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
Flag of the Habsburg Monarchy Flag of the Habsburg Monarchy Since the days of Rudolph of Habsburg and the 1283 Treaty of Rheinfelden, the combination of red-white-red was widely considered to be the Austrian (later also Inner Austrian) colours used by the ruling Habsburg dynasty. However, the "national flag" (in a modern sense) of the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy, like the later Austrian Empire and the Cisleithanian part of Austria-Hungary until 1918, was black-yellow. These were the family colours of the Imperial House of Habsburg, and were themselves in part derived from the banner of the Holy Roman Empire. Beginning in the reign of Emperor Joseph