Red-white-red: meaning and history of the Austrian flag

Red-white-red has a long history. The colours go back to the Middle Ages, were for a long time the sign of the Duchy of Austria and only became the flag of the whole state in 1918. Today they are set out in Article 8a of the Federal Constitution. The account below draws mainly on an article by the Ministry of the Interior on the symbols of the Republic.

The Babenberg shield

The colours are derived from the last Babenbergs. The oldest depiction of the Austrian Bindenschild – a white bar on a red field – is on an equestrian seal of Duke Frederick II (“the Quarrelsome”), attached to a charter for Lilienfeld Abbey dated 30 November 1230. The Babenbergs most probably took over the shield from the Counts of Hohenburg-Wildberg, lords of the county of Poigen in the Waldviertel. From the seal of 1230 onwards, the dukes of Austria bore the Bindenschild as their coat of arms.

The colours are first mentioned in 1232: the “Fürstenbuch” of Jans Enikel describes how Frederick II dressed 200 young noblemen in red-white-red for his knighting.

The legend of Acre

Better known than the seal is the legend: Duke Leopold V is said to have fought so fiercely at the siege of Acre in 1191 that his white tunic was soaked red with blood – except for the strip under his sword belt. According to the Ministry of the Interior, this story cannot be verified historically. There is no official interpretation of the colours in Austria.

From duchy to naval flag

As a military banner, red-white-red can be traced several times in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. In the centuries when the Habsburgs were emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, the black-yellow imperial banner largely displaced it. It appeared mainly at homage ceremonies, parades and on triumphal arches.

On 20 March 1786, Emperor Joseph II introduced a red-white-red war, national and naval flag, with the Bindenschild under a crown in the front part of the white stripe. It served as the merchant flag until 1869 and as the war flag until 1918.

1918: the flag of the Republic

On 31 October 1918, before the Republic was proclaimed, the State Council adopted red-white-red as the state colours on the proposal of the later Federal President Wilhelm Miklas. When the Republic was proclaimed outside Parliament on 12 November 1918, red-white-red flags were to be hoisted. Members of the communist “Red Guards”, however, tore out the white middle stripe and hoisted the knotted red cloths.

The flag was laid down in law in the Act on the Form of State of 21 October 1919: the flag of the Republic consists of three horizontal stripes of equal width, the middle one white, the upper and lower ones red.

Corporate state, Nazi era and Second Republic

• 1934–1938: the 1934 constitution recorded the colours red-white-red. A flag act of 1936 gave the Kruckenkreuz flag, with a crutch cross and a green chevron, equal status with the state flag.
• 1938–1945: under Nazi rule the red-white-red flag was banned.
• 1945: the Coat of Arms Act of 1 May 1945 reintroduced red-white-red.
• 1955/1956: after the State Treaty, 26 October was marked as the “Day of the Austrian Flag”; in 1965 it became National Day.
• 1981: an amendment to the Federal Constitution inserted Article 8a, anchoring colours, flag and coat of arms in the constitution.
• 1984: today’s Coat of Arms Act describes flag, service flag, coat of arms and seal and governs their use.

The coat of arms on the service flag

The federal service flag bears the federal coat of arms: under Article 8a(2) B-VG, a free-standing, single-headed black eagle with a red breast shield crossed by a silver bar, a golden mural crown, a golden sickle in its right talon and a golden hammer in its left, and a broken iron chain. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the National Assembly adopted the single-headed eagle on 8 May 1919. Hammer, sickle and mural crown stand for workers, farmers and the middle classes; they have nothing to do with the communist symbol. The broken chain was added in 1945 as a sign of liberation.

The colour red

The Constitution sets no shade. The Austrian Armed Forces’ flag order specifies for its area that the red of the national colours has the characteristic Pantone 186 C.

Risk of confusion

The Ministry of the Interior’s article names three other countries with red-white-red flags: Peru with vertical stripes, Latvia with carmine stripes and a white middle stripe only about half as wide, and Lebanon with a broad white middle stripe and a cedar. The colours of the federal states are described in the guide to the flags of the federal states, the history of flag and pole in the guide to the history of the flagpole.