The Rhine Confederation was foundet on the 12th of July in 1806 by the wish of Napoléon I. Concerned were initially 16 German states. Those leave the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation on the 1st of August in 1806, and recognized the French predominance, and joined a kind of alliance with France. For its wars had the 16 states to put troops and became compensated for that with expansions of area and an enhancement of the nobility title of the monarch. After the foundation of the Rhine Confederation the German emperor Franz II. of Habsburg layed down the German emperor's crown on the 6th of August in 1806. Therewith expired the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation. After the defeat of Prussia in the battle near Jena and Auerstedt on the 14th of October in 1806 was evident that Napoleón was not to stop and all middle and north German states joined the Rhine Confederation just as the Electorate of Saxony and the Episcopate of Wuerzburg. Finally the Rhine Confederation consisted in 36 states and was leaded by the prince primate Karl Theodor of Dalberg, the last elector (archbishop) of Mainz and arch-chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire. Only Austria, Prussia, the Electorate of Hessen and Brunswick did not join the Rhine Confederation. The Rhine Confederation dissolved itself more and more in the course of the liberation wars and ends finaly after the Battle of Nations near Leipzig (16th till 18th of October in 1813).
The Confederation of the Rhine (1806–1813) did not have its own common flag, as the Confederation Treaty, the Rhine Confederation Act, makes no mention of any common symbolism. The member states continued to use their own national symbols without restriction.
On 29th of March in 2023, a Youtube video claimed that the once shown here green, white and blue horizontally striped "alleged" flag of the Confederation of the Rhine was first published on these pages as the flag of the Confederation of the Rhine. This is not true at all. The fact is that the Confederation of the Rhine had no flag at all; the member states stuck to their own symbolism. This green-white-blue flag was discussed and presented many years ago on the "Flags of the World" (FOTW) portal as an indeterminable flag that could perhaps be assigned to the Confederation of the Rhine. Consequently, it was presented here as an ALLEGED flag of the Confederation of the Rhine, simply as an interesting detail. However, since this depiction has found its way into the depths of the Internet as the "Flag of the Confederation of the Rhine" without much thought and was even listed as an absolutely incomprehensible fact in Wikipedia at times, the further pictorial representation of the "alleged flag of the Confederation of the Rhine" was dispensed with.
• 30th of Aug. 1806 Principality of Nassau-Usingen (merged in Nassau)
• 30th of Aug. 1806 Principality of Nassau-Weilburg (merged in Nassau)
• 16th of Feb. 1810 Principality of Aschaffenburg, (annexed to Grand Duchy of Frankfurt)
• 22nd of May 1810 Principality of Regensburg, (annexed to Bavaria)
• 13th of Dec. 1810 Principality of Salm-Salm (annexed by France)
• 13th of Dec. 1810 Principality of Salm-Kyrburg (annexed by France)
• 13th of Dec. 1810 Duchy of Oldenburg (annexed by France)
• 11th of Feb. 1811 Duchy of Arenberg-Meppen (annexed by France)
