Ahorn is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the district of Coburg in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

History

Ahorn was first mentioned in 1074/75 as "clearing farms in the forests of Ahorny Castle". The development of the settlement is closely related to the history of Ahorn castle, which was built in 1555 by Joachim von Rosenau after the

German Peasants' War The German Peasants' War, Great Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt (german: Deutscher Bauernkrieg) was a widespread popular revolt in some German-speaking areas in Central Europe from 1524 to 1525. It failed because of intense oppositio ...

(1524–1526) on the remains of an older castle in the Renaissance style. Since the early 1820s, Ahorn castle is owned and inhabited by a branch of the Franco-Thuringian von Erffa family. Within the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

(1871-1918), Ahorn was part of the Duchy of

Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (german: Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha), or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (german: Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, links=no ), was an Ernestine, Thuringian duchy ruled by a branch of the House of Wettin, consisting of territories in the present-d ...

and become - after World War I - part of the newly founded Free State of Bavaria in 1919.

Coat of Arms

The blazon shows a

maple leaf The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree. It is the most widely recognized national symbol of Canada. History of use in Canada By the early 1700s, the maple leaf had been adopted as an emblem by the French Canadians along the ...

(Ahorn =

maple ''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...

) and Ahorn castle as the symbol for the community. The colors green and silver of maple leaf and castle indicate the affiliation of the municipality to the former Wettin Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Maple leaf and castle are embedded in the colors gold and blue from the coat of arms of the family of the barons of Erffa.

Weblinks

Schloss Ahorn p. 335-337
coburg.de

References

{{Authority control Coburg (district)