Coat of arms of Berlin
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Berlin city-state |
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| Blazon | |
| A red armored and red-tongued, upright black bear can be seen in a silver (white) shield. A golden, five-leaf crown of leaves rests on the shield, the forehead of which is masonry with a closed gate in the middle. | |
| Basic data | |
| Introduction: | 1954 |
| Legal basis: | Constitution of Berlin and law on the emblems of the state of Berlin |
The coat of arms of the state and the city of Berlin shows the Berlin bear . The bear was not the symbol of the city from the beginning. For several centuries the bear shared the seal and coat of arms images with the Brandenburg and Prussian eagles . Why the Berliners opted for the bear as their heraldic animal cannot be clearly explained due to a lack of documents. The design of the seal and coat of arms images was partly influenced by political and historical events. The coat of arms in its current form has been valid since 1954. In addition to the state coat of arms , the districts of the city have their own district coats of arms , which you can use to represent the districts.
State coat of arms
After the Constitution of Berlin leads Berlin the coat of arms and seal with the bear. Blazon : In a silver (white) shield there is a red armored and red -tongued , upright black bear. A golden, five-leaf crown of leaves rests on the shield, the forehead of which is masonry with a closed gate in the middle.
The state coat of arms is carried by the House of Representatives, the Court of Auditors, the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, the Berlin courts and the Berlin administration. The depiction of the state coat of arms for artistic, heraldic and scientific purposes as well as for the purposes of teaching and civic education is permitted to everyone, provided this is not done in a way or under circumstances that are detrimental to the reputation or dignity of the emblem. Any other use requires the approval of the Senate Department for Home Affairs.
History and meaning
With the increasing number of cities being founded in the 12th and 13th centuries, the cities needed to acquire seals and, later, additional coats of arms , in order to seal or certify official documents such as decrees, contracts and agreements. The award of seals and coats of arms was the responsibility of the sovereign or landlord. In Berlin and Cölln, as well as in the surrounding Brandenburg cities, the Ascanian (Brandenburg) margraves ruled , whose symbol was the red eagle . As a symbol of the sovereign, the red eagle dominated the seals and coats of arms of the places on the Spree and Havel , such as Berlin and Cölln, before the Berlin heraldic bear appeared on the sphragistic - heraldic scene.
The few documentary records for Berlin are not only responsible for losses, but also a limitation of documentary records, which are limited to important constitutional acts and the documentation of legal transactions. In later times, the seals were often cut off by collectors, but they also disappeared naturally, were brittle or damaged. The stamp collection of the Märkisches Museum has been largely lost since the Second World War . Because of this poor tradition, it is not possible to state exactly when the known seals were used for the first time and how long they were in use. Political events in particular shaped the development of the seal and coat of arms images of the city of Berlin, which thus partly reflect the history of the city. When Berlin and the sister city of Cölln were founded and elevated to the status of a city, it is also not documented.
The oldest surviving written testimony in which the then sister city of Cölln is mentioned is a document dated October 28, 1237: After decades of legal dispute, the margraves Johann I and Otto III recognized. in this document that in their countries the right to tithe , the submission of one tenth of the harvest yield, belongs to the Bishop of Brandenburg. Symeon plebanus de Colonia - "Symeon Pastor of Cölln" - is mentioned as a witness . The oldest document in which Berlin is mentioned dates from January 26, 1244 and was issued in Markee near Nauen . In this, the margravial brother couple waived the right to take the estate of deceased clergy in favor of the clergy at the Brandenburg Cathedral . Symeon is again named as one of the witnesses, but this time as prepositus de Berlin - “Provost of Berlin”. Both documents are in the Brandenburg Cathedral Archives.
The oldest seals
The oldest surviving seal in Berlin is dated to 1253, an exact date is not noted in the document. It is located on a document in which the new city of Frankfurt (Oder) is declared the Berlin city charter, which was granted to it by Margrave Johann I on July 12, 1253. The document was sealed by the city mayor of Berlin Marsilius . The Berlin city archivist Ernst Fidicin rediscovered this historical document in the city archive of Frankfurt an der Oder in the middle of the 19th century, but it was lost due to the effects of the Second World War .
The seal shows three pointed and crenellated towers, the middle one flanked by two houses with pointed roofs. The pointed roofs of the towers and the roof ends of the houses are each adorned with a sphere. In the foreground, the Ascanian eagle spreads its wings in a clover-leaf-shaped and pearl-studded archway. The seal image is surrounded by a wreath of pearls. Between it and the outer smooth edge is in early Gothic Majuskel the inscription SIGILLVM DE BERLIN Burgensis "seal of the citizens of Berlin". The seal has a diameter of 65 millimeters. This was a typical seal image for Brandenburg cities that were founded at the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century or raised to a city. They also show seal images with towered city walls and an eagle shield in front of or above the gate, for example the oldest seals in the city of Spandau . The towers with the houses symbolize the city and the eagle indicates the Margraves of Brandenburg as lords of the state and the city.
Although this seal is generally described soberly heraldically and without mysticism, one E. Lange saw in October 1933 in the seal "the echoes of an ancient Germanic myth recorded". In his opinion, the central building represents the annual storm, the symbol of the year, at the foot of which is the winter solstice and the ridge the summer solstice. The two side towers represent the halves of the solar year, the ascending half the spring-summer half and the descending half the autumn-winter half. The total of twelve windows symbolize the months. The pointed roofs of the towers are clearly and deliberately drawn with runes . The tripod fountains on the six-month storms symbolized the root of the tree of life from which all life comes. The double U-rune on the annual storm is a sign that mother earth brings the new year into the world at the winter solstice. According to Lange, in the Ascanian eagle, the creature resembling a naked crow, one can only see the sun bird. It can be recognized by the six feathers on both wings, each divided in half by the keels, which in turn symbolize the twelve months. The round tumors on the wing tips have a mystical connection with the five sun points on the towers, which represent the seven days of the week. The cloverleaf-shaped archway, referred to by Lange as the bird housing, is said to be a golden sun apple or golden acorn, which, according to an "ancient idea of our ancestors", gives birth to the new sun and thus the new year.
The second oldest seal of Berlin from 1280 is not only the first unmistakable seal of Berlin, but the seal in which the bear appears for the first time. This seal, which may have been in use before, was on a guild letter from the Berlin furriers . In this guild letter, known as the furrier statute, the city council of Berlin confirmed on March 22, 1280 that no one who did not belong to the Berlin guild was allowed to buy and sell furrier goods in Berlin. The Gildebrief belonged to the holdings of the Berlin City Archives and has been missing since the end of World War II.
