Last modified: 2020-03-29 by 
klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: bad doberan | crozier | stag | swan |
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![[Bad Doberan city flag]](../images/d/de-rc-bd.gif)
3:5 
image by Jörg Majewski, 25 Feb 2007
It is a blue-white-red horizontal tricolour.
Source: Erwin Günther: "Kommunalflaggen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern", published in Flaggenkurier, No. 7/8, December 1998, pp. 16 - 29
Jörg Majewski, 25 Feb 2007
![[Bad Doberan CoA]](../images/d/de-rc-bd).gif)
image by Jörg Majewski, 25 Feb 2007
Shield parted by a crozier Argent in fess pointing to dexter, above Or a stag passant Gules, beneath Azure with base wavy Argent a swan of the same tongued Gules.
Meaning:
The first Cistercian Abbey of Althof near the Saxonian settlement of Amelungsborn was destroyed during a Slavic insurrection in 1179. The abbey was re-established in 1186 at the confluence of some minor creeks with the name giving Doberbach. In the 13th century massive extensions were built, in the 14th century the famous minster in High Gothic style. It became the burial place of the Dukes of Mecklenburg until the beginning of the 19th century. Secularised in 1558 the abbey became seat of a district (Amt). In 1218 a village with a market developed near the abbey. It belonged to the Lordship of Rostock since 1229 and to the Lordship of Mecklenburg since 1323. Since 1611 the settlement had the status of a market town (Flecken). Since the 18th century it became the favourite inhabitancy of the ducal family. After the first German spa had been established in 1793 in the neighbouring Heiligendamm, Doberan became the summer residence of the dukes and a spa too. Doberan gained city rights in 1879 and the additional title of a Spa in 1921. Since 1952 Bad Doberan had been seat of the namesake county.
The arms are based on a city seal from 1778. The crozier is alluding to the Cistercian abbey, who ruled the town for a long time. Stag and swan might refer to the riches of deer and the swans of the nearby Lake of Convent (Conventer see). There is also a legend that Heinrich Borwin I, Prince in Mecklenburg intended to re-establish the abbey at the place, where he would bag the first deer. As he shot a stag in a brook, a swan rose from the cane brake shouting "Dobr, dobr!" A German phrase says: "Der Hirsch, der Krummstab und der Schwan; das ist das wappen von Doberan!"
Source: Hans-Heinz Schütt:"Auf Schild und Flagge" , Schwerin 2011, pp.223-224
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 29 Mar 2020
The arms were granted on 24 June 1879 by Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The plain tricolour is in use since the same year and is basically the same like the then Mecklenburg state flag. Both were published in the Municipal Roll of Arms Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as no.24
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 29 Mar 2020
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