Last modified: 2022-12-24 by 
klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: borna | church | lion(black) | jew(torso) |
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![[Borna city banner]](../images/d/de-lz-bn_.gif)
5:2
image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 12 Dec 2022
It is a blue-yellow vertical bicolour. The coat of arms is shifted towards the top.
Source: this online catalogue
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 12 Dec 2022
Shield Azure chapé Or, in base a church Or seen from North with two towers, spire and apsis, on dexter base a sinister facing lion rampant Sable armed and tongued Gules, on sinister chief a helmet Argent, crested with a jew´s torso.
Meaning:
Borna today is the seat of Leipzig County. At the beginning of the 12th century the area was ruled by Count Wiprecht of Groitzsch, who populated region by Franconian farmers and founded several new villages. Borna existed already in the 10th century. An imperial castle controlled a ford crossing the little Wyhra River in the 11th century. To the castle also belonged the so called king´s mill. The count established a settlement for merchants during the 1st half of the 12th century. Since 1170 a church, dedicated to St. Kunigunde, existed in the settlement. After 1200 a new settlement directly at the ford was added with another church, dedicated to St. Mary, later to St. Catherine. This settlement was first mentioned in 1225 and called a city in 1327. Besides the Holy Roman Empire also the Margraves of Meißen gained a foothold after 1200. Since the middle of the 14th century Borna had been seat of a Saxon district. The church in the arms is symbolising the rule of the Bishopric of Merseburg in the Medieval according to the historian O. Kittel. The tinctures blue and golden are those of the Wettin kin, as the city belonged to the Margraviate of Landsberg. The lion is a differentiation of the family arms of the margraves, where the lion is dexter facing. The jew´s torso had been the crest of the helmet of the margraves. It consisted of a bearded man, wearing a jew´s hat, i.e. a triangular hat horizontally divided by alternating red and white vertical stripes with brim and collar of the same and plumes of peacock feathers. I believe that hat was a special mark of abatement, which jews had to wear outside their ghettos as a distinguishing mark. The arms are based on the oldest city seal, which displayed a huge church, flanked by a tiny lion and a tiny helmet with jew´s torso.
Source: Bensing et alii 1984, pp.59-60
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 12 Dec 2022
A probably plain banner was approved in 1897. The arms were confirmed in 1897.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 12 Dec 2022
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