The black-red-yellow tricolour flag of Germany has been used and reused at least three times in the history of Germany. It was adopted in 1848, and abolished in 1852; readopted as the flag of the Weimar Republic on August 11th 1919, and abolished and replaced by the Third Reich flag March 12th 1933. It was finally readopted as the modern German flag on 8 May 1949. It was used by the German Democratic Republic until 1959, but had added to it a coat of arms from 1959 to 1989, when the East and West Germanies were reunited.