Coat of arms of the Lichtenberg district
The coat of arms of the Lichtenberg district was redesigned after the merger of the former Lichtenberg and Hohenschönhausen districts . A medieval coat of arms has not survived. Lichtenberg , first mentioned in 1288, received town charter in 1907, and on April 13, 1914, the town was given its first coat of arms. This and the following are eloquent coats of arms of folk etymology : "The mountain in the sunlight." The place name Lichtenberg is one of the many place names that should have an advertising effect for the settlers who moved from the Altreich: Blanken-, Golden-, Lichten-, Lieben-, Rosen- Schön-, Reichen- etc. In addition, there is not a specific one Characteristic of a village should be described, but that it was simply a matter of transferring a name: The place name "Lichterfelde" moved seven times in the Mark. The most recent coat of arms was awarded to the district by the Berlin Senate on February 28, 2006 after a five-year process of finding the coat of arms .
Blazon
The upper green field of the divided shield shows a silver mountain, which is connected on both sides with a small silver hill. A growing golden shining sun shows up behind the mountain. The sun is accompanied by two silver deciduous trees with black branches and a black and silver trunk that stand on the small hills. In the lower blue field there are three floating golden ears of corn next to each other, the middle one a little lower. A red three-tower wall crown rests on the shield, the central tower of which is covered with the Berlin coat of arms.
History and meaning
Lichtenberg
Lichtenberg , first mentioned in 1288, received town charter in 1907 and on April 13, 1914, the town was given its own coat of arms. The escutcheon is divided and split at the top by blue and gold. In the first blue field it shows a golden grain of wheat, which is held together by a red ribbon. In the second golden field it shows a blue gear wheel and at the bottom in a silver field above a blue wave shield foot on the right a green hill, on the left three green deciduous trees and behind them a shining golden sun.
The bundle of ears of corn symbolizes the agricultural village of Lichtenberg. For centuries the population earned their living from agriculture. Beginning in the 19th century, agriculture was increasingly driven away by industrialization, so that Lichtenberg became an industrial location. The gear in the coat of arms is symbolic of the industry. While the upper part of the escutcheon symbolizes the past and present, the lower part provides information about the geographical location. The area around Lichtenberg was covered with large forest areas. According to tradition, the settlement was built on an elevated, bright clearing. The trees in the coat of arms symbolize the wooded areas and the hill with the sun symbolizes the bright clearing in an elevated position. It is believed that the name of the settlement originated from this fact. Thus the lower half of the coat of arms is also a motif of a speaking coat of arms. The base of the wave shield is intended to indicate the proximity to the Rummelsburger See and the banks of the Spree .
The old district of Lichtenberg
When Greater Berlin was created in 1920, the Lichtenberg district was formed from four rural communities, two manor districts and the city of Lichtenberg. Including the areas of the Marzahn district formed in 1979 , from which areas in turn went to the Hellersdorf district formed in 1986 . Since Lichtenberg was the only town in the area of the district, its name and also its coat of arms were adopted for the district.
For the 750th anniversary of Berlin in 1987, the lifelike depiction of the coat of arms motifs was revised. After the reunification of Germany and thus also Berlin, the coat of arms was heraldically revised again and the shield was provided with a red three-tower wall crown , the middle tower of which is covered with the Berlin coat of arms. The top of the wall connects all districts with Berlin and with each other.
Hohenschoenhausen
The village of Hohenschönhausen , first mentioned in 1356, has had a seal and coat of arms as a rural community since 1816. The artistic design comes from the famous builder and painter Karl Friedrich Schinkel . It was especially adopted in memory of the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig . The coat of arms shows a black, silver-edged iron cross in a silver shield . The cross is angled by the numbers “1” + “8” + “1” + “4”.
Hohenschönhausen district
The Hohenschönhausen district was formed in 1985 from parts of the former Weissensee district. The district received its coat of arms for the 750th anniversary of Berlin. The design for the coat of arms comes from Professor Gerhard Thieme . The coat of arms shows in a blue shield above a blue wave shield foot a golden mountain filling almost the lower half of the coat of arms. In the background there is a growing silver high-rise complex and in the foreground two children planting a green linden tree with a brown trunk and roots. The two children, a boy (right) with dark hair and a girl (left) with light hair, are dressed in blue-silver and their skin is natural-colored.
