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86-507: The term Reichskriegsflagge ( German: [ˈʁaɪçsˌkʁiːksflaɡə] , lit.   ' Imperial War Flag ' ) refers to several war flags and war ensigns used by the German armed forces in history. A total of eight different designs were used in 1848–1849 and between 1867–1871 and 1945. Today the term refers usually to the flag from 1867–1871 to 1918, the war flag of Imperial Germany . After Prussia defeated Austria in 1866 ,

172-518: A Wild West -style gunfight on 30 November 1900 made him very popular, long after his capture, trial, and execution for their murders in 1902. According to German forensic scientist Mark Benecke , however, Mathias Kneißl never saw himself as a Robin Hood figure and was, in reality, "just a man who went astray with no way of getting back." In 1891, the Imperial Capital of Berlin witnessed

258-563: A world power ( Weltmacht ). The desire for a "place in the sun" as coined by Foreign Secretary Bernhard von Bülow and was shared by a large number of German citizens and intellectuals. Pan-Germanism achieved a short-lived high point after the German colonial empire expanded in Africa, China, New Guinea, and in the South Seas and became the third largest colonial empire after those of

344-610: A Thuringian principality's state flag in 1778 that it did not seem necessary to mention them in the constitution of 1849. The flag was used for the Imperial Fleet . The short battle near Heligoland on 4 June 1849 was the first and only maritime battle in which these colours were involved. The Federal Diet had already adopted the German colours on 9 March 1848, but the Diet and also the Central Powers forgot to announce

430-650: A black-red-gold tricolour. German nationalists, such as the Freikorps (see Marinebrigade Ehrhardt ), used the old flag in protest against the Weimar Republic during the 1920s and 1930s. This included the 1920 attempt to overthrow the Weimar government, known as the Kapp Putsch . The Nazi Party of Adolf Hitler had a party flag based on the old colours. Designed personally by Hitler, this flag served

516-477: A blunt and jerky effect ... It is clear that a definite attempt is being made to use the language in a new way, an attempt to cure it of certain vices." Even though it is widely associated with the later plays of Berthold Brecht , the Second Reich also witnessed the iconoclastic invention of modern theatrical staging by Catholic poet and playwright Reinhard Sorge and stage director Max Reinhardt , under

602-428: A constitutional monarchy also cannot afford to make an enemy of the monarch, who represents the only real check and balance against a Chancellor's otherwise absolute power . This is because a constitutional monarch has plenty of means at his or her disposal of quietly blocking a Chancellor's policy objectives and is one of the only people who can forcibly remove an overly ambitious Chancellor from power. For these reasons,

688-682: A desire for its restoration continued to exist. During the Weimar Republic , the German National People's Party ( DNVP ) and it's paramilitary wing Der Stahlhelm , openly sought to restore the Monarchy but instead found itself manipulated, outmaneuvered, sidelined, and then banned outright by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party . During the same era, the death squad Organisation Consul , which considered both

774-565: A fine that is not legally considered a punishment). From September 2020, the public display of all versions of the war flags of the North German Confederation and of all periods of the German Reich became prohibited in the state of Bremen and violators can be fined up to €1,000; the black, white and red tricolour of the German Reich can be confiscated as well if there is a concrete provocation effect. In June 2021

860-651: A flag). The use of flags as field signs apparently emerges in Asia, during the Iron Age, possibly in either China or India. in Achaemenid Persia , each army division had its own standard, and "all officers had banners over their tents". Early field signs that include, but are not limited to a flag, are also called vexilloid or "flag-like", for example the Roman Eagle standard or the dragon standard of

946-612: A hypothetical German nation-state under Prussian rule, which never were adopted as the project was not realised at that time. He used his old ideas to design the new North German war ensign with heavy involvement of the Prussian king, leading to numerous changes, like the inclusion of the Iron Cross in its original shape. The flag that was finally adopted became the war ensign of the German Empire after its founding, similar to

