Pomeranian coat of arms
The coat of arms of Pomerania is dominated by the griffin as heraldic animal . The Pomeranian Griffin remained even after the extinction of grasping the Dukes , the symbol of the country Pomerania and is used in many variations in the historical region.
Duchy of Pomerania
The oldest known reference to the use of the griffin as a heraldic animal comes from a document from 1194. It is a deed of donation from Duchess Anastasia and her sons, Dukes Bogislaw II and Casimir II of Pomerania , in favor of the Church of St. Mary in Kolberg . The original document has not been preserved, instead a copy from 1384 containing a description of the seals attached . It was a so-called equestrian sealdepicting a rider with a flag and shield blowing to the right. The griffin is on the shield. On an older, known seal of Duke Bogislaw I , the rider does not yet have a griffin on the shield. A rider's seal with a griffin shield from a document by Bogislaw II from 1214 was destroyed in the Second World War .
Nothing is known about the colors of the oldest coats of arms . It is believed that it was the red griffin in the silver field, which was later used for the rule of Stettin . The oldest reliable evidence of this coloring - a red griffin in a silver field - is the banner that Duke Casimir V carried at the Battle of Tannenberg (1410) . The banner was captured from the victorious Poles, exhibited together with other banners in Krakow and reproduced in color in a manuscript in the 1440s. Occasionally, attempts are made to prove this coloring as early as the beginning of the 14th century by using representations of red griffins whose relation to Pomerania or the gryphon house is not clear. When the country was divided into the duchies of Pomerania-Stettin and Pommern-Wolgast in 1295, the Wolgast line was given a black griffin in a golden field to distinguish it.
Since the Pomeranian dukes were enfeoffed in total hands, they held all titles together. By the end of the 14th century the title “Duke of Stettin, the Pomeranians, the Wends (also Slavs) and Kassuben” emerged. The exact localization of the associated regions was already problematic at that time. The four coats of arms, which all contained the griffin, were initially shown separately on seals, such as that of Duke Otto I. Only later was a summary in a common sign.
In the middle of the 15th century, a quartered coat of arms was put together on coins , in which the coats of arms of the dominions of the Principality of Rügen and County of Gützkow, which came to the Duchy of Pomerania in the 14th century , were combined with two griffin coats of arms . The order of the coats of arms was not always the same. Some of the combinations contained a fish griffin , which originally referred to the East Pomeranian rule Schlawe , but has now been transferred to a "rule Usedom".
In 1469, Greifswald lawyers described a five-field Pomeranian coat of arms in connection with the Stettin inheritance dispute . This contained four griffins and in the middle the Rügish coat of arms as a heart shield. Duke Bogislaw X. , under which all of Pomerania was reunited into a duchy, officially introduced the five-field coat of arms from 1500. The coat of arms of the Duchy of Szczecin has now been placed in the heart shield according to its status as the parent company , and the Rügische and Gützkow coats of arms have also been added to the coat of arms.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the griffin received a crown for the Duchy of Szczecin . This was probably borrowed from the coat of arms of the city of Szczecin, which represented itself as a ducal residence since 1464 at the latest . The crown was confirmed in the imperial coat of arms privilege in 1521. At the request of Bogislaw X, the white field of the Szczecin coat of arms was changed to a gold one. Later in Pomerania they returned to the white field, but red-yellow remained the court color.
In the last years of Bogislaw X's reign, the nine-field coat of arms emerged. Already after Bogislaw's death Georg I and Barnim IX. Make a seal with a nine-field coat of arms. These can be found, among other things, in the confirmation of the privileges of the city of Greifswald from 1524. The depiction of the Pomeranian coat of arms on the Croÿ carpet is the oldest known authentic color depiction of the nine-field coat of arms. The nine-field coat of arms can still be found on the castle in Pudagla on Usedom.
Another variant has the blood flag as an additional field below , as a sign of the highest jurisdiction. Representations of this ten-field coat of arms date from 1569 and from the Great Lubin Map from the period up to 1618. Although the blood flag was assigned to the dukes as imperial princes , it was not included in all coats of arms. Under the last griffin duke Bogislaw XIV. A white paw cross was added to the coat of arms in the red field as a symbol for the secularized diocese of Cammin . With Bogislaw XIV. The griffin dukes died out in 1637.
Pomeranian Province
At the end of the Thirty Years War , Pomerania was divided between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Electorate of Brandenburg in the Peace of Osnabrück . Both sovereigns took over all titles of griffin dukes. The exceptions were the titles "Prince of Rügen", which was only available to the King of Sweden, and "Prince of Cammin", which only the Brandenburg electors were allowed to use. The latter, which had already used the Pomeranian coat of arms in the 15th century as a sign of their entitlement to feudal sovereignty over Pomerania or on the basis of inheritance contracts, now finally integrated the Pomeranian symbols into their own coat of arms. As a result, the Pomeranian griffins also found their way into southern German coats of arms and to East Prussia . After the last part of Swedish Pomerania came to Prussia in 1815, the Prussian kings were able to use the Rügen coat of arms again.
