<Tr> <Th> Proportion </Th> <Td> 3: 5 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Adopted </Th> <Td> 9 May 1956 </Td> </Tr> <P> The flag of Germany or German Flag is a tricolour consisting of three equal horizontal bands displaying the national colours of Germany: black, red, and gold (German: Schwarz - Rot - Gold). The flag was first adopted as the national flag of modern Germany in 1919, during the short - lived Weimar Republic to 1933 . </P> <P> Germany has two competing traditions of national colours, black - red - gold and black - white - red, which have played an important role in the modern history of Germany . The black - red - gold tricolour's first appearance anywhere in a German - ethnicity sovereign state within what today comprises Germany occurred in 1778, and achieved prominence during the 1848 Revolutions . The short - lived Frankfurt Parliament of 1848--1850 proposed the tricolour as a flag for a united and democratic German state under a constitutional monarchy . 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 . </P>

Flag with black yellow and red horizontal stripes