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1032-576: A naval, imperial, and colonial power. This neo-Baroque style was particularly exemplified by the grandiose Siegesallee , a boulevard of what were intended to be heroic-looking marble statues of the last Kaiser's ancestors in the Tiergarten of Berlin. Even though the Siegesallee was widely ridiculed by the infamously irreverent and sarcastic Berliners of the era as die Puppenallee , 'The Boulevard of Dolls' and as an alley where, "even

1118-439: A parallel development. Some medieval free cities or communes did not have coats of arms, and used war flags that were not derived from a coat of arms. Thus, the city of Lucerne used a blue-white flag as a field sign from the mid 13th century, without deriving it from a heraldic shield design. Wilhelminism The Wilhelmine period or Wilhelmian era ( German : Wilhelminische Zeit, Wilhelminische Epoche ) comprises

1204-500: A peasant outlaw, copkiller, and poacher in the Dachau District of Kingdom of Bavaria witnessed the local Bavarian peasantry overwhelmingly cheering him on as a John Dillinger -style folk anti-hero . Policemen were assigned from other regions of Bavaria and often could not speak or understand the local dialect. What was worse, police corruption was considered so common in the region that Kneißl's slaying of two cops during

1290-604: A physical material" and, "honed down syntax to its bare essentials." Citing Stramm's fondness for "fashioning new words out of old," Adler has also written that, "what James Joyce did on a grand scale for English , Stramm achieved more modestly for German ." Adler has also written that August Stramm's "essential innovation (still too little recognized in Germany) was to create a new, non-representational kind of poetry," which is, "comparable," to Pablo Picasso 's creation of abstract art and to Arnold Schoenberg 's revolution in

1376-833: A printed design on bunting. Raised for the first time at the Bendlerstraße Building ( Wehrmacht Headquarters) in Berlin on 7 November 1935, it was taken down for the last time by British occupation forces after the arrest of the Dönitz Government at the Naval Academy Mürwik in Flensburg - Mürwik on 23 May 1945. In his book, Inside the Third Reich , Albert Speer states that "in only two other designs did he (Adolf Hitler) execute

1462-518: A survey of their readers by Quick magazine about who would be the most honorable person to become President of the Federal Republic of Germany , the last Kaiser's grandson and heir, Prince Louis Ferdinand , the only one of twelve candidates who was not a politician, won with 39.8% before Carlo Schmid and Ludwig Erhard . In a similar survey by the tabloid Bild , readers chose Louis Ferdinand by 55.6%. In an interview with Quick ,

1548-407: A universe of [the] mind, and the individual scenes are not replicas of three-densional physical reality, but visualizes stages of thought." Tragically and in an added parallel to the many other nations experiencing similar cultural ferment during the same era, many of Germany's most gifted and innovative poets, writers, artists, and intellectuals were soon to die prematurely upon the battlefields of

1634-421: Is a simple, but disorienting trick of stagecraft, whose imaginative spatial reversal is self-consciously theatrical. So the audience is alerted to the fact that they are about to see a play and not a 'slice of life.'" According to Walter H. Sokel, "The lighting apparatus behaves like the mind. It drowns in darkness what it wishes to forget and bathes in light what it wishes to recall. Thus the entire stage becomes

1720-542: Is characterised as Germany's ship of state going dangerously off course, leading directly to the carnage of the First and Second World Wars. According to Bismarck apologists, in foreign policy the Iron Chancellor had achieved a fragile balance of interests between Germany, France and Russia. Peace was allegedly at hand and Bismarck tried to keep it that way despite growing popular sentiment against Britain (regarding

1806-661: Is known that meetings took place in which Prince Heinrich XIII sought the covert assistance of the Russian Federation 's diplomats and foreign intelligence services, the Russian Government has repeatedly denied involvement in the coup plot. While reporting on the arrests for The Spectator , journalist Katja Hoyer commented, "While this kind of extremism is still rare, there has long been residual monarchism in Germany. Around 10 percent of Germans support

