<P> * The value given here is an alternative to the following more - complicated combination: Yellow (765 g), Red 032 (26 g), Black (11 g), Transp . White (198 g) </P> <P> Vexillology rarely distinguishes between gold and yellow; in heraldry, they are both Or . For the German flag, such a distinction is made: the color used in the flag is gold, not yellow . </P> <P> When the black--red--gold tricolor was adopted by the Weimar Republic as its flag, it was attacked by conservatives, monarchists, and the far right, who referred to the colors with spiteful nicknames such as Schwarz--Rot--Gelb (black--red--yellow), Schwarz--Rot--Senf (black--red--mustard), or even Schwarz--Rot--Scheiße (black--red--shit). When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the black--white--red colors of pre-1918 Imperial Germany were swiftly reintroduced, and their propaganda machine continued to discredit the Schwarz--Rot--Gold, using the same derogatory terms as previously used by the monarchists . </P> <P> On 16 November 1959, the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) stated that the usage of "black--red--yellow" and the like had "through years of Nazi agitation, attained the significance of a malicious slander against the democratic symbols of the state" and was now an offence . As summarised by heraldist Arnold Rabbow in 1968, "the German colors are black--red--yellow but they are called black--red--gold ." </P>

Were there earlier forms of the german flag why have the changes been made