One month ahead of Germany's national holiday on October 3, which marks the anniversary of reunification, the country has launched a debate over the symbols of its flag and national anthem. The debate was sparked by Bodo Ramelow, a prominent figure in the left-wing Die Linke party, vice president of the Bundestag and former minister-president of Thuringia, a state in the former East Germany, who questioned the relevance of these two emblems.

In an interview with the Rhenische Post published on August 29, Ramelow called for the national anthem to be replaced by a poem by Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) and for the German flag to be changed. His argument: these symbols still do not have unanimous support in eastern Germany.

While these two symbols rarely provoke debate in German society, both the far left and the far right regularly challenge them, questioning the national identity against a backdrop of East-West division. The origins of the colors of the German flag – black, red, and gold – are not clearly identifiable historically, but today they are associated with democratic values, especially since the flag was brandished by East German protesters as a symbol of freedom before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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