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1892-586: The Reichsbürger , 'Citizens of the Reich'; movement, which considers the Federal Republic of Germany to be both illegal and illegitimate, and allegedly anti-Semitic "Patriotic Union" organization. The Patriotic Union, whose members included doctors, police officers, at least one judge, and many active duty German armed forces personnel, sought to violently overthrow the government of

1978-658: The Heer and the Luftwaffe as their war flag, and the Kriegsmarine as its war ensign (the national flag serving as jack). This flag was hoisted daily in barracks operated by units of the Wehrmacht , and it had to be flown from a pole positioned near the barracks entrance, or failing this, near the guard room or staff building. New recruits in the latter part of World War II were sworn in on this flag (one recruit holding

2064-653: The Innenministerkonferenz (the Federal Interior Minister and the state interior ministers) published a decree extending the Bremen style prohibitions of 2020 to all of Germany. The prohibition includes various imperial war flags ( German : Reichskriegsflaggen ), but also the simple black-white-red Imperial flag of 1871–1918 and 1933–1935 when used in a provocative context. This last round of prohibition decrees (since September 2020)

2150-596: The Battle of Verdun in 1916, collected and published the collected works of Hölderlin in 1913 and succeeded in gaining for the Swabian poet in death the literary recognition that always eluded him in life. Norbert von Hellingrath is why Hölderlin is now widely considered one of the greatest poets ever to write in the German language. Jeremy Adler has written that war poet and playwright August Stramm , who began publishing his poetry in early 1914, treated, "language like

2236-689: The German Social Democratic Party continued to expand its base and became the largest political party elected to the Reichstag during the 1912 national elections . Despite the party's stronger influence, internal developments were characterised, similarly to the Labour Party in Great Britain, by an increasing loyalty of the party leadership towards both the Monarchy and the German colonial empire . This attitude

2322-607: The German colonial empire ) and especially against Russia. With Bismarck's dismissal, the Russians allegedly expected a reversal of policy in Berlin, so they quickly negotiated a military alliance with the Third French Republic , beginning a process that by 1914 largely isolated Germany. In contrast, historian Modris Eksteins has argued that Bismarck's dismissal was actually long overdue . According to Eksteins,

2408-481: The Imperial German Flying Corps following the advent of aerial warfare. The most successful World War I flying aces such as Max Immelmann , Oswald Boelcke , Manfred von Richthofen , Werner Voss , and Karl Allmenröder , were regarded as national heroes and, if they fell, as martyrs. Their fellow World War I flying ace Hermann Göring was once similarly regarded, until his heroic image

2494-723: The North German Confederation was founded by Prussia in order to replace the former German Confederation in which Austria had been the dominant power. The new Confederation eventually became the German Empire after the Franco-Prussian War , hence the Imperial German flags date back to the North German Confederation. Because Prussia had emerged as the leading German state and the black-red-golden colour scheme was, at that time, associated with pan-Germanism (a Germany including Austria ) and

2580-523: The Sarmatians . The Roman Vexillum itself is also "flag-like" in the sense that it was suspended from a horizontal crossbar as opposed to a simple flagpole. Use of simple flags as military ensigns becomes common during the medieval period, developing in parallel with heraldry as a complement to the heraldic device shown on shields. The maritime flag also develops in the medieval period. The medieval Japanese Sashimono carried by foot-soldiers are

2666-602: The United Kingdom and the Third French Republic . Meanwhile, European diplomatic relations deteriorated. In 1890, Germany refused to prolong the secret Reinsurance Treaty with the Russian Empire that had concluded by Bismarck in 1887, and Germany had to witness the forming of the Franco-Russian Alliance , which presenting a new threat of a two-front war . The distinctive spiked helmet,

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2752-590: The Conservative Party. In most parliamentary systems , the head of government depends upon the confidence of the parliamentary majority and has the right to form coalitions to maintain a majority of supporters. In a constitutional monarchy , however, the Chancellor is required to meet regularly with the monarch to explain his or her policies and intentions within the Government. A Chancellor in

