16-Jun-2000 Original Location -> http://atlasgeo.span.ch/fotw/flags/es-1931.html

Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939)

República Española

2:3
National Flag and Ensign
by Jaume Ollé

• Description
• Coat-of-Arms
• President's Car Flag 1931-1939
• Presidential Standard 1933-1939
• Flag of Ministers
• Spanish Red Cross
• The "plain" flag
• Hypothetical Yachts' Ensign
• Political Parties of the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939)

See also:

• Flags of the Civil War
• Spanish State 1938-1977
• First Spanish Republic (1873-1874)
• Spain

Description

Santiago Dotor, 10 May 1999

The flag of the Second Spanish Republic (1931-39) was a tricolour (red, yellow and purple) in horizontal stripes of the same dimension, unlike the traditional red-yellow-red Spanish flag, with a shield in the middle. The purple colour is inspired in the second quarter of the Spanish arms (both republican and monarchist), Leon (argent a lion purpure). A shield with squared-edges topped by a mural crown and quartered with the coats of arms of these four regions: Castile (a castle), Leon (a lion), Navarre (golden chains in asterisk shape on a purple shield), Aragon-Catalonia (vertical yellow-red stripes), clockwise. Left and right of the shield are the "Hercules columns" with the motto "Plus Ultra".

Alessio Bragadini

The red-yellow-purple flag with arms was the State and civil flag and ensign (and war flag and naval ensign). The government approved 19 flags, but the plain flag (without arms) was not official after the adoption of the Constitution on 9 December 1931 and really never was official at all. Other flags adopted:

 
• President: the shield in red (Ratio 1:1)
• Ministers: the same as the national flag with the coat-of-arms near the fly and ratio 4:5
• Navy rank flags: Minister, Captain-General, Admiral, Vice-Admiral, Rear-Admiral, Captain of navio and Division ChiefCapitan of Fragata or Corbeta and Division Chief, and Old Chief
• Army rank flags: Captain-General, Lieutenant-General, Division-General, Brigade-General
• Others: Ambassador, Plenipotentiary Minister, Resident Minister, Consul d'Affairs-Chargés

 Bandera de Endrizar de la Segunda Republica (1931-1939)
El Decreto de 27 de abril de 1931 (Colección Legislativa del Ejército, numero 201) en su artículo 2o definió la Bandera Nacional como compuesta por tres franjas, roja, amarilla y morado, llevando en el centro de la segunda el escudo que, a falta de mejor definición, se señaló como el que habia figurado en las monedas de cinco pesetas de 1869, ésto es: Castilla, Leon, Aragon, Navarra sin la esmeralda, y Granada en punta, acoladas la columnas de Hércules, sin coronas, y basadas en tierra y con un unico listón entrelazándolas con la leyenda "Plus Ultra", al timbre corona mural. Este decreto fue desarrollado por la Orden Circular de 6 de mayo siguiente (Colección Legislativa del Ejército, número 230), en la que en su artículo 2o se detalla que la bandera de endrizar en fortificiones, campamentos y edificios tendría las dimensiones de 135 de ancho por 225 de largo.

"The decree of 27 April 1931 (Legal Collection of the Army, number 201) in its second article defined the National Flag as being composed of three stripes, red, yellow and purple, bearing in the center of the second stripe a shield which, for want of better definition, was identified with the one that had appeared on the five peseta coins of 1869, that is: Castile, Leon, Aragon, Navarre without the emerald, and Granada in the point, supported by the pillars of Hercules without crowns and resting on land and with a single interlaced ribbon with the legend Plus Ultra, the crest a mural crown. This decree was elaborated by the Circular Order of 6 May following (Legal Collection of the Army, number 230), which in its second article specified that the flag to be flown on fortifications, camps and buildings would have dimensions of 135 in width by 225 in length."

This description reveals a difference between the arms of the republic and the present ones which I had previously overlooked: the pillars in the current arms rest, not on land, but on waves - very odd when one thinks about it.

