Flag Proposals 1990 (Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Germany)

Last modified: 2012-03-31 by german editorial team
Keywords: mecklenburg-west pomerania | mecklenburg-vorpommern | proposal | coat of arms: per pale (oxhead: black) | coat of arms: per pale (griffin: red) | coat of arms: base (water) |
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• Introduction
• Proposal no.1
• Proposal no.2
• Proposal no.3
• Proposal no.4
• Proposal no.5

See also:

• Unofficial Flag used in 1990 (Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Germany)
• Mecklenburg-West Pomerania (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany)
• Germany

As Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is composed of two parts of different (but sometimes also converging) history, namely Mecklenburg (at times separated into Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz) and Vorpommern, the western part of Pommern (Pomerania), it was difficult in 1990/1991, after the recreation of the Land, to devise its new symbols. The situation was in some way similar to the situation in Saxony-Anhalt, also a Land only quite recently composed of diverse territories. These two cases illustrate the difficult way to find a commonly accepted flag as a symbol for a community.

There were basically two groups of flag designs: the first were the 'official' proposals discussed by the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern government (Kabinettsvorlage vom 20 November 1990), these showed black-red-gold with the proposed Mecklenburg-Vorpommern arms. The second group tried to combine the traditional flag colours of the two regions into one flag.

At the end none of these proposals had been adopted, but there was a different solution, although not really liked by German vexillologists. The flag, as we know it now, was designed by Norbert Buske, then member of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern parliament and the driving force in the design of state symbols (also the author of the book on these symbols, Buske 1993). In an interview with the newspaper Mecklenburger Morgenpost he describes how the design came to his mind. This was obviously "during one of those long car rides at night between Schwerin and Greifswald". The idea stems from the pattern of ribbons of an order: many show three stripes, with another thin stripe in the middle. In a rather lengthy text Norbert Buske explains the significance of the colours and their arrangement.

Source for information and images: Buske 1993.

Marcus Schmöger, 28 September 2001

3:5
by Marcus Schmöger

This proposal is patterned after the flags of Lower Saxony and Saar: it shows the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern arms in the center of a black-red-gold triband. This was the attempt to avoid the difficulties in combining the colours of the two parts of the Land.

Marcus Schmöger, 28 September 2001

3:5
by Marcus Schmöger

This is a variant of the previous one, showing the arms in the canton, not in the center. This is the pattern of the Rhineland-Palatinate flag.

Marcus Schmöger, 28 September 2001

3:5
by Marcus Schmöger

This is the Mecklenburg triband, with the arms in the center, and a small Pomerania flag in the canton.

Marcus Schmöger, 28 September 2001

3:5 | stripes 3+3+2+2+2 |
by Marcus Schmöger

This is a flag of five horizontal stripes of width ratio 3:3:2:2:2. The colours are (from top) light blue-white-blue-yellow-red. Thus combines the colours of Pomerania (at the top) with those of Mecklenburg (at the bottom). This flag is shown without arms, but of course a state flag variant with the arms could easily be imagined.

Marcus Schmöger, 28 September 2001

3:5
by Marcus Schmöger

This flag is of a remarkable design: it does not combine the colours in horizontal stripes, but the field is divided by two diagonals into four triangles: the one at the hoist is yellow, at the top is blue, at the fly is white, at the bottom is red; in the center of the flag the arms.

Marcus Schmöger, 28 September 2001