German Colors Decorative Pennant.
German, 3rd Reich, black, white and red (BWR) pennants like this were used from 1933 to 1935 when the BWR tricolor was restored as the national flag and flown concurrently with the Nazi Party flag. This flag was eventually displaced, in 1935, when the swastika flag became the sole national flag of the 3rd Reich. Although black, white and red would remain the national colors until 1945, pennants like this example made in Hamburg were only decorative, but made perfect GI-bring-backs for returning American servicemen.
These colors were acceptable to Prussian King William I, who was elevated to German Emperor following the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, after the southern German states completed the unification of the German Empire.
The black-white-red would serve as the basis for most Imperial German flags until the end of the German Empire in 1919, although the colors would remain popular even during the Weimar Republic (1919 to 1933).
This pennant is marked "echt hamburger netz" indicating that it was manufactured in Hamburg, one of the cities of the Hansiatic League.
Provenance: Acquired by private purchase in Germany in the 1990s.
Sources:
Flag of Germany, Wikipedia, 10 January 2012, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Germany
German Empire 1871-1918, Flags of the World, 10 January 2012, from: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/de1871.html
Smith, Whitney, Flags Through the Ages and across the World, McGraw Hill, New York, 1975.
Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection
