Danzig Historical Flags (Prussia, Germany)

Last modified: 2020-05-14 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: prussia | danzig | gdansk | crosses: 2 (white) | cross: formy (white) | crosses: 4 (white) | crown: open (yellow) | crowns: 3 | crowns: 4 | coat of arms | canton (white) |
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• Introduction
• Danzig Flag 1457-1939 - Freistadt Danzig 1920-1939
• Danzig Hanging Flag - 14th Century
• Danzig Flag - Until 1457
• Danzig Banner 1400 Danzig Flüger
• Dangzig Flag Variant 1457-1939
• Danzig Blue Ensign 18th Century - 1823, reported 1805
• Danzig Civil Ensign 17th-18th Centuries - reported 1695 and 1756, doubtful
• Danzig Civil Ensign 18th-19th Centuries - reported 1769 and 1862, doubtful
• Danzig Flag - 1805, doubtful
• Danzig Flag - reported 1856, doubtful

• Komturia Danzig - Teutonic Order
• Free City of Danzig 1920-1939
• Gdan´sk - Poland
• Hanseatic Cities - Germany, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland
• Index of all German Pages

The 1805 flag, as the one with four crosses topped by royal crowns and the one with three royal crowns, is a fantasy flag. There is some evidence, on the contrary, of a blue flag with two white crosses and a white flag with two red crosses (similar to the British system) used in the 18th century and, maybe, until 1823.
Mario Fabretto, 4 Aug 1998

Danzig Flag 1457-1939
Freistadt Danzig 1920-1939

Red flag but with white crosslets in pale under a golden coronet, in use since 1457. State and merchant flag of the Free City of Danzig 1920-1939.

Source: Denis Diderot and Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert: "Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers" ,ed. 1769, plate XIX suite, image no.142
Norman Martin, 20 Jan 1998

Znamierowski 1999 shows several interesting flags of the Port Cities of northern Europe. These are derived from gonfanons, originally red in color. The flags, in a banner form [i.e. hanging flags], were flown from the stern of the vessels, the mast carrying the gonfanon of the colors. The oldest of the series, from the mid-13th century, that of Hamburg, was followed among others by Danzig in the 14th century.
Phil Nelson, 20 Feb 2000

The German editors of Norie and Hobbs 1971 added two charts (which were not originally in Norie and Hobbs 1848) with German flags that were important over time. One of them is no. 26, Flüger: Danzig 1400, as the above image, but crosses slightly potent instead, and placed fesswise and extended horizontally to a long flying flag. I believe a Flüger is a pennant of which the part near the hoist fixed to a piece of wood, and that is indeed how these are pictured in Norie and Hobbs 1971.
Peter Hans van der Muijzenberg, 12 Nov 2001

Danzig Flag Until 1457

A red flag with at the hoist two crosses formy vertically arrayed. In use until 1457. Illustrated in Smith 1975, p. 115.
Norman Martin, 20 Jan 1998

Danzig Banner 1400
Danzig Flüger 1400

A plain red pennant with two white crosses lined up horizontal and shifted to the hoist. Source: Poster entitled: Die geschichtliche Entwicklung der als deutsche Nationalflaggen auf See gefahrenen und von den seefahrenden Nationen anerkannten deutschen Kriegs- und Handelsflaggen, - "The historical evolution of those German national flags used on ships and recognized as German war flags or merchant flags by the naval nations" - edited by Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum Bremerhaven, 1981, based on an original version of Kapitän zur See a.D. - Karl Schultz, all flags on the poster are painted by E. Paschke.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 28 Nov 2005

Dangzig Variant 1457-1939

Variant of the Danzig flag, believed to be referred to as the old flag.

Norman Martin, 20 Jan 1998

Blue Ensign 18th Century 1823 - Reported 1805

A blue field with two white crosses at center of flag (placement unusual for Danzig flags).
Norman Martin, 20 Jan 1998

There is some evidence of a blue flag with two white crosses (...) used in the 18th century and, maybe, until 1823.
Source: E. Åkerlund: "Tabell Öfver Alla Nationers nu brukeliga Flaggor", 1805 Göteborg, flag in top right corner, reprinted on pp. 146-147 of Kajanti 1983.
Mario Fabretto, 4 Aug 1998 and Norman Martin, 29 June 2000

Civil Ensign 17th-18th Centuries (doubtful)
Reported 1695 and 1756

Red flag with four gold crowned white crosses arranged two and two.
Sources:
1695 copperplate engraving depicted in: T. Rousseau and I. Chevillard: "L'histoire fixée en drapeaux / Geschichte dokumentiert in Flaggentafeln / History captured in flags", Oldenburg and Hamburg 1974
Jaques-Nicolas Bellin: "Tableau de Pavillons e Banniéres que la pluspart des Nations arborent à la Mer", 1756, row 8 column 12
Denis Diderot and Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert: "Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers" ,ed. 1769, plate XIX suite, image no.141
Norman Martin, 20 Jan 1998

Variant (also doubtful)

Variant of the above flag, from a Polish text [Miller 1962].
Norman Martin, 20 Jan 1998

Danzig Civil Ensign 18th-19th Centuries (doubtful)
Reported 1769 and 1862

Red flag with three golden crowns arranged vertically, towards hoist.
Sources: Denis Diderot and Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert: "Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers" ,ed. 1769, plate XIX suite, image no.143 and Steenbergen: "Vlaggen van alle Natien", Amsterdam 1862, plate 3, image no.87
Norman Martin, 20 Jan 1998

Danzig 1805 Flag (doubtful)

A red flag with a white canton with the arms of Danzig (red field with 2 white crosses formy, 2 lions rampant as supporters, crest an eagle).
Norman Martin, 20 Jan 1998

The design is incorrect; the Arms reproduced are not those of Danzig, but the form they had on the flags adopted between 1920 and 1939 by the free town.
Mario Fabretto, 4 Aug 1998

Danzig Flag - reported 1856 (doubtful)

The flag is horizontally divided, beneath blue, above vertically divided red (hoist) and black (fly) with white fimbriations between the different fields and three white Greek crosslets in pale shifted to the hoist.
Comment of the author: "a commercial city and stronghold of the Prussian States, on the left bank of the Vistula, about 3 miles from its mouth"
Source: Alphonso Figsbee: "The maritime Flags and Standards of all Nations", New York, 1856, p.(38) top right
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 11 May 2020