Last modified: 2017-11-11 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: wahlstedt | quarterly | oak(stomp) | counterchanged |
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![[Wahlstedt flag]](../images/d/de-se-wa.gif)
3:5
image by Jörg Majewski, 1 Jul 2006
Description of flag:
The ratio is 3:5. The flag is quarterly divided. The fly quarters are broader. The upper hoist quarter is displaying the coat of arms without shield. The lower fly quarter is red, the other quarters are white.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 26 Jan 2013
Description of coat of arms:
The shield is divided per bend sinister into silver (= white) over red. The only figure is a bendy, rooted stomp of an oak tree in counterchanged colours having four branches.
Meaning:
The two parts are alluding to the villages Kleinwahlstedt and Großwahlstedt in the Middle Ages. In 1440 Kleinwahlstedt had been dissolved and the inhabitants of both cores built Wahlstedt. The stomp is alluding to the forest clearance about 400 AD, that brought both villages to being. The twelve roots are alluding to the twelve original acres (Hufen). The four branches are symbolizing the durability of the inhabitants in troublesome times: 1) the boundary disputes against Slavic tribes, 2) the devastations of the 30-Years-War, 3) in the 19th(?) century the liberation from the enforcements concerning the times of sowing and harvesting, the crop rotation and other restrictions. (The German summary is Flurzwang) and 4) the flourishing after WW2 by assimilation of many expellees form the eastern parts of the country. The colours are those of Holstein.
Sources: Reißmann 1997, p.351 and Stadler 1970, p.110
Flag and coat of arms were approved on 19 May 1956. The artist is Wilhelm Horst Lippert from Brunsbüttel.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 26 Jan 2013
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