 Since the mid-19th century, Germany has two competing traditions of national colours, black-red-gold and black-white-red.Black-red-gold were the colours of the 1848 Revolutions, the Weimar Republic of 1919–1933 and the Federal Republic (since 1949).They were also adopted by the German Democratic Republic (1949–1990), albeit, since 1959, with an additional ('socialist') coat of arms.