The order is part of recognising the flag.
In a list of colours, it is not enough to find three roughly suitable colour words. “Black-yellow-red” already swaps the positions of red and the gold-coloured representation. The correct answer places red second and gold third.
The Basic Law calls the colour gold. That does not mean a fabric flag must have a metallic shine: the gold-coloured stripe often appears yellow. For the test answer, the specified name black-red-gold remains decisive.
The other three answers
Check both which colours appear and where they are placed.
red-white-black
Red-white-black contains white instead of gold and starts with red. It therefore does not match today’s federal flag.
black-red-green
Black-red-green starts with the correct first two colours but replaces gold with green. The final element makes the answer wrong.
black-yellow-red
Black-yellow-red places red third. On the federal flag, red is in the middle and the gold-coloured stripe at the bottom.
The federal flag, service flag and historical flags are different questions.
The Bundestag uses the federal flag without an eagle. The federal service flag bearing the federal shield is a special form for certain official uses. You do not need to add an eagle for this question; it asks for the colours.
Historical images also require attention to the state and period depicted. Knowing today’s colours does not automatically answer every question about earlier German state symbols. Read “German flag” in the context of this present-day catalogue question.
Article 22(2) · Basic Law ↗Black on top, red in the middle, gold below.
Use a direction as a cue: read the horizontal stripes from top to bottom and keep red in the middle.
Three words for this question
- der Querstreifenhorizontal stripe
- A stripe extending horizontally across the flag.
- goldfarbengold-coloured
- The colour representing gold; it need not be made from metal.
- die Reihenfolgeorder
- The specified sequence, here black, red and gold.