In 1894, police in Brünn forbade the Turnverein from flying the black, red and gold colors of the German (failed) revolution. What is most interesting about this is that it was reported in the Grand Island Anzeiger (07/13/1894, page 3).
This kind of hyper-local reporting of events in Germany demonstrates not only Grand Island’s ties to Germany, but to the politics that drove many of the first settlers to emigrate in the first place. The colors originate from the uniforms of the Lützow Free Corps, a volunteer corps that fought for Prussia in the Napoleonic Wars. They wore black uniforms with red trim and gold buttons — the colors that became the main symbol of the 1848 failed revolution.
The Frankfurt Parliament adopted these colors for the united Germany they hoped to one day achieve. They even assigned symbolism to the colors: “out of the blackness of servitude (black), through bloody battles (red), into the golden light of freedom (gold).”
But the revolution failed. Tens of thousands of revolutionaries were arrested and even executed. Many more fled, including a small band of immigrants from Holstein who eventually landed in Grand Island, Nebraska.
Where they kept tabs on the revolution in their local paper.