Flag of Berlin

^?State flag of Berlin (3: 5)

The flag of Berlin with the colors white and red shows the Berlin bear . It has been run by Berlin since 1911, with minor stylistic changes , and blew over the Rotes Rathaus for the first time in 1913 .

Country flag

^?Banner shape (2: 1)

According to the constitution of Berlin , Berlin flies the flag with the colors white-red and the bear. The ratio of width to length is 3: 5. The national flag is divided into three longitudinal stripes. The two outer stripes, in red, each have a fifth of the flag width. The middle white stripe is three fifths the width of the flag. In it is the heraldic figure, which is slightly shifted towards the bar. The coat of arms figure, without a shield frame, is an upright black bear with red claws and tongue looking to the left.

The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin and appears for the first time in 1280 in a Berlin seal . Before the bear became the sole symbol of the coat of arms, it had to assert itself over several centuries against the Brandenburg eagle . The Brandenburg colors red and white were retained. Since April 1881, however, Berlin is no longer an administrative part of the Province of Brandenburg , later the State of Brandenburg .

"The national flag may be displayed by anyone, unless this is done in a way or under circumstances that are detrimental to the reputation or dignity of this emblem."

- Implementing regulations for the law on the emblems of the state of Berlin

history

In the Middle Ages , according to the army constitution of that time, the cities were obliged to provide military units, so-called teams, in case of war. These teams wore flags and armbands by which friend and foe could be distinguished. Over the years, however, these flags were also increasingly used for civilian purposes in the cities and thus became an urban symbol alongside seals and coats of arms. According to reports, the old Berliners wore black and white on their flags and armbands. The colors of the coat of arms were adopted as city colors and the black bear in a silver (white) shield always appeared as a specific Berlin image. When, in the 17th century, the Prussian kingship in Berlin pushed the Brandenburg electorate more and more into the background, the Prussian colors competed with the Berlin colors. The fact that black and white as city colors are much older than the Prussian state colors, the house colors of the Hohenzollern family , gradually disappeared from the awareness of the population .

^?Flag of Berlin 1861-1911 (2: 3)

The ignorance of their own city colors and the fact that the city uses the same colors as the state caused increasing discomfort among Berliners. The return of Wilhelm I and his wife Augusta from the coronation in Koenigsberg prompted Rudolf Virchow , who was not only a doctor but also a city councilor, to file the following application on October 30, 1861: “After the recovery celebrations showed that it was official There are doubts about the Berlin city colors ... the assembly requests the magistrate to investigate the city colors, possibly to declare the red and white colors used by all cities of the old Hanseatic League as the official ones. ”Until the middle of the 15th century Berlin member of the Hanseatic League . The city archivist Ernst Fidicin suggested in a report the colors black-red-white in horizontal order. With reference to this report, it is stated in a submission by the magistrate for the city parliament of November 20 of the same year that these colors are the right ones. On December 19, 1861, the city council agreed with this view.

But even with this flag one was not very lucky. After less than six years, the confusion began again. The North German Confederation , founded in 1867, determined black, white and red as its colors. The colors were adopted by the German Empire in 1871 . The Berliners, who were by no means flag experts, but also guests, were amazed when the city was decorated with black-white-red flags on festive occasions, but flags with apparently incorrectly arranged colors were waving on the town hall of all places. It was also often believed that it was the republican flag from the revolutionary years 1848/49 , and that the lower white stripe was just the faded gold or yellow stripe. To put an end to this confusion, some advocated arranging the strips vertically. But this seemed quite impossible, since only the Romanic nations such as France and Italy place their color stripes vertically, but almost all Germanic peoples arrange their color stripes horizontally. Others suggested dividing the flag into five or seven narrow black, red, and white stripes.

The longer the muddle lasted, the more annoyed he was. On February 15, 1908, the magistrate asked the Royal Secret State Archives and the Royal Herald's Office for information and suggestions. The answers from the two institutions, however, were not particularly helpful. The State Archives had announced the crest colors red and white, after that, according to the Red Eagle in the white box penetration of the bear in the coat of arms red-black-and-white and after the displacement of the eagle was black and white. The historical development of the coat of arms corresponds to the combination of red and white, whereas the sequence of black, red and white, which has been common since 1861, follows the later transformation. The office of the Herald also wanted to stick to the colors of 1861. It wrote: “Surrender very devotedly ... that if the colors, which have now been used for almost 50 years, have already led to many errors and frequent ideas in the magistrate, an arbitrary choice of colors to better (easier) differentiate them from the imperial colors would produce no different result . ”The office of the Herald also suggested covering the flag with the coat of arms. An idea that was to be realized later.

