Some flags seen here contain the federal coat of arms and must not be confused with the state flag, which displays the Bundesschild. Flag of unified Germany (1990-present) After the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, many East Germans cut the coat of arms out of their flags, as Hungarians had done in 1956 and as Romanians would soon do during the fall of Ceaușescu.[59] The widespread act of removing the coat of arms from the East German flag implied the plain black-red-gold tricolour as symbol for a united and democratic Germany.