[2] Shortly after the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor in 1933, this flag was adopted as mandatory for use, while the national one was the black-white-red triband of the German Empire.

The Nazis banned usage of the imperial tricolour, labelling it as "reactionary",[4] and made their party flag the national flag of Germany as a part of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935,[1] which it remained until the end of World War II and the fall of the Third Reich.

The reasons were the same in each case: to improve the appearance ("optical proportions") of the flag when used at sea, and improve the visibility of the important design elements (by eliminating potential reverse-shadowing of the dark swastika on the white circle, especially in bright sun light).

[10] The new flag law, which had been issued as a part of the Nuremberg Laws,[1] was announced at the annual party rally in Nuremberg in 1935,[11] where Hermann Göring claimed the old black-white-red flag, while honoured, was the symbol of a bygone era and under threat of being used by "reactionaries".

[12] Hitler added new symbolism to the colours, stating that "[t]he red expressed the social thought underlying the movement.

White the national thought", and that the black swastika was an emblem of the "Aryan race" and "the ideal of creative work which is in itself and always will be anti-Semitic.

Today, the Nazi swastika flag remains in common use by neo-Nazi supporters and sympathisers outside Germany, whilst in Germany neo-Nazis use the homeland's flag of 1933–1935 instead, since the above-mentioned ban on all Nazi symbolism (e.g. the swastika, the Schutzstaffel's (SS) double sig rune, etc.)