Information on flag displays
Article Flag Displays
Helpful tips in our photo galleries
It’s easy to make mistakes when displaying flags – flying the wrong flag, or flying the right flag the wrong way. In our photo galleries, we explain the correct way to display the flag and how to avoid mistakes.
A closer look ...
The flag of the federal institutions (Part 1)
The flag “with the eagle” is often not the federal institutions flag. Instead, the photo shows a flag with the federal coat of arms rather than the federal shield. This unofficial flag could be called the “federal coat of arms flag”, but even some flag makers and sellers wrongly call it the federal institutions flag.
By contrast, according to Section I no. 3 of the Directive concerning the German flags, the official flag of the federal authorities (federal institutions flag) “shall have the same horizontal stripes as the federal flag and shall bear the federal shield, shifted slightly towards the staff and overlapping both the black and gold stripes by one-fifth, with the eagle facing the staff; the proportion of the hoist to the fly of the bunting shall be 3:5”
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Common mistakes
Empty flagpoles
If flags are to be hoisted on only some of the available flagpoles, then they should be hoisted on flagpoles next to each other, not leaving any empty flagpoles between them. This applies above all to displays of the European and federal (institutions) flag, which are intended to express the close relationship between the two.
Exceptions should be limited to special situations, for example at the Federal Chancellery, when various foreign flags must be hoisted in short succession on the centre of three flagpoles. Flags should always be hoisted on the flagpoles in the superior position, i.e. on the left of an observer facing the building, so that empty flagpoles will be on the right.
Information for indivuals and businesses
Federal flags displayed on homes and cars
Private displays of the federal flag (black-red-gold, no eagle) are provided for in the Basic Law and constitutionally protected under Articles 2 and 5. Individuals are allowed to display the federal flag, as long as they show proper respect for it as a state symbol. Apart from Section 1 (1) of the Flag Act of 8 February 1951 (Federal Law Gazette I, p. 79) as promulgated on 26 October 1994 (Federal Law Gazette I, p. 3140) stating that all merchant ships and ocean-going vessels in German ownership and registered in the territory in which the Basic Law applies, citizens are not required to display the flag and are not subject to regulations on how to display the federal flag.
Whether permanent flag displays on house façades, windows or on cars are in fact appropriate, however, must be decided in the individual case.
