Hanseatic flags

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Elbinger seal from 1350, with cog with flags
Flag of the city of Lübeck in the colors of the Hanseatic League.

Many flags of the Hanseatic cities , both the existing and the former, were originally pennants and banners that were carried on the cogs and other large ships of the Hanseatic merchants.

history

The red and white of the Hanseatic League as a color component of the flag of the North German Confederation and the German Empire.

The ships (not just the Hanseatic) led since the 13th century to the mast tips ( top ) wind flags in the form of a narrow pennant ( "Flüger", Low German: vlugher, vlügervögel). In 1270 there was a report about the "roden vlugher" of Hamburg and in 1299 "de lübesche vloghel" was first mentioned. Other ships had monochrome red gonfanons attached to a mast with a cross at the top - probably as a sign of peaceful sentiment when approaching the foreign port. Since the second half of the 13th century, various, mostly white and red banners have been designed from them to prevent confusion. The large rectangular flags that had been on the stern or aft fort of the ships since the 14th century offered more space for heraldic design . Some of the Hanseatic city seals, which have a cog in the seal image, clearly show the location and motif. They include Danzig (13th century), Elbing (1350), Lübeck , Damme (2nd half of the 14th century), Stralsund . Other cities that had their own flags included Riga , Bremen , Rostock (14th century), Königsberg , Wismar and Stettin (15th century).

When the North German Confederation was founded in 1867, the colors red and white of the Hanseatic cities and black and white of Prussia became the colors of the new flag in black, white and red , which had been the flag of the German Empire since 1871 .

Examples

Pennant

The Lübeck pennant, first mentioned in 1299 ("de lübesche vloghel")

Medieval flags of the Hanseatic cities

See also

literature

  • Alfred Znamierowski : Flag encyclopedia: national flags, banners, standards . Bielefeld 2001, ISBN 3-7688-1251-0 , p. 13.
  • Heinrich Reincke: History of the Hamburg flag . In: Friedrich Stichert in connection with the Überseeklub Hamburg (Hrsg.): Hamburger Übersee-Jahrbuch . Übersee Jahrbuch, Hamburg 1926.

Individual evidence

  1. Ernst Grohne: On the history of the German and the Bremen national emblems . In: Bremisches Jahrbuch , No. 46, Schünemann, Bremen 1959, p. 35.
  2. Detlev Ellmers : Everyday Life on Koggen , in: Gabriele Hoffmann and Uwe Schnall: Die Kogge , Bremerhaven 2003, p. 166.
  3. ^ Herbert Ewe: Ships on City Seals , Rostock 1971.
  4. ^ Image: Cog with flag on the seal of Stralsund, 1329

Web links

Commons : Hanseflaggen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files