The seal, sprinkled with hearts, shows in the middle the Brandenburg eagle in an early Gothic triangular shield, flanked by two bears. The bears are both armed, facing away from each other, opposing each other, and each with a paw raised. Above the shield there is a helmet with an eagle flight as an ornament. The inscription of the seal reads SIGILLVM BVRGENSIVM DE BERLINSUM , by adding the syllable SUM to the word Berlin, the seal is of course “I am the seal of the citizens of Berlin”. The seal image and the inscription are each framed by a pearl necklace. The seal has a diameter of 76 millimeters and the stamp used for sealing was cast from bronze. As with the previous seal, the shield with the Brandenburg eagle points to the Margraves of Brandenburg as lords of the state and town. The pot helmet with the eagle flight is the margravial winged helmet and part of the margravial coat of arms of this time.
The bears are described by some researchers and heraldists as two black bears or by others - the author Heinz Machatscheck - as one brown and one black bear. But there are also descriptions that the bears are supposed to be a married couple. The raised paw of the bears is intended to express the independence of Berlin. The heraldist Adolf Matthias Hildebrandt referred the view that the bears' fear of the eagle's sharp weapons expressed in their backward-turned heads in the realm of fables . Rather, he assumed that the bears wanted to front against the enemies in the east and west. In a letter dated July 24, 1871, Ernst Fidicin referred to the two bears as shield holders, whereupon Count Stillfried objected on behalf of the Herald's office that there were no shield holders at that time. Some descriptions indicate that the seal was sprinkled with paw prints, presumably in relation to the theory of the natural scientist Theodor Zell that at the settlement site of Berlin there was a flat, shallow spot in the course of the river Spree , which, among other things, was used by bears to cross the Spree was used. The scattered hearts are only decorative elements.
According to Ernst Fidicin in the journal Der Bär in 1875, only four seal impressions are known of the first bear seal. The first seal was on the Gildebrief from 1280, the others on the document on the Union of Brandenburg cities from 1321, on a regulation of the Council of Berlin and Cölln regarding weddings, christenings, splendid dress and so on from 1335 and on the document on the pension certificate for N. Plönitz and A. Cossemann dated November 25, 1381. This pension certificate from 1381 is in the holdings of the Brandenburg Cathedral monastery archive and is very well preserved with a seal.
How the bear got into the coat of arms
How and why the Berliners opted for the bear can no longer be reconstructed. Documents from the time the town was founded do not exist or no longer exist. The many interpretations and explanations that both scholars and amateurs have provided with some regularity since the 19th century bring more confusion than clarity and leave little hope that reliable conclusions can be drawn about the origin of the name Berlin from the history of language . As credible as some of these theories may be, they all have two things in common: they can neither be precisely proven scientifically nor can all doubts be dispelled.
Some historians and researchers used to suspect that the Berliners thought of Albrecht I when the bear was called the bear . He is considered to be the conqueror and founder of the Mark Brandenburg . According to Johann Heinrich Zedler's Universal Lexicon from the 18th century, Albrecht I had Berlin enlarged and surrounded by walls. The oldest archaeological trace of early German settlement so far, however, is a wooden beam dendrodated to "around 1170" (the year Albrecht the Bear died) in the Breite Strasse ; the stone city wall was not built until 1250.
Other researchers are of the opinion that the name Berlin, like the heraldic animal, comes from the real bear. The derivation of the name Berlin is explained from Middle High German . The Middle High German word bër means bear. The -lin is derived from the Middle High German -lîn ; lîn is a diminutive syllable. Berlin would therefore mean little bear or little bear . A connection between the name and (bear) lager, Middle High German casual or läger , cannot be conclusively established. The latest geological research has shown that there was no (bear) ford on Mühlendamm, but rather relatively high banks with a height difference of about four meters.
The derivation of the name from Middle High German assumes that Berlin is a German settlement with German names. On the basis of graves that were found under the torso of the Nikolaikirche, which was destroyed in World War II , it can be concluded that the first early German colonists settled here in the last third of the 12th century. A late Slavic settlement that was already in existence at this point in time has not yet been identified, only traces of settlement in the middle of Slavic. Derived from the Slavic, Berlin means something like settlement near a swamp, morass . The linguist Reinhard E. Fischer writes that the explanation of the name from the Slavonic cannot be doubted in view of the numerous parallel Slavic place, water and field names.
Another way that the bear found its way into the seal are talking seals , which were very popular in the Middle Ages . For this representation, an attempt was made to heraldically convert the names of the cities to the word sound of the supposed or actual meaning ( folk etymology ). Today, for example, there is an ostrich in the coat of arms of Strausberg and a fox ( Reineke ) in that of Reinickendorf , although the place names are not derived from the animals. The Berliners probably decided in favor of the bear because the first syllable of the word Berlin onomatopoeia seems to indicate bear . But this is also contradicted by some researchers. In their opinion, the decision would have led to a talking seal on a pearl, since in Middle High German berle stands for pearl and berlein for small pearl.
Regardless of the doubts of individual historians, the prevailing opinion among regional historians is that the place name is of Slavic origin and the bear in the Berlin coat of arms is a talking coat of arms .
The seals of Cölln
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The sister city of Cölln also had its own seal and later a coat of arms. The document with the first written mention of Cölln dates back to 1237, but the oldest seal is almost 100 years younger and dates from 1334 (see picture). This seal was on the police and dress code issued by the Council of Berlin / Cölln on September 24, 1334 and was previously kept in the Berlin City Archives. The seal and document were lost in the aftermath of World War II. Cölln introduces a city seal that is not typical for the Middle Ages. It shows no walls, towers or other typical city elements, but only the Ascanian eagle of Brandenburg. The partly badly damaged inscription of the seal read S CIVIVM COLONIE MARCHIONIS BRANDENBVRGENSIS "Seal of the City of Cölln der Mark Brandenburg". The S stands for Sigillum - Siegel. Another seal produced and still preserved with the same stamp can be found on a document from 1399. The diameter of the seal is 58 millimeters. While the Berlin seal and later the coat of arms was subject to several changes, Cölln only ever shows the Brandenburg eagle in the seal and coat of arms. Other seals of Cölln that have been preserved date from 1442 and 1491. The seal from 1442 is a small seal. Like the big seal, it shows the Brandenburg eagle, but bears the inscription S 'BVRGENSIVM COLNE “Seal of the Citizens of Cölln”. The seal, dated 1491, is also a small seal with a diameter of 35 millimeters and shows the Brandenburg eagle in a shield. Above and on the sides of the sign is a banner with the inscription sigil civitatis collne "Seal of the City of Cölln". This seal was used until the end of the 17th century. Even in the years in which Cölln formed a joint city administration with Berlin, the city charter was never touched and documents with the seals of both cities were affirmed. Only with the formation of the royal capital and residence city of Berlin in 1710, in which Berlin, Cölln, Friedrichswerder , the Dorotheen- and Friedrichstadt were united, Cölln's urban independence ended.