2838-551: The Day, the guard, and one musician. At the ceremonial raising, one officer, one platoon of soldiers with rifles, the guard, the regimental band, and the corps of drums were all present. The proportions of the flag are 3:5. Fusing elements of the Nazi flag (swastika and red background) with that of the old Imperial Reich war flag (four arms emanating from off-centre circle and Iron Cross in the canton ), these flags were uniformly produced as

2924-869: The Federal Republic and place Prince Henrich XIII of the House of Reuß upon the throne as the new Kaiser of a Fourth Reich. The Patriotic Union intended, however, for the Fourth Reich to be a restoration of the Second Reich as it existed prior to the November Revolution of 1918, rather than as a continuation of the Third Reich . The coup was prevented only by nationwide arrests by the German Federal Criminal Police ( BKA ) , followed by multiple prosecutions. While it

3010-423: The German people or their government were incapable of laughing at their own military or their own actions towards it. On 16 October 1906, former convict Wilhelm Voigt secretly dressed himself in an elite Prussian Guards Captain's uniform, the elements of which he had purchased from different second hand shops. In an Oscar-worthy performance, Voigt bluffed a group of Imperial German Army enlisted men into placing

3096-602: The Great War. The Wilhelmian era ended in the November Revolution of 1918 , which had very close parallels to the February Revolution which had toppled the House of Romanov from the throne of the Russian Empire . First, riots broke out in the Imperial Capital, the last Kaiser announced his intention to divert troops from the battlefield to restore order, and found to his shock that he had lost

3182-437: The Iron Chancellor, in his need for a scapegoat , had demonized Classical Liberals in the 1860s, Roman Catholics in the 1870s, and Socialists in the 1880s with the highly successful and often repeated refrain, "The Reich is in danger." Therefore, in order to divide and rule , Bismarck ultimately left the German people even more divided in 1890 than they had ever been before 1871. In interviews with C.L. Sulzberger for

3268-504: The King or Queen would stop and wait at traffic lights, Louis Ferdinand stated that if the House of Hohenzollern were ever restored to the German throne during his lifetime, this same informality was a quality he fully intended to emulate. Even after German Reunification in 1990, nostalgia continues. For example, the rebuilding of cities in the former East Germany which remained devastated by World War II bombing raids has often involved

3354-520: The Mayor of Köpenick and city treasurer of under arrest for political corruption . Voigt then "confiscated" more that 4,000 marks from the city treasury, changed back into civilian clothing, and disappeared. Following a police and military investigation, Voigt was arrested, convicted of forgery , impersonating an officer , and false imprisonment , and incarcerated. The case was cited by British writers such as G.K. Chesterton to criticize what they saw as

3440-471: The Monarchy's involvement in both foreign and domestic policy. The letter was published only after Bismarck's death. In later years, Bismarck created the "Bismarck myth"; the view (which some historians have argued was confirmed by subsequent events) that Wilhelm II's successful demand for Bismarck's resignation destroyed any chance Imperial Germany ever had of stable government and international peace. According to this view, what Wilhelm termed "The New Course"

3526-648: The Munich-based Der Blaue Reiter ( The Blue Rider ) group. In addition to witnessing the birth of modern art, the same era also witnessed the introduction of the Symbolist movement into German literature and the creation of the modern German literary language by passionately Francophile poet Stefan George and the George-Kreis , the circle of younger poets and writers that surrounded him. Among many other examples of

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3612-580: The Nazi and Confederate "rebel flag" together at white supremacist events are also legally protected free speech in the United States. War flag Sound trumpets! Let our bloody colours wave! And either victory, or else a grave. Field signs were used in early warfare at least since the Bronze Age . The word standard itself is from an Old Frankish term for a field sign (not necessarily

3698-557: The North German merchant ensign. The first German imperial war flag was introduced by imperial law on 12 November 1848. The Regent signed it that day, although the National Assembly had already voted for it on 31 July. The law described the commercial and war flag of the emerging new German federal state. The ' German colours ' – black, red and gold – were so popular from their beginnings on