Since there was still no satisfactory solution, Lord Mayor Kirschner commissioned the long-time chairman of the Brandenburgia , Society for Local History of the Province of Brandenburg to Berlin, and founder of the Märkisches Museum City Councilor Ernst Friedel to work out new proposals for a Berlin flag. Friedel first replaced the color black with the black bear. This was immediately approved by his fellow magistrates. The arrangement of the colors red and white turned out to be more difficult. After several attempts at arranging them, it was decided to limit the red to two equally wide stripes at the top and bottom of a large white field in which the bear paraded. The location of the top of the wall caused the most headache. Eventually it found a place in the upper strip, but was not included in the new flag. On June 14, 1911, the magistrate replaced the black, red and white flag with the new city flag with bears. The newly designed flag had its premiere on the birthday of Kaiser Wilhelm II on January 27, 1913 on the tower of the Red City Hall . However, the Berliners didn't get to see much of the flag as it was a pretty windless day. All the more clearly were all the details during the second hoisting on the occasion of the moving in of the bride and groom Prince Ernst August von Braunschweig-Lüneburg and Emperor's daughter Viktoria Luise on February 16. At the reception for the Bavarian Prince Regent Ludwig on March 6th and 7th, the flag waved over the town hall for the third time. Mayor Reicke signed a report from the municipal art deputation on August 22, 1913, which states, among other things: “In the further pursuit of the previous year’s request from the magistrate to the art deputation for an expert opinion on the present draft for a new city flag Berlin has the deputation the execution of the flag after this - by the painter, Professor Döpler the Elder. J. Draft recommended. Accordingly, this artist was commissioned to produce the full-size colored designs for the execution. The first new flags for the town hall were then made in the course of the year under review. ”The final design of the flag, however, was not done, nor was the design of the coat of arms a few years earlier. The reason for the failure was the seemingly irreconcilable differences between the magistrate, the Association for the History of Berlin and the Royal Herald's Office. In the following years no attention was paid to the final artistic form of the bear. Even with the formation of Greater Berlin , no effort was made to get a new coat of arms or a new flag.

It was not until the time of National Socialism that the subject of the coat of arms and flag was revived. In 1934, Sigmund von Weech designed a new coat of arms at the suggestion of Julius Lippert , the State Commissioner appointed by the Nazis . The coat of arms shows an upright black bear with a red tongue in a double red bordered white shield. A stylized red wall crown rests on the shield. This coat of arms was placed in the flag instead of the single bear. This flag was not seen often during the National Socialist period, as the National Socialist symbols dominated the whole of Germany .

After the end of the Second World War , the flag with the bear was confirmed by the first draft constitution of the magistrate of January 1946 (Article 1 (2)). The provisional Allied constitution of August 13, 1946 also states: “Berlin carries the coat of arms, seal and flag with the bear”, and Article 5 of the city council's draft for a democratic constitution of Berlin of April 22, 1948 states: “ Berlin carries the flag, coat of arms and seal with the bear, the flag with the colors white and red ”. While there was agreement on the bear as the old symbol of the city, there were still considerable differences of opinion about the shape of the bear coat of arms, so a competition was announced. This no longer came into play due to the division of Berlin and Germany.

^?State flag of Berlin since 1954 (3: 5)

According to Article 23 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany of May 23, 1949, Greater Berlin became a Land of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Basic Law, however, could only extend to the area of West Berlin . West Berlin confirmed this with Article 1, Paragraph II of the Berlin Constitution of 1950. The bear was also established as a heraldic animal in the constitution. But since they still did not have a new coat of arms and thus no new flag, a new competition was announced in 1952. Although Richard Blank 's design of the coat of arms won the competition, it took the Berlin Senate a year before it voted in favor of the design. However, the design of the coat of arms was not approved by the majority of the members of the Berlin House of Representatives . In 1954 the decision was finally made in favor of Ottfried Neubecker's design, which was awarded 2nd prize . The coat of arms shows an upright bear in a silver shield on which a golden crown of leaves is emblazoned. In the case of the city and state flags, the coat of arms from 1934 was replaced by the bear from the new coat of arms modeled on the flag from 1911. In addition to the city and state flag, an official flag was also introduced. Instead of the bear, it contains the complete coat of arms (see official flag ).

