Flag and coat of arms of the canton of Obwalden

Coat of arms of the canton of Obwalden

Flag of the canton of Obwalden

The flag and the coat of arms of the canton of Obwalden show the same picture: A key colored below red, above white colored background in the reverse color background: The white colored half of the key is in the red background and vice versa. The key bit always points upwards and against the flagpole. The canton colors are red and white.

Blazon

There are different blazons of the coat of arms:

These are for example:

• Divided by red and silver, a right-turned key with a three-pass line and a cross cut in the beard in a mistaken tincture .

or

• Divided by red and silver, with a key in alternated tinctures.

history

banner

Like many old banners, the flag probably dates from the 13th century and was originally kept simple - red above and white below. This flag was the ensign of the whole country Unterwalden , its red color is probably due to the blood banner of the empire back.

Thanks to the banner right granted by King Maximilian in 1487, the Obwalden were allowed to display pictures of the crucified , Joseph and Johannes in white in the red field of their flags .

The flags of smaller military extracts, however, were simply red and white with a white cross in the upper red field.

seal

The seal of Unterwalden with the added inscription et vallis superioris

As early as 1240 the church members of Stans had a seal with the inscription S. Universitatis Hominum de Stannes (German: Seal of the common residents of Stans ) and a simple key, the attribute of their church patron Peter . Since Unterwalden did not have its own regional seal, this Stans church seal was taken and supplemented with the Latin seal inscription et vallis superioris (German: and of the upper valley ). This seal was used to seal the Federal Letter of 1291 and the Morgarten Letter of 1315 , among others . It was used until the 16th century as a seal of Unterwalden for all documents that sealed Obwalden and Nidwalden together as a federal place. Since the middle of the 14th century, when Nidwalden had its own seal, this seal was also used as a stand seal by Obwalden. The seal was always kept by the Obwalden Landammann and is now kept in the Obwalden State Archives in the Sarner Hexenturm .

coat of arms

While the common coat of arms of Unterwalden, d. H. the parts “ob dem Wald” and “nid dem Wald”, initially also showed a single key and from the 15th century a double key, the key was missing from the actual coat of arms of Obwalden. Like the first flags, it was only divided by red and white.

It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a simple key appeared in the Obwalden coat of arms, for example on the Supraporta above the main entrance of the town hall from 1729/31. The old form of the coat of arms, a field divided into an upper red and lower white half, was supplemented with the key. The coat of arms of Obwalden has only existed in its current form since an agreement with Nidwalden, the settlement of August 12, 1816. The flag in its current form was only gradually put into use from 1816 onwards.

Appearance since December 2008

In December 2008, the government council of the canton of Obwalden decided on a new look for the cantonal documents. A new canton logo was also defined, which is based in particular on a “more contemporary redrawing of the canton's coat of arms, which neither changes the arrangement nor the heraldic colors nor the coat of arms components in their content”. The proportions of the coat of arms were slightly revised.

Municipal coat of arms

For the coats of arms of the Obwalden municipalities, see the municipalities of the canton of Obwalden .

literature

• Swiss Army (Ed.): Dealing with flags, standards and fanions. (Flag regulations). Regulations 51.340 d. Swiss Army, Bern 2008, p. 57.
• Louis Mühlemann: coat of arms and flags of Switzerland. 700 years of Confoederatio Helvetica. Official emblem and flag book for the 700th anniversary of the Confederation. 3. Edition. Bühler-Verlag, Lengnau 1991, ISBN 3-9520071-1-0 .

Web links

• The coat of arms of the canton of Obwalden on the website of the canton of Obwalden

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Mühlemann 1991, page 60
2. ↑ The coat of arms of the canton of Obwalden on the website of the canton of Obwalden, accessed on September 20, 2018
3. ↑ The origin of the Nidwalden coat of arms. (PDF) State Archives Nidwalden, accessed on September 20, 2018 . 
4. ↑ From the government council of the canton of Obwalden - New appearance of cantonal documents (PDF; 93 kB)