3784-608: The November Revolution and the Versailles Treaty to be treasonous, routinely targeted political leaders involved with both for assassination. Even when they were caught and prosecuted, Organisation Consul members tended to receive lenient sentences from judges sympathetic to their views. Even after the Second World War , nostalgia for the Wilhelmian era continued. In 1968 Der Spiegel reported that in

3870-736: The United States, conversely, American-founded white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan have used the Reichskriegsfahne side-by-side with the Confederate "battle flag" at their gatherings at times. As the public display of Nazi flags within the United States is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution which guarantees the right to freedom of speech , sights like

3956-409: The Wilhelmian era also seethed with radical innovation, literary, artistic, and cultural ferment inside the literary coffee houses, theatres, and bohemian urban quarters of Berlin, Munich, and many other German cities. Meanwhile, the Dresden -based artist's group Die Brücke ( The Bridge ) was one of two groups of iconoclastic German painters fundamental to expressionism , the other being

4042-473: The all-Catholic Centre Party. He invited that party's leader in the Reichstag, Baron Ludwig von Windthorst , to meet with him and begin the negotiations. The Kaiser, who always had a warm relationship with Baron von Windthorst, whose decades long defence of German Catholics, Poles, Jews, and other minorities against the Iron Chancellor have since attracted high praise and comparisons to Irish nationalist statesmen Daniel O'Connell and Charles Stewart Parnell ,

4128-502: The bird-shit is made of marble", the neo-Baroque statues received Royal Assent in Kaiser Wilhelm's Rinnsteinrede ( German for 'gutter speech'), which was also a very harsh criticism of the recent birth of German modernist art which the last Kaiser considered degenerate art, at the formal unveiling of the Siegesallee on 18 December 1901. Foreign policy was founded on Kaiser Wilhelm's support for both his Government's colonialist ambitions and their efforts to establish Germany as

4214-413: The birth of organized crime in Germany in the form of oath bound secret societies for former convicts called the Ringvereine (Sporting Clubs"). The Ringvereine often carried romantic sounding names such as Immertreu ("Forever True"), Felsenfest ("Firm as a Rock"), Nordpiraten ("Northern Pirates"), and Apachenblut ("Apache Bloods") and completely dominated both racketeering , prostitution , and

4300-436: The black-white-red tricolour flag used between 1871 and 1918–19 can be shown. Its use is considered to be a " breach of the public order " in seven states, and flags could be confiscated. In the other nine states, any provocative misuse of the flag can be prosecuted as an Ordnungswidrigkeit  [ de ] ("act contrary to order", an administrative offence that can be handled without a court process and that carries only

4386-485: The book The Fall of Eagles , Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia , grandson and heir of Kaiser Wilhelm II, further commented, "Bismarck was certainly our greatest statesman, but he had very bad manners and he became increasingly overbearing with age. Frankly, I don't think his dismissal by my grandfather was a great tragedy. Russia was already on the other side because of the Berlin Congress of 1878. Had Bismarck stayed he would not have helped. He already wanted to abolish all

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4472-424: The desire of both the bride and groom to keep things modest and low key, "Germany's own Royal wedding" between Prince George Friedrich of Prussia , the last Kaiser's great-great grandson and heir, and Princess Sophie of Isenburg was televised live and widely covered by the German news media. A less benign form of nostalgia for the Wilhelmian era was on display in the 2022 German coup d'état plot , by members of

4558-420: The enormous prosperity of the heavily-industrialized German Empire, but which was at polar odds with the last Kaiser's belief in both Lutheranism and social conservatism . Even so, Otto von Bismarck's Anti-Socialist Laws were not renewed and the Iron Chancellor's efforts to renew them were the catalyst for his forced resignation at the last Kaiser's insistence. The final break between the Iron Chancellor and

4644-421: The excessive militarism of the Second Reich and the blind obedience and subservience to authority in German culture . In contrast, the German people overwhelmingly found the exploit both clever and hysterically funny. Eventually the last Kaiser, who also admired Voigt's cleverness and boldness, pardoned him and ordered his early release from incarceration. Voigt then spent many years giving public lectures about

