11

In the poster below (dated around 1960), I can identify all flags except the very first one. It is a tricolor flag with vertical stripes, being black, red and yellow/gold from left to right. Essentially a rotated German flag, or a Belgian flag with the red and yellow bands swapped. Which country/nation/... does this flag represent?

Poster of the 1st European Jazz Festival

A table containing the countries corresponding to the flags in the poster:
??? France
Switzerland Italy Sweden (West-?)Germany United Kingdom Austria Czechoslovakia USSR Belgium Norway Spain
Yugoslavia Poland Hungary Netherlands

From the context, this flag is very likely to represent a European country. I did a bit of "research", and came up with the following guesses:

  • It could just be a mistake.
  • It could represent East Germany. The German flag as seen in the second row was originally the official flag of both West and East Germany. However, on 1 Oct 1959, the East German flag was changed to incorporate a coat of arms. Apparently this new flag was considered offensive in West Germany (and even banned), so perhaps the flag on the poster is deliberately not the actual East German flag?

I also found some nations that used this flag historically, but are rather certainly unrelated:

Improve this question
6
  • 6
    It's also curious that the poster says "15 countries" but there's 17 flags.
    – Carlos Martin
    Commented Oct 21 at 22:32
  • Seems very likely to be a mistake, but I doubt there are any historical sources to confirm this.
    – Brian Z
    Commented Oct 21 at 23:09
  • 1
    Countries missing from the flag poster, possibly because they weren't in the festival include Iceland, Finland, Ireland, Denmark, Portugal, Andorra,, Monaco, Leichtenstein, Luxembourg, San Marino, the Vatican City, Malta, Albania, Greece, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Turkey. None seems like a likely candidate.
    – MAGolding
    Commented Oct 22 at 0:40
  • 1
    @CarlosMartin Probably due to the fact that until 1973, the Allies didn't recognize East Germany as being an independent country and the Soviets likewise didn't recognize West Germany until 1970.
    – user71659
    Commented Oct 22 at 21:39
  • 1
    @user71659 Still, it would be 2 flags representing 1 country (Germany), not 17 flags for 15 countries. And to make it funnier, USA was invited to the festival as the 'birthplace' of jazz!
    – Carlos Martin
    Commented Oct 23 at 7:43

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
4

This flag looks the as same as one which, according to Wikipedia, was proposed for Germany after the Second World War. Proposed flags for postwar Germany

This flag is of course the Weimar flag, which was ultimately readopted for modern-day Germany, but flipped on its side. This claim is referenced to a website called crwflags.

The site credits the proposed flag to a historian called Paul Wentzcke. Neither the site nor the Wikipedia articles derived from it say why he favoured this flag, or give any other source supporting this claim. However, the German Wikipedia biography does mention that Wentztcke wrote a book in 1955 entitled Die deutschen Farben. Ihre Entwicklung und Deutung sowie ihre Stellung in der deutschen Geschichte Translation - The German colours. Their development and interpretation as well as their position in German history.

The article says that Wentzcke was 'anti-republican' as well as anti-socialist and anti-union. It further suggests that, although a right wing German nationalist who looked favourably upon the Nazis, he was not a party member and was therefore viewed by them with suspicion.

It's all the more puzzling that he should propose a flag so similar to the Weimar flag. It's possible that moving the Weimar flag sideways was intended to ridicule it - as people sometimes do by turning flags or other symbols upside down. Or maybe after Germany's defeat he had a change of political perspective and looked on Weimar more favourably.

Despite the Web 1.0 look crwflags seems to be actively updated as of 2024, so you may be able to get some info from whoever runs the site.

However, if this is indeed where the artist got the flag from, I can't fathom why they included it to advertise a jazz festival. There doesn't seem to be any connection with East Germany. If it was a cryptonazi subversion of Germany's current flag, a festival of music invented by black people is the last possible place I would expect to see it.

Improve this answer
2
  • The same artist, Gérard Jourdan, made the poster for the 2nd Antibes Jazz festival 1961, and from the coloring of the globe, he seems not in the least to be interested in political details. If at all, a dove of peace was at the time more a symbol used by left-wing and pro-Eastern Bloc activists.
    – ccprog
    Commented Oct 22 at 15:55
  • 1
    I agree that a mistake is the most likely explanation
    – Ne Mo
    Commented Oct 22 at 19:36
0

It doesn't represent any state. There was no country in the world that used this flag between 1950 and 1960, though I didn't look any earlier.

I had a look at the flags on Flaglog.com, which gives flags by year. The closest two were the flag of Cameroon, which adopted its flag in 1957, but is Green, Red, Yellow in vertical stripes:

Cameroon flag

And that of Afghanistan, which is Black, Red, Green in vertical stripes, with a national emblem over the top, which apparently has changed over the years in exact content. Something similar to this, which is the 1931-1973 flag I believe:

Afghanistan flag

Neither of these flags are something that I think could get mixed up with Black, Red, Yellow. In addition, all the other flags on the poster are for countries that are in greater Europe, so it would seem strange to include one and only one from, at the time, relatively obscure countries in Africa or South Asia, especially to a festival called European Jazz Festival.

Having said that, Cameroon gained independence from France in 1960 and from Britain in 1961, becoming one country, so perhaps Cameroon was more topical in France in 1960 than I think.

I also looked at the flags of the locations mentioned at the top of the poster. These are all in the Alpes-Maritimes Department of France. The flag of the Alpes Maritimes is not relevant, as it is blue with "Départment Des Alpes Maritimes" written on it and a logo. The region containing Antibes, Cap d'Antibes + Cap Ferrat (Le Cap) and Juan Les Pins has a flag which is white and blue with a blue shield with fleur de lis on it, so also not relevant.

Improve this answer
0

Considering the range of countries, it is possible one is meant to be Romania and the other Belgium but they have done it backwards in one case and used a near black blue ink for Romania.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please edit to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.
    – Community Bot
    Commented Oct 31 at 19:39

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.