- various seals of Cölln
1399
1442
1491
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Bear versus eagle
The third seal of Berlin is on a reverse dated October 30, 1338 of the joint city administration of Berlin and Cölln, which was formed in 1307. This secret seal (secret seal) of Berlin was in use until 1448. It shows a bear striding vigorously, pulling the Brandenburg eagle shield with it on a loose ribbon around its neck. This is to symbolize the existing, but only very loose sovereign sovereignty. There is a star above the bear's head and three stars are arranged above the abdomen. There is no information or interpretation available for the stars, so simple decorative elements can be assumed. The seal bears the inscription S SECRETVM CIVITATIS BERLIN " Secret Seal of the City of Berlin" between two smooth lines and has a diameter of 34 millimeters. What is striking about the seal is that the eagle in the shield looks to the left and not to the right, as is usually the case in all other images of the Brandenburg eagle's seal and coat of arms. In the tracings and descriptions of the seal, the ribbon from the eagle shield is directly connected to a collar on the bear. On the preserved original seal on a document dated August 6, 1383, which is in the cathedral monastery archive of Brandenburg , it can be seen that the ribbon ends in a bow above the bear at the height of the neck.
Rudolf Buchholz, curator at the Märkisches Provinzial-Museum, sees this seal image as a symbol for the unification of the two cities of Berlin and Cölln. The eagle shield would be the coat of arms of Cölln and symbolize the city, while the bear stands for Berlin. This contradicts the fact that at that time both cities did not have any coats of arms, and Cölln used its own seal even during the time of the union with Berlin.
Even if the eagle was still in the city seal, the Berliners increasingly relied on the bear as a city symbol. This is expressed, for example, in the silver pfennig from the Berlin coin from 1369 (see picture). It shows the margrave with a lance and sword on the main side and the bear running to the right on all fours on the back. With the depiction of this silver penny, a perpetual penny was used as a coin image for the 10 Mark commemorative coin from 1981 for the 700th anniversary of coinage in Berlin .
The reason why the Berliners depicted the bear on coins, later small seals and city symbols alone must not only have been to give it a greater preference. It is possible that this should emphasize the difference between the seals of Berlin and those of the sister city of Cölln, since Cölln also had the eagle shield in the seal and later coat of arms. It was also much easier to make small seals with just one figure.
At the beginning of the 1440s there were inner-city disputes between Berlin and Cölln, between the citizens, especially the trades, and the patrician council. In 1442 both sides turned to Elector Friedrich II for support. Supported by 600 soldiers, Friedrich II acted as an arbiter. He dissolved the joint city administration, eliminated the rule of the patricians, took away the upper and lower jurisdiction , the right to defeat, the gate duty and other income from the cities, forbade all alliances with other cities and demanded a suitable place for the construction of an electoral castle. Neither the Berliners nor the Cölln people wanted this end of urban independence. This dissatisfaction and the growing opposition changed in 1447 from passive to active resistance and in 1448 to armed uprising against the repressive policies of Frederick II for the restoration of their old rights and freedoms. Berlin and Cölln asked the cities allied with them for advice and support. But their help and that of the Hanseatic League , of which Berlin was a member, failed to materialize. Berlin and Cölln had to capitulate and submit to the elector with a new oath. These events went down in history as Berlin's unwillingness .
While the document of submission from 1448 was still marked with the seal of 1338, Berlin then introduced a new seal. The year the seal was made cannot be precisely determined, as there are no more seals on many of the city's documents from this time. The new seal is first documented in documents from 1460 and 1491. If the seal from 1338 still suggested that the bear was already the main character, this seal shows that this was not yet the case. This new seal shows the sovereign Brandenburg eagle, which, riding on its back, claws into the fur of the bear walking on all fours. Some of the images of the seal show the bear wearing a collar. The inscription between two smooth lines in Gothic minuscule (lower case) reads sigillum civtatis antiqui berlin "Seal of the Old Town Berlin". The silver seal stamp had an image area of 40 millimeters. A seal impression that has been preserved can be found on a document dated April 30, 1552, which is kept in the cathedral monastery archive of Brandenburg. The seal was re-engraved around 1700 in a slightly different form and used until 1709. However, the newly stamped seal was only used by the part of the city immediately around the old Berlin City Hall . The position of the eagle on the bear is interpreted by some historians as the submission of Berlin to the rule of Elector Friedrich II. It is not known whether this seal picture was created with a real symbolic character. This is not entirely unlikely, as sphragistics and heraldry were still in full bloom in those times and attempts were often made to express historical facts through appropriate seal and coat of arms images. Some historians see a reciprocal relationship of protection and support in the representation. Other experts, however, consider it totally unnecessary, even a symbolic meaning in this presentation get in home nissen because there had been only a suitable arrangement as possible of both crest figures. Because the seal of the then imperial city of Bern shows a very similar one. In contrast to the Berlin seal, where the eagle sits on the bear's back and its tail feather runs behind the bear and can be seen under it again, the eagle in the Bern seal hovers freely over the bear with its fangs spread out.
In many descriptions of seals and tracings there is an indication that the bear's neck is adorned with a collar with a chain link. According to Rudolf Buchholz, who was still able to evaluate the original seal stamp, the bear did not wear a collar. Formations resembling an 8 can be seen under the bear's chin and tail. These were obviously interpreted as chain links and gave rise to the idea of a collar. Buchholz concluded from the combination of the Gothic minuscule and the number signs that this is the abbreviated year of the production of the stamp, i.e. 1444, because on the one hand the 4 was often similar in the typeface at that time to the 8, on the other hand the Gothic minuscule in 1488 no longer used and the seal used before 1488. This interpretation (1444 as the year of manufacture) is certainly wrong, since the submission document from 1448 was still sealed with the seal from 1338.
Paulus Stephanus Cassel stated in an essay that the "moral" and tamed power, the human nature of the animal, manifests itself in the neck ring. A bear provided with such an attribute is said to be the image of the "wild, strong people who are tamed and educated by the word of the spirit". However, it was also considered a heraldic custom to equip wild animals such as lions, bears, wolves and so on with a collar or neck ring. Even if it is not certain whether the bear in this seal picture is already wearing a collar, the Berlin bear has to tolerate a collar in the following seals and coats of arms.
Oldest coat of arms images
The two oldest coats of arms of Berlin come from Jörg Rugenn's book of arms from 1492 and Johann Siebmacher's book of arms from 1605. Both coats of arms show the bear alone in the shield. The coat of arms from Rugenn's coat of arms book contains a red-tongued brown bear rising to the right in a semicircular shield. The bear is depicted in a natural form. The coat of arms from Siebmacher's coat of arms shows in the baroque shield the unusual bear climbing to the left, which here looks more like a well-fattened pig. Siebmacher specifies the colors: "A white sign / the beer in it is black". However, there are no municipal or official documents confirming these coats of arms. Seal images, such as that of the seal ring from 1603 and the octagonal seal from 1618, suggest that Berlin has only had the bear in its shield as its coat of arms since at least the 17th century. Also on printed works and plans, such as the perspective plan of the city of Berlin by Johann Bernhard Schultz from 1688, only the bear appears as the city coat of arms of Berlin.
Coat of arms from Jörg Rugenn's book of arms from 1492
Coat of arms from Johann Siebmacher's coat of arms book from 1605
Signet ring from 1603
Seal from 1618
The silver and heavily gold-plated signet ring used to be in the Märkisches Museum. The diameter of the sealing plate was 26 millimeters. The ring itself was 24 millimeters in diameter and weighed 45 grams. The seal picture shows the bear ascending to the right with a collar in a shield. BERLIN is written in capital letters above the sign, 16 to the right of the sign and 03 to the left . The signet ring can be dated to the year of manufacture 1603 through its inscription. Rudolf Buchholz describes the signet ring as the "oldest mayor's ring". The use of another seal is proven from 1618. The seal image has an octagonal shape, with a width of 26 and a height of 29 millimeters. In this seal, too, the bear ascending to the right with a collar is shown in a shield. Above the sign there is a two-line banner with the words CIVITAS BERLIN “City of Berlin”. For the first time, the bear clearly wears a collar on both seals; they were used at the same time as the large round seal of 1448 and 1700.
Another image of the Berlin coat of arms was in the Marienkirche . Ernst Friedel reported on this depiction of the city's coat of arms, which has since been forgotten, on September 13, 1884 after a visit to St. Mary's Church. The city coat of arms was located with another 16 coats of arms of the four mayors, four chamberlains and eight councilors on five wooden panels painted in oil on the council box. By the inscription Rath zu Berlin. i.6. 86 on the wooden plaque, the coat of arms can be dated to 1686. The coat of arms is designed in the tradition of the great Berlin seal from 1280. The gold-framed silver (white) shield in the form of a Renaissance ratchet shows the red Brandenburg eagle. The shield is held by two black bears as The bears wear gold collars with chain links, are naturally depicted, facing each other and looking away. A spangenhelm in gold and metal tinging sits on the shield from the front . On the helmet sits a golden crown of leaves and the crest is a black eagle flight. The helmet cover, which also wraps around the bears, is tinged in red-black and white-red. The coat of arms is on permanent loan from the Evangelical Church in the Nikolaikirche , which is one of the museums of the Stadtmuseum Berlin Foundation .
Calibration stamp
Not only the councilors of the city of Berlin certified their documents by pressing on or attaching the city seal, the statutes of the goldsmiths' guild stipulated that their work must bear "the city's mark". The city sign had to be attached to dimensions, capacities and weights. Rudolf Buchholz describes three calibration stamps on steel bolts about 10 to 30 centimeters long, the head of which was broken by hammer blows. The embossed areas were between 6 and 20 millimeters. The oldest of the three calibration stamps is oval and divided in two horizontally. In the lower half it shows the Berlin bear with a collar running on all fours to the right. The year 1600 is in the upper half. The edge is decorated with baroque decorations. The second stamp, dating from the 17th century, bore the image of the upright striding bear with a collar. The third stamp showed the united city arms from 1709.
Other municipal institutions such as the City Court, the Ratswaage, the Armendirektion and the leasehold estate in Wedding used a seal with a different seal image and legend.
Royal capital and residence city of Berlin
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A significant day in the history of Berlin was January 17, 1709. On this day, by decree of King Friedrich I, the five previously independent cities of Berlin , Cölln , Friedrichswerder , Dorotheenstadt and Friedrichstadt became royal heads with effect from January 1, 1710 - and residence city Berlin united. At the same time, the regent ordered the creation of a uniform seal and large coat of arms. Paragraph nine of the decree establishing the new magistrate states: “Finally, we have a new sigillum made, which the new, confirmed magistrate will have to use”. At the same time, the new uniform magistrate was tasked with submitting all seals and coats of arms of the five sub-cities that were in use, as well as a sample for a uniform seal. With the significant participation of the chief herald's office , which was only created in 1706 , several drafts of a colored template for a new standard seal were created . On December 6, 1709, Frederick I decided on a draft and sent it to the Oberheroldamt for confirmation. Three months later, the approved seal came back with a cover letter:
“After We most graciously approved the drawing of a seal from the projects that you have been very submissively sent in, as if you would have to use it for it.
Cölln, d. Feb. 6, 1710
signed by Prince "
The new coat of arms was designed according to the colored template for the seal and officially awarded on the same day. From now on the bear had to share the coat of arms not only with the Brandenburg eagle, but also with the Prussian eagle. With the award of the new seal and coat of arms for the new royal capital and residence city of Berlin, the seal and coat of arms of the five sub-cities of Berlin were declared invalid.
The completely redesigned coat of arms shows in baroque form one in Göpel section divided gold shield, which is lined on the sides of green foliage tendrils with red fruits. In the front white (silver) field the golden armed and red tongued black Prussian eagle can be seen, whose wings are each covered with a golden clover stem . On his head he wears a golden royal crown, in the right muzzle the golden royal eagle scepter and in the left the Prussian orb. The chest adorns a royal crown in gold and the intertwined initials FR for Fridericus Rex "King Friedrich". In the back white field the golden armed and red tongued red Brandenburg eagle can be seen, whose wings are each covered with a golden clover stem. He wears the electoral hat on his head, the golden electoral lily scepter in the right muzzle and the electoral sword in the left. The chest is covered with a blue semicircular shield, which shows the golden electoral lily scepter. In the lower white field is the upright black Berlin bear with a gold collar. On the shield of the coat of arms sits the "sovereign Churhut", the crown of the Prussian kingdom that rose from the electorate, a combination of a royal crown and an electoral hat; it is often referred to as the Kurkrone.
The eagles symbolize, on the one hand, that Berlin belongs to the Mark Brandenburg and Prussia and, on the other hand, together with the sovereign Churhut, show Berlin as the residence of the Brandenburg electors and Prussian kings. The visually identical seal bears the lettering 17 SCB 09 below the shield . The numbers 17 and 09 stand for the year 1709. The abbreviation SCB stands for Sigillum Civitatis Berlin "Siegel der Stadt Berlin".
In the first half of the 19th century, the magistrate introduced a second city seal to the main city seal of 1709, which, as in the previous one, was adopted as the coat of arms. The new coat of arms or seal differs from the old one in that the cure crown was replaced by the royal crown. Below, in the now divided shield, the bear occupies a dominant place in its own shield (main shield). A wall crown is inserted on the bear shield. The Prussian and Brandenburg eagles are split at the top as before, but shown smaller in proportion. These changes are based on the adoption of French customs. Although this seal is only attested in 1839, its origin should go back to the French occupation of Berlin from October 1806 to the end of 1808 during the Napoleonic Wars .
It is not known whether the changes to the seal and coat of arms were made by order of the state. However, the seal and coat of arms correspond to the medal that Friedrich Wilhelm III. the mayor and the mayor in 1839 for their chains of office. Despite the changes, the seal still bore the year 1709. The legend in a blind stamp from that time reads: Seal of the capital and residence city of Berlin 1709 . The city council also adopted the seal image for their official seals, but with the year 1808 as the year of the announcement of the city reform by Freiherr vom Stein .