The coat of arms for the province of Pomerania , established in 1881, was limited to the gold-reinforced red griffin without a crown in a silver field, but did not completely dispense with decorative accessories such as a shield holder and helmet . In 1929 the representation of the griffin was modernized, which remained valid until the end of the Second World War. Building on this, the Greif was integrated into the new state coat of arms after the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was rebuilt .
Large nine-field coat of arms of Pomerania
| H2 | H1 | H3 |
| 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 5 | 4th | 6th |
| 8th | 7th | 9 |
| 10 | ||
- (1) Duchy of Pomerania
In silver, a right-facing, upright, red griffin.
- (2) Duchy of Szczecin
In blue a left-facing, upright, crowned, gold-armored red griffin.
The Duchy of Pomerania-Stettin was differentiated in color from the Duchy of Pomerania at the beginning of the 16th century.
- (3) Duchy of Kassuben
In gold, a right-facing, upright black griffin.
Originally related to the old Duchy of Pomerania-Wolgast resulting from the division of 1295, it was later assigned to the Duchy of Kassuben . This probably referred to the historical, no longer delimitable settlement area of the Kashubians .
This coat of arms was referred to the re-acquired Lande Lauenburg and Bütow from the 16th century , which had no coat of arms of their own, although the dukes occasionally carried the title "Lord of the Lands Lauenburg and Bütow".
- (4) Principality of Rügen
Divided by gold over blue; above a red crowned and armored black lion with a double tail, which grows out of the stepped gable made of five red stones in the lower field.
The lion may have been a concession to the Danish kings, who had been feudal lords of the principality since 1168. Older seals of Rügischen princes and branch lines of the princely house had a griffin in the coat of arms.
- (5) Duchy of Wenden (or Slavia)
In silver, a left-facing, upright, red-green-striped griffin.
With the Duchy of Slavia , the Duchy of Kassuben was possibly originally symbolized. The so-called Duchy of Wenden was probably located in the space between Tollense and Peene . This area, in which the Liutizen , subjugated by the Pomorans settled in the 12th century , is sometimes referred to as the Duchy or Lordship of Groswin .
- (6) Dominion of Usedom
In red an upright silver fish griffin facing right.
The fish griffin from eastern Pomerania became at the end of the 15th century the symbol of the so-called " Lordship of Usedom ", which was not to be found in the titles of the Pomeranian dukes.
- (7) Gützkow County
In gold, two diagonally crossed rods, angled by four red roses with golden clusters and green sepals.
The nobleman Jaczo von Salzwedel , who founded the county of Gützkow , redesigned the coat of arms when he moved to Pomerania.
- (8) Reign of Barth
In gold, a left-facing black griffin striding upright with two silver feathers.
The Barth rule was originally part of the Principality of Rügen as a continental area. Since the area later belonged to the Duchy of Pomerania-Wolgast, the black griffin of the older part of the Duchy was given to him. To distinguish it from the Duchy of Kassuben , it received several white feathers.
- (9) Duchy of Wolgast
Divided in two, a growing silver griffin in red over a field of gold and blue.
This coat of arms originally referred to the state of Bernstein , which was finally ceded to Brandenburg in 1479. Although this coat of arms did not correspond to any possession, the griffin dukes did not renounce its use. It was probably arbitrarily referred to the Wolgast residence at the end of the 15th century . After the division of the country in 1532 it became the coat of arms of the Duchy of Pommern-Wolgast.
- (10) plume of blood
Symbol of the right of blood jurisdiction of the griffin dukes.
- Upper coat of arms - helmets
- (1) Duchy of Szczecin
The middle helmet wears a ducal hat with a large peacock plume .
- (2) Duchy of Wolgast
The (heraldic) right helmet wears a pointed ducal hat and a small peacock plume.
- (3) Principality of Rügen
The (heraldic) helmet on the left wears a hat with lily stems and small plumes on the side.
See also
literature
- Norbert Buske : Coat of arms, colors and hymns of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. An explanation of the new national emblems of the country combined with a walk through the history of the two parts of the country illustrated by the development of their coats of arms . With photos by Thomas Helms. Edition Temmen, Bremen 1993, ISBN 3-86108-202-0 , pp. 50-97
Footnotes
- ↑ Ralf-Gunnar Werlich: The griffin shows its colors. Early color depictions of the Pomeranian duke coat of arms. In: Pomerania. Journal of Culture and History. Issue 2/2008, ISSN 0032-4167 , pp. 21-28.
