Flag of Germany
While the use of black-red-gold had been suggested in the Soviet zone in 1946, the Second People's Congress in 1948 decided to adopt the old black-white-red tricolour as a national flag for East Germany. This choice was based on the use of these colours by the National Committee for a Free Germany, a German anti-Nazi organisation that operated in the Soviet Union in the last two years of the war. In 1949, following a suggestion from Friedrich Ebert, Jr., the black-red-gold tricolour was instead selected as the flag of the German Democratic Republic upon the formation of this state on 7 October 1949. From 1949 to 1959, the flags of both West and East Germany were identical. On 1 October 1959, the East German government changed its flag with the addition of its coat of arms. In West Germany, these changes were seen as a deliberate attempt to divide the two Germanys. Displaying this flag in West Germany and West Berlin—where it became known as the (divider-flag)—was seen as a breach of the constitution and subsequently banned until the late 1960s.
List of flags of the German Navy (1935–1945)
The Reichskriegsflagge, which was introduced on 7 November 1935, was widely used in the Wehrmacht. Thus, it also served the Kriegsmarine as the naval ensign, which was hoisted on Flag days regardless of the location of the ship. These were the 1 January (New year), the 18 January (founding day of the Empire 1871), the 30 January ("day of national survey"), the 20 April (Hitler's birthday), the 1 May ("Labor Day") and 31 May (memory of the Battle of Jutland). In addition, ships in home waters, had to hoist the Reichskriegsflagge on these following days: on 1 March (reintegration of the Saarland), on 29 August (the day of the founding of the Prussian Navy in 1859), on the first Sunday after Michaelmas and on the day of the Harvest festival. Regardless of these days, all warships that received a head of state were obliged to show the Reichskriegsflagge.