Flag of Germany 3:5 figure. In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte declared the First French Empire. In response to this, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II of the Habsburg dynasty declared his personal domain to be the Austrian Empire and became Francis I of Austria. Taking the colours of the banner of the Holy Roman Emperor, the flag of the Austrian Empire was black and gold. Francis II was the last Holy Roman Emperor, with Napoleon forcing the empire's dissolution in 1806. After this point, these colours continued to be used as the flag of Austria until 1918. The colours red and white were also significant
National colours of Germany green and yellow and dancing pleasure, or the flag of Mecklenburg-Strelitz...") made no objections. From the 1871 German unification until 1918, black, white, and red were widely accepted as the national colours of the German Empire, though they were not officially adopted as the imperial flag by law before 1892. Numerous German associations embraced the patriotic tricolour, and sports organisations that were founded prior to World War I often choose white with additional black and/or red as their colours. In the German Revolution of 1918–19, the "imperialist" black, white, and red were abandoned in favour of the "democratic" black, red,