Before me floats my flag of black and white!
My fathers died for freedom, 'twas their manner,
So say those colours floating in your sight."
The black, white, and red canton in the staff-head corner of the flag is also made into an independent flag, as at Fig. [208], and used as a "Jack" in the Imperial Navy, while this same flag, Fig. [208], minus the cross, is the flag of the Mercantile Marine. On the 25th of October, 1867, on the establishment of the North German Confederacy, at the conclusion of the Austro-Prussian campaign, the King of Prussia sanctioned a proposal for a flag common to all. We find in this decree that "the confederate flag henceforth solely to bear the qualification of the national flag, and as such to be exclusively on board the merchantmen of the Confederacy, shall be composed of three equilateral stripes horizontally arranged: the colour of the top one being black, the middle stripe white, and that of the bottom stripe red." On the inclusion of the South German States on the formation of the German Empire, the latter still more potent and august body retained the Confederacy Flag for its mercantile marine. Up to the year 1867 no German national flag had ever flown on the ocean, as the various States and free cities had their special colours of merely local value.
The responsible Minister of the Crown, in a speech delivered in the Diet in 1867, stated to the members that the combination of colours was emblematic of a junction of the black-white Prussian flag with the red-white ensign of the Hanseatic League. This league of the sea-ports of Germany was organised in 1164 for their mutual defence and for the interchange of commercial advantages. As its strength and reputation increased, many other cities sought to be admitted, but international jealousies disintegrated the League, and by the year 1630 it was reduced from sixty-six cities to three—Lubeck, Hamburg, and Bremen. These three Hanse towns still retain special privileges. The red and the white in the German flag represents the commercial prosperity of the nation, while the black and white symbolises the strong arm of the State prepared to protect and foster it. The flags of these three cities still retain the old colours, Lubeck being half white and half red, Bremen red and white stripes, and Hamburg a white castle on a red field.
The arms of the Hohenzollerns are quarterly arranged. The first and fourth quarters are themselves quartered, black and white for Zollern, while the second and third quarters are azure with a golden stag for Sigmaringen. Friedrich VI., the first of the Hohenzollerns, the Burggraf of Nürnberg, became Friedrich I., Elector of Brandenburg, in 1417. There were twelve in all, of these Hohenzollern Electors, and Friedrich III., the last of these, became in 1701 the first King of Prussia. All the succeeding Sovereigns have been of the same house, so that the black and
white in the flag of to-day is the black and white that for over five hundred years has been emblazoned in the arms of the Hohenzollerns.
The cross on the flag (Figs. [207] and [208])—the "iron cross" so highly prized as the reward of fine service—is the cross of the Teutonic Order, and dates from the close of the 12th century. The history of the Teutonic Order, in its connexion with Prussia, is dealt with very fully in the first volume of Carlyle's "Frederick the Great."
The Imperial Standard of Germany has the iron cross, black with white border, on a yellow field, in the centre of all being a shield bearing the arms of Prussia, surmounted by a crown and surrounded by the collar of the Order of the Black Eagle. The yellow groundwork of the flag is diapered over in each quarter with three black eagles and a crown. The arms of the cross stretch out to the four edges of the flag.