^?Flag of East Berlin 1956–1990 (3: 5)

For the time being, there was no need for further action in East Berlin . The GDR was the Constitution of 1949 initially as the Federal Republic from countries but these were later in districts divided. Coats of arms and flags of the countries were no longer used. These districts also had their own coats of arms, but these were not official, valid and legally binding emblems. According to the seal order of the GDR, the cities and municipalities had to use the state emblem of the GDR as an official seal . According to the constitution of the GDR, all of Berlin was the capital. As the capital, East Berlin initially continued the coat of arms and flag of Greater Berlin, but at the end of the 1960s only the emblems of the GDR were used. For cultural purposes, however, the coat of arms from 1934 was still used.

After West Berlin introduced the new flags in 1954, it was difficult to tell the flags of East and West Berlin apart if the flag cloth was not fully unfolded. In order to avoid confusion and not have to introduce a new flag, it was decided in East Berlin to exclusively use the Greater Berlin official flag, the red stripes of which had to be reduced by half in width and moved inward. This flag has been officially shown again in East Berlin since the 750th anniversary of Berlin, and official buildings were decorated with it.

After the German reunification in 1990, and with it that of Berlin, the flag of West Berlin was adopted for the entire reunified Berlin and enshrined in the 1995 constitution. With minor stylistic changes, Berlin now uses the flag that was designed in 1911. The bear depicted in the flag is the bear from the coat of arms of Berlin and symbolizes the city, the colors red and white, the descent from the Mark Brandenburg .

Service flag

^?general service flag of the state of Berlin 1954-2007 (3: 5)

^?Service flag of the members of the Senate 1954–2007 (1: 1)

The general service flag was designed like the state flag, except that instead of the coat of arms figure, the state coat of arms of Berlin with a white shield and the foliage crown is in the white stripe. The offices of the State of Berlin, which mainly perform sovereign tasks, were able to use the service flag instead of the state flag. The service flag of the members of the Senate was an equilateral, white, red-edged rectangle with the state coat of arms. The official flags were only allowed to be used by the offices of the City of Berlin and the members of the Senate.

The official flags were introduced with the law on the emblems of the state of Berlin of May 13, 1954. In July 2007 a draft for the new version of the law was drawn up, the provisions of which from 1954 no longer corresponded in parts to the ideas. In particular due to the merging of the Berlin and Brandenburg authorities and institutions, there should only be one state flag, as in the state of Brandenburg . For a long time now, the agencies have only used the national flag, only on the town hall tower did the official flag fly until August 2007. On October 22, 2007, the MPs passed the new law on the emblems of the state of Berlin. When the new law came into force, the official flags became invalid and archived.

Flagging

Flagging is regulated in the Flagging Ordinance. In Berlin all buildings and parts of buildings that are used by offices and other institutions of the State of Berlin and the corporations , institutions and foundations under public law that are subject to its supervision , as well as means of transport of the Berlin transport company, are to be flagged . Flagging takes place on the days specified in the ordinance or by order of the Senate Department for Home Affairs. The mourning flag , flags at half mast, takes place on the day of commemoration of the victims of National Socialism, on the day of national mourning and by order of the Senate Department for the Interior.

If there is no special order, flags will be used on the following days:

a) on the day of commemoration of the victims of National Socialism (January 27), mourning flags ,

b) on the anniversary of March 18, 1848 ,

c) Labor Day (May 1st),

d) on Europe Day (May 9th),

e) on the anniversary of the proclamation of the Basic Law (May 23),

f) on the anniversary of June 17, 1953 ,

g) on the anniversary of July 20, 1944 ,

h) on the Day of German Unity (October 3rd),

i) on the day of national mourning (second Sunday before the 1st Advent ), mourning flags ,

j) on the day of the election of the Federal President ,

k) on the days of general elections (elections to the European Parliament , elections to the German Bundestag , elections to the Berlin House of Representatives and to the district assemblies ).

