Last modified: 2012-09-15 by pete loeser
Keywords: german colonial society | political parties | germany | weimar |
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Image by Jens Pattke, 29 July 2012
This flag is the flag of the German Colonial Society (Deutsche Kolonial-Gesellschaft). The German Colonial Society (DKG) formed on 19 December 1887 through the merger of the German Colonial Society (Deutscher Kolonialverein; est. 1882) and the Society for German Colonization (Gesellschaft für Deutsche Kolonialisation [=Ansiedlung]; est. 1884), with headquarters in Berlin.
Subdivisions of the DKG were the Colonial Economic Committee (Kolonialwirtschaftliche Komitee; est.1896), the main association of German naval associations abroad (Hauptverband deutscher Flottenvereine im Ausland; est.1898) and the Women's Association of the German Colonial Society (Frauenbund der deutschen Kolonialgesellschaft; est. 1907).
In the context of Nazi indoctrination, the DKG 1936 integrated with their collections, institutions and members in the Reich Colonial League (Reichskolonialbund). This was dissolved in 1943 from war-economic reasons.
The flag (after 1920) was based on the flag of the German East Africa Company. On a white cloth, a black cross is placed. In the red canton five white four-pointed stars, which are arranged as a constellation of the Southern Cross. On the black cross is placed the DKG-socity logo, which shows a palm tree with the initials "DKG". The DKG-logo resembles the badge of the former German colony of Togoland.
Jens Pattke, 29 July 2012
Image by Pete Loeser, 10 August 2012
Another variation of the DKG flag was used later (c1939) which had no logo and the red canton had five four-pointed stars. One very questionable explanation for the use of the four-pointed star was that they were chosen in order to distinguish them from the five-pointed star of communism and the six-pointed Magen David star.
Pete Loeser, 10 August 2012