Originally Posted by Psychosis:
“Just asked a German friend of mine, who's German all through and lived there her whole life, and she had to wiki it. She'd never heard of an eagle being used on the German flag.”
I studied German for six years, got a B at A-Level in it, and I'd never seen the version with the eagle on it, either. Not quite the same, but I've studied the country fairly intensely and the eagle was never relevant.
I'm pretty sure it's a generational thing. We've had a chequered history with Germany, sure, but no animosity in a long, long time. I recognised the eagle as being vaguely teutonic, but it could just as easily have been part and parcel of a bulgarian flag. A lot of flags share similar colours and structures, it's far from self-explanatory that the eagle-based one is a German one.
I'd absolutely consider someone knowledgable for recognising it, but I wouldn't consider anyone ignorant for being befuddled. I'm a competent(ish!) German speaker, I didn't know about it, and I'm not ashamed in the slightest.
