Notes

Classical liberalism is a political philosophy and ideology belonging to liberalism in which primary emphasis is placed on securing the freedom of the individual by limiting the power of the government. The philosophy emerged as a response to the Industrial Revolution and urbanization in the 19th century in Europe and the United States. It advocates civil liberties with a limited government under the rule of law, private property, and belief in laissez-faire economic policy. Classical liberalism is built on ideas that had already arisen by the end of the 18th century, such as selected ideas of Adam Smith, John Locke, Jean-Baptiste Say, Thomas Malthus, and David Ricardo. It drew on a psychological understanding of individual liberty, the contradictory theories of natural law and utilitarianism, and a belief in progress. Classical liberals were more suspicious than conservatives of all but the most minimal government and, adopting Thomas Hobbes's theory of government, they believed government had been created by individuals to protect themselves from one another.


The black-white-red striped German imperial flag was adopted by the North German Confederation in 1867, as a combination of the black-white of Prussia and the red-white of Brandenburg. In 1871 it was adopted as merchant flag for the German Empire, and in 1892 declared to be the national flag of the Second Reich and continued in use until 1918. It was briefly reintroduced later just prior to World War II between 1933 and 1935, and used jointly with the Nazi swastika flag, then banned as symbol that could be used by "reactionary" groups.