Variants of the National and State Flags (Germany)

Last modified: 2009-06-13 by jarig bakker
Keywords: variants |
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• Very long hanging flags
• State flag with coat-of-arms instead of 'federal shield'
• National flag mistakenly hoisted upside-down
• Erroneous German flag in news about Euro2008
• Turkish-German flag
• Flag with white stripe (=Seminole Nation, Florida, USA)

• State Flag, State Ensign and War Flag (Bundesdienstflagge)
• Hanging Flag (Banner)
• Germany

Very long hanging flags

During the 2000 Oktoberfest in Munich (...), at the Rathaus (town hall) there were very long vertical flags (about 6:1) of Bavaria, Germany and Munich.
Marcus Schmöger, 6 Oct 2000

State flag with coat-of-arms instead of 'federal shield' (unofficial variant)

The shield [Bundesschild or 'federal shield'] on the state flag has a special shape, not the same as in the coat-of-arms, though on flags used 'illegally' by sports fans the shield often totally resembles the coat-of-arms.
Dieter Linder, 12 Jan 1998

Issue 13 (26th March 2001) of the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, p. 6, showed a picture of German football fans waving that unofficial variant of the German state flag (scan here).
Marcus Schmöger, 11 May 2001

Editor's note: see also state flag 1921-1933 variant in an official publication, probably mistaken

National flag mistakenly hoisted upside-down

I have reported more than once on the very frequent display of the German flag upside down in Spain, most notably at tourist resorts but also elsewhere.
Santiago Dotor, 6 Sep 2001

Well, even here in Germany such things happen. I frequently pass by a restaurant in a little village, where they have oblique flagstaffs at the wall. The German flag is upside down there.
Marcus Schmöger, 7 Sep 2001

Erroneous German flag in news about Euro2008

Interesting story about erroneous German flag form Jens Wilke, one of visitors of www.flagid.org
"Just wanted to draw your attention to a humorous story currently happening in germany. One of the top news shows on german TV did a report on the european soccer championship. In that report, the editor must have been very absent-mindet and messed up the german flag. Instead of black-red-gold, he accidently 'created' a new one, red-black-gold, very much to the embarrasement of the news company. Some soccer-fans apparently took up this idea and actually made a real flag like this, went to the big public-viewing events, looked for the reporters and waved this 'new' flag in the background, so it was - again - in the same news!
(story: http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,562840,00.html [german] and pictures: http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/0,5538,32907,00.html). So, seeing that you have a hoax-section, you might want to add this hoax-flag to your selection and maybe point this out to the german media (i can do that if you want) and probably get a nice number of visits from germany and maybe some small news coverage from some internet-based media ;).
Ivan Sarajcic, 30 Jun 2008

Turkish-German flag

File from Wikipedia, edited to FOTW-standards by myself.
During the last years the inofficial variant of the German flag appeared with the Turkish Crecent and Star in the red stripe. It is mostly in use by private people with Turkish origin, living in Germany. I saw it in Munich and I've been told, that it is in use in Hamburg, too. I found several photos online with this flag in Berlin: 1, 2.
At the European soccer championship in Basel/Switzerland (Germany vs. Turkey): 1, 2. and some which are not located: 1, 2, 3, 4.
The flag is in use by media too, for example in one of Germany's most popular magazines, the "Spiegel": here, or the Newspaper "Tageszeitung TAZ": here.

This website mention Mr. Behcet Algan as one of the inventors of the flag, called "Deutürk-Fahne". His original flag was shown in Hamburg at the "Museum für
Völkerkunde". The flag symbolize the solidarity to the second home of Turkish people in Germany.
It is interesting, how emotions can go high about this flag. At German Wikipedia, I added the flag in several Articles. Some editors said, this flag is a defamation, some others didn't accept it as relevant and others called this flag a symbol of Turkish occupation of Germany. Thank goodness, these opinions are a total minority. I think, this flag symbolize a beginning integration of Turkish immigrants in Germany. Only 10 years ago, they only raised Turkish flags, never any German symbols.
Jan-Patrick Fischer, 11 Jun 2009

Flag with white stripe (=Seminole Nation, Florida, USA)

It is not a German flag, but most probable a variant of the indian tribe Seminole Nation or Miccousukee tribe in Florida.
Jorg Majewski, 17 Feb 2007