State coat of arms of the Saarland

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State coat of arms of the Saarland
Coat of arms of the Saarland
Details
Introduced January 1, 1957
by law of July 9, 1956
Shield shape and division quartered semicircular shield:
  1. County of Saarbrücken
  2. Kurtrier
  3. Duchy of Lorraine
  4. Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken
Previous
versions

  • Coat of arms of the Saar area 1920–1935

  • Coat of arms of the Saarland 1948–1956

  • Coat of arms of the historical association for the Saar area from 1856 as a template for today's coat of arms

The state coat of arms , like the state flag, is one of the emblems of the Saarland . It was introduced by the law on the coat of arms of the Saarland of July 9, 1956 with effect from January 1, 1957, the date of the accession of the Saarland to the Federal Republic of Germany. The use of the coat of arms is reserved for the state authorities of Saarland. Use without permission is an administrative offense.

State coat of arms

Description of coat of arms

Postage stamp from 1994 from the series: Coats of arms of the countries of the Federal Republic of Germany . Gold and silver are represented here as metals , not colors.

The official description of the coat of arms in this law reads:

"The state coat of arms shows in a quartered semicircular shield from the point of view of the shield holder:

  • top right : a gold-crowned and red-tongued silver lion in the blue field, sprinkled with silver crosses;
  • top left: a red cut cross in a silver field;
  • lower right: three mutilated silver eagles covering a red bar in the golden field;
  • bottom left: a red-crowned, red-armored and red-tongued golden lion in the black field. "

meaning

  • The coats of arms of the most important historical rulers in the area of ​​today's Saarland

  • County of Saarbrücken

  • Archdiocese and Electorate of Trier

  • Duchy of Lorraine

  • Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken

The state coat of arms shows the symbols of the four most important principalities, which owned large areas of the current state before 1789 and 1815:

The coat of arms was designed by the Saarbrücken State Archives , which used the coat of arms of the historical association for the Saar area from 1856 as a template, which used the same four partial coats of arms with only marginal variants (e.g. the silver crosses are missing), but in a different arrangement .

Standard

The standard ("car flag") of the two highest-ranking politicians in the state, the state parliament president and the prime minister , also bears the state coat of arms.

  • Standard

Heraldic sign

In contrast to the official state coat of arms, the Saarland symbol , also known as a signet or logo, may be used by all citizens (i.e. everyone) free of charge and free of charge in order to express their affiliation and solidarity with the Saarland. It was made available to the general public for this purpose. The symbol must not be changed / alienated during an application or integrated into other, own layouts. It is a stylized version of the country's coat of arms.

  • Saarland symbol since 2005

Old national coat of arms

1919-1935

Flag of the Saar area 1920–1935

In the Saar area , which was created by the Versailles Treaty , the government commission issued the following coat of arms on July 28, 1920:

  • top right: a silver pulling wheel with crossed mallets in the black field from the city coat of arms of St. Ingbert ;
  • top left: the red rose in the silver field of St. Johann from the city arms of Saarbrücken ;
  • bottom right: the rising golden sun over blue clouds in the silver field from the city arms of Saarlouis ;
  • bottom left: the silver lion with four crosses in the blue field, the lion of the Counts of Saarbrücken from the city arms of Saarbrücken.
Official seal of the Saar area with a coat of arms flanked by a cornucopia

In the official seal of the Saar region, the coat of arms of the state was flanked by horns of plenty decorated with ribbons as a symbol of luck and fertility , from which acanthus leaves sprout, forming an arch above the coat of arms.

The corresponding state flag of the Saar area showed the colors blue, white (heraldic: silver) and black. The color scheme of the state flag took up the basic colors of the individual coat of arms of the Saar area coat of arms, but could also be interpreted as a reference to the colors of the most important historical territories in the Saar area since the Congress of Vienna , namely black and white for Prussia and white and blue for Bavaria .

