Remember the colours together with their arrangement.
The answer consists of three colours. However, green, white and red areas alone can represent many things. NRW’s state flag uses three horizontal stripes of equal width in a defined order.
Section 3 also gives a height-to-length ratio of 3 to 5. That proportion need not be memorised for this test answer. It does show that an official flag has a defined design, rather than being a random collection of colours.
The other three answers
Compare every answer with all three colours.
red-white
Red-white leaves out green and names only two colours. It does not describe NRW’s complete flag colour combination.
black-gold
Black-gold contains neither green, white nor red. This combination does not match North Rhine-Westphalia’s state flag.
blue-white-red
Blue-white-red replaces the required green with blue. Two matching colours are not enough for the correct answer.
The official service flag also bears the coat of arms.
The official service flag uses the same three stripes and adds the state coat of arms. The Act describes its position in the white stripe, slightly towards the flagpole. Adding the emblem therefore does not change the required colour sequence.
Green, white and red also occur in other flags. Position, stripe direction and additional symbols help distinguish them. The question explicitly names North Rhine-Westphalia and asks for its three state colours.
Sections 1, 3 and 4 · Colours and flags · State Symbols Act ↗NRW: green above – white in the middle – red below.
Three colours, three horizontal stripes.
Three words for this question
- waagerechthorizontal
- Running from left to right.
- der Streifenstripe
- An elongated coloured area of a flag.
- die Landesdienstflaggeofficial state service flag
- The flag bearing the coat of arms for official state use.