youthful freshness, when he had fought under them and seen the sacrifice of so many lives, that flag had little value for the struggles of the future.
This was the reason why we National Socialists recognized that to hoist the old standard would betoken no symbol which would express our special aims ; for we had no wish to raise from the dead the ruined Empire with all its blemishes, but to build up a new State.
The Movement which to-day is fighting Marxism in this sense must bear on its banners the symbol of the new State.
I myself was always for keeping the old colours. After innumerable trials I settled upon a final form : a flag having a red ground with a white band across it bearing on its centre a black hooked cross. After much searching, I decided on the proper proportions between the size of the flag and that of the white band, and the form and thickness of the cross ; and it has remained so ever since.