Flags of the national minorities in Germany

The national minorities that are recognized in the Federal Republic of Germany represent themselves with the flags of the national minorities in Germany . The flags have a different status. While some have been incorporated into legislation, others are only legitimized by minority interest groups.

The national minorities

Those groups in Germany whose members are German citizens, who differ from the majority population in terms of their own language, culture and history, have their own identity, want to preserve this identity, are traditionally at home in Germany and in Germany have the legal status of a national minority ancestral settlement areas live. The Framework Convention of the Council of Europe for the Protection of National Minorities applies in Germany to the Danes in Schleswig-Holstein , the Frisians in Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony , the Sorbs in Brandenburg and Saxony, and the Roma and Sinti .

The flags of the Danes

• 

  The Dannebrog, the flag of Denmark

• 

  Flag with the Schleswig lions

• 

  Flag of the South Schleswig Association in Flensburg

In addition to the Dannebrog , the Danish minority in the Schleswig region ( southern Schleswig ) uses a coat of arms banner with two striding blue lions on a yellow background ( Schleswig lions ).

The Danish minority in southern Schleswig used the Danish flag as a symbol before the Second World War . When representatives of the minority applied to the British occupying forces to use the flag again after the war, this was refused in 1946 because the use of any flag was generally prohibited in the first post-war years. Since they were forbidden to use the Dannebrog, the Danish movement began to design its own flag. It was finally introduced in 1949/50. The new flag was derived from the coat of arms of Schleswig : two blue lions walking heraldically to the right (leopard-walking) on a yellow background.

With the Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations of 1955, the use of the Dannebrog was allowed again. Nevertheless, the flag with the Schleswig lions continues to be used. In a modification, it is the symbol of the South Schleswig Association .

The flags of the Frisians

The Frisians have always been very fragmented, territorially and linguistically, without a common state formation. This is how different flags have developed.

• 

  North Friesland

• 

  East Frisia with coat of arms

• 

  Saterland parish

• 

  Dutch province of Friesland

North Frisian tricolor

The flag of the North Frisians is a horizontal tricolor in gold, red and blue. The North Frisian coat of arms is also partially depicted on it. The Frisian colors are officially recognized by the Frisian law (Friisk Gesäts) of the federal state Schleswig-Holstein of November 11, 2004 in § 5 and may be shown next to the state colors. A flag that first showed the coat of arms of the North Frisians was set at the first North Frisian festival on June 10, 1844 in Bredstedt . The district of North Friesland has its own flag, which is based on its coat of arms.

North Frisian cross flag

The North Frisian flag in the variant of a cross flag

The North Frisian flag is also available in a Scandinavian cross variant : a blue cross with a red outline on a yellow background. This variant was used by the national Frisians to emphasize the identity of the Frisians as an independent, Scandinavian-oriented people, in contrast to the German-oriented Frisians who identified themselves as a German tribe .

The cross variant was probably created in the 1920s, at the same time the Frisian-Schleswig Association (now Friisk Foriining ) was formed in 1923 with the demand that the Frisians be recognized as an independent national minority in the Weimar Republic . Unofficial recognition took place in 1925 at the European Nationalities Congress . The larger and German-minded North Frisian Association , founded in 1903, protested against this classification with the Bohmstedter guidelines .

The North Frisian cross flag has rarely been used since the 1980s. Allegedly, the cross variant was not used in order to bridge the national division within the North Frisian ethnic group. The two larger associations of the North Frisians are now organized in the umbrella organization North Frisian Council and share the headquarters of the Friisk Hüs in Bredstedt . The national Frisians continue to work with the Danish minority , e.g. B. in the Danish School Association and in the South Schleswig voter association .

Saterland

The Sater Frisians live in the municipality of Saterland , which has an official flag. It shows the coat of arms of the municipality on a yellow stripe and two light blue stripes. The width ratio of the strips is 1: 3: 1.

Ostfriesland

Ostfriesland has a horizontal tricolor in black-red-blue . The colors are taken from the coat of arms of Ostfriesland : black is the basic color of the Cirksena coat of arms, the red comes from the coat of arms of the Counts of Rietberg and blue stands for the Harlingerland . The coat of arms and flag come from the county and later principality of East Friesland, which was incorporated into Prussia in 1744 . The East Frisian flag has official status again today, as it was officially adopted by the East Frisian Landscape , a higher municipal association , in 1989. In private use, many East Frisians also use the flag in connection with the Count's coat of arms of East Frisia.

other areas

In addition, there are other flags of regional authorities or associations with which Frisians identify themselves in Germany, such as the flag of the island of Helgoland or the country of Wursten .