The design of the great coat of arms from 1839 did not meet with unanimous approval. The city archivist Ernst Fidicin wrote in a letter dated July 24, 1871 to the magistrate:
“In Berlin, which had been ruled by the Comité administratif under French supervision since 1806 during the French invasion, came this Roman-French coat of arms (it first appeared in 1781 and then became mandatory through the official French heraldry in the west of the empire during the Napoleonic occupation ) also asserted itself, and with it the Berlin city bonds were first decorated, which had to be made to cover the heavy monetary sacrifices imposed on us by France; and until now, when the memory of this way of origin has been lost, this usage has remained. It can only lie in the wishes of every patriot to free himself from such a coat of arms. "
Fidicin considered the top of the wall to be absolutely unforgivable. It was not until 1884 at a meeting of the Herold Association that it became known that the five-tower wall crown had been drawn by the well-known Berlin building officer Christian Gottlieb Cantian . In 1891 the Berlin magistrate Richard Béringuier was still indignant about the composition of the coat of arms from 1839, which differed unfavorably from the seal of 1709. On it the three coats of arms were at least housed in a heraldic correctly divided shield. However, the way in which the bear shield, wall crown and eagle were united in 1839 would only have "emerged from the most complete ignorance of heraldic and stylistic rules and bears the character of a time when every sense of art was lost".
The chain of office from 1839 has another medal as a connecting element between the chain and the medal, in which only the Berlin bear and the inscription STADTVERORDNETE ZU BERLIN can be seen. As in almost all images between 1450 and 1875, the bear wears a collar or a neck ring that is colored gold in the images. While the heraldry invokes the addition of the neck ring, which was customary in the Middle Ages, with the aim of making it clear that it is a question of a bear and not a boar, Hildebrandt is “not entirely sure whether, as many believe, this will result in submission the city should be expressed under the rule of the Hohenzollern ”. The Berliners saw in the tape the sign of bondage and submission and called it the "lead tape".
The individual municipal institutions had very different seal images. In some cases, the seal images of a facility changed in just a few years. In the registry seal from 1766, the bear is surrounded by baroque decorations. The oval seal of the house and rental tax fund only shows the bear and the inscription HAUS- U. MIETHSSTEUER CASSE. . In 1846 the debtors used a seal with a coat of arms and a wall crown. The baroque shield shows the rising bear and the top of the wall consists of only five towers. The inscription reads SCHUL-DEPUTATION DES MAGISTRATS ZU BERLIN . The seal images of the magistrate also changed more often. The seal from 1846 shows the upright bear with a collar and a baroque shield on the floor. On the shield sits the Prussian eagle with the imperial orb in the left, the scepter in the right muzzle and the royal crown on the head. In 1846 the inscription was MAGISTRAT IN BERLIN , in 1853 it was called MAGISTRAT ZU BERLIN . The Prussian eagle is missing from the municipal seal from 1853, but the crown of the wall adorns the bear shield again.
Registration seal from 1766
Seal of the house and rental tax fund from 1831
Seal of the debtor's deputation of 1846
Municipal seal from 1846
Municipal seal from 1853
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Capital of the German Empire
After the establishment of the German Empire in 1871, discussions about a new coat of arms for the capital of the empire flared up again. In a letter dated July 24, 1871, in which the city archivist Ernst Fidicin describes the creation of the Berlin seal, he took the view that the city needed a new "imperial" seal. In the name of the herald's office, Count Stillfried pointed out that the city seal never had the addition “electoral” or “royal” and that the designation “imperial” was therefore inappropriate. However, the discussions led to the fact that the bear was released from its collar by a resolution of the magistrate on October 1, 1875. With this, the “sign of bondage” was taken away from the bear and the “tamed” bear became a “free” and “wilder” one again. The changed coat of arms shows the golden armored and red-tongued black Prussian eagle in a split semicircular shield, with a golden royal crown on the head and the golden intertwined initials FR for Fridericus Rex on the chest. The wings are each covered with a golden clover stem . He holds the Prussian imperial orb in the right muzzle and the golden eagle scepter in the left. In the back field is the golden armed and red-tongued red Brandenburg eagle, it wears a blue breastplate with a golden electoral lily scepter and the red electoral hat on its head. On each wing there is a golden clover stem. This eagle holds the golden eagle scepter in the right muzzle and the shiny course sword in the left. The eagles are facing each other. On the shield below is a smaller, silver semicircular shield with a golden five-tower wall crown, inside the upright, striding red-tongued black Berlin bear. While the Prussian and Brandenburg eagles still hovered over the bear in their own shields in earlier coats of arms, they take a backseat from this coat of arms. They are now partially covered by the bear shield and have to share a split shield.
These changes made in 1875 to the coat of arms should be an attempt to create a new coat of arms. The bear, of which there have now been many bizarre images, should also receive a representation worthy of it. In the course of the discussions, the coat of arms was changed again in 1883. In the coat of arms, the Prussian eagle is shown again in its original representation - looking to the right, the scepter in the right and the imperial orb in the left catch - and where the electoral hat and the royal crown once adorned the coat of arms, there is a three-tower red wall crown with a closed gate on the sign. The split shield is made in baroque form. As in the coat of arms from 1871, in the front silver field there is the gold-reinforced and red-tongued black Prussian eagle. The wings are each covered with a golden clover stem. On the are the golden intertwined initials FR for Fridericus Rex and on the head he wears the golden royal crown. In the left muzzle he holds the Prussian imperial orb and in the right a golden eagle scepter. The red-tongued red Brandenburg eagle is drawn in the rear silver field. The wings are each covered with a golden clover stem. On his chest is a blue breastplate with a golden lily scepter and he wears the Kurhut on his head. In the right muzzle he holds the bare sword and in the left a golden eagle scepter. At the bottom of the main shield, a silver semicircular shield with a golden five-tower wall crown; in the shield the red armored and red-tongued black upright Berlin bear. On the top of the wall of the main shield there are helmet covers , silver inside and black outside. This does not correspond to the heraldic rules, according to which helmet covers should only be used together with helmets. At the sides and below the shield is framed by two leaves; on the right a green oak branch with brown acorns, on the left a green laurel branch with red fruits. The branches are wrapped with a silver-black ribbon tied at the bottom in a bow.
The heraldist Professor Adolf Matthias Hildebrandt made several designs for a Berlin coat of arms in 1883. One of them was used as a small coat of arms until 1920 and then also as the city's large coat of arms. This black and white coat of arms shows an erect, white-tongued white bear in a white shield. A white five-tower wall crown rests on the shield. Hildebrandt, who himself criticized the many manifestations of the bear, received criticism himself for this coat of arms. A critic later remarked that "the bear looks very martial and heraldic, but unfortunately more resembles an irritated lion and moves like Master Petz never does".
However, the long discussions and discussions were unsuccessful. The efforts to create a new coat of arms petered out and the artist's final form of the bear was not taken care of in the period that followed. Berlin was the only major German city to have to be content with a coat of arms for which there was no official template. Since there was no legal effect associated with the use of the coat of arms images, i.e. they were allowed to deviate from the established shape of the seal, there was a very free design of the figure of the bear.
