Last modified: 2023-01-07 by 
klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: freiberg | castle | lion(black) |
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![[Freiberg city banner]](../images/d/de-mn-fb_.gif)
5:2
image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 2 Jan 2023
It is a black-yellow vertical bicolour. The coat of arms is shifted towards the top.
Source: this online catalogue
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 2 Jan 2023
![[Freiberg city banner 1897]](../images/d/de-mn-fb897_.gif)
5:2
image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 2 Jan 2023
It was a black-yellow vertical bicolour.
Source: presentation of Klaus Günther, held on DVT 29 in Hamburg on 16 October 2021
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 2 Jan 2023
Shield Azure, a castle issuant Argent masoned Sable with an embattled wall and three towers with windows Sable and roofs Gules; on gate with portccullis Sable an inescutcheon Or, charged with a lion rampant Sable, armed and tongued Gules.
Meaning:
In 1162 Margrave Otto II the Rich of Meißen donated a wood to the Cistercian Altzella Monastery. In 1168 silver ore was discovered in the wood near the village of Christiansdorf. A settlement for miners and another for merchants arose. Both were surrounded by one wall before 1190. Around 1218 a new town was added. New walls surrounded four settlement cores and a local castle. A council is known since 1227, a mayor since 1291. City rights were given probably just by word of mouth by the margraves. There had been a unique constitution of the city and the mining business as well. Thus Freiberg became Germany´s first Free Mining City and the most populous city of the whole margraviate. The local church of St. Mary was destroyed by fire in 1484 and restored as a cathedral, in which the members of the Wettin kin were buried between 1541 and 1694. During the 15th century the city lost its position to Leipzig, caused by outflow of capital. During the 16th cwntury silver mining was revived. The city suffered during the 30-Years-War (1618-1648), although two sieges of Swedish troops (1639 and 1642-1643) could be repelled. Since 1711 a factory for the construction of pipe organs was built by the famous organ builder Gottfried Silbermann. In 1765 the first mining university of the world was established in Freiberg. In 1790 the theatre opened. During the 19th century silver mining increased. In 1884 an amount of 33,000 kilograms of fine silver was produced. In 1886 mining was communised by the Saxon state and declined, until it was finished in 1913. The arms are known by a city seal from 1226, the oldest city seal in the margraviate. The inescutcheon was however parted per pale and displayed the black lion of Meißen at dexter and the blue pales of Landsberg at sinister. The pales were removed in 1305. Freiberg today is the seat of Mittelsachsen County.
Source: Bensing et alii 1984, pp.131-134
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 2 Jan 2023
The banner is in use without approval. The arms are traditional.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 2 Jan 2023
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