livonia" ("Livländische Reimchronik"), which covers the period from 1180 to 1343, and is thus among the oldest flags in the world. The chronicle tells of a battle that took place around 1279, in which ancient Latvian tribes from Cēsis, a city in the northern part of modern-day Latvia, went to war, bearing a red flag with a white stripe.
After the Second World War the Palatinate Lion re-emerged as the regional symbol of the Palatinate, for example, on postage stamps in the French Zone of Occupation. Following the creation of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1946, to which the Palatinate belonged, the Palatine Lion occupied a central place in the state coat of arms of Rhineland-Palatinate. The other elements of the Rhineland-Palatine coat of arms are the Wheel of Mainz ("Mainzer Rad") and the Cross of Trier ("Trierer Kreuz"). Even the semi-official coat of arms of the Province of Palatinate, which existed from 1946 to 1968 and dated to the 19th century, bore the Palatine Lion, which after the inclusion of the former territories of Electoral Mainz and Electoral Trier, symbolised the region of the present-day Palatinate.
The Flag of Niger has been the national symbol of the West African Republic of Niger since 1959, a year prior to its formal independence from France. It uses the national colors of orange, white and green, in equal horizontal bands, with an orange roundel in the center. The flag forms one of the official national symbols of the Republic of Niger, with the coat of arms of Niger, the National Anthem ("la Nigérienne"), the crest (used in the center of the coat of arms), and the motto: ""Fraternité, Travail, Progrès"". These form Article 1 of the first part of the 1999 Constitution of Niger. The flag is similar to the Flag of India, although the ratio, shade of orange, and symbol in the center differ.
When World War II began, Hitler appointed himself to the unique title "First Soldier of the German Reich" ("Erster Soldat des Deutschen Reiches") and began wearing a gray military jacket with swastika eagle sewn on the upper left sleeve (contrary to depictions in movies and popular culture, Hitler very rarely wore his brown Nazi party uniform during World War II). Throughout the war, the only military decorations Hitler displayed were his Wound Badge and Iron Cross from World War I and the Nazi Golden Party Badge. Hitler's position in World War II was essentially supreme commander of the German Armed Forces ("Oberbefehlshaber der Deutschen Wehrmacht").
On the day before President Paul von Hindenburg's death on August 2, 1934, Hitler's cabinet had enacted a law combining the offices of Chancellor (the head of government) and President (the head of state); Adolf Hitler would henceforth be known as "Führer und Reichskanzler" (Leader and Chancellor) and was both head of state and commander in chief of the armed forces. The day of Hindenburg's death, the cabinet ordered a plebiscite for August 19 for the German people to approve the combination of the two offices.
The modern German alphabet consists of the twenty-six letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet plus four special letters.German uses three letter-diacritic combinations (Ä/ä, Ö/ö, Ü/ü) using the umlaut and one ligature (ß (called "Eszett" (sz) or "scharfes S", sharp s)) which are officially considered distinct letters of the alphabet.While the Council for German Orthography considers Ä/ä, Ö/ö, Ü/ü, and ẞ/ß distinct letters, disagreement on how to categorize and count them has led to a dispute over the exact number of letters the German alphabet has, the number ranging between 26 (special letters are considered variants of A, O, U, and S) and 30 (all special letters are counted separately).
The Treaty of Saint-Germain of 1919 (for Hungary the Treaty of Trianon of 1920) confirmed and consolidated the new order of Central Europe which to a great extent had been established in November 1918, creating new states and altering others. The German-speaking parts of Austria which had been part of Austria-Hungary were reduced to a rump state named The Republic of German-Austria (German: "Republik Deutschösterreich"). The desire for "Anschluss" (annexation of Austria to Germany) was a popular opinion shared by all social circles in both Austria and Germany. On 12 November, German-Austria was declared a republic, and named Social Democrat Karl Renner as provisional chancellor. On the same day it drafted a provisional constitution that stated that "German-Austria is a democratic republic" (Article 1) and "German-Austria is an integral part of the German reich" (Article 2). The Treaty of Saint Germain and the Treaty of Versailles explicitly forbid union between Austria and Germany. The treaties also forced German-Austria to rename itself as "Republic of Austria" which consequently led to the first Austrian Republic.
