The flag of

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

is a horizontal bi-color of red over white, with the arms of the state (land), in the center. The coat of arms of the state shows on a shield in white (silver) a red eagle, looking to the right, with wings decorated with trefoils in gold and armored gold. In its current form, the flag was adopted on 20 January 1991, with further enshrinement in Article 4 of the Constitution of the State of Brandenburg.

History

The

Margraviate of Brandenburg The Margraviate of Brandenburg (german: link=no, Markgrafschaft Brandenburg) was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806 that played a pivotal role in the history of Germany and Central Europe. Brandenburg developed out ...

, also known as the March of Brandenburg, played a pivotal role in forming the nucleus of what over the course of history became the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. ...

and 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 ...

. The ''Märkischer Adler'', or red eagle of the Margraviate of Brandenburg was adopted by Margrave

Gero Gero I ( – 20 May 965), sometimes called the Great ( la, magnus),Thompson, 486. Also se was a German nobleman who ruled an initially modest march centred on Merseburg in the south of the present German state of Saxony-Anhalt, which he expande ...

in the 10th century. The bi-color of red over white was used by the

Province of Brandenburg The Province of Brandenburg (german: Provinz Brandenburg) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1945. Brandenburg was established in 1815 from the Kingdom of Prussia's core territory, comprised the bulk of the historic Margraviate of Brandenburg ...

in both the Kingdom of Prussia and also in the

Free State of Prussia The Free State of Prussia (german: Freistaat Preußen, ) was one of the constituent states of Germany from 1918 to 1947. The successor to the Kingdom of Prussia after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I, it continued to be the domina ...

. In 1945 a new flag was issued, derived from the new coat of arms created after the war.Jürgen Faulenbach and Iris Möckel, ''Deutsche Wappen und Flaggen: Symbole im demokratischen Staat'', Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 1998, p. 4. In 1952, when

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

dissolved the states, that flag fell into disuse. Upon the re-establishment of the state of Brandenburg in 1990, the traditional colors of red over white were adopted as the state flag once again.

Gallery

References

{{GermanFlags 1991 establishments in Germany

Culture of Brandenburg

History

Gallery

See also

References