Flag and Coat of Arms
After the introduction of the republic, the flag and coat of arms of Germany were altered to reflect the political changes. The republican tricolour is based on the flag that the Paulskirche Constitution of 1849 introduced, which was decided upon by the German National Assembly in Frankfurt upon Main, at the peak of the German civic movement that demanded parliamentary participation and unification of the German states.
The achievements and signs of this movement were mostly done away with after its downfall and the political reaction. Only the tiny German Principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont upheld the tradition and continued to use the German colours called Schwarz-Rot-Gold in German (English: Black-Red-Gold).
These signs had remained symbols of the Paulskirche movement and Weimar Germany wanted to express its view of being also originated in that political movement between 1848 and 1852. However, anti-republicans opposed this flag. While the first German Confederal Navy (Reichsflotte) (1848–1852) had proudly used a naval ensign based on Schwarz-Rot-Gold, the Weimar republic navy, or Reichsmarine (1918–1935) insisted on using the pre-1918 colours of the previous Kaiserliche Marine (1871–1918), which were Black-White-Red, as did the German merchant marine.
The republican coat of arms took up the idea of the German crest established by the Paulskirche movement, using the same charge animal, an eagle, in the same colours (black, red and gold), but modernising its form, including a reduction of the heads from two to one. Friedrich Ebert initially declared the official German coat of arms to be a design by Emil Doepler (shown in the infobox above) as of 11 November 1919, following a decision of the German government.
In 1928, however, the Reichswappen (Reich coat of arms) designed by Tobias Schwab (1887–1967) in 1926 ] replaced it as the official emblem for the German Olympic team. The Reichswehr adopted the new Reichswappen in 1927.
Doepler's design then became the Reichsschild (Reich's escutcheon) with restricted use such as pennant for government vehicles. In 1949 the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) adopted all three signs of Weimar Republic, Reichswappen, Reichsschild and Reichsflagge as Bundeswappen, Bundesschild and Bundesflagge.
Read more about this topic: Weimar Republic
Famous quotes containing the words flag, coat and/or arms:
“—Here, the flag snaps in the glare and silence
Of the unbroken ice. I stand here,
The dogs bark, my beard is black, and I stare
At the North Pole. . .
And now what? Why, go back.
Turn as I please, my step is to the south.”
—Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)
“While yet it is cold January, and snow and ice are thick and solid, the prudent landlord comes from the village to get ice to cool his summer drink; impressively, even pathetically, wise, to foresee the heat and thirst of July now in January,—wearing a thick coat and mittens! when so many things are not provided for. It may be that he lays up no treasures in this world which will cool his summer drink in the next.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; out the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight,”
—Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950)