In the German states, revolutions began in March 1848, starting in Berlin and spreading across the other states which now make up Germany. The heart of the revolutions was in Frankfurt, where the newly formed National Assembly, the Frankfurt Parliament, met in St Paul's Church from May 1848, calling for a constitutional monarchy to rule a new, united German nation. To form the Assembly, near-democratic elections had taken place across the German states; the majority of the members were Saxon democrats. On 28 March 1849 the Assembly passed the first "Reichsverfassung" (constitution) for Germany, and in April 1849, Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia was offered the crown.
The flag of Laos consists of three horizontal stripes, with the middle stripe in blue being twice the height of the top and bottom red stripes. In the middle is a white disc, the diameter of the disc is the height of the blue stripe. The flag ratio is 2:3. The national flag of Laos was first adopted in 1945 under the short-lived Lao Issara government of 1945–46, then by the Pathet Lao. It is one of the two flags of a currently communist country (the other being Cuba) that does not use any communist symbolism and the only current communist country that does not use a five-pointed star in its flag as an emblem. The current flag was adopted on December 2, 1975 when it became a socialist state.
Following the defeat in World War I, influence of German-speaking elites over Central and Eastern Europe was greatly limited. At the Treaty of Versailles Germany was substantially reduced in size. Austria-Hungary was split up. The former German-speaking areas of Austria-Hungary was reduced to a rump state called the "Republic of German-Austria" (German: "Deutschösterreich"). On November 12, the National Assembly declared the rump state a republic and Social Democrat Karl Renner as provisional chancellor. On the same day, it drafted a provisional constitution which stated that "German-Austria is a democratic republic" (Article 1) and "German-Austria is an integral part of the German reich" (Article 2) with the hope of joining Germany. The name "German-Austria" and union with Germany were forbidden by the Treaty of Saint-Germain and the Treaty of Versailles. German-Austria lost the territories of the Sudetenland and German Bohemia to Czechoslovakia, South Tyrol to Italy, and southern Carinthia and Styria to Yugoslavia and the rump state was renamed "Republic of Austria". With these changes, the era of the First Austrian Republic began. These events are sometimes considered to be a pre-"Anschluss" attempt.
Only after Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck gradually built a unified German state under the Prussian royal house of Hohenzollern did "Kleinstaaterei" largely end in 1871 with the founding of the German Empire. (The only surviving petty states—Luxembourg and Liechtenstein—lie at the periphery of the German-speaking world.) The founding of the German Empire created a largely German nation-state. While the German Empire excluded the partly German but multinational Habsburg domains of Austria–Hungary, it included a substantial Polish minority in parts of eastern Prussia and other minorities along its northern and western borders. The unification of the German Empire put Germany on the map as a major European power, albeit too late to become a major colonial presence. Internally in the nation some of these fragmented boundaries and small political units continued to exist until the modern States of Germany were established in the Federal Republic after World War II.
In 1917 new coins (1, 5, 10 and 20 fenigs) and banknotes (½, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 markas) were introduced and started to replace all the previously-used currencies. All the banknotes were white with the White Eagle of Poland on a red field. At the time of the Armistice of November 11, 1918, 880 million markas were already in circulation. The new Polish government decided to retain the "marka" as currency and to allow the Loan Bank to continue operating. The following year the German-made banknotes were replaced in circulation with new ones. These featured Polish historical motifs. The notes of 10 and 500 markas displayed a picture of Queen Jadwiga, the notes of 5, 10, 100 and 1000 markas showed Tadeusz Kościuszko. A silver coin of 50 markas was planned but never issued due to the galloping inflation. Only one such coin is known to exist today.
Area of eastern France taken over by Germany in the Franco-Prussian War. During 1870–1871, there was a single issue for the whole territory. Stamps of Germany replaced this and were used 1872–1918. The area was returned to France after World War I. French stamps have been used since 1918 except for the German occupation in World War II (1940–1944) when separate issues were made for Alsace and Lorraine.
