^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

War Ensign 1871-1919 (Germany)

Imperial War Ensign, Kaiserliche Kriegsflagge, later Reichskriegsflagge

3:5
by Carsten Linke
Flag adopted 26th September 1903, abolished 27th September 1919

Introduction
War Ensign 1871-1892
War Ensign 1892-1903
War Ensign 1903-1919
Use of the Imperial War Ensign 1918-1921
Proportions of the War Ensign and Jack 1871-1918

See also:

Other sites:

The Historic Iron Cross 1813-1957 by Andrew D. Biggers

Introduction

The war ensign (Reichskriegsflagge) from 1867 to 1919 was a white field, a black cross [offset to the hoist] fimbriated white and black with in its middle a white disc with the Prussian eagle, and a black-white-red flag with a black Iron Cross in the canton. There was a minor change in the eagle in 1892 and in the cross in 1903.

Norman Martin, 1998

Znamierowski 1999 shows three Imperial German Ensigns:

the first that of the North German Confederation and dated 1867-1892,
a second very similar, but with the new Prussian eagle dated 1892-1903, and finally
one with the same eagle and a wider cross dated 1903-1919.

Wilson 1986 shows the first (the eagle is marginally different, but that is probably irrelevent) dated 1867-1903 and the third dated 1903-1921. [This is wrong, since] there is evidence of a real change in design [of the eagle] in 1892. The uncertainty between 1919 and 1921 is certainly due to the adoption of a new ensign in 1919 which most available evidence indicates was rarely or never actually used.

Norman Martin, 2000

In all three cases, the eagle was the Prussian eagle and therefore had the royal and not the imperial crown. (...) The Iron cross in the canton is the same as in the jack — hence 5/9ths before 1903, and 226/33