Flensburg (Germany)

Kreisfreie Stadt Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein

Last modified: 2008-01-19 by jarig bakker
Keywords: flensburg |
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3:5 image by Stefan Schwoon, 12 Feb 2001
Coat-of-arms adopted 1901, modified 1938

• City of Flensburg
• 1580 flag

• County and Municipal Flags (Schleswig-Holstein)
• Schleswig-Holstein
• Germany

City of Flensburg

From Ralf Hartemink's International Civic Arms website: Flensburg received city rights already before 1270 and the oldest known seal dates from 1282. The present arms were granted in 1938 and are based on this oldest seal. The two lions are derived from the arms of the County of Schleswig, to which the city belonged. The tower and the waves symbolise the city itself. The small shield with the arms of the counts of Holstein was added in the 15th century. The arms were officially granted in 1901 and were only slightly changed in 1938.
Literature: Stadler 1964-1971.
Santiago Dotor, 21 Nov 2001

Flensburg is a port of c. 90,000 inhabitants located on the Baltic Sea, close to the Danish border.
Ivan Sache, 7 May 2002

When having a look at Schleswig-Holstein regional flags I came across that one of my hometown Flensburg. The flag depicted there is indeed the modified version of the flag of 1938. It was still in use in 1984 when the city celebrated its 700th anniversary. But afterwards in the 1990ies, the flag design changed: the CoA is still the same but the flag changed from plain blue to blue over yellow just like the colours of teh duchy of Schleswig. This was done due to a lot of pressure by the Danish minority in Flensburg: until 1867 when Flensburg came to Prussia/Germany, the flag was blue over yellow with the CoA just like its is today.
Unfortunately, there is very little interest in flags & heraldry in Schleswig-Holstein so nobody cared about this change. Personnaly I think that a plain blue flag with the CoA does follow the rules of simplicity much more than a blue-yellow flag. The "undeniable" argument by the Danish minority was that the flag was modified in 1938 - so it's a "Nazi-flag". Could anybody tell me what a plain blue flag has to do with "Nazis", and why a blue-yellow hasn't?
Dr. Jan Schlürmann, 18 Mar 2005

1580 flag