4730-493: The exploit to paying audiences and abandoned his former life of crime. Meanwhile, relations with Britain were badly strained by the Scramble for Africa and, even more so, by the Anglo-German naval arms race . Wilhelm's fascination with the Royal Navy , which led him to give his full support to Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz 's ambition to see the Imperial German Navy established as an instrument of national prestige, were still reflected in everyday German culture long after

4816-414: The flag and taking the oath on behalf of the entire recruit class with the recruits looking on as witnesses – before, this was done on the regimental colours). The flag had to be formally hoisted every morning and lowered every evening. These hoisting and lowering ceremonies took the form of either an ordinary or a ceremonial flag parade. At the ordinary raising, the party consisted of the Orderly Officer of

4902-406: The flying aces of the Great War, Richthofen, in particular, is seen as embodying the best traditions of the officer corps of the last Kaiser's Germany. Even though the German people are traditionally stereotyped as law-abiding and subservient to the authority of the police and the courts, this stereotype does not fit the Wilhelmian era. For example, the 1900-1902 manhunt for Mathias Kneißl ,

4988-435: The illegal drug trade of Berlin. As early as 1895, the Ringvereine were having their first "business" dealings with the American Mafia , but their power and political influence only reached its height after the November Revolution of 1918. Only the secret police forces of Nazism and postwar Stalinism , who shot both real and suspected Ringverein members en masse and sent many others to concentration camps without requiring

5074-435: The image presented by Wilhelm II and his demeanour, as manifested by the public presentation of grandiose military parades and self-aggrandisement on his part. The latter tendency had already been noticed by his grandfather, Emperor Wilhelm I , while Wilhelm II's father, later Frederick III , was Crown Prince. Wilhelminism also characterizes the social, literary, artistic, and cultural climate of Wilhelm II's reign, which on

5160-432: The influence of Stefan George, Friedrich Nietzsche , and Richard Dehmel . Sorge's The Beggar was written during the last three months of 1911. According to Michael Paterson, "The play opens with an ingenious inversion: the Poet and Friend converse in front of a closed curtain, behind which voices can be heard. It appears that we, the audience, are backstage and the voices are those of the imagined audience out front. It

5246-427: The last Kaiser believed that he had every right to be informed before Bismarck began coalition talks with the Opposition. In a deeply ironic moment, a mere decade after expelling religious orders , banning Catholic schools , and demonizing all members of the Catholic Church in Germany as ( German : Reichsfeinde , "traitors to the Empire") during the Kulturkampf , Bismarck decided to start coalition talks with

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5332-429: The last Kaiser came when Bismarck initiated discussions with the opposition to form a new parliamentary majority without consulting with the monarch first. The Kartell , the shifting coalition government that Bismarck had been able to maintain since 1867, had finally lost its majority of seats in the Reichstag due to the Anti-Socialist Laws fiasco. The remaining powers in the Reichstag were the Catholic Centre Party and

5418-432: The last Kaiser's home in exile and ultimate burial place, Huis Doorn in the Netherlands, opened its doors as a historic house museum in 1956. It remains an annual site of secular pilgrimage on the anniversary of the last Kaiser's death, which are organized by German monarchist organisations, such as Cologne -based Tradition und Leben , whose members often attend wearing period costumes. In August 2011, despite

5504-416: The late Victorian and Edwardian eras in the British Empire , the Gilded Age in the United States , the Belle Époque in the Third French Republic , and the Silver Age in the Russian Empire . The term "Wilhelminism" ( Wilhelminismus ) is not meant as a conception of society associated with the name Wilhelm and traceable to an intellectual initiative of the German Emperor . Rather, it relates to

5590-424: The new flag to the foreign powers. By May 1850, the flag was recognised by the U.S. , the Netherlands , Belgium , Sardinia , the Ottoman Empire , Portugal , the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies , Spain , Greece , and (conditionally) France . The reestablished German Confederation took over the fleet, but sold it in 1852 and did not make use of the German colours again until the 1860s. The German war flag, which