The Berliners thought they knew their bear because they saw him every day on the street, at fountains, buildings, on tax receipts, on calendars or newspapers; and sculptors, draftsmen or lithographers were expected to have the correct idea of the Berlin heraldic animal. The number of unsuitable role models was, however, as Hans Brendicke, editor of the reports of the Association for the History of Berlin, stated with some sadness in 1896, “downright legion”. Brendicke noticed that the individual sub-authorities each had their own bear and that three different bears can be seen on the coupon sheets for the Berlin city bond. It would have caused many publishers no small pain if they had to indicate immediately where to find Berlin's bears in the correct version. A member of the Association for the History of Berlin, with the help of friends and acquaintances, officials and authorities, had collected 273 representations of the bear that “show us the whole scale of four-legged mammals, but also the apparent lack of a generally valid conception of the city's coat of arms let feel ”.
Another coat of arms came into use at the beginning of the 20th century. It is the bear shield with wall crown from the coat of arms from 1839. The coat of arms shows the red-tongued, upright black Berlin bear in the silver shield, which is executed in baroque form, which is described in this coat of arms as emaciated and more like a fox or a dog . A five-tower wall crown rests on the shield.
The many different and sometimes very bad depictions of bears allowed Hildebrandt in 1915 in the "Writings of the Association for the History of Berlin - Volume 50" to practice bitter criticism of the majority of Berlin illustrators, whom he accused of "sin against our friend Braun in the worst ways for centuries" to have. He strongly condemned those coat of arms producers who painted the bear red or placed it in a yellow field. “Our old Petz” is and should always be “good Prussian black and white”. Hildebrandt found it wrong to place the bear on a hill or lawn in the sign. The bear should stand free in a sign and fill it in as much as possible. The top of the wall with its five towers must rest firmly on the shield and not sit on the bear's head or even hover over his head. Hildebrandt stated: “The heraldic bear must stand upright on its hind legs, in a bold, attacking position; 'Sent to Grimme' is the ancient heraldic expression - the front paws raised with spread claws, the mouth wide open with powerful teeth, the tongue stuck out. The drawing should not be naturalistic, but stylized, but in such a way that the characteristic shape of the bear is not impaired, but rather enhanced. For example, it should be noted that the bear ... is a 'sole walker' and must be marked as such in the coat of arms ”.
There was also no official specification for the seal. Each authority used a different bear, sometimes with a shield, sometimes without a shield, which varied in shape, sometimes with no wall crown. The city used a seal with the bear coat of arms with a wall crown from the coat of arms from 1839, as it was often used as a coat of arms since the beginning of the 20th century. The inscription between two smooth lines reads SIEGEL DER REICHSHAUPTSTADT BERLIN . The Association of Greater Berlin , formed in 1912 , also had a seal with the Berlin Bear. The lower half of the seal of the association shows the upright Berlin bear in a semicircular shield. The legend, which is limited to the lower half of the seal, reads VERBAND GROSSBERLIN . The upper half of the seal is completely filled by the Brandenburg eagle. The wings are each covered with a clover stem and the chest with a triangular shield with a lily scepter. The eagle wears the electoral hat on its head.
Seal of the Greater Berlin Association 1912–1920
Seal of the Reich capital Berlin 1920
After the November Revolution of 1918 and the associated abdication of the monarchy in Germany, the dynastic emblems, the black Prussian and red Brandenburg eagles with their associated insignia, became superfluous. The bear moved up to the only coat of arms in the shield with the wall crown. After the formation of the new city of Greater Berlin in 1920, when eight cities, 59 rural communities and 27 manor districts were united by Prussian law, the bear was considered the symbol of the city. Due to the tasks and immense difficulties associated with the formation of Greater Berlin, the municipal bodies and authorities did not find the time to allow the bear to take part in official care. There were also numerous variants of coats of arms and bears. On some, the bear and the top of the wall were hardly recognizable as such.
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It was not until the Nazi era that attention was paid to the coat of arms again. Professor Sigmund von Weech designed a new coat of arms in 1934 at the suggestion of Julius Lippert , the “ State Commissioner in the Capital Berlin” appointed by the Nazis . It shows an upright black bear with a red tongue in a silver shield with a double red border and a stylized five-tower red wall crown. The " Völkischer Beobachter " described the coat of arms on May 23, 1934, in which the bear "stands proud, taut, powerful and erect ... in the white shield, which is defiantly protected by the defensive wall crown". In an order dated June 12, 1935, Mayor Heinrich Sahm , who was in office alongside the State Commissioner, ordered that only the new coat of arms should be used in future and that designs for official seals should only be provided by Weech. The exchange of the old for the new coat of arms was very slow. The city's official gazette only took over the new coat of arms in its header with number 41 from October 13, 1935. Due to this hesitant approach, Mayor Sahm again pointed out in a letter of December 7, 1935 that only the new coat of arms should be used.
divided town
After the Second World War , innovations and reforms were necessary in almost all areas. The bear as a city symbol should be retained. The intention of the German authorities was initially not to make the 1934 bear appear too “defensive” and “combative” by appropriate “renovations” to the occupying powers. In the first draft of the constitution from the beginning of January 1946 by the magistrate, which was still established solely by the Soviet military government in May 1945, it says in Article 1 paragraph 2: “Berlin has the coat of arms, seal and flag with the bear. The details are set out in a regulation ”. The same wording was adopted in the Provisional Constitution issued by the Allies on August 13, 1946 and in Article 5 of the draft of the City Council's Assembly for a democratic constitution of April 22, 1948, it says: “Berlin carries the flag, coat of arms and seal with the Bears, the flag with the colors white and red ”.
On January 21, 1948, after much preparation, the magistrate submitted a law on the coat of arms and flag of Berlin. In the city council meeting on the 100th anniversary of the revolution of 1848 on March 18, 1948, Karl Maron ( SED ) reported on the deliberations on the law in the responsible constitutional committee. With regard to the new shape of the bear, which everyone demanded, there was no bear war, but there were extensive differences of opinion about whether the bear should be thinner or thicker, whether it should show its tongue or not, and the like. Therefore it was decided to announce a competition in which all "bear friends who are gifted in drawing" were given the opportunity to present their opinion on the bear figure by July 1st. Decisions on this competition could no longer be made, as the division of the city began to emerge as early as the early summer of 1948. The designs submitted covered a broad spectrum. In the meantime, the bear was judged to be so “tame” that some patterns showed the bear without claws or tongue. One sender presented the dove of peace as a heraldic animal, sitting on a rock with an olive branch in its beak.
After the split of the city, efforts were no longer made in East Berlin to redesign the coat of arms. While all German states regulated their coat of arms in their respective constitutions, East Berlin lacked such provisions due to the lack of a constitution. From 1953 the corresponding regulations of the GDR applied . There city coats of arms were not official, valid and legally binding emblems and did not appear in the seals of the cities. The coat of arms of Professor von Weech from 1934 was continued. The seals to be used were determined by the seal regulations and the following implementation provisions for the seal regulations of the GDR. The official seals showed the state coat of arms of the GDR . The inscription bore the words "German Democratic Republic" in the upper half and the designation of the organ of state power that held the seal in the lower half. The registration number of the official seal is attached under the coat of arms.
