State Flag 1934-1954 (Berlin, Germany)

East Berlin 1945-1956

Last modified: 2012-03-31 by german editorial team
Keywords: berlin | bear (black) | crown: mural | coat of arms (bear: black) |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors

3:5
by Jaume Ollé

• Description

See also:

• Historical Flags (Berlin, Germany)
• Berlin (Germany)
• Germany

In 1943 the mural crown was added. The flag was confirmed on 20 May 1945 by the Assembly of Greater Berlin. In use by West Berlin 1943-1954 and by East Berlin (German Democratic Republic) 1943-1956.

Norman Martin (?)

Berlin Service Flag 1954: same as the current flag, but (...) above the shield a mural crown. Illustrated Talocci 1977, p. 35.

Norman Martin, 20 January 1998

According to Stadler 1966, p. 93, Berlin did not have an official pattern of the arms between 1920 (creation of Greater Berlin) and 1934/35. Only in 1934/35 the already informally used arms —a black bear, armed and tongued red on a silver shield— were fixed. It was a design created by Sigmund von Weech which was adopted in 1934/35 and continued by the Magistrate of [East] Berlin from 1946 until the reunification of Berlin in 1990. Stadler 1966 also reports that the present flag (i.e. the West Berlin flag 1954-1990) was in unofficial use since 1912. The conclusion would be that there was no other design in the period referred by Jaume Ollé.

Dieter Linder, 30 April 1998

This is the form of the arms introduced 1934, after a design by Sigmund von Weech. However, I do not have information on the use of the arms on the flags. It seems probable, however, that a variant with the whole arms was used as a service/state flag until 1954 in West-Berlin, and until 1990 in East-Berlin. (...) The civil flag continued to be used, and this would be only a new service flag introduced.

Marcus Schmöger, 19 September 2001