Democracy Destroyed The First 100 Days of Nazi Rule

Laws and decrees

Decree Reich President

Flag Decree

Erlaß des Reichspräsidenten über die vorläufige Regelung der Flaggenhissung

Decree of the Reich President on the Provisional Regulation of the Hoisting of Flags

Signed on the day of remembrance for the war dead and announced by Hitler on the radio that evening, the decree ordered that from the next day, until the national colours were finally settled, the black-white-red flag of the Empire and the swastika flag of the Nazi Party were to be flown together; military buildings were to fly only the Reich war flag. The Republic’s black-red-gold, still the colours fixed by the constitution, was not mentioned. The decree appeared in the gazette only on 17 March.

Dated
Sunday 12 March 1933
Published in
Reichsgesetzblatt Teil I, no. 21, Friday 17 March 1933, p. 103
Citation
RGBl. I S. 103
In force
Monday 13 March 1933

On the day pages

  1. Signed Day 42, Sunday 12 March 1933
  2. In force Day 43, Monday 13 March 1933
  3. Published Day 47, Friday 17 March 1933
The Reichsgesetzblatt Teil I page on which the measure was published
RGBl. I S. 103. Commons record

The text

Erlaß des Reichspräsidenten über die vorläufige Regelung der Flaggenhissung.
Decree of the Reich President on the Provisional Regulation of the Hoisting of Flags.
Vom 12. März 1933.
Of 12 March 1933.
Am heutigen Tage, an dem in ganz Deutschland die alten schwarz-weiß-roten Fahnen zu Ehren unserer Gefallenen auf Halbmast wehen, bestimme ich, daß vom morgigen Tage bis zur endgültigen Regelung der Reichsfarben die schwarz-weiß-rote Fahne und die Hakenkreuzflagge gemeinsam zu hissen sind. Diese Flaggen verbinden die ruhmreiche Vergangenheit des Deutschen Reichs und die kraftvolle Wiedergeburt der Deutschen Nation. Vereint sollen sie die Macht des Staates und die innere Verbundenheit aller nationalen Kreise des deutschen Volkes verkörpern!
On this day, on which the old black-white-red flags fly at half-mast throughout Germany in honour of our fallen, I determine that from tomorrow until the final regulation of the Reich colours the black-white-red flag and the swastika flag are to be hoisted together. These flags unite the glorious past of the German Reich and the powerful rebirth of the German nation. United, they are to embody the power of the state and the inner solidarity of all national circles of the German people!
Die militärischen Gebäude hissen nur die Reichskriegsflagge.
Military buildings hoist only the Reich war flag.
Berlin, den 12. März 1933.
Berlin, 12 March 1933.
Der Reichspräsident von Hindenburg
The Reich President von Hindenburg
Der Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler
The Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler

About this text

The full text is given. Transcribed from the RGBl. scan (issue 21, p. 103); compared word by word with documentArchiv.de, which misprints ‘schwarz-weis-rote’ and ‘Widergeburt’; both were corrected from the scan. The word ‘gemeinsam’, letter-spaced for emphasis in the gazette, is given as plain text.

The English translation was made for this site and is not an official translation. The decree’s own words for the two flags (‘the glorious past’ and ‘the powerful rebirth of the German nation’) are translated literally; they state the new government’s claim. ‘Fahne’ and ‘Flagge’ are both rendered ‘flag’.

German laws and decrees are official works and not protected by copyright (§ 5 UrhG).

Terms

schwarz-weiß-rot
Black, white and red: the colours of the Empire of 1871–1918, kept by the nationalist right as a rejection of the Republic. The Weimar constitution (Article 3) had made black-red-gold the Reich colours, keeping black-white-red only in the merchant flag.
Hakenkreuzflagge
The swastika flag of the Nazi Party (red, with a black swastika on a white disc). Under this decree it became an official flag for the first time.
zu Ehren unserer Gefallenen
12 March 1933 was the day of national mourning for the dead of the First World War (Volkstrauertag), when flags flew at half-mast.
Reichskriegsflagge
The Reich war flag, flown by the armed forces. It was redesigned in black, white and red by the decree on the national emblems of the armed forces of 14 March 1933.

Sources

  1. Reichsgesetzblatt 1933 Teil I, Nr. 21 (17. März 1933), S. 103 (Reichsministerium des Innern; scan on Wikimedia Commons)
  2. Erlaß des Reichspräsidenten über die vorläufige Regelung der Flaggenhissung (12.03.1933) (transcription) (documentArchiv.de)

Gazette scans: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.