5676-447: The niceties of evidence, broke the Sporting Clubs' power. In a December 1931 conversation in Frankfurt with journalist Heinrich Simon , Harry Graf Kessler was asked for the reasons why, despite being a descendant of the German nobility , he embraced the concept of Republicanism and opposed the post-1918 restoration of the House of Hohenzollern . According to Count von Kessler, "William II's downright perverse bad taste, I said,

5762-537: The one hand was dominated by the rigidly- conservative opinions of the Prussian Junker aristocracy , those associated with the German Agrarian League , and of the German industrialists, which closely mirrored those of the British upper class during the parallel Victorian era in the British Empire . Ironically, Germany during the Wilhelmian era was, on the other hand, distinguished by escalating secularization and growing belief in progress among intellectuals, in response to recent medical and scientific advances and

5848-401: The ornate Germania postage stamps, numerous government buildings and the Wilhelmine Ring housing areas of Berlin and many other German cities, the term is also used to describe an essentially-Neo-Baroque and prestige-oriented style of architecture. Similarly to the architecture of other European Capitols of the era, the Neo-Baroque was calculated to express Germany's ambitions to become and remain

5934-619: The overthrow of the monarchy in 1918. Until the mid-20th century, young German boys were still dressed in sailor suits to impress them at an early age with the Navy's aura and prestige as the gentlemen's branch of the service. For this reason, the Imperial German Navy's most successful combat commanders of the Great War, such as Maximilian von Spee , Felix von Luckner , Karl von Müller , Hellmuth von Mücke , Otto Hersing , Otto Weddigen , and Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière , became widely revered national icons and, if they fell, martyrs. A very similar national iconization also took place within

6020-423: The period of German history between 1890 and 1918, embracing the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II in the German Empire from the resignation of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck until the end of World War I and Wilhelm's abdication during the November Revolution . It represented an era of creative ferment in the society, politics, culture , art, literature, and architecture of Germany. It also roughly coincided with

6106-434: The power and influence the George-Kreis wielded over Germany cultural and literary life, the scholarly and editorial skills of one member, Norbert von Hellingrath , were singlehandedly responsible for the revival of interest in the German romantic poet Friedrich Hölderlin , who had died unrecognized following decades of incarceration in a tower at Tübingen following a mental breakdown in 1806. Hellingrath, who later fell at

6192-547: The prince indicated that he might accept the presidency but would not relinquish his claim to the Imperial or Prussian crowns. In interviews with C.L. Sulzberger for the book The Fall of Eagles , Prince Louis Ferdinand further expressed a deep sense of admiration for the informal bicycle monarchy and crowned republic style favored and used by the Dutch, Belgian, and Scandinavian royal families. Praising how vehicles carrying

6278-696: The reconstruction of demolished historic buildings from the German Empire or even earlier. East German Premier Walter Ulbricht had ordered the demolition of both the Berlin Imperial Palace and the Garrison Church in Potsdam , sites which were closely associated with the former German Imperial Family and the ideology of the German Empire. Both buildings, however, are now being rebuilt, almost exactly as they were. Moreover,

6364-673: The reforms that had been introduced. He was aspiring to establish a kind of Shogunate and hoped to treat our family in the same way the Japanese shoguns treated the Japanese emperors isolated in Kyoto . My grandfather had no choice but to dismiss him." Subsequent Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow continued to implement legislation at the last Kaiser's insistence that favored industrial worker's rights to organized labor and collective bargaining, while still opposing Marxist ideas. Nevertheless,

6450-520: The revolution of 1848, the Prussian king and President of the North German Confederation, Wilhelm I , insisted on using new flags inspired by Prussia and without the traditional German colours. Therefore, the North German and eventually Imperial German flags prominently featured the Prussian colours (black and white) as well as symbols like the Prussian eagle and the Iron Cross . And while seafaring

