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1949-1959 Flag, ratio: 3:5

1959-1990 Flag, ratio: 3:5

The flag of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was in 1949 the same black-red-gold Flag of Germany that had been used since 1919 in the Weimar Republic and also since 1949 in the West German Federal Republic of Germany. The flag and its colours symbolized democratic traditions in Germany since the early 19th century, it had been adopted during the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states.

To distinguish themselves from the identical flag used by West Germany, especially after the two German armies Bundeswehr and NVA had been founded, the socialist East German government in October 1959 added the Coat of Arms of East Germany, which had been designed in 1955, to the national flag, placing it in the centre of the three horizontal stripes of black, red and gold. It contains a hammer (symbolizing workers), and a compass (symbolizing intellectuals) inside ears of grain (symbolizing farmers).

As a compromise, the United Team of Germany used the black-red-gold Flag of Germany with additional Olympic rings in white placed upon the red middle stripe in Olympic games from 1956 to 1968.

In West Germany and West Berlin, the display of the altered East German flag was unconstitutional and had to be prevented by the police until in 1969 the West German government reversed this policy.

As East German citizens had cut out the socialist symbols after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, the addition of slogans used during the protests was discussed. Eventually, the plain Flag of Germany was reinstated as the East German flag in June^{[citation needed]} 1990 during the process of German reunification which took effect in October that year.

The GDR flag continues to be controversial^{[citation needed]}. Some fans of football clubs from the East like to display it in the stadium, but western fans often react very negatively to this, and some stadiums have banned it^{[citation needed]}.

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Flags of East Germany

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