![[National Socialist German Worker's Party (Germany)]](../images/d/de-1933.gif)
3:5 Image by António Martins and Mark Sensen
Last modified: 2022-07-22 by pete loeser
Keywords: nationalsozialistische deutsche arbeiterpartei | nsdap | nazi | swastika |
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3:5 Image by António Martins and Mark Sensen
Almost all the details of this set of flags are from the 1943 Organisationsbuch der NSDAP (NSDAP Organisation Book), published by the Reichsorganisationsleiter der NSDAP, and "not to be sold in the book trade." I suspect not many copies are around (I picked mine up at the Nazi party headquarters in Munich early in May 1945). Pia 1971
reprinted the color illustrations and Imperial Publications reprinted all of the illustrations in black and white in The NSDAP in 1990. Also helpful is Brian Davis, Badges of the Third Reich 1933-1945, Blandford Press 1985.
Norman Martin, Feb 1998
Norman Martin mentioned an interesting colour classification [Gau: bright red (Hellrot) with dark red (Dunkelrot) border]. According to it, what was the colour of the main field of Nazi flags - bright red or dark red?
António Martins, 10 Jun 2000
Certainly not dark red. The text of the Organisationsbuch distinguishes red, bright red and dark red. Dark red is clearly darker. Bright red and red are not far apart, but bright red seems a bit yellower to me. In any event the Organisationsbuch calls the color of the main field simply
red.
Norman Martin, 11 Jun 2000
![[Old Guard of the NSDAP (Germany)]](../images/d/de_nsdap.gif)
6:7 Image by Jaume Ollé
A red flag, in the center the golden Party Membership Insignia (Goldenes Ehrenzeichen) which consists of a black swastika in a white circular disk surrounded by a dark red ring with the inscription National-Sozialistische D.A.P. in white, surrounded by a gold wreath. Ratio 6:7. Surrounded by a gold fringe (except at hoist).
Norman Martin, Feb 1998
![[Altdorf Local Group (NSDAP, Germany)]](../images/d/de_orst.gif)
6:7 Image by Jaume Ollé
Altdorf Local Group / Ortsgruppe Altdorf
A Swastika flag with a small rectangle (bright red for a Gau, rust brown for a Kreis, light brown for an Ortsgruppe) in the canton. Ratio 6:7. Surrounded by a silver fringe (except at hoist).
Norman Martin, Feb 1998
However, both the Organisationsbuch illustrations in Pia 1971 and very similar illustrations in Lilliane and Fred Funcken's Arms and Uniforms of the Second World War, volume 1, show the flag canton rectangles being:
According to the Organisationsbuch der NSDAP 1943 edition, p. 35, we have: "...the rectangles are (on a 90 x 120 cm. flag) 16 x 21 with 1 cm borders, positioned 5 cm from edge, with colors:
However the illustration (Tafel 2, following p. 38) shows the border on the Ortsgruppe as definitely light blue, rather than light brown. In addition, the main body of the rectangle on the Kreis looks to me to be a very dark gray (so to speak, black but not as black as the swastika - under magnification there are a substantial number of white dots). There is no explanation in the text as to the difference. Ordinarily, one would regard the text as more decisive. I have no information as to adoption date or earlier versions except that very early party flags appear to lack the rectangles (these are from photos and may not be intended to be Hoheitsfahnen.)
Additional information. From the Organisationsbuch 1943 and a fine book, Lt. Col. John R. Angolia, Cloth Insignia of the NSDAP and SA, Bender Publishing, San Jose, California, 1985, 336 pp., I discover that from 1934 on, the NSDAP had a set of standard colors for a variety of purposes, as follows:
[Editor's note: See also the Discussion about the Gaue flags or banners on the Regions of the NSDAP 1935-1945 (Germany) page]
