The national flag of Switzerland displays a white Greek cross in the centre of a red field. The white cross is known as the Swiss cross or the federal cross. Its arms are rectangular, with a ratio of height to width of 7:6 for the vertical arms and 6:7 for the horizontal arms. The size of the cross in relation to the field was set in 2017 as 5:8.Appendix 2, Wappenschutzgesetz (SR 232.21), 21 June 2013 (effective 1 January 2017) [length of an arm: 7 units, width of the cross: 20 units, width of the flag: 32 units; ratio of cross width to field width: 20:32 = 5:8]. The Swiss flag is square, instead of the rectangular shape typical for national flags.
The white cross has been used as the field sign (attached to the clothing of combatants and to the cantonal war flags in the form of strips of linen) of the Old Swiss Confederacy since its formation in the late 13th or early 14th century. Its symbolism was described by the Swiss Federal Council in 1889 as representing "at the same the Christian cross symbol and the field sign of the Old Confederacy". As a national ensign, it was first used during the Napoleonic Wars by general Niklaus Franz von Bachmann, and as regimental flag of all cantonal troops from 1841. The federal coat of arms (eidgenössisches Wappen) was defined in 1815 for the Restored Confederacy as the white-on-red Swiss cross in a heraldic shield. The current design was used together with a cross composed of five squares until 1889, when its dimensions were officially set."The coat of arms of the federation is, within a red field, an upright white cross, whose [four] arms of equal length are one and a sixth times as long as they are wide." ("Das Wappen der Eidgenossenschaft ist im rothen Felde ein aufrechtes, freistehendes weißes Kreuz, dessen unter sich gleiche Arme je einen Sechstheil länger als breit sind") Bundesbeschluss betreffend das eidgenössische Wappen vom 12. Dezember 1889
The civil and state ensign of Switzerland, used by Swiss ships, boats and non-governmental bodies, is rectangular in shape and has the more common proportions of 2:3, Swiss law also specifies 2:3 proportions for flags displayed on Swiss registered aircraft. The emblem of the Red Cross is the Swiss flag with switched colours.
Design
According to the 2017 flag law (SR 232.21),Bundesgesetz zum Schutz öffentlicher Wappen und anderer öffentlicher Zeichen vom 5. Juni 1931 (Stand am 1. August 2008). "the Swiss flag shows a Swiss cross on a square background". Special provisions are made for the naval ensign and for civil aircraft identification.Art. 3.3: The following remain reserved: a. the Navigation Act of 23 September 1953 [SR 747.30]; b. the Civil Aviation Act of 21 December 1948 [SR 748.0]; c. the Armed Forces Act of 3 February 1995 [SR 510.10]. The Swiss cross is defined as "a white, upright, free-standing cross depicted against a red background, whose arms, which are all of equal size, are one-sixth longer than they are wide."
Swiss Standard German consistently uses (cognate with vane) rather than the term used for national flags in Germany. The name of the flag of the Swiss Confederation is a nominal compound, .The compound implies genitive plural, "flag of the Swiss"; other national flags are identified with adjectives, as in französische Fahne "French flag" (German standard: französische Flagge). Swiss Armed Forces, Reglement 51.340 d (Fahnenreglement, 2008), section 4.1: "In unserem Sprachgebrauch hat sich der Begriff Schweizerflagge in diesem Sinn nicht eingebürgert. Das Reglement spricht weiter von der Schweizerfahne. […] Das ‹Aufziehen einer Fahne› wird in der Armee aber weiter zur Umgangssprache gehören." ("In our linguistic usage, the term "Schweizerflagge" in this sense ["Flagge" for a flag attached to a pole by means of a cable]. This reglementation will continue to refer to the Schweizerfahne [...] The "raising of a Fahne" will continue to remain in common usage in the army."
The flag is emblazoned in English as, "Gules, a cross coupée argent."
Proportions While the proportions of the cross have been fixed since 1889, the size of the cross relative to the flag (the width of the margin separating the cross couped from the edge of the flag) had not been officially fixed prior to 2017.
The annex to the flag law provides an image specifying that the margin is to be of the same width as the cross arms, so that the total height of the cross is fixed at 20:32 = 5:8 of the height of the flag (in other words, the width of the margin is 6:32 = 3:16). This ratio is also given as a "vexillological recommendation" in the flag regulation used by the Swiss Armed Forces.Reglement 51.340 d (Fahnenreglement) (2007, 2013 edition), appendix 4: "Fahnenkundlich empfiehlt sich ein Verhältnis der Kreuzbalkenlänge zur gesamten Seitenlänge der Fahne von 20:32; das entspricht dem harmonischen Verhältnis des Goldenen Schnitts." ("In terms of vexillology, it is advisable to use a ratio of the cross to the flag width of 20:32; this corresponds to the harmonic proportion of the golden ratio" Flags with a cross of larger relative widths than the prescribed 20:32 = 62.5% remain in wide use; common ratios include 20:26 ≈ 76.9% and 20:28 ≈ 71.4%.e.g. Heimgartner Fahnen AG of Wil, St. Gallen as of October 2018 uses the 20:26 ratio (heimgartner.com), while Fahnen24 of Thal, St. Gallen uses the 20:32 ratio (fahnen24.ch ).
For the ensign, the ratio of the size of the cross to the height is likewise 5:8, so that the ratio of cross to flag width is 5:12..
