While the term "deface" can have negative connotations, the term "defacement" does not imply any insult to the original background; the symbol simply indicates differentiation of the flag from that of another owner.
The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.
The fallacy about burning a ground-touched flag arises from the mistaken beliefs that a flag that has been allowed to touch the ground is no longer "suitable for display" and must therefore be destroyed, and that the only proper form of disposal for a flag is to burn it.
The flag need be destroyed only when it has become irreparably unsuitable for display due to circumstances such as fading, tattering, tearing, staining, partial burning, mutilation, or defacement.
Whoever removes, destroys, damages, renders unusable or unrecognizable, or commits insulting mischief upon a publicly displayed flag of the Federal Republic of Germany or one of its Lands or a national emblem installed by a public authority of the Federal Republic of Germany or one of its Lands shall be similarly punished.
The Flag Code encompasses punishment for one who "burns, mutilates, defaces, defiles disfigures, destroys, tramples upon or otherwise brings into contempt (whether by words, either spoken or written, or by acts)" the flag in a public place or in public view.
Whoever purposely insults the national flag, national emblem of the PRC in a public place with such methods as burning, destroying, scribbling, soiling, and trampling is to be to be sentenced to not more than three years of fixed-term imprisonment, criminal detention, control or deprived of political rights.
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