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RC Aschaffenburg (German rowing club)

Ruder-Club Aschaffenburg von 1898 e.V.

image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 12 Jan 2007

Ruder-Club Aschaffenburg
1898 Lion Flag

See also:

Ruder-Club Aschaffenburg

Name: Ruder-Club Aschaffenburg von 1898 e.V.
Located in: Aschaffenburg
Established: 8 August 1898
Source: Rudersportalmanach 2004
Further information here.
Description of flag: The flag is divided per pale. At the hoist is a green field with a golden (=yellow) rampant lion facing the hoist. The flyend is white with a red saltire and golden (=yellow) letters: "A" (top), "R" (hoist),"C" (flyend) and "v.1898" (bottom). The "v." is smaller and above the numbers.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 12 Jan 2007

1898 Lion Flag

Can you please help to identify a British (?) flag I have...it's dated 1898 and has a large standing lion with the words R.A.C. on it.
Steve Winters, 3 Mar 2005

This is a complete guess, but the Automobile Compagnie de Renault was founded in 1898. The flag definitely has a lion which is more continental European than British, but Renaults would have competed in British races from the very early days of the sport. I don't know if the company ever used a lion as their emblem (they certainly don't today), but it's a possibility.
James Dignan, 3 Mar 2005

I don't think we should necessarily assume that the initials are 'R.A.C.' James suggests 'A.C.R.' (which looks a little forced to me ), but 'A.R.C.' looks quite likely. The gold lion rampant on green suggests Alderney to me - though the Alderney lion is crowned - and I don't know where the St Patrick's Cross fits in.
André Coutanche, 3 Mar 2005

Assuming that the initials should be read as R.A.C. I have two wild guesses:
1. I was reading about the history of African slavery and came across the Royal Africa Company = R.A.C.? It is probably unlikely that they would still have existed in 1898, however.
2. Royal Automobile Club? Perhaps too early for them to have existed? [It was founded in 1897, but not called RAC till 1907.]
Andries Burgers, 6 Mar 2005

The identification with Renault I think may be a bit fanciful, simply from the order of the letters. The combination of the (possibly) Alderney lion and the Jersey saltire suggest to us that it may be from the Channel Islands. One suggestion has been "Alderney Rowing Club" and the date of its foundation. Certainly the size of the flag as specified to us by the owner suggests a flag which would have flown over the shore establishment of such a club.
Michael Faul, 17 Jul 2005

I believe that I have identified the 1898 Lion Flag as belonging to, wait for this! Ruder Club Aschaffenburg 1898.
I researched this flag entirely through the internet and arrived at the following website page, http://www.ruder-club-aschaffenburg.de/downloads/rca-satzung.pdf, needless to say, it's in German or Bavarian (is there a difference?) However, I downloaded the .pdf file and converted it into a text file, then using my Multilingual software converted the German text into English.

The following is my software translation of part of the .pdf file.

**********************
§ 3 colors and flag
The colors of the association are green white red.
The association flag consists of STATUTE of the Rudder club Aschaffenburg of 1898 e. V , conditions 03/2002

2, a right-angled divided field. The left rectangle of the flag field shows a golden, upright-standing lion, which is turned to the flag mast on green reason. The remaining larger rectangle of the flag field has a white reason and is diagonally by two red bars crossed. In the three upper triangle fields divided by the bars the initial letters of the association name are in black set in golden Latin large letter attached. The year of the establishment of the association is drawn in in the same way in the lower triangle field. The large "A" of the abbreviation for Aschaffenburg is in the upper triangle field.

David S Smales, 23 Sep 2005

David S Smales is absolutely right. It is indeed the flag of "Ruder-Club Aschaffenburg von 1898 e.V." without any doubt. According to Rudersportalmanach 1977 (p.187) the lion facing the hoist is white however, the letters in the flyend are black and dotted. According to Rudersportalmanach 2004 (p.232) the flag of the club is nearly the same as the lion-flag on FOTW. Only the inscription in the bottom of the flyend is "v.1898" instead of "1898", the "v." is above the "1898". According to Club's Website the flag is the same as the one in Rudersportalmanach 1977, but the letters are not dotted and the inscription in the bottom of the flyend is "v.1898" too. You can see this variant on Club's Website on the frontpage. I think those little differences depend on the age of the flags or different manufacturers and don't really matter. Sales is wrong however about another point. Of course German and Bavarian is not the same. All papers are of course written in German and I think, it is important to the people of Aschaffenburg being Franks and not Bavarians although this region (today district of "Unterfranken") is part of the State of Bavaria (today "Freistaat Bayern") since 1803. To Northerners like us, it seems as if e.g. Dutch and Norwegian are more similar to German than Bavarian.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 17 Jun 2006

[editor's note: discussion and image taken from this FOTW-page.]