A flag is a piece of cloth that is attached to a stick. Its color and design are intended to serve as a symbol for a certain thing or a certain community of people. The word "flag" goes back to the Gothic "fana", Old High German "fano", which means "cloth". The flag is usually carried or put up.
In contrast, the flag, which serves the same purpose, is hoisted by means of a line or attached to a wall as a flag cloth. While the flag (the flag cloth) is replaceable "consumable material", the flag (the flag sheet) is not renewed, but kept in its original form for as long as possible, as it represents a symbol in its entirety. For details on the correct use of the flag and banner, see the Austrian flag and banner regulations.
The history of the flag goes way back into prehistoric times. It is likely that animal skins were first attached to poles to make visible signs from afar.
Even the ancient civilized peoples of Asia had various field signs made of wood, metal, leather or other materials. They symbolized the deities worshipped by their bearers, who were supposed to provide protection and confer victory.
The Bible refers to "field signs" in a rather vague way. Warlike conflicts in desert regions require signs that can be recognized from afar - so what could be more obvious than a piece of cloth flapping in the wind? Psalm 20:6 ("Then let us rejoice in your victory, let us lift up the banner in the name of our God") indicates that the Jews were familiar with the use of banners and flags.
The earliest forms of flags were poles with various symbols at the top. The best known of these are the Roman signa. For the soldiers, who were often stationed thousands of miles away from Rome, they were "portable gods" and thus the object of sacred acts.
Originally, each maniple (120 or 60 soldiers) had its own field sign, which the "signifer" wore and with which he visually passed on the orders of his centurion. In addition, there were the so-called "palladia", cult symbols such as the eagle, minotaur, horse, boar and wolf, which were protected by special guards. It was not uncommon for a Roman commander to have his unit's emblem hurled into the enemy's ranks to spur on his own fighters to recapture it.
In 104 BC, Marius ordered the legion to use the eagle(aquila) as its sole symbol in addition to the tactical insignia of the maniplets and cohorts. This first troop flag therefore no longer served tactical purposes, but was a sacred symbol of the legion. The Roman eagle was always depicted in its characteristic form, ready for flight. It was about the size of a pigeon, made of silver or bronze and was intended to "fly ahead" of its legion as a lucky charm.
A piece of cloth on a horizontal bar was subsequently added to the legionary eagle at the top of the pole - the vexillum (banner), from which the science of flags (vexillology) takes its name.
Before or during the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 AD, the chi-rho symbol is said to have appeared to Emperor Constantine the Great (307-337) with the promise that he would be victorious under this symbol. Constantine attached the Chi-Rho to the labarum, the flag of the commander-in-chief, and defeated his rival Maxentius. The Christ monogram then spread throughout the Roman Empire. The opponents of the Romans in the north, the Germanic tribes, also already knew field signs; however, they were not used for tactical signaling purposes, but only in a cultic function. The symbols of the ancient Germanic deities - such as Wotan's spear or Ziu's sword - were brought out of the sacred groves at the outbreak of war to cheer the men on to the highest bravery in battle.
We probably owe the actual flag as we know it today - a cloth attached to the side of a rather unadorned stick - to the Chinese. It can be assumed that painted silk flags were already being used for military and ritual purposes in China around 3000 BC. Silk (and the flags made from it) arrived in the West from the Orient during the Crusades.
The main supporters of the crusades were the orders of knights. They also carried coats of arms and flags. 1188, the year before the Third Crusade, is regarded as the year in which modern national flags were created: In order to distinguish not only individuals but also national army units, it was agreed among the crusaders to adopt different colors.
The first modern form of flag to emerge in the West was the "gonfanon" (Ital. guntfano, war flag), a long, usually multi-lobed cloth that was attached to a lance.
From around 1200, the imperial eagle was used in the imperial flag, black on a yellow background, after it had found its way into the coats of arms of important imperial princes.
When the "foot soldiers" of the mercenaries replaced the armies of knights, the banner, which was difficult to manipulate, became the more manageable flag - initially still often called "the fan". This was soon joined by the standard, which was preferred by the cavalry for practical reasons (from "Standhart", i.e. the flag rammed into the ground). The standard is smaller than the normal troop flag, its square sheet usually measuring 50 x 50 cm, while the even lighter dragoon flag is divided into two points. The vexillum has survived to the present day as a church flag.
The colors red-white-red go back to an initiative of Frederick II the Quarrelsome (1210-1246). This last duke from the Babenberg line decided to adopt a new coat of arms around 1230 to emphasize his country's independence from the empire. He chose the red-white-red banded shield.
The oldest known depiction of an Austrian flag can be found on the equestrian seal from 1254, on which Count Otto von Plain und Hardeck refers to himself as "Signifer Austriae". This is an equestrian flag with an elongated, detachable red-white-red flag leaf. On the basis of the old Babenberg colors, Joseph II introduced the red-white-red naval flag with a crowned shield in 1786, which was in use until 1918 and is the "mother" of the republican federal service flag. During the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, troop flags bore the double-headed eagle on the front and often an image of the Madonna on the back. A flag like this is still carried in front of the guard regiment today.
The traditional military flags are an expression of the intention to emulate the fighting spirit of earlier military units and to continue their solidarity with the ruling house or nation. To this day, recruits to the Austrian Armed Forces take their oath on the troop flags. Association flags express the will of the members to uphold the founding idea and original purpose of the association and to continue the community - often over generations: just think of the Kameradschaftsbund, the student fraternities or traditional workers' associations.
When the Austrian Republic was proclaimed, an unprecedented incident occurred on the parliamentary ramp on November 12, 1918: where red-white-red flags should have been ceremonially raised, knotted red flag cloths rose up. Red Guards had torn out the white central stripe and hoisted only the red cloth: in the first minute of its existence, the Republic of Austria was already experiencing a crisis of its national symbolism. The incident was just as typical of Austria's lack of national identity, which declared itself a part of the German Republic as "German Austria" in the provisional constitution of October 30, 1918. After the painful periods of the interwar period, National Socialism and the Second World War, the red-white-red colors were hoisted again for the first time in mid-April 1945 as a sign of Austria's national independence. With full independence sealed by the State Treaty of 1955, Austria grew ever more into a self-confident nation.