The pretext for the conflict was found in the dispute between Prussia and Austria over the administration of Schleswig-Holstein, which the two of them had conquered from Denmark and agreed to jointly occupy at the end of the Second Schleswig War in 1864. When Austria brought the dispute before the German Diet and also decided to convene the Diet of Holstein, Prussia declared that the Gastein Convention had thereby been nullified and invaded Holstein. When the German Diet responded by voting for a partial mobilization against Prussia, Bismarck claimed that the German Confederation was ended. Crown Prince Frederick "was the only member of the Prussian Crown Council to uphold the rights of the Duke of Augustenburg and oppose the idea of a war with Austria which he described as "fratricide"". Although he supported unification and the restoration of the medieval empire, "Fritz could not accept that war was the right way to unite Germany."
In the first German presidential election, held on 11 February 1919, five days after the "Nationalversammlung" (constituent assembly) convened in Weimar, Ebert was elected as provisional president of the German Republic. He remained in that position after the new constitution came into force and was sworn in as "Reichspräsident" on 21 August 1919. He was Germany's first-ever democratically elected head of state, and was also the first commoner, the first socialist, the first civilian and the first person from a proletarian background to hold that position. In the whole time of the unified German Reich's existence from 1871 to 1945, he was also the only head of state who was unequivocally committed to democracy.
Following the declaration of the German republic in 1918 and the ensuing revolutionary period, the so-called Weimar Republic was founded in August 1919. To form a continuity between the anti-autocratic movement of the 19th century and the new democratic republic, the old black-red-gold tricolour was designated as the national German flag in the Weimar Constitution in 1919. Only the tiny German principalities of Reuss-Greiz - where the use and layout of the "schwarz-rot-gold" design had originated some 140 years earlier - Reuss-Gera, and Waldeck-Pyrmont and its republican successor had upheld the 1778-established tradition, and had always continued to use the German colours of black, red, and or (gold) in their flag. As a civil ensign, the black-white-red tricolour was retained, albeit with the new tricolour in the top left corner.
This change was not welcomed by many people in Germany, who saw this new flag as a symbol of humiliation following Germany's defeat in the First World War. In the , the old colours continued to be used in various forms. Many conservatives wanted the old colours to return, while monarchists and the far right were far more vocal with their objections, referring to the new flag with various derogatory names ("see Colour above"). As a compromise, the old black-white-red flag was reintroduced in 1922 to represent German diplomatic missions abroad.
The flag of Germany or German flag () 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, until 1933.
The national team's home kit has always been a white shirt, black shorts, and white socks. The colours are derived from the 19th-century flag of the North German State of Prussia. Since 1988, many of the home kit's designs incorporate details patterned after the modern German flag (with the noted exception of the 2002 World Cup kit, which was a reversion to the pure black-and-white scheme). For the 2014 World Cup, the German team used white shorts rather than the traditional black due to FIFA's kit clashing rule for the tournament. The away shirt colour has changed several times. Historically, green shirt with white shorts is the most often used alternative colour combination, derived from the DFB colours – though it is often erroneously reported that the choice is in recognition of the fact that Ireland, whose home shirts are green, were the first nation to play Germany in a friendly game after World War II. However, the first team to play Germany after WWII, as stated above, was actually Switzerland. Other colours such as red, grey and black have also been used.
While there were other suggestions for the new flag for West Germany, the final choice was between two designs, both using black-red-gold. The Social Democrats proposed the re-introduction of the old Weimar flag, while the conservative parties such as the CDU/CSU and the German Party proposed a suggestion by Ernst Wirmer, a member of the (parliamentary council) and future advisor of chancellor Konrad Adenauer. Wirmer suggested a variant of the 1944 "Resistance" flag (using the black-red-gold scheme in a Nordic Cross pattern) designed by his brother and 20 July co-conspirator Josef. The tricolour was ultimately selected, largely to illustrate the continuity between the Weimar Republic and this new German state. With the enactment of the (West) German constitution on 23 May 1949, the black-red-gold tricolour was readopted as the flag for the Federal Republic of Germany.