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Political Parties (Germany)

Last modified: 2005-09-24 by santiago dotor
Keywords: germany | politics | german party | deutsche partei |
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Current Use of Party Flags

I would like to consider the actual use of party flags in Germany. There are three occasions for using a party flag:

  1. On party buildings or in front of buildings used during party conventions. Flags for this purpose are usually higher than wide. As an example this picture of the party building of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) taken from their website.

  2. During party conventions as an indoor decoration. It is not always easy to say if these can be considered flags. It is just some decorative cloth with the party logo (or the kind) hanging from the wall or draped around the speaker's desk.

  3. During demonstrations or manifestations. There is not much use of real flags in demonstrations in Germany; in most cases banners with inscriptions or the like are used. A major exception are demonstrations of right extremists (e.g. of the National Democratic Party of Germany), where many flags are used.
All in all one can say, that flags are not frequently used by parties in Germany, and where they are used, they are logo-on-bedsheet flags. I have written to most of the acknowledged parties to obtain first-hand information.

Marcus Schmöger, 14 August 2000

There are two problems with German party flags (more or less current ones). Firstly, what is a flag, proper? For political parties in Germany (most of them at least) the term 'flag' (German Flagge or Fahne) does not exist in a proper sense. If you ask them for the flag, they would answer you, "We have a logo, of course; we put that on our flags for demonstrations, as well." If you have a look at the 'flag', it is a demonstration poster, not a proper flag (I call a flag "a piece of cloth fastened to a pole on one side"; a demo poster "a piece of cloth fastened to poles on two opposite sides"). However, for the political flags in Germany, this distinction might be a very artificial one. Both flags and demonstration posters are just cloth pieces with an advertising message.

Secondly, there are always variants available, either homemade or made somewhere more centrally. One never knows if these are official or semi-official variants, or old variants etc. If they are old variants, they would be used until unserviceable. You wouldn't get any good information from the parties' headquarters on the flag variants.

Marcus Schmöger, 20 March 2002

Other regional and non-parliamentary parties

Most of these parties are listed in Rabbow 1970. (...) Some disappeared of its own, and others when the 5% clause was introduced [limiting access to the Bundestag under that proportion of the votes cast] but some still exist, even if they have never been heard of.

Jarig Bakker, 14 July 2000

Rabbow 1970 in most cases mentions political symbols of parties, but not their use on flags. I do not doubt the existence of those parties — currently there are around 95 of them registered at the Bundeswahlleiter (check its website). The problem is with the flags. (...) I am currently investigating a bit the flags of German political parties; I wrote to many of them, but I get the impression that most of them do not use flags or just logo-on-bedsheet flags. This supports the impression that I already had from just watching the news of reading newspapers: flags would be mostly used by extremist parties (especially right-wing) in Germany.

Marcus Schmöger, 14 July 2000

Most of the smaller postwar parties are not in existence any more, the only ones existing continuously from 1965 (or before) until nowadays being Zentrum, FSU, BP, SSW; the DP was revived in 1993, a DNVP was shortly revived in 1988. Sources:

  • Rabbow 1965
  • Rabbow 1970
  • Weißmann 1991
  • Fischer Weltalmanach 1965
  • Peter J., Winterberg Y., Fromm R., Nach Hitler: Radikale Rechte rüsten auf, three videos each about 45 min., ARD/MDR, 2001
  • Fisher S.L., The minor parties of the Federal Republic of Germany: toward a comparative theory of minor parties, Nijhoff, The Hague, 1974
  • Mintzel A., Oberreuter H., Parteien in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, Bonn, 1992
  • Hirsch K., Rechts von der Union: Personen, Organisationen, Parteien seit 1945, Knesebeck & Schuler, Munich, 1989

Marcus Schmöger, 10 September 2001

All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights 1950-1961

Gesamtdeutscher Block/Bund der Heimatvertriebenen und Entrechteten / GB/BHE

The GB/BHE was founded in 1950 as BHE (Block der Heimatvertriebenen und Entrechteten) and changed the name to GB/BHE in 1952. It was the party of the expellees and with the ongoing integration of the expellees in the West German society the role of the party dwindled away. The GB/BHE was only represented in the Bundestag from 1953-1957, and also was part of the coalition government of Adenauer. In 1961 it merged with the remnants of the DP to from the GDP. The GB/BHE did not use own flags.

Marcus Schmöger, 14 September 2001

Editor's note: see also Federation of Expellees (Bund der Vertriebenen / BdV)

All-German Party 1961-late 1960's (?)

Gesamtdeutsche Partei / GDP

Founded in 1961 as a merger of GB/BHE and the remnants of the DP; after the unsuccessful Bundestag election 1961 most of the former DP members left the party; the short name was changed to GPD in 1966. After that the party virtually disappeared. The GDP did not use own flags.

Marcus Schmöger, 14 September 2001

German Freedom Party 1962-1965

Deutsche Freiheits-Partei / DFP

The DFP was another small nationalist party, that had split from the DRP and merged with the DG and other groups in 1965 to form the AUD (Aktionsgemeinschaft Unabhängiger Deutscher, Action Association of Independent Germans). It had no flag. Sources: Rabbow 1965 and Rabbow 1970.

Marcus Schmöger, 10 September 2001

German Peace Union 1960-1970's

Deutsche Friedens-Union / DFU

The DFU was a left-wing neutralist party —some called it a communist camouflage organization— that had no party flag: it expressly stated, that it did not want to use a flag of its own. Sources: Rabbow 1965 and Rabbow 1970.

Marcus Schmöger, 10 September 2001

League of Germans 1953-1960's

Bund der Deutschen / BdD

The BdD was another left-wing neutralist party —some called it a communist camouflage organization— that cooperated with the DFU after 1960. It used an oak leaf, vertically divided white-black, as its party symbol, but not on flags. Sources: Rabbow 1965 and Rabbow 1970.

Marcus Schmöger, 10 September 2001