Åland flag

Åland flag
Vexillological symbol :
Aspect ratio:	17:26
Officially accepted:	March 31, 1954

The Åland flag is the national symbol of the autonomous archipelago between Finland and Sweden . The blue background with the yellow cross represents belonging to Sweden, the Swedish culture and ancestry, the red cross on a yellow cross are the Swedish colors for Finland and the colors of the Finnish national coat of arms : a yellow lion on a red background.

history

Flag on a ferry on the postal route

The Åland flag flies on Kobba Klintar , one of the first outposts when entering Mariehamn .

An Åland flag was shown for the first time at the great song festival in Mariehamn in 1922 . It was a striped flag with three bands of equal width, with the colors blue-yellow-blue. Until 1934, the Ålanders repeatedly displayed their flag, which came from the old Swedish Empire, at festivals.

In 1934 a general flag order came out and according to this it was forbidden to display other flags unless the national flag of Finland was also flying in a dominant place. The Ålanders, with their landscape manager and District Administrator Björkman at the helm, ignored this order. "This regulation applies where it has been issued, in Finland. It does not apply in Åland," the islands quickly agreed.

When an eager state official brought down the Åland flag at a festival, the police were called. However, this could not do anything and after getting information in Helsingfors ( Helsinki ) it was clear: There was no exception in the law for Åland, so no flag with the Åland coat of arms could be hoisted without the Finnish flag being hoisted at the same time.

However, they did not accept that, a short time later, in 1937, the Landsting MP Herman Mattsson suggested that a separate Åland flag should be drawn up. Due to the Stockholm Plan - fortifications for Åland at the end of the 1930s - the plans were put on hold for the time being. Five years later, in 1942, Herman Mattsson took up the question again, hoping this time to gain support. After a critical examination by Matts Dreijer at the end of 1945, a landscape law was finally proposed regarding the Åland flag and the Åland coat of arms. However, the law got stuck in the law committee and was never passed.

The new “Självstyrelselagen” (self-administration law) of 1951 finally gave the Lagting the right to design its own flag for the landscape and to determine its use. This laid the foundation for an Åland national symbol.

In January 1952, the landscape management passed the first Åland flag law. The flag that was proposed was a Nordic cross in blue and yellow. A blue background with a yellow cross and a blue cross in the middle of the yellow cross. The Lagting passed the law and the Åland delegation enacted the law, but the court felt that the flag was too similar to the Swedish one and that there was a risk of confusion. The President of the Åland delegation followed this opinion and the idea of ​​this flag was discarded.

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  ^? Åland flag from 1922

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  ^? Flag proposed in 1952

As a result, there was a flag dispute in the Lagting in 1953 . A new proposal came in March, this time with a blue cross on a yellow background. A heated debate broke out after the performance. Eventually this proposal was also rejected. A minority continued to cling to the old flag from the Swedish Empire, the blue, yellow and blue striped flag. The majority in the laging, however, was in favor of a Scandinavian cross flag. So a third proposal was made, this time with a blue background, a yellow cross and a red cross in the yellow cross. This proposal was finally accepted with 18 votes in favor and 11 against.

On March 31, 1954, Finnish President Paasikivi recognized the flag law. In the new self-government law, ships registered in Åland have the right to fly the Åland flag as a seafaring flag anywhere in the world.

The aspect ratio of today's flag is 17:26; the horizontal dimensions of the fields are 16: 3: 4: 3: 26, vertical 12: 3: 4: 3: 12.

Inventor of the Åland flag

It was later speculated who the original inventor of the now new Åland flag was. According to Erik Tudéer , this is the adult education center teacher L. O. Liljeström. The journalist Håkan Skogsjö , who went through the design process again, had a different opinion. A later interview with the then Vice President of the Lagting, Eliel Persson , confirmed Skogsjö's perception. According to Persson, it was Evald Häggblom who designed the flag that eventually won the vote. The same proposal was made at the same time by the elementary school teacher Kerstin Bertell, who tested several options among her colleagues.

Ancient ancestors of the Åland flag

In the mid-1960s, during restoration work on a medieval wooden sculpture that belonged to the Swedish King Karl Knutsson Bonde , it was discovered that the remaining paint on the royal banner was an unknown model for the Åland flag. It is believed that this banner was flying over Kastelholm in the 15th century when Karl Knutsson came to Åland with his guests.

See also

• Scandinavian flags
• Flag of Finland Sweden

Web links

Commons : Åland flags  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• FOTW : Aaland Islands (Finland)