Flag of Germany
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.
Flag desecration
On 26 July 1935 in New York a group of demonstrators boarded the SS "Bremen", tore the Nazi party flag from the jackstaff and threw it into the Hudson River. The German ambassador sharply protested, but the protest was rejected, with the judgement that only a party symbol was harmed and the national flag was not affected. On 15 September 1935, in response to this incident, the "Reichsflaggengesetz" (Reichs flag law) (RGBl. I S. 1145) came into effect, declaring the Nazi flag to be the exclusive national flag of Germany and removing the status of the black-white-red tricolor flag of the German Empire as co-national flag.