Flag of the German Empire

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (May 2022) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 2,073 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Schwarz-Weiß-Rot]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Schwarz-Weiß-Rot}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Reichsflagge

Use	State flag, civil and state ensign
Proportion	2:3 (3:5 in 1933–1935)
Adopted	1867; 157 years ago (1867) (first 2:3 ratio) 1933; 91 years ago (1933) (second 3:5 ratio)
Relinquished	1919; 105 years ago (1919) (first 2:3 ratio) 1935; 89 years ago (1935) (second 3:5 ratio)
Design	A horizontal tricolour of black, white, and red

The black-white-red flag^[1] (Schwarz-Weiß-Rot),^[2] also known as the flag of the German Empire, the Imperial Flag or the Realm Flag (Reichsflagge), is a combination between the flag of Prussia and the flag of the Hanseatic League. Starting as the national flag of the North German Confederation, it would go on to be commonly used officially and unofficially under the nation-state of the German Reich, which existed from 1871 to 1945. After 1918, it was used as a political symbol by various organizations.