Last modified: 2021-07-24 by 
klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: nordfriesland | eiderstedt | utholm | everschop | ships(3) | fish | leopard | plough | bull's head | demi lion |
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![[Nordfriesland County (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)]](../images/d/de-nf.gif)
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"Nordfriesland: The most northern county of Germany was created in 1970 by the union of the former counties Eiderstedt, Husum and Südtondern. It is on the oast of the North Sea and includes the Peninsula Eiderstedt
and the north Frisian Islands (incl. Sylt) and the Halligen. Area: 2043 sq.km; inhabitants: 162.000; capital: Husum".
Source: "Diercke Lexikon Deutschland", 1988.
The CoA of the county shows three yellow sailing ships (Koggen?), each with another red symbol at its main sail. A plough, a fish and a oxen's head. Background is light blue.
J. Patrick Fischer, 11 Sep 2002
There is an official coat of arms for the Landkreis of Nordfriesland, created in 1970. This is blue, three golden, three-masted ships in 16th-century style [arranged] 2:1 with golden sails and red pennants. The flag has a broad central stripe with the arms as described, and with narrower stripes at the top and bottom, the inner ones golden, the outer ones red.
Source: Thomas Steensen: "The Frisians in Schleswig-Holstein", Braeist/Bredstedt: Nordfriisk Instituut, 1994.
Jan Oskar Engene, 7 December 1995
The Hauptsatzung (statutes) of the district at the Nordfriesland official website states that the red and gold stripes should be thin, so the choice of 1:1:12:1:1 is mine. The ships should be shifted slightly to the hoist. The ships are taken from the arms; more on their meaning at Ralf Hartemink's
International Civic Arms website, where I copied them from Reißmann 1997.
Adopted 10 July 1972, according to Dirk Schönberger's Administrative Divisions of the World website.
Note that this flag does not collide with the historical North Frisian flags. The latter have no official status and are popularly used to show adherence to (the historical region of) North Friesland whereas this is the official flag of the county authorities.
Stefan Schwoon, 1 Feb 2001
From Ralf Hartemink's webpage:
"The arms were granted on 10 July 1972. The arms are based on the arms of the former county Eiderstedt. The symbols of the ships differ from the old arms, in that the plough is the symbol of the former county Husum,
the fish is slightly changed and represents the typical herring of the island of Sylt in the former county Südtondern. The ox-head is still the symbol for Eiderstedt. The arms [of Eiderstedt] were based on a seal dating from 1613, after the area was reclaimed from the sea. The ships represented the three areas (Harden) in the new territory: Eiderstedt, Everschop and Utholm. (...) On the original seal the ships were placed 1:2 instead of 2:1 and the symbols were placed on the hulk of the ship, not the sails."
Source: Stadler 1964,p.30 and Reißmann 1997, p.28.
Santiago Dotor, 23 Oct 2001
It is a blue flag. At the top- and bottom-edge are two horizontal stripes, the outer stripes are red, the inner stripes are yellow. In the blue field are the figures of the coat of arms without shield. They are shifted to the hoist.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 14 Nov 2012
In a blue shield are three golden (= yellow) sailing ships having three masts each. The sails are golden (= yellow). The masts are topped by red pennants. The ships are ordered 2:1. Upon the main sails are charges as follows: 1st ship: a red plough; 2nd ship: a red fish; 3rd ship: a red bull's head.
Meaning:
The county of Nordfriesland was established on 1 January 1970, when the former counties of Eiderstedt (capital: Tönning), Husum and Südtondern (capital Niebüll) merged. The couties of Eiderstedt and Husum existed since the beginning of the Prussian rule in 1867. Südtondern , was the southern part of the county of Tondern, which had been divided by a plebiscite in 1920 after WW1. The northern part with capital Tondern/Tønder was ceded to Denmark while Germany saved the southern part around Niebüll.
The coat of arms is a modification of the arms of the former county of Eiderstedt. Just the colour of the sails turned from silver (= white) to golden (= yellow) and the symbols upon the main sails were modified. They are symbolizing the former counties as follows: The plough is symbolizing Husum, which bore a plough share in the county arms. The fish is symbolizing Südtondern. A fish is also part of the arms of Westerland as so called "herring of Sylt". The bull's head is symbolizing Eiderstedt, where herding had a great importance in the past.
Blue, yellow and red are the colours of the northern Frisians.
Source: Reißmann 1997, p.28
Flag and coat of arms were approved on 10 July 1972. The artist is Wilhelm Horst Lippert from Brunsbüttel.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 14 Nov 2012
![[Eiderstedt County bicolour 1959 (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)]](../images/d/de-nf-c1-59.gif)
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image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 14 Nov 2012
It is a blue over yellow horizontal bicolour. The coat of arms is in the centre of the flag.
Source: letter from Stiftung Nordfriesland to Falko Schmidt, written 6 August 1999
![[Eiderstedt County quatered 1960 (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)]](../images/d/de-nf-c1-60.gif)
3:5 image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 14 Nov 2012
The flag was quartered off-centred of blue and yellow. In upper hoist quarter is an ancient ship yellow, in upper fly quarter an ancient ship blue, on the vertical line of partition is an ancient ship parted per pale of blue and yellow.
Source: presentation of Klaus Günther on 27 September 2020 in Schwarzburg (DVT28)
![[Eiderstedt County quartered 1967 (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)]](../images/d/de-nf-fce967.gif)
2:3 image by Falko Schmidt and Klaus-Michael Schneider, 22 Oct 2019
The flag was quartered centred of blue and yellow. In upper hoist quarter is an ancient ship with yellow hulk, in upper fly quarter on with blue hulk, in lower centre one with a hulk divided oer pale into yellow and blue. For further details see coat of arms below.
Source: letter from Stiftung Nordfriesland to Falko Schmidt, written 6 August 1999
![[Eiderstedt County 4-stripes (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)]](../images/d/de-nf-c1-12.gif)
image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 14 Nov 2012
It is a horizontal four stripes flag. The stripes are ordered blue over yellow over white over red. A different coat of arms is in the centre of the flag.
The coat of arms has the original pattern of the common seal mentioned above. The ships are placed 1:2 for formal reasons, which however are unknown to me, see Reißmann 1997], p.28. Furthermore the full coats of arms of the districts are superimposing the hulks, not the sails. They are displaying: 1st ship: a golden demi-lion issuant in a blue shield; 2nd ship: two black crucian carps ordered paly in a shield divided per pale into silver and blue; 3rd ship: a black bull's head armed silver in a red field. The colours gold and silver in the flag are realized as yellow and white.
![[Utholm Harde CoA]](../images/d/de-nf-01)ut.gif) |
![[Evershop Harde CoA]](../images/d/de-nf-01)ev.gif) |
![[Eiderstedt Harde CoA]](../images/d/de-nf-01)ei.gif) |
Remarks:
The coat of arms of Everschop may be wrong. In the same location there is an image of that coat of arms showing just one black carp. Blue yellow, and red are the colours of the Northern Frisians. All four colours together are those of Schleswig and Holstein. But none of it is really a perfect match. It is probably a pre 1959 flag.
Source: I spotted this flag on 14 August in the "Packhaus", i.e. warehouse, a local museum of the city of Tönning.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 14 Nov 2012
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