Upper Austrian coat of arms

Upper Austrian coat of arms

The Upper Austrian coat of arms exists according to the provincial law of 3 July 1997 on the Upper Austrian regional symbols , LGBl. 126/1997,

“From a split shield crowned with the Austrian Archduke's hat , which heraldically shows a golden eagle with a red tongue and red claws in the black field , heraldically split three times from silver and red on the left . The Archduke's hat can be omitted. The state coat of arms can be in color or in black and white. "

- § 3 Provincial Law on Upper Austrian Land Symbols

History and interpretation

The oldest known illustration of the Upper Austrian coat of arms can be found in two miniatures in a liturgy manual that Duke Albrecht III probably had made in Vienna between 1384 and 1395 .

The coat of arms probably goes back to the family of the Lords of Machland , which died out in the 12th century . In a land register of the Baumgartenberg monastery and in the civic chair of the Waldhausen monastery , which were donated by Jutta and Otto von Machland , there was already a coat of arms very similar to the Upper Austrian coat of arms. The Machland has been part of the Babenberg area since time immemorial , which is why the coat of arms of the Lords of Machland was suitable as a model. It also represented the earliest acquisition of the margraviate Austria towards the west and was later expanded to include the Traungau , Riedmark , Waxenberg and Schaunberg as regional courts.

Old Austria, New Austria and Austria ob der Enns (with an eagle with scales in the helmet), above the motto AEIOU , dated 1446
(illumination in the hand register of Friedrich III./V. )

Initially, in the crest of a helmet Crown growing an eagle , a balance in its beak, it is from Albrecht VI. , the first sovereign ruler - albeit in a dispute with his brother Friedrich III. - crowned with the Archduke's hat in the country above the Enns .

Lower Austria

The extent to which the golden eagle in black refers to the coat of arms of the entire Duchy of Austria, Old Austria (the lark coat of arms , today for Lower Austria) is unknown. Its five eagles were at times interpreted as five parts of the country: the early eagle with scales could indicate the office of the district judge ob der Enns , who had existed as such and then also governor since 1282, and from whose supreme district court Upper Austria became an independent territory from 1490 developed.

Historical illustrations

• 

  Archduchy of Austria above the Enns , at the Linz Landhaus (Renaissance, around 1570)

• 

  Coat of arms Archduchy Austria above the Enns during the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy ( Hugo Gerard Ströhl : . Wappenrolle Austria-Hungary in 1890)

• 

  Austria above the Enns, with the eagle with scales (ibid)

literature

• Alfred Hoffmann: The coat of arms of the state of Upper Austria as a symbol of its constitutional development history. Muck, Linz 1947.
• Alfred Hoffmann: The coat of arms and the great freedom letter of Rudolf IV. In: Communications of the Upper Austrian regional archive. Volume 7, Linz 1961, pp. 296-303, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at.
• Coat of arms of Upper Austria . Issued by the Upper Austrian Raiffeisen Central Bank, Linz 1958.
• Peter Diem : The symbols of Austria. Time and history in signs. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-218-00594-9 ( Chapter Symbols of Upper Austria in excerpts online on Austria Forum ).

Web links

Commons : Upper Austrian coat of arms  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• State coat of arms of the state of Upper Austria. In: land-oberoesterreich.gv.at. Office of Upper Austria. State government, accessed on January 22, 2020 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Urbar of the monastery Baumgartenberg Forum OoeGeschichte.at.