The red, white and black colors of the German flag were adopted sometime in the year 1867 by the members of the Northern German Union. There are a couple of theories claiming the exact origins of the flags colors. The first of these theories is that the colors of the German flag originated from the uniforms worn by the Lutzox Free Corps which was mainly made up of university students. The Lutzox Free Corps formation came about around the ending of the fight against the Napoleonic occupation of a large portion of Germany. The other theory states that the flags colors came from the colors from the Holy Roman Empire's coat of arms.

The debate over the true origin of the colors on the German flag raged for years causing numerous political debates. Whichever the true reason these colors were more officially adopted by the people of Germany in the beginning of the nineteenth century during the era of the German Confederation. Many more liberal movements in Germany at the time were pushing for the country to become freer in terms of political freedoms. The German parliaments meetings in March of 1848 were when the colors black, red and gold were named the official federal colors of the German flag.

When the Nazi movement came into a power position in 1933 the black, red and gold colors were removed entirely from the use of the German people. All versions of the German flag were soon replaced by the Nazi's with different forms of the swastika symbol which was the symbol of their political party. After the Nazi's were removed from power in the Second World War the black, red and gold German flag was once again adopted, this time by the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. During the same time a communist symbol was adopted by the eastern regions of Germany until the country came together under one German flag in 1990.