Information about National Symbol: Federal Eagle of Germany

The Federal Republic of Germany adopted the Weimar eagle as its symbol on 20 January 1950. Since then it has been known as the Bundesadler (Federal Eagle). The legal basis of the use of this coat of arms is the announcement by President Theodor Heuss, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Interior Minister Gustav Heinemann of 20 January 1950, which is word for word identical to the announcement by President Friedrich Ebert and Interior Minister Erich Koch-Weser by 11 November 1919, modified only slightly to replace "imperial eagle" with "federal eagle" and "imperial coat of arms" with "federal coat of arms":

"By reason of a decision of the Federal Government I hereby announce that the Federal coat of arms on a gold-yellow shield shows the one headed black eagle, the head turned to the right, the wings open but with closed feathering, beak, tongue and claws of red colour. If the Federal Eagle is shown without a frame, the same charge and colours as those of the eagle of the Federal coat of arms are to be used, but the tops of the feathers are directed outside. The patterns kept by the Federal Ministry of the Interior are definitive for the heraldic design. The artistic design is reserved to each special purpose."

As was the case in the Weimar Republic, minor artistic modifications were allowed for particular purposes. The directives issued by the Federal Minister of the Interior in 1950, which distinguish between "documentary" and "decorative" purposes, note that any person is entitled to use the federal eagle for artistic purposes.

Thus, the federal eagle is portrayed differently on coins, stamps and letterheads, for example. In 1953, the artist Ludwig Gies, from Cologne, was commissioned by the German Bundestag to design a Bundestag eagle for its plenary chamber in Bonn. Today, the eagle designed by Gies can still be seen in the Bundestag's plenary chamber in the Reichstag Building in Berlin, though it was revamped in 1999 by the Lais studio.

Official depictions of the federal eagle can be seen on the federal coat of arms, the Federal Institutions Flag, along with the standards of the Federal President and official stamps and seals.

In the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the eagle was not part of the state coat of arms. The GDR's coat of arms was defined as "a hammer and compasses, framed by a wreath of grain ears, with a ribbon of black, red and gold wound around the bottom section".

Since reunification in 1990, the federal eagle has once again been the emblem of the whole of Germany.

Federal Eagle of Germany on 2 DM Coin

Germany / Two Marks 1981 Kurt Schumacher

The Federal Eagle is seen here on a copper-nickel 2 Deutsche Mark coin.