Flagging begins at sunrise, but not before 7:00 a.m., and ends at sunset. If flags are being used for several days, the flags must be brought in at sunset and raised again the next morning. If the flags are illuminated, they can remain set even after sunset. With hoisted flags the coat of arms figure always looks at the flagpole, with banners at the federal flag .

The respective district offices can order district flags on special district-related occasions. The district flag can also be set here in addition to the federal and state flags. For special occasions or events that are not part of the mandatory flagging days, non-sovereign flags can also be set with the consent of the Senate Department for the Interior. For district events, the approval of the district office is required.

The order of the flags in Berlin follows the same rules as the federal government and most of the federal states. When looking at the building, the flags are displayed from left to right, first the supranational flags, then the national flags, then the flag of the federal states, then the district and so on. In Berlin, the European flag is set on the left , the federal flag in the middle and the national flag on the right. If there are only two flagpoles, the European flag is not set, instead it is set on both pylons on Europe Day. If other sovereign flags are shown between the European flag and the federal flag, they are to be set from the European flag in alphabetical order of the official German abbreviation of the foreign state names.

Examples of flagging with three and two flagpoles with a view of the building:

Standard flagging for three flagpoles:				with two flagpoles:


on Europe Day :

The flagging of a joint state authority or facility as well as a joint corporation, establishment or foundation under public law of the states of Berlin and Brandenburg that is subject to the supervision of a state authority is based on the legal provisions of the state in which the respective seat or other location is located. When flags are displayed on buildings of joint authorities or institutions, the Brandenburg state flag must be set on the right-hand side of the building when viewed from the outside. In addition, depending on the number of flagpoles, the national flag, the federal flag and the European flag follow. On Europe Day, the European flag, the federal flag, the state flag and the Brandenburg state flag are set on the left-hand side as seen from the outside of the building, depending on the number of flagpoles.

Examples of flagging at joint authorities or institutions with a view of the building:

Standard flagging for:
4 masts
	3 masts
		2 masts


on Europe Day at:
			4 masts
		3 masts
2 masts

literature

Federal Ministry of the Interior: Coats of arms and flags of the Federal Republic of Germany and its federal states . Carl Heymanns, Bonn / Cologne / Berlin 1956.
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.
Federal Agency for Civic Education: Coats of arms and flags of the Federal Republic of Germany and its countries . Magdeburger Druckerei, Bonn 1994, ISBN 3-89331-206-4 .
Jörg-M. Hormann, Dominik Plaschke: German flags. History, tradition, use . Edition Maritim, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-89225-555-0 .

Web links

Commons : Flag, seal and coat of arms of the city of Berlin, its districts and districts - album with pictures, videos and audio files

National emblem of the state of Berlin

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Constitution of Berlin of November 23, 1995 • at berlin.de .

↑ ^a ^b Law on the National Emblems of the State of Berlin of October 22, 2007 • berlin.de ( Memento of the original of 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. (PDF; 10 kB), as source text ( Wikisource ). @1@ 2

↑ Implementing regulations for the law on the national emblems of the State of Berlin of April 17, 2003 • berlin.de ( Memento of the original of August 16, 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. (PDF; 71 kB) @1@ 2

^ Provisional constitution for Greater Berlin of August 13, 1946.

^ Constitution of Berlin . According to the resolution of the city council on April 22, 1948 (printed matter no. 111/797).

↑ Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany of May 23, 1949 • at documentArchiv.de .

^ Constitution of Berlin of September 1, 1950.

^ Seal regulations of the GDR from May 28, 1953 • at documentArchiv.de .

^ Law on the National Emblems of the State of Berlin of May 13, 1954; as source text ( Wikisource ).

^ New version of the law on the emblems of the state of Berlin . Press release from the State of Berlin from July 10, 2007.

^ New version of the law on the emblems of the state of Berlin . Press release of the State of Berlin from August 7, 2007.

↑ ^a ^b Ordinance on the flagging of public buildings (flagging ordinance), last amended by ordinance of February 23, 2008. February 24, 2003, accessed on September 10, 2019 .

[Verfassung-1] Constitution of Berlin of November 23, 1995 • at berlin.de .