Inter-Frisian flags

Inter-Frisian flag of the Groep fan Auwerk

Inter-Frisian flag of the Frisian Council

On September 23, 2006, a so-called Inter - Frisian flag was presented by the Groep fan Auwerk group, which is mainly based in the Netherlands and is supposed to represent both North, East and West Frisians living in the Netherlands and closely with that of the group pursued idea of ​​a Greater Frisian State is linked. The white Scandinavian cross , on a blue cross, on a gold background indicates a cultural commonality between the Frisians and the Scandinavian peoples and to the Christian religion. It represents the connection of the four parts of the flag. The colors are derived from the existing flags of the Frisian groups. The yellow (gold) comes from the flag of the North Frisians and the flag of the municipality of Saterland. It can also be found in the lions of the coat of arms of the Dutch province of Friesland and the West Friesland region . Blue is represented in almost every Frisian flag. White appears in the flags of Heligoland , Westergo and Ameland . The red water lily pads ( Pompeblêden ) are borrowed from the flag of the Dutch Friesland. Red also appears in the flags of Groningen , Oostergo , Saterland, East Friesland, Helgoland and North Friesland. Yellow / gold symbolizes wealth, a golden future and fertile soil, covered with buttercups, grain and rapeseed. The dykes are also known as the "golden ring". Blue stands for the water, the sea and the canals. The sunlight that shines over the water and onto the earth is white. White also stands for peace. The four water lily leaves are supposed to represent the four parts of today's Friesland declared by the Groep fan Auwerk , namely for West, East and North Friesland as well as for the province of Groningen, named by the group South Friesland , whose inhabitants have not been the Frisians for centuries feel they belong and are therefore not represented in Frisian associations.

The flag of the Groep fan Auwerk came under fire after its presentation and is hardly used outside the group to this day. The Inter-Frisian Council also rejected the draft for various reasons. However, the council took up the idea of ​​an all-Frisian flag and finally adopted a flag in June 2009 that should also be considered the all-Frisian flag. It shows a ring on a "European blue" background, which is based on the three traditional section flags of the Council and represents their colors in the geographical arrangement of the three Friesland. The reference to the European flag is intended to show that the Frisians are convinced Europeans, as they called for European unification in the Frisian Manifesto in 1955. The circle stands for the unity of the Frisians. This explicitly modern flag design prevailed over traditional and historical proposals in the previous selection process.

Roma flag

Roma flag

→ Main article : Flag of the Roma

Blue symbolizes the sky and spiritual values, green the land and worldly values. In 1971 at the first "World Romani Congress" the flag was supplemented and confirmed with a wheel with 16 spokes. The wheel or the rota (Latin) stands for "wandering" and thus conceptually very close to the antiziganistic defamation of the Roma as "rotation Europeans". It can also be interpreted as a chakra that would establish a reference to the Indian subcontinent as a mythical place of origin many centuries ago. One chakra can be found in the flag of India . But the Indian chakra is also a wheel.

The central organization of the national minority, the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma , has been rejecting the flag symbol for a long time and no longer uses it. The associations affiliated to the Central Council do not see themselves as organizations of “hikers” and are not migrant associations. Regardless of its individual use, the flag cannot be understood as a symbol of this German national minority.

The flag of the Sorbs

→ Main article : Flag of the Sorbs

Flag of the Sorbs

The Sorbian flag is first mentioned in 1842. Their color scheme in blue-red-white comes from the Pan-Slavic colors that are also used by other Slavic peoples and states. The Sorbian flag can be used in the Sorbian settlement area of the states of Brandenburg and Saxony on an equal footing with the respective state flags.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Federal Ministry of the Interior: "Statement of the Federal Republic of Germany on the opinion of the Advisory Committee on the report on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in the Federal Republic of Germany"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically created as marked defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ Danish Minority in South Schleswig (Germany) . In: crwflags.com .
3. ↑ Schleswig-Holstein State Government: Frisian ( Memento of the original from October 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ^ Juris GmbH: Laws-Jurisprudence Schleswig-Holstein . In: juris.de .
5. ↑ Advantic Systemhaus GmbH: Nordfriesland / . In: nordfriesland.de .
6. ↑ Advantic Systemhaus GmbH: Nordfriesland / . In: nordfriesland.de .
7. ↑ Nordfrislands flag ( Memento of the original from November 18, 2015 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. , mindretalsliv.de 
8. ^ Frisian Movement , North Frisian Institute
9. ^ History , North Frisian Association
10. ↑ About us , friesenrat.de
11. ^ Community of Saterland: About us - coat of arms . In: saterland.de . Archived from the original on August 2, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
12. ^ Statute of the East Frisian Landscape , Article V (coat of arms, flag and official seal)
13. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from May 10, 2008 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.  
14. ↑ Hermann Niebaum: The decline of the Frisian between Lauwers and Weser. In: Horst H. Munske (Hrsg.): Handbuch des Frisian . Niemeyer, Tübingen 2001, p. 430 ff.
15. ↑ Article in the Leeuwarder Courant of October 2, 2006
16. ↑ Inter-Frisian Council, June 6, 2007, Frisians want a common flag
17. ^ Frank Nickelsen: Inter-Frisian flag . In: interfriesischerrat.de .
18. ↑ Elka Tschernokoshewa, Udo Mischek (Ed.), Relationship Network Minority, On the Paradigm Shift in Cultural Research / Ethnology in Europe, Münster 2009, p. 118.
19. ↑ Mood-making. Extreme right-wing and anti-Gypsy political propaganda. Analysis and risk assessment using the example of Duisburg. (PDF) AK Antiziganismus im DISS , Duisburg, March 2015, p. 19 , accessed on April 2, 2018 .