The Flag Story

I sometimes essay German historical events, and this is one of those.

In the spring of 1926, with the weak marginalized Weimar Republic facing various issues....there's this odd flag episode that occurs, which triggers the resignation of the Chancellor (Luther).

No one really says how this got generated into a five-star mess....but someone spoke up via a Hamburg Senate meeting that various Germans in places of leadership in South America (remember, this is 1926) were still using the old black-white-red flag of the Kaiser's Germany (not the more modern flag).

As if they didn't have enough to worry about, these political folks decided to hype this up.  It is true that these former Germans were reminiscing about the grand old days with the Kaiser, but Germany itself had moved on. 

In first week of May 1926, the Chancellor has a cabinet meeting and they all agree on a rule change for recognition of flags. They wanted to bring the former-Germans and the German republic....into one agreeable position.  The rule change was that the Germans would adapt the second older flag (cancelled out as the Kaiser left) as an official flag. 

Oddly enough....protests started up.  Anti-old flag folks were mostly coming from the SPD, the DDP and the Zentrum political parties.  They wanted the rule to be centered ONLY at embassy locations in European port cities and non-European locations (South America for example). 

All of this argument led to a no-confidence vote in the Reichstag.

Basically, the Chancellor had been pulled into a one-star issue of no importance....yet touted by the news media as an issue (really a fake issue).  All of this arguing....over a flag which had been dumped for at least five years....wasn't helping the republic.

By 12 May, Luther (the Chancellor) had to resign.  This is how Otto Gressler came into office as Chancellor.  That was basically the end of the discussion over the stupid flag episode.

In some ways, this was merely one out of a hundred problems with the Weimar Republic.  They were wasting hours of precious time on stupid topics.  Just another reason why public discontent was brewing and the ease of entry for Hitler in just four years time.