Last modified: 2021-04-27 by 
klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: geisa | borsch | warrior | inescutcheons(2) | churn | quartered |
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![[Geisa city banner]](../images/d/de-wk-ge_.gif)
5:2
image by Jörg Majewski, 6 Apr 2021
On this page:
It is a red-white vertical bicolour. The coat of arms is shifted to the top. Above is a black Gothic inscription "Geisa".
Source: this online catalogue and this webpage
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 6 Apr 2021
Shield Azure; a warrior nimbed and armed Or, holding two inescutcheons, at dexter Gules charged with a triplemount issuant Vert, issuant from central peak three lilies Argent stemmed Sable, at sinister Argent parted by a Latin cross Sable.
Meaning:
According to source the city arms are different from those displayed on banner. The shield is black, the armour is covered by a white shirt. On middle base point is a yellow number "817". And in base the warior is standing on a silver (=white) mountain.
The warrior is St. Gangulphus. He is representing the nearby Gangolfsberg, which had been the seat of a local court of justice in times of the rule of the Franconian Carolingian kin. The shield with the cross displays the arms of the Abbey, later Bishopric of Fulda. The Codex Eberhardi, a register of the real estates of the abbey, mentions a "villa geisaha", which had been donated to the abbey incl. all its assets and servitudes by the Franconian kings Karlemann and Pippin. This entry has however been proven as an adulteration. The same register mentions a barter agreement from 817 between Abbot Ratgar of Fulda (802 - 817) and the German King Ludwig the Pious (814 - 840). The abbey gained the mairies (German: Meiereien) of Vacha, Geisa and Spahl and ceded Ibstadt upon Rhine to the German kings. This agreement seems to be the reason for the number in base. The number is however not mentioned in the local Hauptsatzung. Around 1265 the Abbot of Fulda founded a walled market town besides the already existing village, which gained city rights at the beginning of the 14th century. Geisa became a part of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt, a French puppet state, in 1810 and finally of the Grand Duchy of Sachsen-Weimar in 1815.
The red shield with the lilies displays the so called Simplicius arms, based on a legend and thus as such doubtful. According to hagiography Simplicius died as a martyr in Rome together with his siblings Faustinus and Beatrix. The lilies are representing the three siblings. The arms had been introduced posthumous in the 13th century and had never been used by the saints.
The current city arms on the banner are based on a draft of Otto Hupp, made around 1925. His draft was based on a city seal from 1391. Hupp omitted the number. His draft was not known in the GDR and was rediscovered by the authorities after German reunification and they gained permission to use it as official city arms.
Sources:
1) city webpage
2) German WIKIPEDIA
3) Blaschke et alii 1979, pp.145-146
4) Gert Oswald: "Lexikon der Heraldik", Dresden 1983, p.367
5) Otto Hupp: "Deutsche Ortswappen", 10 vols., Bremen 1925 - 1939 , Land Thüringen
6) Hartmut Ulle: "Neues Thüringer Wappenbuch", vol.3, Erfurt 1998
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 6 Apr 2021
![[Unknown Geisa Organization banner]](../images/d/de-wk-ge2.gif)
image by Pete Loeser, 24 April 2021
Based on this photo located by Ralf Hartemink, 16 May 2008
I wonder if you can help with this crest? It would be really helpful to find out the location as it would help me to establish where a mystery World War two youth pennant was used. I'm assuming that this is a German crest but it may also be from one of the German Reich territories 1933-1945. The number 817 refers to the unit. So far I have excluded: whole Czech Republic, region Opole (Poland), Alsace, Lorraine, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Westfalen, Hannover, Saarland, Pfalz and Hessen... My opinion is that it is actually the arms of the town (tulips) and the region (cross), which makes me think like Rheinland somewhere. But no existing arms as far as I can tell.
Ralf Hartemink, 16 May 2008
This is a red pennant with black scarf and the Coat-of-Arms of Geisa (I am sure) in yellow lining (saint holding two shields with "817" on central base point). Geisa is displayed in Ralf Hartemink's Heraldry of the World: Geisa page. He also shows the old version of the arms, drafted by Otto Hupp.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 28 March 2021
I made this quick drawing of this flag to do a web search to see if I could locate any information about what organization this flag might belong to, but no luck. Apparently my needle work needs improvement. Maybe somebody can make a better illustration to see if that helps?
More importantly, my friend Michael informs us the number 817 on this flag probably refers to the year of a treaty, where the German king exchanged Geisa and a few other small settlements (or mairies) for a larger village on the Rhine. Obviously this red flag with its hand sewn arms was made for some organization in or around the city of Geisa.
Pete Loeser, 16 April 2021
It is also an interresting feature that the iamga from Otto Hupp (I believe withiut number) was not known in the DDR for its complete timeline. A heraldry lexicon from that time displays the arms with black background and with number. I don't know why, but somehow the image of Hupp prevail after 1990 and I got a photo from Point Alpha, displaying the flag with blue shield and without number. German source furthermore are not unique. Thus I think the red pennant is from the time before 1945, perhaps indeed the pennant of a unit or civil protection unit, of scouts or Schützen (shooting clubs). The only thing we know, it is referring to Geisa.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 17 March 2021
![[Borsch borough banner]](../images/d/de-wk-ge-bo_.gif)
5:2 
image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 6 Apr 2021
It was a white-red vertical bicolour. The coat of arms was shifted to the top.
Source: this online catalogue
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 6 Apr 2021
Shield parted per pale, at dexter Gules a milk churn Argent with shoulder straps Or, at sinister quartered of Argent and Sable.
Meaning:
The dexter half is representing the Lords of Buttlar, who ruled the village as commissionaires of the Abbots of Fulda. The churn (German: Butte) is thus punning. Furthermore Constantin of Buttlar had been Abbot of Fulda between 1714 and 1726. The abbey was elevated to a bishopric in 1752 and had an important influence in the area in the 18th century. The sinister half is taken from the family arms of the Lords of Boyneburg, another important local kin. Both symbols had been used on local seals since the early 20th century.
Source: Hartmut Ulle: "Neues Thüringer Wappenbuch", vol.3, Erfurt 1998, p. 96
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 6 Apr 2021
Banner and arms were approved on 14 January 1994.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 6 Apr 2021
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