Flag of Prussia
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The flag of Prussia showed a black eagle on a white background, which could also be seen on the Prussian coat of arms . Their colors were one of the origins for the black-white-red flag of the German Empire .
origin
The colors black and white as the national colors of Prussia as well as the black eagle as heraldic animal go back to the Teutonic Order in the 13th century. Even the knights of the order wore a white shield with a black cross. The important Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Hermann von Salza received the black imperial eagle as a sign of mercy from Emperor Friedrich II on the occasion of his appointment as imperial prince in the Golden Bull of Rimini and carried it in a white shield. This was to become the Prussian eagle coat of arms. The dynasty of the Hohenzollern , which emerged in the 17th century as ruler of the Mark Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia , under which the two countries grew together to form a unified Prussian state, had a shield "of white and black" as a family coat of arms in medieval times. .
In the Second Peace of Thorner of 1466 Casimir IV of Poland left the area east of the Vistula to the Teutonic Order as a fief. The rest of Prussia was ruled in union with the estates of the Polish king and called Royal Prussia . The flag of Royal Prussia showed the black, gold-armored eagle with a red tongue on a white background. The eagle wore a crown around its neck, and the eagle also had an armored arm with a sword. This Prussian part of Poland existed until the first Polish partition in 1772.
Albrecht I of Brandenburg-Ansbach secularized the Teutonic Order and founded the Duchy of Prussia in 1525 in the eastern part of the former state of the Order . In his flag he carried the same Prussian eagle with a neck crown as the Polish part of the country, but without a sword arm, but with a golden "S" on the chest. In 1657 the Elector of Brandenburg from the Hohenzollern dynasty, who had ruled the Duchy of Prussia in personal union since 1618, also took over formal sovereignty from the Polish king. With this, the duchy became part of the state of Brandenburg-Prussia. The flag with the black eagle was carried next to the Kurbrandenburg flag with the red eagle until Prussia was elevated to kingdom in 1701.
The Kurbrandenburg flag appeared on the Baltic Sea for the first time on May 1, 1657 and was the emblem of the Brandenburg Navy , which was expanded by the Great Elector in the 1680s and operated from the port of Pillau in East Prussia and which emerged in 1701 as the Royal Prussian Navy .
Standard of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order
Flag of Royal Prussia (1466–1772)
Flag of the Duchy of Prussia (1525–1657)
Flag of Kurbrandenburg (used in Prussia 1657–1701)
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Flag of the Kingdom of Prussia
The flag of the Kingdom of Prussia goes to the coronation of Frederick III. von Brandenburg back in 1701, when the "Duke of Prussia" became the "King in Prussia". On the flag of the kingdom, the Prussian eagle now wore royal insignia instead of the ducal one. It became the flag of the Brandenburg-Prussian state, which was called "Prussia" from around the middle of the 18th century.
The flag of the kingdom was white with the crowned, black, Prussian eagle in the middle. His chest was adorned with the letters FR , which stood for "Fridericus Rex". Until 1750 the eagle held scepter and orb in its claws . Then a sword and a differently shaped scepter. The crown received a cross at the top. From 1801 the scepter changed again, as did the crown, and the initials FR disappeared. In 1803 the eagle changed slightly. In 1892 Prussia, at that time already part of the German Empire , received its last flag with black stripes above and below and a new eagle.
The various provinces into which the Kingdom of Prussia was divided from 1774 onwards each had their own flags and coats of arms , which were used alongside the Prussian as national symbols. The flag and coat of arms of the province of East Prussia corresponded to those of all of Prussia . In the coat of arms of the province of West Prussia , the old coat of arms of the "royal portion" of Prussia annexed in 1772 (eagle with sword arm) lived on.
Prussian state colors (colors of the Teutonic Order , 13th century - 1945)
State flag of the Kingdom of Prussia 1701–1750
State flag of the Kingdom of Prussia 1750–1801
State flag of the Kingdom of Prussia 1801–1803
State flag of the Kingdom of Prussia 1803-1892
State flag of the Kingdom of Prussia 1892–1918
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Flag of the Free State of Prussia
After the fall of the monarchy in November 1918, Prussia received a republican constitution on November 30, 1920. In Article 1, Paragraph 2, it only stipulated the use of the black and white national colors. On February 24, 1922, the Free State of Prussia adopted a flag which, unlike the old version, showed the Prussian eagle without a crown, scepter and the royal initials.
In December 1933, after the National Socialists came to power, the flag was replaced by a new version, the eagle of which carried a silver sword in the right muzzle and two golden flashes in the left and a silver swastika on its chest and a banner over its head with the Prussian motto “ God with us “Showed. This flag was after the 1935 DC circuit abolished the states and the division into provinces.
Civil flag of the Free State of Prussia (1918–1935)
State flag of the Free State of Prussia (1922–1933)
State flag of Prussia (1933–1935)
Others
In the first and best-known stanza of the so-called Prussian song , the unofficial national anthem of Prussia in the 19th and 20th centuries, the black and white flag of Prussia is clearly sung about:
- I am a Prussian, do you know my colors?
- The flag floats in front of me in white and black!
- That my fathers died for freedom
- It notices that my colors indicate that.
- ...
- Text: Bernhard Thiersch , 1830
Even today, the colors black and white are often considered Germany's hallmarks. In many sports, the German teams play their home games in white jerseys and black pants, the colors of Prussia.
During the Lepsius expedition , the Prussian flag was hoisted on the Cheops pyramid in 1842.
See also
- List of flags and coats of arms of the provinces of Prussia
- Motor vehicle flags of Prussia (1925-1935)
literature
- Johann Friedrich Meuss: The history of the Prussian flag. On the centenary of the foundation of the Prussian war flag, November 24, 1816/1916 , 75 pages, 4 illustrations, 10 plates, Ernst Siegfried Mittler and Son, Berlin 1916
Individual evidence
- ^ Christian Voigt: From the flag of Kurbrandenburg. In: Brandenburgia Vol. 42 (1933), pp. 74-76.
