Country
The Swiss cross, a white free-standing cross on red, began as a field sign of the Old Swiss Confederacy, first attested at the Battle of Laupen in 1339 according to German and English Wikipedia; according to German Wikipedia, the first flag for the whole of Switzerland was the tricolour of the Helvetic Republic of 1799. The cross became the federal arms in 1815 and the flag of the federal infantry battalions, adopted in 1840 and notified to the cantons in 1841; its proportions were fixed on 12 December 1889, and a law in force since 2017 prescribes the square form of the flag.
Coat of Arms
Not available
| Flag | Square, red with a white free-standing cross |
|---|---|
| Cross | Four equal arms, each one-sixth longer than wide (federal decree of 12 December 1889) |
| Square form | Prescribed by the Coat of Arms Protection Act of 21 June 2013, in force since 1 January 2017 |
| Arms | Gules, a cross couped Argent, in a triangular shield |
| Red | Pantone 485; RGB 255/0/0 (#FF0000) |
| Ensign | Rectangular, 2:3, flown by Swiss seagoing ships since 17 April 1941 |
The origin of the Swiss cross is unclear. According to German and English Wikipedia, its use as a mark of identification of the Confederates is first attested at the Battle of Laupen in 1339, when white crosses made of strips of linen were attached to the fighters’ clothing; Konrad Justinger’s Bern chronicle of 1420 says that all the Confederate fighters at Laupen were “gezeichnot mit dem zeichen des heiligen crützes, ein wisses crütz in einem roten schilt”. English Wikipedia’s article on the arms, however, says its use is attested with certainty in 1444, during the Old Zürich War. According to German Wikipedia, only the arms of the cantons were official emblems in the Old Confederacy. A triangular red flag with an elongated white cross may have been used at the Battle of Arbedo in 1422, and in 1540 the Tagsatzung decided that the auxiliaries sent to Rottweil should receive “a red flag with a white upright cross”. From the later 16th century the cantonal troops carried flags with a white cross running to the edges, from which the flammé military flags developed in the 17th century. These are the stages of the flag from 1799.
Click the thumbnails to go through the flags.
1799
A tricolour of green, red and yellow; one side bore the words République Helvétique.
After the French invasion of 1798, the authorities of the newly proclaimed Helvetic Republic confiscated all earlier flags and replaced them with a green, red and yellow tricolour on the French model, officially introduced on 13 February 1799. According to German Wikipedia it was the first flag for the whole of Switzerland. Its two sides were different: according to French Wikipedia, one bore the words “République Helvétique”, while the other could carry other words, and green was the colour of the revolutionaries, notably the Vaudois supporters of the Lemanic Republic, while red and yellow stood for the first cantons, red for Schwyz and Unterwalden and yellow for Uri. The tricolour disappeared with the Helvetic Republic, which came to an end on 10 March 1803. Wikimedia Commons describes the image as the reverse side of the flag.
1815
Red, with a white cross in the centre bearing a sword surrounded by laurels and the words Für Vaterland und Ehre.
General Niklaus Franz von Bachmann used the white cross in a red field in his campaigns of 1800 and 1815. From 3 July 1815, on his orders, the cantonal troops wore a three-inch armband with the white Swiss cross on red, as a sign that they belonged to the federal army. In 1815 the free-standing Swiss cross appeared for the first time on federal battalion flags: the first was issued by the Tagsatzung on 12 October 1815, after Bachmann’s design. The cantonal contingents kept their own flags, which, as before 1798, had only the white cross running to the edges in common. The image is a modern redrawing; Wikimedia Commons notes that four of these flags were made in 1815 and given to the four line battalions formed from soldiers returning from French service, and that one of the originals is on exhibit in the National Museum in Zurich.
1841
Red, with a white cross of five equal squares in the centre.
In the 1830s the white cross in a red field was often seen on the flags of private associations, especially shooting, singing and gymnastics societies, and the canton of Aargau introduced it for its troops in 1833. At the urging of Guillaume-Henri Dufour, the Tagsatzung decided on 2 September 1839 that the federal infantry battalions should receive uniform flags, a white cross on red with the name of the canton in gold on the crossbar, and on 21 July 1840 it adopted the new federal flag. A first circular to the cantons spoke of a red flag cut through by the white cross; after further deliberation the design of Carl Stauffer was notified to the cantons on 11 October 1841. It shows a bold cross made of five squares in the centre of the square field. The federal state founded in 1848 took over the federal military flag: the Constitution of 1848 did not name a national flag, but prescribed the federal flag for all federal troops. French Wikipedia instead attributes the cross of five equal squares to the flag of Bachmann’s troops, which remained a special case until Dufour’s influence imposed it on the whole Swiss army in 1840. The image is a modern drawing in the proportions of the 1841 regimental flags.
