Tönning city (Germany)

Stadt Tönning, Nordfriesland County, Schleswig-Holstein

Last modified: 2008-02-09 by jarig bakker
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• Tönning city
• Tönning 1801

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Tönning city

Tönning 1801

Tönning 1801: It is a red flag with a golden(=yellow) swan, rising its head and standing upon a golden (=yellow) ton.
Meaning: There exists a myth. According to this myth the city was founded in that place, where a swan standing upon a ton was driven onto the bank of the river Eider. The ton is also symbolizing the city's name.
Tönning gained the title of a city in 1590. Since that time the city used a seal, showing a ship upon the waves, the mast was superimposed by a shield, showing a ton with two lions as supporters. The meaning was, that the politics of the city, symbolized by the ton was limited by the sovereign, symbolized by the lions and the region (German:Landschaft), symbolized by the ship of Eiderstedt. A similar pattern was used by the city of Wismar.
Since the middle of the 17th century this seal was used mainly in court. Since then there also was a small seal of the city, showing only a standing ton. Probably in the 18th century the image with the swan and the ton was used as the "proper" seal of the city. It was this one, that also was used around 1800 on the cities ships (see also PASCHKE, who reported the flag from 1801). The seal, showing the ship was abolished in the 19th century and replaced by the current one, showing the swan and the ton but upon blue waves and with a silver (=white) black armoured swan. The waves are symbolizing the mouth of the river Eider. This image was confirmed as the cities coat of arms by authority on 22 October 1953.
Source: Martin Reißmann: "Die Wappen der Kreise, Ämter, Städte und Gemeinden in Schleswig-Holstein"; ISBN 3-88042-815-8; Husum 1997; p.344
Note: This is not the current flag, which is according to www.kommunalflaggen.de blue with two (?) white stripes, see Tönning city (Nordfriesland County).
Source: Poster entitled: "Die geschichtliche Entwicklung der als deutsche Nationalflaggen auf See gefahrenen und von den seefahrenden Nationen anerkannten deutschen Kriegs- und Handelsflaggen", engl: "The historical evolution of those German national flags used on ships and recognized as German war flags or merchant flags by the naval nations", edited by Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum Bremerhaven, 1981, based on an original version of Kapitän zur See a.D. Karl SCHULTZ, all flags on the poster are painted by E. PASCHKE.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 17 Oct 2007