Next: 3 Oct 2027
German Unity Day
Black, red and gold: the colours of German democracy since the nineteenth century.
The colours of German Unity Day
On 3 October 1990 East and West Germany were joined again. The day is kept quietly, with a public festival hosted each year by a different federal state. Its colours are those of the flag: black, red and gold. They are usually traced to the uniforms of volunteers who fought Napoleon in 1813, black coats with red trim and brass buttons. Students and liberals took up the three colours, carried them at the Hambach Festival of 1832 and made them the flag of the 1848 parliament. They became the colours of the democratic republics of 1919 and 1949, and both German states used them through the Cold War. The third band is always called gold, never yellow.
#000000SchwarzThe top band.#DD0000RotThe middle band.#FFCE00GoldThe lower band, called gold, never yellow.Values are fair approximations, not official shades.
Read about the colours
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "German Unity Day" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.