Vincent Morley, 15 January 1998

Ignacio Molina, recently pointed out that the above explanation by Alessio Bragadini -according to which the purple colour is inspired in the second quarter of the Spanish arms- does not make much sense. He is quite right. The purple colour became identified in the early 20th century by Republicans with the purpure colour of the "pendón" (banner) used by the Castilian Commoners -according to legend- when they fought against Charles V. Apparently nobody realised that the so-called pendón morado de Castilla ('purple banner of Castile') -which as I say was purpure and not purple- in fact displayed the colour of the royal Castilian standard. So incorporating it as a "Republican" colour is a bit paradoxical...

Santiago Dotor, 1 December 1999

Coat-of-Arms

The coat-of-arms was the shield quartered (above: 1: red with yellow castle; 2: white with red lion rampant; below: 3: vertical four red bars on yellow; 4: red with the Navarra chains; and in the center of the bottom a fruit named granada (pomegranate), for the Islamic kingdom). To the right and left of the shield are two columms with a ribbon written on them PLUS (left) and ULTRA (right); and above the shield a golden crown.

Norman Martin, 15 January 1998

The Coat-of-Arms of the Second Spanish Republic was very similar to the present day one, with the following differences:

 
• the crown was of the "mural" or "embattled" sort, resembling a castle wall with four towers;
• there were no crowns on top of the columns/pillars and these rested on "land" rather than on "sea" (ie. waves);
• no Bourbon escutcheon in the center of the shield;
• the arms of Navarre lacked the emerald in the middle of the chains;
• the coat-of-arms appeared in the middle of the flag, not towards the mast as nowadays.

President's Car Flag 1931-1939

Insignia del Presidente de la República

According to Calvo and Grávalos 1983, the flag described above by Norman Martin ("shield in red, ratio 1:1") is the car flag (illustration 564, Insignia del Presidente de la República 1931-1939), the coat-of-arms is centered and its height is about 3/10ths of the hoist.

Santiago Dotor, 22 March 1999

Presidential Standard 1933-1939

Guión del Presidente de la República

According to Calvo and Grávalos 1983, the President's Standard (illustration 575, Guión del Presidente de la República 1933-1939) is also red with centered coat-of-arms, but this is much larger, about half the hoist in height. In each corner there is a 45º tilted red cartouche bordered with a gold fillet, from behind which some green olive leaves appear. The top hoist and bottom fly ones bear a cypher with the letters "PR" (for Presidente de la República), the other two the date the Republic was proclaimed, "14" "ABRIL" "1931" in three lines. Gold fringes, grey coloured finial with olive leaves bordering an anagram with the letters "RE" (for República Española), and a streamer with the colours of the Republican flag. I believe there is a small mistake in Calvo and Grávalos 1983 since it shows the arms of Navarre with the green emerald in the center, which was expressly omitted in the 1931 Decree describing the Republic's coat-of-arms.

Santiago Dotor, 22 March 1999

This was rather the Colour of the Presidential Guard (Guión del Escuadrón Presidencial), according to Símbolos de España 1999.

Santiago Dotor, 27 December 1999

According to Tomás Rodríguez (Secretary of the SEV), the original Standard of the Republican Presidential Guard could be seen years ago at an exhibition about former president Manuel Azaña and was in deposit at the Moncloa Palace (seat of the Spanish Prime Minister), even if nowadays it seems to have disappeared from there... Also, there is an example of the Presidential Standard at the Naval Museum (Madrid).

Santiago Dotor, 29 March 2000

Flag of Ministers

According to Calvo and Grávalos 1983, the flag for Ministers was not 4:5 but square (with the arms indeed very offset to the fly).

Santiago Dotor, 22 March 1999

Spanish Red Cross

Jaume Ollé, 15 September 1998

The "plain" flag

The only group that officially used a red-yellow-purple flag without arms was the Izquierda Republicana party, but I don't know the original exact design. In 1979 it was the plain republican flag. During the war the flag was used for some military organizations.

Jaume Ollé, 3 October 1996

The plain flag (without arms) was not official after the adoption of the Constitution on 9 December 1931 and really never was official at all.

Norman Martin, 15 January 1998

Hypothetical Yachts' Ensign

Ensign for Recreational Vessels

No mention is made in Calvo and Grávalos 1983 to a yacht ensign during the Second Republic, a hypothesis would be the republican triband with a mural crown. The GIF I made is not a very good image at all, since I used a mural crown I designed for the Maltese coat-of-arms...

Santiago Dotor, 25 June 1999