Flag of Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein’s flag is blue over red in two equal stripes, with a gold princely crown in the blue by the pole. The constitution makes blue and red the national colours; when the crown was added in 1937, the head of government Josef Hoop said the blue was the sky, the red the embers of the fireplace on evening gatherings, and the gold crown the unity of the people, the country and the princely house, the Flag Institute says.
Easily confused with
How to read it
Article 5 of the Constitution of 1921 makes the arms of the princely house the arms of the state and blue and red the national colours. The Wappengesetz (coat of arms act) of 30 June 1982 describes the flag: a rectangular cloth of two equal horizontal stripes, blue above and red below, with the princely hat (Fürstenhut) in gold in the blue stripe towards the pole, at a height to length of 3 to 5. It gives no colour shades; the pictures in the law’s annex decide how the flags look. The blue-over-red flag was given official status by the constitution in October 1921, and the crown was added on 24 June 1937.
Also searched as: flag of liechtenstein, liechtenstein flag, liechtenstein flag meaning.
Why the crown was added
Liechtenstein’s flag had no crown when the country first went to the Olympic Games in 1936. At the opening ceremony in Berlin, spectators noticed that the flags of Liechtenstein and Haiti were identical, the Flag Institute says, and Liechtenstein added the crown on 24 June 1937 to tell them apart. Store norske leksikon tells it the same way. Haiti’s flag is blue over red in two equal bands too, but its constitution puts a white square with the arms of the republic in the centre. Liechtenstein’s has only the small gold crown, in the top corner by the pole.
Gold and red, the princely house’s colours
From 1719 the country flew the banner of the princely house, gold over red, as its flag. In 1852 vertical bands of red and blue, the colours of Prince Joseph Wenzel I, replaced the gold and red, the Flag Institute says. The 1982 law keeps the two pairs apart: blue and red are the national colours, and gold and red are the colours of the princely house.
Hung from a crossbar
The law also has an upright form, the banner (Banner), hung by its short side from a crossbar: two equal stripes, blue on the left and red on the right, with the gold hat in the blue towards the pole. The prince’s standard is the blue and red flag with a gold border and the great arms of the state over both stripes.
Read next
- Next in European flagsFlag of LuxembourgLuxembourg’s flag is three equal horizontal stripes of red, white and light blue. The flag law gives the colours no meaning; they are the colours of the national arms, a red lion on stripes of silver and blue, used since the 13th century, Store norske leksikon says.
- The same shape in Asian flagsFlag of IndonesiaIndonesia’s flag is two equal horizontal stripes, red above white, called Sang Merah Putih (“the Red and White”). The flag law gives the colours no meaning; the reading taught in Indonesia, as detikEdu and CNN Indonesia give it, is red for courage and white for purity.
More european flags
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with lines or squares and rectangles.
Sources
- Liechtenstein 1921 (rev. 2011) Constitution, Constitution of the Principality of Liechtenstein (1921, rev. 2011), Article 5 (English translation), Constitute Project, Article 5
- Wappengesetz (Liechtenstein, LGBl. 1982 Nr. 58), Gesetz vom 30. Juni 1982 über Wappen, Farben, Siegel und Embleme des Fürstentums Liechtenstein (Wappengesetz), LR 120, consolidated text, Liechtensteinische Landesverwaltung (gesetze.li), Art. 4–7, 9
- Flag of Liechtenstein (Flag Institute), Alex Crouch, “Flag of Liechtenstein”, Flag Institute, Flag Facts, 11 November 2015, The Flag Institute, One flag for two nations
- Liechtensteins flagg og våpen (Store norske leksikon), “Liechtensteins flagg og våpen”, Store norske leksikon, Store norske leksikon, Flagget
- Constitution de la République d’Haïti (1987), Constitution of the Republic of Haiti of 29 March 1987, articles 2–4 (French text), Political Database of the Americas, Georgetown University, Article 3
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 13, 2026. How we research
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