Flag, coat of arms, anthem: Germany's national symbols

Germany's three main state symbols are the black-red-gold federal flag, the federal coat of arms with its black eagle on a golden-yellow background, and the national anthem – the third stanza of the Deutschlandlied, which begins “Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit” (“Unity and justice and freedom”). The capital, Berlin, and the national holiday on 3 October also count as national symbols. They come up in around ten questions in the citizenship test, several of them picture questions.

The federal flag: black, red and gold

Article 22 of the Basic Law states: “The federal flag shall be black, red and gold.” The three stripes run horizontally – black at the top, red in the middle, gold at the bottom. Officially, the third colour is gold, not yellow. The colours stand for unity, freedom and democracy.

The test offers similar colour combinations as wrong answers. Remember: black, white and red were the colours of the German Empire (1871 to 1918), and black, yellow and red in vertical stripes is the flag of Belgium.

A short history of the colours, from 1832 to 1990

Black-red-gold is the symbol of Germany's movement for freedom and democracy. The colours are often traced back to the Lützow Free Corps, which fought against Napoleon from 1813: black uniforms, red trim and gold-coloured buttons. As early as the Middle Ages, the arms of the German emperors showed a black eagle on a gold background.

That is why the test asks which German state had a black-red-gold flag with a hammer, compass and wreath of grain. The answer is the GDR – not Prussia and not the “Third Reich” (question 187). For more dates, see the German history timeline.

The federal coat of arms and the federal eagle

Germany's heraldic animal is the eagle. The federal coat of arms (Bundeswappen) shows a black eagle with open wings on a golden-yellow background; its beak, tongue and talons are red. Its head is turned to the right – which, following the rules of heraldry, means to the viewer's left. Federal President Theodor Heuss fixed the design on 20 January 1950, taking over the description from the Weimar Republic. In the test you have to pick it out of four images (question 21).

The wrong answers to the question about the heraldic animal are no accident: there are lions on the coat of arms of Baden-Württemberg, for example, a bear on Berlin's and a horse on Lower Saxony's. They belong to federal states, not to the federal government. You can see all the coats of arms in all picture questions with answers.

The federal eagle (Bundesadler) also hangs in the Bundestag's plenary chamber (question 216) – not the imperial eagle, not the imperial crown and not the flag of Berlin. The huge eagle on the front wall of the Reichstag building is a reworked version of the one sculptor Ludwig Gies created in 1953 for the parliament's chamber in Bonn. Because of its rounded shape, many people affectionately call it the “fat hen” (fette Henne).

The national anthem: the third stanza of the Deutschlandlied

The national anthem is the third stanza of the “Song of the Germans” (Lied der Deutschen), usually called the Deutschlandlied. It begins with the words “Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit” – “Unity and justice and freedom” (question 40).

• Words: August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, written in 1841 on the island of Heligoland.
• Music: Joseph Haydn, composed in 1797 – originally for a song honouring the Austrian emperor.
• 1952: Federal President Theodor Heuss recognises the song as the anthem in an exchange of letters with Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.
• 1991: Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker and Chancellor Helmut Kohl confirm that only the third stanza is the national anthem.

Only the third stanza is sung on official occasions, and only it is protected as a state symbol. Interestingly, the anthem is not mentioned in the Basic Law.

The wrong answers in the test come from other well-known songs. “Völker, hört die Signale” (“Peoples, hear the signals”) is from the Internationale, a song of the labour movement. “Freude schöner Götterfunken” (“Joy, beautiful spark of the gods”) opens Schiller's “Ode to Joy” – and Beethoven's melody for it is the anthem of the European Union. “Deutschland einig Vaterland” (“Germany, united fatherland”) is a line from the GDR's anthem.

GDR coat of arms and EU flag: two more picture questions

Two more symbols appear as picture questions in the test:

• The coat of arms of the GDR (question 209) shows a hammer and a compass inside a wreath of ears of grain, wrapped in a black-red-gold ribbon. The hammer stood for the workers, the compass for the intelligentsia (such as engineers and scientists) and the grain for the farmers. The GDR existed from 1949 to 1990.
• The flag of the European Union (question 226) shows twelve golden stars in a circle on a blue background. Twelve stands for perfection and unity – it is not the number of member states. The EU has 27 members today.

You can practise all related questions on the questions on history, symbols and remembrance page – and check whether you recognise the images under real conditions in a mock exam.

Capital, national holiday and Federal Cross of Merit

• Capital: Berlin. This has been set out in the Unification Treaty since 1990 and in the Basic Law (Article 22(1)) since 2006.
• National holiday: 3 October, German Unity Day, marks reunification in 1990 – more in public holidays in Germany.
• Federal Cross of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz): Germany's best-known award for outstanding achievement, for example in politics, culture or social work. It is awarded by the Federal President. The “Patriotic Order of Merit” – a wrong answer in the test – was a GDR decoration.

Using the symbols respectfully

• Anyone may fly the federal flag without the coat of arms – at home, on the balcony or at a football match.
• The federal service flag (with the federal shield), the federal coat of arms and the federal eagle are reserved for federal authorities. Using them without permission is an administrative offence (§ 124 OWiG).
• Publicly defaming the colours, flag, coat of arms or anthem, or damaging a publicly displayed federal flag, is a criminal offence (§ 90a StGB, Criminal Code).
• Symbols of banned organisations – such as Nazi, Hamas or IS symbols – must not be displayed in public. Hanging an Israeli flag on your own property, on the other hand, is allowed.