6536-500: The same care as he did his Obersalzberg house: that of the Reich war flag and his own standard of Chief of State ." Outside of educational, artistic, or scientific contexts, selling and showing symbols of Nazi Germany, including the Reichskriegsfahne , is illegal in Germany according to Strafgesetzbuch section 86a . This covers the version used after 1935 with the swastika. The punishment can be up to three years in prison. However,

6622-560: The so-called Pickelhaube had existed previously and not only in the German Empire, but it now symbolises Wilhelmian era and the Imperial German Army and Prussian Army -inspired militarism in general. (In fact, various sign languages still have the extended forefinger placed in front of the forehead, indicating the spiked helmet, as the sign for "German".) While men in uniform were still treated with enormous respect in German culture , it should not be pretended that

6708-541: The support of the Generals, who all demanded his immediate abdication. In response to Paul von Hindenburg 's implied threat that the Imperial German Army would not protect the last Kaiser if he faced a similar death to that of his late cousin Tsar Nicholas II , Wilhelm II took Hindenburg's advice and requested political asylum in the neutral Netherlands . Nevertheless, nostalgia for the German Empire and

6794-605: The writing of Classical music . In his 1985 book, The German Poets of the First World War , Patrick Bridgwater dubbed the literary movement inspired by Stramm's poetry, "the German variety of Imagism ." Shortly before the outbreak of war in 1914, T.E. Hulme heard the kind of poetry that Stramm had created and inspired being read aloud at the Cabaret Gnu in Berlin. Hulme later wrote, "Very short sentences are used, sometimes so terse and elliptical as to produce

6880-540: Was condemned as " revisionism " by its opponents, but ultimately culminated in the Burgfrieden policy of agreeing to support the war effort during the patriotic euphoria later dubbed the Spirit of 1914 . These developments, however, were closely mirrored by other Leftist parties in other nations. While "Wilhelmism" is equally applied to the last Kaiser's favored styles in both the visual arts and architecture, such as

6966-460: Was first tarnished and then destroyed completely by his role in later chapters of German history . The gravesites of Oswald Boelcke and Manfred von Richthofen, on the other hand, remain sites of secular pilgrimage for both officers and enlisted men of the 21st century Air Force of the Federal Republic of Germany , which regards both World War I flying aces as their founding fathers. Furthermore, to many people worldwide who both admire and revere

7052-537: Was furious to hear about Bismarck's plans for coalition talks with the Centre Party only after they had already begun. After a heated argument at Bismarck's estate over the latter's alleged disrespect for the Imperial Family, Wilhelm stormed out. Bismarck, forced for the first time in his career into a crisis that he could not twist to his own advantage, wrote a blistering letter of resignation, decrying

7138-409: Was more responsible than anything else. Bad taste in the selection of his friends and advisors; bad taste in art, literature, politics and his style of living; bad taste revealed by every word he uttered... A crowned barbarian who gave the whole German nation a reputation for barbarity ." Despite Count von Kessler's later contempt for the cultural life during the final decades of the German Empire ,

7224-595: Was slightly changed twice during the Wilhelmine Period (see gallery below ), was in common use in World War I . It continued to have Prussia's national colours of black and white, the eagle of Prussia, the Nordic cross , with the German imperial black-white-red tricolour in the upper canton with an Iron Cross. In 1919, the flags of Imperial Germany were scrapped and replaced by those of the Weimar Republic :

7310-605: Was the traditional domain of the Hanse in Germany, virtually all of the 19th century German coastline (including the North Sea coast) and naval power belonged to Prussia after the decisive victory in 1866. Prince Adalbert of Prussia , the commander-in-chief of the North German Navy, was commissioned with the task of designing the new war ensign. Around 1850, he already had designed a number of potential war ensigns for

7396-498: Was triggered by an event on 29 August 2020 when a right-wing demonstration escalated into an attempted storming of the Reichstag building . The majority of the flags shown were variations of the imperial black-white-red. Thomas Strobl , head of the Innenministerkonferenz , was quoted as saying that these flags are the modern ersatz go-to for what would else be swastika flags and should be understood as such. In

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