--- title: Canada Accidentally Greets Belgian Royals With German Flag description: Canada accidentally greeted the Belgian royal family with a German flag instead of a Belgian one; the two flags share the same color scheme. canonical: https://time.com/5197947/canada-greets-belgian-royals-with-german-flag/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-13T18:02:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:51:22.653Z og:title: Canada Accidentally Greets Belgian Royals With German Flag og:description: "Theoretically, it's a big mistake by the Canadians" og:url: https://time.com/5197947/canada-greets-belgian-royals-with-german-flag/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ac57c5d7fead614/69892aa8db298796b625f13e/canada-belgium-flag-mix-up.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5568 og:image:height: 3132 og:image:alt: State visit of Philippe and Mathilde to Canada 12.3 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Canada Accidentally Greets Belgian Royals With German Flag twitter:description: "Theoretically, it's a big mistake by the Canadians" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ac57c5d7fead614/69892aa8db298796b625f13e/canada-belgium-flag-mix-up.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Canada Accidentally Welcomed the Belgian Royal Family With a German Flag > Sponsored content. 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There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=f479e4e6-cc23-4f5c-aad7-ca47cffb5027&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Mar 13, 2018 6:02 PM UTC  State Visit to Canada of Their Majesties the King and the Queen of the Belgians to Canada - Welcoming ceremony with military honours Rideau Hall, Official residence of the Governor General of Canada \* Philippe de Belgique \* Mathilde 12/03/2018 pict. by Christophe Licoppe © Photo News via Getty Images) State Visit to Canada of Their Majesties the King and the Queen of the Belgians to Canada - Welcoming ceremony with military honours Rideau Hall, Official residence of the Governor General of Canada \* Philippe de Belgique \* Mathilde 12/03/2018 pict. by Christophe Licoppe © Photo News via Getty Images) Photonews—Photonews via Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Mar 13, 2018 6:02 PM UTC [Canada](http://time.com/5185673/donald-trump-us-cananda-trade-deficit-surplus/) wanted to prepare for the arrival of the king and queen of Belgium by decorating [Rideau Hall](http://time.com/4101749/justin-trudeau-women-cabinet-parliament-government/) with Belgian and Canadian flags, but they accidentally used a German flag instead of a Belgian one. The German flag was spotted on the trunk of a tree by a Belgian journalist, Wim Dehandschutter, who noticed that the decoration adorned a tree that Belgium’s Queen Fabiola had planted in 1977\. The mix-up was attributed to Belgium and Germany’s flags sharing the same color scheme of red, black, and yellow; the design of the flags, however, are very different: Belgium’s stripes are vertical, while Germany’s are horizontal. > [](https://twitter.com/WDehandschutter/status/973214613109137413) According to [_CBC News_](http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/belgian-royals-flag-1.4573188), Rideau Hall spokesperson Marie-Ève Létourneau said that the mistake was fixed immediately. “While we were preparing for the tree planting ceremony on the grounds of Rideau Hall, it was brought to our attention that there was a mix up with a small flag,” she said. “We rectified the situation immediately, prior to their majesties’ arrival at the tree planting.” However, Dehandschutter, who first spotted the mix-up, has other feelings about the matter. “The German flag, it \[will\] make the headlines in Belgium newspapers and in websites, so people are talking about it,” he said. “It’s a strange story. Why do you confuse the German flag with the Belgium flag? 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