FIFA World Cup 2024 - Involving black, red, and gold, Germans have always faced challenges.
Life is easier when handling Germany's flag. Relaxed, enlightened, possibly even cheerful and jubilant. Perhaps like in the summer fairy tale of 2006, when the country was consumed by a sea of black, red, and gold before the Brandenburg Gate and other public viewing places.
"The Germans identify with their country and its national colors," exclaimed the then Federal President Horst Köhler at the time. "I'm glad I'm no longer the only one with a flag on my car." These days, you can find yourself covered in black, red, and gold car mirror covers or makeup sticks in supermarkets.
The critical question: inclusive or exclusive use during the European Football Championship 2024
A flag and its colors symbolize a social identity, where people feel they belong to a specific group. This was definitely the case in 2006, and today, in the year of the European Football Championship 2024? Is the vibe still so laid-back, a piece of cloth that encompasses so much shattered history, politics, prejudice, and national pride at its core? "The crucial point is whether the national colors are used inclusively or exclusively," says Julia Becker from the University of Osnabrück. The Professor for Social Psychology studies racism, discrimination, and identity. "Inclusive means associating black, red, and gold with diversity and multiculturalism. That'd be a rather straightforward way of dealing with it."
For Becker, an exclusive approach is more problematic. "For example, if someone relies on ideas of the so-called German leading culture or excludes migrants and migrant women, they can no longer speak of an uninhibited way of dealing with it, as racism is clearly promoted."
It's never been simple with black, red, and gold. Rewind to 2013: Even the then Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel can't appear to handle the Germany flag in the moment of triumph after her CDU's victory in the Bundestag election. Her jubilant general secretary Hermann Gröhe hands her a fan, but she takes it away from him before he can set it up on the podium as a victory pose. Since then, this short clip has been used by right-wing radicals to accuse the former head of government of a Germany-hating attitude.
Flag encompasses historical and modern perspectives
Ultraconservative and radical right-wing extremists have a complex relationship with the national colors: Some wear black, red, and gold to counter the rainbow flag of the LGBTQ+ community during "Pride Month" as a standard in their profile pictures. Others, however, wave black, red, and gold upside down on right-wing extremist demonstrations. It should mean: Germany, yes, but not in its democratic-federal republican form.
"If people from the AfD use the flag, that's clearly exclusive," says Becker. If one identifies very strongly with Germany, this can turn into a bias against outsiders. "This risk exists even with a relaxed approach to the flag."
During this period, the colors symbolized unity: Black, Red, and Gold has roots in the liberal national movement of the 19th century to unify Germany. As the prototype of the tricolor, there's the black-red flag with golden fringes, made in spring 1813 for the Lützowsche Freikorps, a fighting unit during the Liberation Wars against Napoleon.
The tricolor of the Germans stands for democracy.
As the decades passed, Black, Red, and Gold became the tricolor of the Germans: first briefly after the March Revolution of 1848, then later in the Weimar Republic (1919 – 1933) as a distinction from the Black-White-Red of the fallen German Empire.
In the wake of National Socialism (1933 – 1945), both new German states chose Black, Red, and Gold. Initially, their flags look the same, but from 1959, the East flag manifests the DDR state symbol of a hammer, a circle, and an ear of corn. Ultimately, German unity provides the three colors with a sense of belonging.
What about 2024? "Probably it'll be that even people who aren't exceptionally proud of their heritage will wear national flags during public viewings or paint Black, Red, and Gold on their faces," says social psychologist Becker. Among them will likely be Germans with a migration history in their family. "If everyone does this, it'll be a bit normalized. Among these people, there would not be an increase in racism compared to those who identify very strongly with Germany."
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The Black, Red, and Gold colors of the German flag are once again at the center of discussions, this time in relation to the upcoming European Football Championship 2024. Julia Becker from the University of Osnabrück suggests that the use of these colors should be inclusive, associating them with diversity and multiculturalism. Previously, Horst Köhler, the then Federal President, noted the pride Germans had for their national colors during the FIFA World Cup 2006.
