Proportions of the War Ensign and Jack 1871-1935 (Germany)

Last modified: 2005-09-10 by santiago dotor
Keywords: german empire | iron cross | specification: proportion | law |
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• Proportions
• Legislation on the War Ensign
• Legislation on the War Jack

See also:

• War Ensign 1871-1918 (Kaiserliche Kriegsflagge)
• Jack 1871-1918 (Kriegsgösch)
• North German Confederation 1867-1870 (Norddeutscher Bund)

The Iron Cross in the jack was 5/9ths the height until 1903 and slightly above 2/3rds (226/333, according to Flaggenbuch 1939) thereafter. (...) If I am correct, the jack and [Reichskriegsflagge] canton changed in 1903.

Norman Martin, 27 February 2001

Norman Martin's dimensional data above prompted me to have a look in Martin and Dreyhaupt 1999 as well as Flaggenbuch 1939. My executive summary would be that the 1867-1903 jack (and ensign canton) was 2:3 with an iron cross 2/3rds of the hoist, the 1903-1919 jack (and ensign canton) 3:5 with an iron cross 4/5ths of the hoist. Let us see why.

Martin and Dreyhaupt 1999 firstly describes the 1867 ensign, saying about its canton that it has three stripes black-white-red, with an iron cross "reaching halfway into each the black and the red stripes". So that is 2/3rds of the height (of the canton). It then describes the 1892 and 1903 changes with no figures. After that (but rather as a different flag category, rather than chronologically) it describes the jack, as a 2:3 flag, with the iron cross occupying "two thirds of the height", and says that it is displayed on the ensign occupying 3/7ths of its height. Both the 2:3 proportions and the 3/7ths jack/ensign hoist ratio make me think that that description corresponds to the 1867-1903 jack.

The flag images on the A3-sized charts in Martin and Dreyhaupt 1999 are quite small (approx. 16 mm high) but allow for some measurement and comparison:

After that I had a look in Flaggenbuch 1939, and particularly the Corrections