Colors
The shade of red used in the flag was not defined by law prior to 2017. Since then, the colour of the flag is defined as pure red, with the colour values as follows:
Colour schemeCMYK0–100–100–0RGB255–0–0Hexadecimal#FF0000Pantone485C or 485UNCSS 1085-Y90RScotchcal100 -13RAL3020 (Traffic Red)
History Middle Ages The ultimate origin of the white cross is attributed by three competing legends: to the Theban Legion, to the Reichssturmfahne (Imperial War Banner) attested from the 12th century, and to the Arma Christi that were especially venerated in the three forest cantons, and which they were allegedly allowed to display on the formerly uniformly red battle flag from 1289 by King Rudolph I of Habsburg at the occasion of a campaign to Besançon.
Use of a white cross as a mark of identification of the combined troops of the Old Swiss Confederacy is first attested in the Battle of Laupen (1339), where it was sewn on combatants' clothing as two stripes of textile, contrasting with the red Saint George's Cross of Habsburg Austria, and with the Saint Andrew's Cross used by Burgundy and Maximilian I. The first flag used as a field sign representing the confederacy rather than the individual cantons may have been used in the Battle of Arbedo in 1422 (notably without the participation of the Canton of Schwyz). This was a triangular red flag with an elongated white cross.
The white cross was thus in origin a field mark attached to combatants for identification, and later also to cantonal flags. The Lucerne chronicle of 1513, in battle scenes of the Burgundy Wars of the 1470s shows cantonal flags with an added white cross. In this context, the solid-red war flag of Schwyz with the addition of the white cross appears much like the later flag of Switzerland. Other depictions in the illustrated chronicles show a flag of Schwyz with an asymmetrical white cross, drawn in greater detail. The symbol of the confederation as it developed during 1450-1520 was thus the white cross itself, not necessarily in a red field, but attached to existing flags, so that it appeared before a red background in those cantonal flags that contained red, notably the solid-red flag of Schwyz.
Early modern
The first explicit mention of a separate flag representing the Confederacy dates to 1540, in the context of an auxiliary force sent by the Swiss to aid their associate, the city of Rottweil, in a feud against the lords of Landenberg. The Tagsatzung decided that the Swiss auxiliaries sent to Rottweil should receive "a red flag with a white upright cross". The first mention of the term Confederate Cross (Eidgenossen Crütz) dates to 1533.BBl 1889 IV (12 November 1889), p. 633.
Because of the Swiss pledge of neutrality, there was no military conflict in which the Swiss confederate troops participated after 1540. Consequently, the confederate field sign fell out of use. At the same time, the former field sign develops into a representation of the Confederacy during this time, without achieving the full status as official heraldic emblem. The cross is shown as a symbol of the Swiss Confederacy on the Patenmedallie cast by Jacob Stampfer and given by the Confederacy as a baptismal gift to Princess Claude of France in 1547. The cross appears on similar medals and on throughout the early modern period, but most symbolic depictions of the Confederacy in the 17th century do without the federal cross.
Beginning in the later 16th century, forces of the individual cantons adopted a type of flag which was based on a white cross design. These flags usually showed a white cross drawn to the edge of the field in front of a background striped in the respective cantonal colours. From this type, the flammé military flag develops in the 17th century, which also came to be used by Swiss mercenary regiments by the end of the 17th century. The flammé design remained popular for military flags of the 18th and 19th centuries. A flammé flag was introduced as ordonnance for the Bernese troops in 1703.
Napoleonic period and Restored Confederacy
After the French invasion of Swiss territory in 1798 and the subsequent collapse of the Confederation, the authorities of the newly proclaimed Helvetic Republic confiscated all earlier flags, replacing them with a green-red-yellow tricolour. General Niklaus Franz von Bachmann used the white cross in a red field his campaigns of 1800 and 1815. The term Schweizer-Fahne (later spelling Schweizerfahne) is in use for the flag from this time, recorded in a poem on the Battle of Näfels by one J. Hottinger published in 1808.Helvetischer Almanach für das Jahr 1809 (Zürich 1808), p. 194: "So die Schweizer-Fahne: Weisses Kreuz in Roth."
The Tagsatzung (Swiss Diet) re-introduced the white cross in the red field for the seal of the Confederacy in 1814. The commission for drafting a federal constitution on 16 May 1814 recommended the adoption of a seal of the Confederacy based on the "field sign of the old Swiss".Article 41 (of the draft constitution): "Das Siegel der Eidgenossenschaft ist das Feldzeichen der alten Schweizer: ein weißes freistehendes Kreuz im rothen Felde, sammt der Umschrift: Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft." On 4 July 1815, the Diet accepted the design of the commission, adopted as the provisional seal described as "in the center, the federal red shield with the white cross as common federal heraldic emblem, surrounded by a simple circular Gothic ornament, on the outside of which the inscription 'Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft' with the year number MDCCCXV, and in an outer circle all XXII cantonal coat of arms in circular fields, according to their federal order of precedence; around all, a simple wreath"."In der Mitte der eidgenössische rothe Schild mit dem weißen Kreuz als gemeineidgenössisches Wappenzeichen; ringsherum eine zirkelförmige einfache gothische Verzierung; außer derselben die Inschrift: Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft, mit der Jahreszahl MDCCCXV; in einem äußern Zirkel alle XXII Kantonswappen in runden Feldern nach ihrer eidgenössischen Rangordnung, und das Ganze mit einem einfachen Siegelkranze in unterschobenen kleinen Blättern geschlossen" (Bd. III, S. 120, G.)
This decision remained in force after the formation of the federal state in 1848, as was recognized by the Federal Council in 1889.BBl 1889 IV (12 November 1889), p. 635.