A takeover of the coat of arms from the former rural community for the district, as happened in most districts, was out of the question because of the Iron Cross as a motif. The Iron Cross was outlawed in the GDR because of its use during the Nazi era .
After the reunification of Germany and thus also of Berlin, the coat of arms was redesigned because it did not correspond to the heraldic rules. The coat of arms designed by Heinz Schauß shows, obliquely to the left, a shield divided by silver and blue, in the lower blue field four golden ears of corn. A red three-tower wall crown rests on the shield , the central tower of which is covered with the Berlin coat of arms. The top of the wall connects all districts with Berlin and with each other. The four golden ears of corn symbolize the four districts of Hohenschönhausen; Falkenberg , Malchow , Wartenberg and Hohenschönhausen themselves. All four districts have an agricultural past. The upper silver shield surface stands for the many new buildings in the district.
The new district of Lichtenberg
As part of the district merger of January 1, 2001, the two districts of Lichtenberg and Hohenschönhausen were merged into one, the district of Lichtenberg. While the name for the district was quickly determined, the process of finding the coat of arms dragged on for just over five years. There was already a draft in 2004, but it did not meet the requirements and had to be revised.
On December 14, 2005, the district assembly of Lichtenberg confirmed the draft for a new district coat of arms, which had been revised by the heraldist Frank Diemar .
The symbols of the newly created coat of arms are borrowed from the coats of arms of the two merged districts of Lichtenberg and Hohenschönhausen. The symbols in the upper field come from the Lichtenberg district coat of arms and those in the lower field from the Hohenschönhausen district coat of arms. The new district coat of arms expresses the union of two districts and coats of arms several times. The colors blue and green as well as the metals gold and silver are the traditional tinctures of the old coats of arms. The two merged districts are symbolized on the one hand by the two trees that flank the sun in the upper field and on the other hand by the two halves of the shield, which become a whole coat of arms. The three golden ears of corn in the lower field represent the three historic villages of Malchow, Wartenberg and Falkenberg that Hohenschönhausen brought with him to the new district.
Coats of arms of the districts
The coats of arms of the districts lost their validity with the incorporation into Greater Berlin and disappeared from official use.
Falkenberg
No pictorial representations have survived from the coat of arms of the rural community of Falkenberg . According to descriptions, it was designed according to the seal of the community and shows a grain sheaf with flails, scythe and rake crossed upright.
Friedrichsfelde
The coat of arms of Friedrichsfelde , first mentioned in a document in 1265 , was designed according to the village seal and shows the same content. The seal, a round blue stamp, has a diameter of 27 mm and bears the inscription “DORF-SIEGEL VON FRIEDRICHSFELDE”. The inscription is framed inside and outside by a smooth line.
The coat of arms shows a golden grain of wheat in a silver shield on green ground, which is held together by a red ribbon. The sheaf is exaggerated by a six-pointed red star and a green linden tree with a brown trunk. The leaves of the linden trees are cut into three bushes. The pruning of the linden trees, as shown on the coat of arms, was the practice in Berlin in the 18th century. This created several leaf galleries one above the other. The trees symbolize the palace garden in Friedrichsfelde , which had remarkable specimens. The grain sheaf symbolizes the agricultural past of the former municipality.
Malchow
No pictorial representations have been preserved from the coat of arms of the rural community of Malchow . According to descriptions, it was designed according to the seal of the community and shows a beehive on the ground next to a linden tree. A scythe and a rake were also integrated in the coat of arms.
Wartenberg
No pictorial representations have survived from the coat of arms of the rural community of Wartenberg . According to descriptions, it was designed according to the seal of the community and shows a field of corn with a pine in the foreground and a mountain peak in the background.
See also
literature
- Heinz Machatscheck: When the heraldic bear was born. Berlin-Information, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-7442-0005-1 .
- Werner Vogel: Berlin and its coat of arms. Ullstein, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-550-07818-8 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ See: Today many old people's homes are called “Rosenhof senior citizens' residence”.
- ^ Adriaan von Müller: nobleman, citizen, farmer, beggar man. Berlin in the Middle Ages . Berlin 1987, p. 51 ("The seven-fold light field")
- ^ Lichtenberg: Senate decides on new district coat of arms. ( Memento of the original from August 26, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Press release from the Senate Chancellery, February 28, 2006.
- ↑ Recommended resolution: New coat of arms for the Lichtenberg district of Berlin. DS IV / 401, district coat of arms of Lichtenberg