1889
Gules, a cross couped Argent.
Seals made from 1815 and cantonal coins minted from 1826 showed the arms of the cross in a 7:6 ratio, but later in the 19th century the cross was often drawn as five equal squares. The federal decree of 12 December 1889 on the federal coat of arms fixed the form of the cross still valid today: “Das Wappen der Eidgenossenschaft ist im roten Felde ein aufrechtes, frei stehendes weisses Kreuz, dessen unter sich gleiche Arme je einen Sechstel länger als breit sind”. A petition by more than 50,000 citizens in 1890 asking for a return to the cross of five squares failed. The flag itself was not defined: it simply took the cross of the arms, and the size of the cross in relation to the flag was not fixed. The square form had long been the rule before the law laid it down: since 1 January 2017 the Coat of Arms Protection Act prescribes that “Die Schweizerfahne zeigt ein Schweizerkreuz in einem quadratischen Feld”, and Annex 2 sets the margin around the cross at the width of one arm.
The arms of Switzerland show the same white cross on red as the flag, on a shield instead of a square field. Under the Old Confederacy the Confederacy was represented by the arms of its cantons. The first mention of the “Confederate Cross” shown in a shield, on pennies minted by Schwyz, dates from 1533. According to English Wikipedia, the first known example of the cantonal arms surrounding a Swiss cross is a medal ordered by the Tagsatzung in 1547 as a gift for the French princess Claude; French Wikipedia mentions a seal of the Thurgau court of 1500 with the arms of the cantons grouped around a cross. These are the stages of the national emblem from 1798.
Click the thumbnails to go through the coats of arms.
1798
William Tell and his son, holding the apple pierced by the crossbow bolt.
The Helvetic Republic adopted an official seal on 12 May 1798, showing William Tell and his son, holding the apple pierced by the crossbow bolt. The seal disappeared with the dissolution of the Helvetic Republic five years later. The image shows the version used by the Small Council (Kleiner Rath).
1803
A shield representing the nineteen cantons, as shown on some cantonal coins.
The Swiss Confederation established by Napoleon in 1803 adopted a seal described as “an armed Old Swiss, on whose shield shall be inscribed ‘XIX. Kantone’, surrounded by the inscription ‘Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft. 1803.’” According to Wikimedia Commons there was no official Swiss coat of arms during the Mediation period, from 1803 to 1814, as the cantons were considered fully sovereign and each used its own arms; but some cantons minted coins representing the Confederation with a shield like the one shown here.
1815
The federal red shield with the white cross, surrounded by the arms of the twenty-two cantons.
The commission for drafting a federal constitution recommended on 16 May 1814 a seal of the Confederacy based on the “field sign of the old Swiss”. On 4 July 1815 the Tagsatzung adopted its design as the provisional seal: “in the center, the federal red shield with the white cross as common federal heraldic emblem, surrounded by a simple circular Gothic ornament, on the outside of which the inscription ‘Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft’ with the year number MDCCCXV, and in an outer circle all XXII cantonal coat of arms in circular fields, according to their federal order of precedence; around all, a simple wreath”. According to German Wikipedia, the cross thus became the official Swiss arms in 1815, at first used only on the seal; English Wikipedia dates the return of the white cross on the seal to 1814. The decision remained in force in the federal state of 1848, as the Federal Council recognised in 1889. The image is a picture by Johann-Rudolf Dickenmann, made between 1815 and 1831, with the inscription SCHWEIZERISCHE EIDGENOSSENSCHAFT MDCCCXV.
1889
Gules, a cross couped Argent, its equal arms one-sixth longer than wide.
In November 1889 the Federal Council published a communication on the federal coat of arms, explaining that “our heraldic cross is not a mathematical figure, but at the same [time] the Christian cross symbol and the field sign of the Old Confederacy”. The decree passed on 12 December 1889 kept the 1815 decision in force and only added the proportions of the cross. It deliberately left the shape of the shield to the “tastes of the current time and practical necessity”: a model drawing was attached to the text, but it was not declared binding. The image is the black-and-white version that, according to Wikimedia Commons, the federal administration used in official publications from about 1930 until 2006, the vertical hatching standing for red.
