FG-032 – German Empire Flag (Wool, ca. 1890–1915)
Flag ID: FG-032 This investigation focuses on determining the approximate production period of a German Empire tricolour through textile, construction, and material analysis. Dimensions: Approx. 150 × 250 cm (3:5 ratio)
The flag is constructed from three stitched wool panels in black, white, and red.
The wool is coarse and tightly woven, showing moderate irregularity in fibre thickness
under magnification—typical of late 19th- to early 20th-century wool bunting rather
than later, smoother mid-century textiles. The top and bottom edges follow the original
woven selvedge and are finished with a single line of machine stitching, with no added
binding tape or zig-zag reinforcement.
The hoist uses a strip of unbleached cotton tape as the outer binding. The magnified
detail shown below (location marked on the main image) reveals the characteristic
coarse cotton weave: irregular thread thickness, slight twist in individual fibres, and a
non-uniform weave density. These features align with early 20th-century cotton tape
rather than later industrial cotton bindings. A faint hand-written size marking
“150–250” appears near the upper part of the hoist.
Stitching along the colour joins is single-line, straight-feed machine sewing in white
cotton thread. The seam shows slight variation in stitch length and feed regularity
over longer runs, a feature typical of early industrial lockstitch machines rather than
later, fully standardised mass-production units. Microscopic inspection of the thread
(see close-up below) confirms untreated cotton filament with loose, irregular twist and
minor fibre-width variation, fully consistent with pre-synthetic sewing practices used
on civilian and paramilitary flags from the early 20th century.
The flag measures approximately 150 × 250 cm, yielding a 3:5 ratio typical for
civil or institutional display flags of the Imperial period. Surviving German merchant
and service flags from the late 19th and early 20th century show near-identical
proportions, but the ratio alone is not diagnostic for dating.
A faint pencil notation reading “150–250” appears inside the hoist. This is
almost certainly a workshop handling mark rather than an official maker’s
notation: it is inconsistent, unaligned, and lacks the ink, stamps, or printed labels
used by major German textile suppliers after 1890. No factory stamp, woven tag, or
procurement marking is present anywhere on the flag.
Interpretation note: Pencil size markings of this kind occur across a broad
range of German civil and institutional flags from roughly 1890–1915. They are
non-diagnostic and provide no reliable dating on their own. Their presence here
simply indicates small-batch or regional production, not naval manufacture, and does not
exclude either a late-19th-century or early-20th-century origin. Any stronger conclusion
would be speculative.
Close examination confirms the hoist rope is made from unbleached hemp, constructed as a
three-strand S-twist cord. The fibres show coarse splits, irregular thickness, and
vegetal inclusions typical of mechanically processed hemp. The overall greyed, matte surface
reflects prolonged outdoor exposure rather than post-war storage. The material behaviour and
twist geometry match natural-fibre hoist and bolt ropes documented on late 19th–early
20th-century German maritime flags, where twisted hemp remained standard before braided cordage
became common.
At the frayed termination, individual strands separate into uneven fibre bundles with
longitudinal splitting and embedded plant material. These characteristics align with
hand-laid or early industrial hemp cordage rather than later, highly uniform braided halyard
rope. Comparable fibre texture and strand separation are recorded on early merchant-service
ensigns (c. 1905–1916), providing an upper bound for when this construction type was still in
widespread use.
This is the first example in the FlagGeek archive with a sewn-in, twisted
three-strand hemp rope. Previously documented Weimar- and Nazi-period flags in the archive
use braided hemp halyards or cotton/linen webbing with metal eyelets; none show this
earlier twisted rope construction. The present rope type therefore stands apart from
mainstream 20th-century production.
Several external museum collections also show historical flags fitted with twisted hemp
cordage. The catalogue years are not reliable production dates, but the photographs clearly
document twisted hemp rope identical in structure to the present example. Representative items:
These external references confirm that twisted hemp cordage remained in use on German and
German-related maritime flags well into the early 20th century. Combined with the flag’s
wool bunting and construction traits, a production window from the late 19th to early
20th century remains the most plausible scenario.
In combination, the observed features — coarse wool bunting, straight-feed machine stitching
without zig-zag reinforcement, a sewn-in three-strand hemp rope inside a cotton hoist, and a
hand-written size notation — are all consistent with German Imperial-period manufacture
before the widespread changes in materials and hoist hardware seen after 1918.
Comparative reference to documented German ensigns with similar wool and hoist constructions
in museum collections, captured in the early 20th century, suggests that this type of flag was
in active use up to and including the First World War. The absence of later Weimar- or
Nazi-style hoist details in FG-032 supports a production date firmly within the Imperial era.
Estimated production window: ca. 1890–1915.
Note: braided hemp ropes are documented on both pre-1903 and 1903-pattern German flags, so
braiding alone does not indicate a post-Imperial date. By contrast, twisted
three-strand or four-strand hemp ropes — as seen here and in the referenced examples — are
well documented on Imperial-period flags but are not observed on German flags after 1919.
This makes the present hoist construction a supportive (but not standalone) indicator of
Imperial-era manufacture.
© 2025 FlagGeek / Kenny Ytrup – Licensed under
CC BY-NC 4.0
.
Research Aim and Reference Criteria
Material and Construction
Stitching and Sewing Characteristics
Dimensions, Proportion, and Markings
Hoist Rope Analysis
Additional Reference: Pre-1903 Twisted Hemp Rope
Provided through a private collection (courtesy of a friend).
Summary and Dating
On balance of construction, materials, and hoist rope type, a production date
around 1900 appears most likely, for civilian or institutional use under the Imperial tricolour.
Additional Images
Sources and References
Non-commercial sharing with attribution permitted. Commercial use requires permission.
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