1948-1956

Flag of the Saarland 1948–1956

Even if a flag had already been created, the now enlarged Saarland initially did not have its own coat of arms and they did not want to fall back on the existing coat of arms from the time of the Saar area. In February 1948, the Saarland government organized a competition to acquire a new national coat of arms. The requirement was that the elements contained in the shield image should be a dove of peace and / or a bridge. A direct recourse to the coat of arms elements of feudal power relations in relation to the historical Saar region was to be excluded. The decision of the competition was made in December 1948. Based on the new national flag, a white Scandinavian cross was created on a blue-red background. Articles 61 and 62 of the Saarland constitution stated: Article 61: "The state's flag consists of a white cross on a blue-red background." Article 62: "The details about this, as well as the state coat of arms, are determined by a law."

On December 14th, the law on the state coat of arms was published.

“On the basis of Article 61 of the Saarland Constitution, the state parliament has passed the following law, which is hereby promulgated: Single paragraph. The state coat of arms represents a shield with a bridge crown. The width of the lower semicircular shield is related to its length as 4: 5. The shield is quartered by a cross in such a way that the top two fields have the shape of a square. The width of the dividing line is 1/15 of the plate width. The upper fields are light cobalt blue, the lower ones medium vermilion. The color of the cross is silver or white. The shield is surrounded by a silver or white stripe 1/40 of the shield width. The crown of the bridge is medium vermilion and extends across the upper width of the shield. The bridge has four pillars connected by three equal arches. The pillars have a height of 1/5 and a width of 1/12 of the coat of arms. The clear arch height is equal to the pillar width and has a ratio of 1: 1 to the arch thickness.

Saarbrücken, December 14, 1948. "

The combination of colors could be interpreted as a reference to the French tricolor or to the colors of the important historical territories in the Saar region, namely white-red for Kurtrier and white-blue for the Kurpfalz . The cross itself was supposed to symbolize the Christian character of all social life after the collapse of the National Socialist system, the bridging crown the unifying task of the Saarland between the neighboring states, without this having been expressly formulated in an official statement of legal status. Thus, the iconography of the design of the coat of arms (bridge as a symbol of international understanding, cross as a symbol of Christian value orientation) corresponds to the national goals stated in the preamble of the Saarland constitution :

“The state parliament of Saarland, freely elected by the people, has (...) after overcoming a system that degraded and enslaved the human personality, to anchor freedom, humanity, law and morality as the foundations of the new state whose mission it is to bridge to form understanding among the peoples and to serve the peace of the world in awe of God, adopted the following constitution: "

See also

literature

  • Kurt Hoppstädter : The coat of arms of the Saarland , Part I, publisher: Historischer Verein für das Saarland e. V. in cooperation with the regional archive of the Saarland government (journal for Saarland local history, 3rd year, issue 1–4), Saarbrücken 1953.
  • Hermann Lehne, Horst Kohler: coat of arms of the Saarland. State and municipal coats of arms . Saarbrücken 1981.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ § 1 of Act No. 509 on the coat of arms of the Saarland of July 9, 1956, in force since January 1, 1957
  2. ↑ Saarland.de: Stylized coat of arms for free use (color)
  3. ^ Ordinance of the government commission of the Saar area of ​​July 28, 1920, printed in: Kurt Hoppstädter: Die Wappen des Saarlandes, Part I, publisher: Historischer Verein für das Saarland e. V. in cooperation with the regional archive of the Saarland government (journal for Saarland local history, 3rd year, issue 1–4), Saarbrücken 1953, pp. 13–14.
  4. ↑ The Constitution of the Saarland, With the Conventions on Tax, Budget and Justice, Saarbrücken 1948, p. 30.
  5. ^ Kurt Hoppstädter: The coat of arms of the Saarland, Part I, Ed .: Historischer Verein für das Saarland e. V. in cooperation with the regional archive of the Saarland government (journal for Saarland local history, 3rd year, issue 1–4), Saarbrücken 1953, p. 15.
  6. ↑ Rolf Wittenbrock: … Du Heiliges Land am Saaresstrand, denominational school and search for identity , in: From 'Hour 0' to 'Day X', Das Saarland 1945-59 , catalog for the exhibition of the Regional History Museum in the Saarbrücken Castle, Saarbrücken 1990, p. 257–272, here: p. 267.
  7. ^ The constitution of the Saarland, with the conventions on taxation, budgetary and judicial systems, Saarbrücken 1948, p. 20.