The national colours of Germany are officially Black, Red and Gold, defined by article 22 sec. 2 of the German Basic Law constitution on the flag of Germany: Die Bundesflagge ist schwarz-rot-gold. ("The federal flag shall be black, red, and gold.").
The colours were used by nationalist and democratic revolutionaries since the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century, and can be recognized in Holy Roman Empire symbols since the Middle Ages. The "Gold" (Or) is nearly always represented by a shade of Yellow, as there is no distinct color "Yellow" in heraldry; they both count as "Gold".
Read more about National Colours Of Germany: Origins, Wars of Liberation, State Colours, Use of Colours in Sports Etc.
Famous quotes containing the words national, colours and/or germany:
“There is no calamity which a great nation can invite which equals that which follows a supine submission to wrong and injustice and the consequent loss of national self-respect and honor, beneath which are shielded and defended a people’s safety and greatness.”
—Grover Cleveland (1837–1908)
“Your wits can’t thicken in that soft moist air, on those white springy roads, in those misty rushes and brown bogs, on those hillsides of granite rocks and magenta heather. You’ve no such colours in the sky, no such lure in the distances, no such sadness in the evenings. Oh the dreaming! the dreaming! the torturing, heart-scalding, never satisfying dreaming, dreaming, dreaming, dreaming!”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, to-day in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be regarded as a bête noire the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!”
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)