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State Flag and Ensign 1933-1935 (Germany)

Reichsdienstflagge

2:3
by Santiago Dotor and Dieter Linder
Flag adopted 1933, abolished 31 October 1935

Description

See also:

Introduction to Third Reich Flags (Germany)
Flags used 11th March 1933 - 15th September 1935 (Third Reich, Germany)
Germany

Description

The black-white-red with a slightly increased circular white area with the national eagle displayed, thus very similar to the Imperial Foreign Office State Flag, except for the form of the eagle. This flag basically replaced both the previous state flag and state ensign and was in use 1933 to 1935.

Norman Martin, 1998

[The] German state flag and ensign introduced in 1933 [was] black-white-red with circular white cutout, slightly off-centred to the hoist, therein the German eagle.

Ralf Stelter, 7 February 2001

This was the Reichsdienstflagge, adopted 22 April 1933 and replaced by the swastika type in 1935. I have a black and white photocopy of it from the 1934 German Ministry of Interior publication on flags which I got from Dieter Linder a couple of years ago. The eagle seems to me extremely close or identical to that of the 1921 and current Presidential standard, similar to the 1933 presidential standard, which has one feather more, even though adopted by the same decree and both are referred to as the Reichsadler (but with the adjective schwebend added in the case of the presidential eagle.) It is quite different both from the eagle of the 1921 Dienstflaggen [service flags and ensigns] and any of the coats of arms.

Norman Martin, 7 and 8 February 2001

For the above image I have assumed that the white disc had a diameter 5/9ths of the hoist (as in the Imperial state ensign) and that the off-centering is 1/20th of the length.

Santiago Dotor, 9 February 2001

The above image of the Reichsdienstflagge 1933-35 shows a wrong design.

Andreas Herzfeld, 24 February 2002