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In West Berlin , the constitution that came into force on October 1, 1950 , like the 1948 draft, stipulated in Article 5: "Berlin carries the flag, coat of arms and seal with the bear, the flag with the colors white and red." The urgent need to create a new coat of arms was not only to distinguish itself from East Berlin, it should also include the provision of Article 1 (1) of the constitution, "Berlin is a German state and at the same time a city" in the coat of arms Expression. In the spring of 1951, the non-party Interior Senator Werner Müller was of the opinion that Berlin should have two coats of arms in the future. In addition to a new state coat of arms, there is also the old city coat of arms, "because of the urban character of the youngest country". However, the Senate opted for only one coat of arms. In February 1952 twelve well-known Berlin artists and heraldists were invited to participate in a limited competition to obtain suitable designs for a coat of arms. The mixed commission included the governing mayor Ernst Reuter as chairman, three senators, several members of parliament and prominent artists such as Renée Sintenis , Richard Scheibe and Max Taut . In June 1952, the commission decided to award the first prize of 1,500 DM to Professor Richard Blank, the second to Ottfried Neubecker and the third prize to Ludwig Peter Kowalski.
Richard Blank, professor of graphics at the University of Fine Arts , was keen to abandon the old baroque heraldic forms and create a new coat of arms with a modern, functional and representative look, without frills, ornaments and jewelry. A newspaper wrote that his “Ursus Berolinensis” “takes a particularly upright, proud and downright defensive posture”. The coat of arms shows an erect, red-armored and red-tongued black bear in a silver shield. A golden five-leaf crown of leaves rests on the shield. The foliage crown, also known as the people's crown , adorned the shields of all three award-winning designs. She was naturalized in countries with republican constitution.
Contrary to the general expectations of the public, the decision of the commission was far from being a final decision. Only after a year and a few small changes did the Senate vote in favor of Richard Blank's draft and forward a corresponding draft resolution to the House of Representatives . The responsible interior committee could not bring itself to a unanimous approval. Some MPs said the bear looked so starved that it should have eaten the golden leaves. Other MPs compared him to a wet dog that has just been pulled out of the water. The minority, who lost out after the committee's report in the plenary debate on November 5, 1953, emphatically stated that they did not include the bear as a coat of arms. The advice that the committee did not have to decide on the state of the bear's forage, a more or less naturalistic depiction or the old dispute over summer or winter fur, but whether the apparently expert judgment of well-known artists was approved in the selection of the designs, was ignored . The wording of the minutes of the meeting was judged by a critic to be "a somewhat shameful testimony to the mental and linguistic depression in which this parliamentary debate moved, with the aim of making a death sentence on artistic achievements with cheap jokes". Due to the discrepancies, the proposal was referred back to the Interior Committee. The President of Parliament Otto Suhr remarked that if a coat of arms is to fulfill its symbolic meaning, it must not be enforced with a narrow majority, but must be supported by the sympathy and appreciation of all.
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The rapporteur for the Interior Committee had to admit in Parliament on May 6, 1954 that the committee had again failed to come to an agreement. Finally, after two discussions of the draft, the Council of Elders pleaded for Ottfried Neubecker's second-prize design to be considered suitable for Berlin. The House of Representatives then passed the law on the emblems of the state of Berlin with a large majority on May 13, 1954 and then approved Neubecker's draft coat of arms with only a few votes against. After years of discussion, West Berlin finally had a new coat of arms. Images of the new coat of arms and the new flags were added to the law as samples. Up until then, West Berlin had used the 1934 coat of arms.
The new coat of arms of Berlin shows in a silver (white) shield a red armored and red-tongued black bear walking upright. A golden five-leaf crown of leaves rests on the shield with masonry and a closed gate in the middle as a forehead band. The bear is the Berlin bear , which has finally established itself by law as the sole heraldic animal and symbol of the city of Berlin. The crown of leaves in connection with the masonry in the browband underlines the rural-urban character of Berlin.
The design and use of the state seals had to be carried out in a separate ordinance on the basis of Section 5 (1) of the law on the emblems of the state of Berlin. This came into force on November 12, 1954 with the ordinance on state seals of October 28, 1954 . A large and a small seal were created. The large state seal shows the state coat of arms, surrounded by a wreath of leaves. It has a diameter of 60 millimeters and is only used as an embossed seal. The small state seal shows the state coat of arms and as a legend in the upper part of the seal-bearing position and below the name BERLIN . The diameter of the small state seal is 35 millimeters. It is used as an embossing seal, seal mark or color printing stamp. The state seal is used in smaller versions for certain applications, e.g. B. for civil status documents with a diameter of 20 millimeters.
Big state seal
Senator's small country seal for home
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Reunified Berlin
After the political turnaround in the GDR in 1989, laws and constitutions were revised and created in the GDR. So got East Berlin on 23 July 1990 its own constitution. Like the constitution of West Berlin, this constitution was drawn up on the basis of the constitution passed on April 22, 1948. The new constitution also says in Article 5: “Berlin carries the flag, coat of arms and seal with the bear, the flag with the colors white and red.” The constitution of East Berlin was from the outset only for the transition period up to German reunification and thus also intended for the reunification of Berlin. In Article 88 paragraph 4 it says: "This constitution ceases to be in force on the day of the constituent session of the newly elected general Berlin parliament, in which the validity of a general Berlin constitution is also determined for this part of the city." On October 2nd, 1990, the first all-Berlin election since 1946 took place on December 2, 1990. On January 11, 1991, the entire Berlin House of Representatives decided to extend the scope of the constitution of West Berlin from September 1, 1950 to include the whole of Berlin. With this, the coat of arms from 1954 was adopted for all of Berlin. It is the coat of arms and emblem of the state and the city of Berlin that is still valid today.
Country symbol
In order to enable private individuals, companies and non-sovereign institutions to document their ties to Berlin with a symbol, the Senate Department for Interior and Sport provides the state symbol, which can be used by everyone, except in seals , stamps or on signs. This coat of arms shows the coat of arms of the state coat of arms without a crown in color or black and white.
- National symbols of Berlin
black-and-white
coloured
silver
District coat of arms
According to the law on the national emblems of the State of Berlin of October 22, 2007 §1 (2), the districts carry the state coat of arms. The Senate of Berlin can and has also given the individual districts district coats of arms, which can be shown to represent the districts. The same rules apply to the use of the district coat of arms as for the state coat of arms. Officially or officially, the districts of the former West Berlin have only had their own coat of arms since 1954 and the districts of the former East Berlin since 1990. Before that, the coats of arms of the cities and rural communities giving their name were unofficially carried as district coats of arms. The law on the national emblems of the State of Berlin of May 13, 1954 restricted the use of the district coats of arms by the districts. The restrictive regulation for the district coats of arms was found to be out of date in 2007. At the session of the Senate on July 10, 2007, the Senator for Interior and Sport Ehrhart Körting introduced a new bill on the emblems of the State of Berlin. The law on the national emblems of the State of Berlin of October 22, 2007 came into force on November 3, 2007. With the new version of the law, the official flag was also abolished.
