A few people on here have reacted with shock that Jamie didn't know that. Everywhere I've ever seen the German flag it just features the three blank fields. So, is it really so bad not to know the federal flag features an eagle?

If you're speculating about embassies and foreign travel then the presence of that particular eagle on that background in that context isn't much of an imaginative leap. Unless you're thick. Like Chris and Jamie.

Many countries have more than one flag.
The German flag we usually see is their national flag with the triple bars minus the (federal) eagle emblem.

I laughed out loud when Jamie made that thick statement. He and the others seem to be building a record for similar thick statements this series.

I didn't know about the e-a-g-l-e on the flag and I have german in-laws

Do/did you also have a German husband?

It is true that most German flags do not have the eagle on it, as the eagle is more of an emblem for the country (just like the 3 lions are for England).

So, I'm thick then?

I don't understand what you mean. Can you rephrase it?

So surely it's not that big a deal not to know all the forms of the German flag?

They had been told they were going abroad. They were in the neighbourhood of loads of embassies. They saw a flag with the German colours with the German eagle motif. What other flag could it be? What other flag could it POSSIBLY be?

I take your point on the colours, but the German eagle thing? I guess this makes me thick but I didn't know of the Germany eagle motif.

Maybe it's a generational thing. I'm 55 - born 10 years after the war finished - and images of the eagle in war films etc were very common. Perhaps that explains it.

To me that eagle just shrieks Germany as much as a swastika.

Yeah, maybe. I'm 26, and not a history buff.

The difference is that the version with eagle represents the Federal German government, the one without represents the country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of...overnment_flag

Some countries just have a different version of their flag which can only be used by government.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governm...overnment_flag

The UK government doesn't have a separate flag but it does have a coat of arms (the lion and unicorn with "Dieu et mon Droit" motto as seen on your passport). The Queen does have her own flag - the Royal Standard.

I don't think you're thick at all parthy. I didn't know either.

Trouble is, a lot of the keyboard warriors here just pretend to know stuff so they can appear all high and mighty!

Secretly, they probably saw the flag, didn't know about the variant flag and kept schtum, then quickly googled it to get some information so they could call people who didn't know thick

I can do it too... Did you know the variant Thai flag has an elephant? See, how many do you think would know that without google (I didn't)? I'd think it was intelligent for someone to know other countries flags full stop, let alone all the variant ones. It's hardly something anyone is taught or even expected to know.

I didn't know that the German Government flag had the old eagle on it either. Though I'd recognise the colours and that single headed eagle. Might wonder when Germany changed their flag though. That must be the only version of that flag flying in the UK, unless they've some other consulates here.

How many people in the UK can recognise the flags of the Baltic, Balkan or East European states though? Like Moldova (only now that I've looked at it!)

Oh no, I wasn't directing my comment at you. It was the more way Jamie said it that made him sound stupid. A bit like his comment about the North.

I guess not everyone knows what the german national emblem is. It's bascally the Federal Eagle, which is based on the Eagle from the old Weimar republic. The Eagle is the traditional national symbol of Germany.

Just for the sake of being a nit-picking keyboard warrior, that's not being intelligent, it's being knowledgeable.

Knowledge opens up new pathways of cognition and as such, is a form of intelligence.

Good point, i'm sure a lot of people are surprised when they see the 3 lions on the flag, not knowing what it is. People that don't live in this country that is. Can happen to anyone.

The application of knowledge is a form of intelligence. Knowledge itself is not. Knowledge only opens up new pathways of cognition if you cogitate on that knowledge.

I don't agree, I think it opens up entire new pathways of cognition and memory, that would otherwise have not existed.

Even if you weren't familiar with the icon, surely you'd realise that "a German flag with an eagle on it" flying in front of an embassy probably is a German flag? He probably did, I suppose, it was just the way he said it that made it amusing.

It's not the same as an elephant on a Thai flag, by the way. Germany is a European nation with whom we share a mountain of history. It's completely different.

It is surprising to me that the eagle (well, that particular graphic design) isn't instantly recognisable as uniquely German. Maybe I've just had to sit through too many WWII films.