3:5 Flag of the National Socialist German Workers Party (1920–45)
National flag of Germany (1933–45)
3:5 Used jointly with the swastika flag (1933–35), then banned as “reactionary”With the establishment of Nazi regime in Germany on 5 March 1933, the black-red-gold flag was swiftly scrapped: a ruling on 12 March reintroduced the old black-white-red imperial tricolour and established the flag of the Nazi Party as the two legal national flags of Germany.[28] In 1935, one year after the death of Reich President Paul von Hindenburg and Hitler’s self-elevation to the position of Führer, the dual flag arrangement ended with the exclusive use of the Nazi flag as the national flag of Germany,[29] while the old black-white-red flag was banned as “reactionary”.[30]

The design of the Nazi flag was introduced by Hitler as the party flag in the summer of 1920: a flag with a red background, a white disk, and a black swastika in the middle. In addition to the flag forming a link to Imperial Germany via its colour choice, the Nazi flag had additional meaning, according to Hitler in Mein Kampf: white for nationalism, red for socialism, and the swastika to symbolise the Aryan race. Albert Speer stated in his memoirs that “in only two other designs did he (Adolf Hitler) execute the same care as he did his Obersalzberg house: that of the Reich War Flag and his own standard of Chief of State”.[31]

An off-centred disk version of the swastika flag was used as the civil ensign on German-registered civilian ships and was used as the jack on Kriegsmarine (the name of the German Navy, 1933–45) warships.[32] Nazi ensigns had a through and through image, so the “left-facing” and “right-facing” version were each present on one side. The Nazi flag on land was right-facing on both sides while the centred-disk flag was commonly used by civilians and the German armed forces aside from the navy.

From 1933 to at least 1938, before any official swastika flag went into use, it had to take part in a ceremony where it touched the Blutfahne (blood flag), the swastika flag used by Nazi paramilitaries during the failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. This lengthy ceremony took place at every Nuremberg Rally. It is unknown whether this tradition was continued after the last Nuremberg rally in 1938.

At the end of World War II, the first law enacted by the Allied Control Council abolished all Nazi symbols and repealed all relevant laws.[33] The possession of swastika flags is forbidden in many Western countries since then, particularly in Germany.

Portugal (Ronaldo)
Turkey (too easy)
England (biased)
Sweden (don’t fancy Spain losing)