As a connecting element of all Berlin district coats of arms with the city of Berlin, but also with each other, the three-tower wall crown resting on the shield, the middle tower of which is covered with the Berlin coat of arms (silver), is prescribed. It was introduced in the 1950s and until 1992 only adorned the coats of arms of the districts in West Berlin . After the German reunification and thus also the reunification of Berlin, the crown of the wall was also placed on the coats of arms of the districts of the former eastern part of the city . The wall crowns already showed differences in the various representations of the West Berlin district coats of arms and the wall crowns of the new district coats of arms of the former East Berlin districts were not designed in a uniform manner. With the district merger on January 1, 2001, new district coats of arms had to be created for the newly created districts. The Berlin State Archives gave the districts advice on how to design. The top of the wall was specified by the Senate and thus uniformly adorns all district coats of arms.
The coats of arms of the cities, municipalities and manor districts that were incorporated into Greater Berlin in 1920 lost their validity with the incorporation and disappeared from official use. Some of them were adopted as district coats of arms or were incorporated into their design. In the resulting districts, the historical coats of arms are still used by local organizations or at historical events to symbolize affiliation. Some districts that did not yet have a coat of arms received a coat of arms from their district, such as the Frohnau district in 1987. More information on the individual coats of arms of the districts and districts can be found in the articles on the respective district coats of arms.
As with the country symbol, the coat of arms of the district coats of arms may be used as district symbols without the wall crown to symbolize the affiliation to the respective district.
Other use of the Berlin coat of arms
The Berliner Stern und Kreisschiffahrt operates a motor ship called the coat of arms of Berlin .
See also
literature
- Ernst Fidicin : The coat of arms and colors of the city of Berlin. Berlin 1868.
- Hans J. Reichhardt: The Berlin Bear. Small story of a city symbol in a seal, coat of arms and flag. In: Press and Information Office of the State of Berlin (Ed.): Berliner Forum. 2/79. Kupijai & Prochnow, Berlin 1979.
- Heinz Machatscheck: When the heraldic bear was born. Berlin-Information, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-7442-0005-1 .
- Werner Vogel : Berlin and its coat of arms. Ullstein, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-550-07818-8 .
- Jutta Schneider: New coat of arms for Berlin. In: Berlin monthly journal . 4th year, issue 2, February 1995, pp. 73-74. Edition Luisenstadt, Berlin 1995, ISSN 0944-5560 .
- Bernd DW Unger: The Berlin Bear. A journey through history and the present. Waxmann, Münster 2000, ISBN 3-89325-990-2 .
- Federal Ministry of the Interior (ed.): Coats of arms and flags of the Federal Republic of Germany and its federal states. Carl Heymanns, Bonn / Cologne / Berlin 1956.
- Wolfgang Schneider: Berlin. A cultural history in pictures and documents. Gustav Kiepenheuer, Leipzig and Weimar 1983.
- Roland Bauer: Berlin. Illustrated Chronicle up to 1870. Volume 1. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-320-00831-5 .
- Federal Agency for Political Education (Hrsg.): Coats of arms and flags of the Federal Republic of Germany and its countries. 2nd revised edition. Merkur-Druck Mayer, Bonn 1990, ISBN 3-89331-010-X .
- Federal Agency for Political Education (Hrsg.): Coats of arms and flags of the Federal Republic of Germany and its countries. 3rd revised and expanded edition. Magdeburger Druckerei, Bonn 1994, ISBN 3-89331-206-4 .
Web links
- National emblem of the state of Berlin on the state's website. Retrieved December 10, 2015.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Law on the National Emblems of the State of Berlin. dated October 22, 2007 • as PDF ( memento of the original dated August 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (9,483 bytes in berlin.de), as Wikisource
- ^ Constitution of Berlin . from November 23, 1995 • at berlin.de
- ↑ a b c Implementing Regulations for the Law on National Emblems of the State of Berlin. dated December 12, 2007 • as PDF (71,079 bytes) at berlin.de.
- ↑ Berlin. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 3, Leipzig 1733, column 1327-1329.
- ↑ bear, m. ursus. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 1 : A - Beer whey - (I). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1854, Sp. 1122–1124 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
- ↑ bër. In: Matthias Lexer : Middle High German Concise Dictionary. Volume 1: A-M. Leipzig 1872, column 182 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
- ↑ -lîn. In: Matthias Lexer: Middle High German Concise Dictionary. Volume 1: A-M. Leipzig 1872, Sp. 1923 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
-
↑ Hansjürgen Vahldiek: Cölln on the Spree. Origin and change of the Berlin Spree island. New approaches in research. 2nd Edition. Berlin 2005.
Hansjürgen Vahldiek: Berlin. New findings on founding and urban development. Berlin 2007. - ^ Wolfgang Schneider: Berlin. A cultural history in pictures and documents. Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig and Weimar 1983, p. 28.
- ↑ Reinhard E. Fischer: The place names of the states of Brandenburg and Berlin. Age - origin - meaning. be.bra Wissenschaft verlag, Berlin-Brandenburg 2005, ISBN 3-937233-30-X , p. 25.
- ↑ berle ... berlein. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 1 : A - Beer whey - (I). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1854, Sp. 1525 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
- ↑ a b c d e Rudolf Buchholz: Directory of the Berlin antiquities in the Märkisches Provinzial-Museum of the city of Berlin. Berlin 1890.
- ^ Paulus Cassel: The bear as the coat of arms of the city of Berlin. In: Der Bär, Berlinische Blätter for patriotic history and antiquities. 2nd year. 1876, p. 149 ff.
- ^ A b Hans J. Reichhardt: The Berlin Bear. Small story of a city symbol in a seal, coat of arms and flag. In: Press and Information Office of the State of Berlin (Ed.): Berliner Forum. 2/79. Kupijai & Prochnow, Berlin 1979, p. 20.
- ↑ Heinz Machatscheck: When the heraldic bear was born. Berlin-Information, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-7442-0005-1 , p. 53.
- ↑ Werner Vogel: Berlin and its coat of arms. Ullstein, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-550-07818-8 , p. 96.
- ^ Seal order of the German Democratic Republic. May 28, 1953, § 1 (2).
-
↑ a b Law on the National Emblems of the State of Berlin. dated May 13, 1954 • as PDF (61,511 bytes) from berlin.de, as source text from
Wikisource.
- ↑ III.2. (2) Implementing Regulations for the Law on National Emblems of the State of Berlin
- ^ New version of the law on the emblems of the state of Berlin . Press release from the State of Berlin from July 10, 2007.
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