Born in Bern Switzerland, The Flag Smasher is the son of a Swiss Banker who's father was trampled to death by Latverians which led him to the understanding that the concept of countries and nationalism is evil.

In order achieve his goal of eliminating governments he formed an organization called the Underground Liberated Totally Integrated Mobile Army To Unite Mankind which was not chosen for the acronym ULTIMATUM because who in their right mind would choose a name just so it had a cool acronym.

Carrying a mace the Flag Smasher soon discovered that attempting to smash large pieces of cloth with a club wasn't as satisfying as he had envisioned and began to plan more effective plots. 

The next of these plots was to capture an American airliner(presumably the most patriotic one) and hold the people hostage demanding the Captain America be handed over for execution in return for the release of the hostages. Perhaps he decided that smashing a flag with someone inside would be more effective.

Some time later The Flag Smasher discovered that his organization was being funded by the Red Skull and he turned against his former comrades and he was forced to work with Captain America to stop ULTIMATUM from setting off a pulse which would render all electrically operated machines useless.

Among his more notable feats was the defeat of U.S. Agent. He beat the man nearly to death then left him in a half frozen pond to freeze to death.  One might suspect a better plan would have been to shoot him but... well.... it just wouldn't be sporting.

Another important point in his career came when he took a everyone in a Captain America press conference hostage. One of his minions began to fire into the crowd. This is typically where you would flog the minion, but instead Captain America got a gun from someplace and shot the minion, the first man who Captain America had killed since World War II.

Flag Smasher has yet to attack the leader of Latveria, though they are the ones responsible for the death of his father. Perhaps he understands that unlike Captain America, Dr. Doom would simply kill him or perhaps it is just a case of honor among villains.