2017
Gules, a cross couped Argent, in a triangular shield.
The triangular shield, based on the heater shield of classical heraldry but with a curved top, was used by the federal administration from the first half of the 20th century, and on Swiss passports from 1932 to 1984; according to English Wikipedia, it had no official force until it was adopted as part of a logo in 2005. German Wikipedia says the Federal Council decided on a uniform corporate design in November 2003, introduced on 1 January 2007, and Wikimedia Commons dates its official adoption, as the emblem of the federal administration, to 2017. The Coat of Arms Protection Act of 21 June 2013, in force since 1 January 2017, defines the Swiss coat of arms as “a Swiss cross in a triangular shield” and makes binding the model drawing already attached in 1889; the decree of 1889 was abrogated. Other shield shapes remain in official use, on coins and number plates.
In Swiss Standard German the flag is called Fahne, not Flagge: the Schweizerfahne. The cross is defined as “a white, upright, free-standing cross depicted against a red background, whose arms, which are all of equal size, are one-sixth longer than they are wide”. Annex 2 to the law of 2013 sets the margin between the cross and the edge of the flag at the width of one arm, so that the cross spans 5/8 of the flag’s side. The shade of red was not fixed by law before 2017; Annex 1 now sets it at Pantone 485 C or 485 U, CMYK 0/100/100/0 and RGB 255/0/0. Flags with a larger cross remain in wide use.
Since 17 April 1941 Swiss seagoing ships have flown a rectangular flag in a 2:3 ratio, defined in the federal law of 23 September 1953 on maritime navigation under the Swiss flag. A rectangular Swiss flag was already introduced in 1911 for the ships on Lake Constance, and Swiss law also specifies the 2:3 flag for Swiss-registered aircraft. The infobox of English Wikipedia gives 1882 for the adoption of the civil ensign.
The law in force since 2017 prohibits the commercial use of the Swiss coat of arms, while the use of the flag is generally permitted provided that it “is neither misleading nor contrary to public policy, morality or applicable law”. Under article 53 of the first Geneva Convention, all the states party to it must forbid private persons, companies and firms to use the Swiss arms, partly because of the risk of confusion with the Red Cross.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, as reported by English Wikipedia, the emblem of the Red Cross, a red cross on white, reverses the colours of the Swiss flag in honour of Switzerland and of Henry Dunant, a co-founder of the Red Cross. English Wikipedia dates it to the first Geneva Convention of 1864, French Wikipedia to 1868.
Each Swiss canton has its own page in the atlas.
According to English Wikipedia, the square shape goes back to the war flags carried by infantry in the late Middle Ages and early modern period. Since 1 January 2017 the law prescribes a square field; Swiss ships and Swiss-registered aircraft fly a rectangular flag in a 2:3 ratio.
Its origin is unclear. Legends link it to the Theban Legion, to the imperial war banner, or to the instruments of the Passion. According to German and English Wikipedia, its use as a sign of the Confederates is first attested at the Battle of Laupen in 1339, when white crosses of linen were sewn on the fighters’ clothing.
Since the decree of 12 December 1889, its four equal arms are each one-sixth longer than wide. Since 2017 the margin between the cross and the edge of the flag equals the width of one arm, so the cross spans 5/8 of the flag’s side.
According to German Wikipedia, the green, red and yellow tricolour of the Helvetic Republic, officially introduced on 13 February 1799. According to German Wikipedia, before 1798 only the arms of the cantons were official emblems.
The shade was not fixed by law before 2017. The Coat of Arms Protection Act sets it at Pantone 485, CMYK 0/100/100/0 and RGB 255/0/0 (#FF0000).
Yes: it reverses the colours of the Swiss flag, in honour of Switzerland and of Henry Dunant, a co-founder of the Red Cross. English Wikipedia dates it to the first Geneva Convention of 1864, French Wikipedia to 1868.
Illustrations: Wikimedia Commons. Battalion flag of 1815, redrawn by Dbachmann (CC BY-SA 4.0); all other illustrations in the public domain, including the seal of 1798 after Marquard Wocher (vector by VectorVoyager) and Johann-Rudolf Dickenmann’s picture of the federal arms (Zentralbibliothek Solothurn).
Last reviewed by the Emblema Mundi editorial team on 22 October 2026.
