Oberfranken District (Germany)

Bezirk Oberfranken, Bavaria

Last modified: 2014-03-24 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: oberfranken | upper franconia | base | tierced per pale | lion(black) | quartered(silver-black) | crancelin | franconian rake |
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• Oberfranken district
• Hanging Flag

• County-Free City Flags (Flaggen kreisfreier Städte):
  • City of Bamberg (Stadt Bamberg)
  • City of Bayreuth (Stadt Bayreuth)
  • City of Coburg (Stadt Coburg)
  • City of Hof (Stadt Hof)
• County Flags (Landkreisflaggen):
  • Bamberg County (Landkreis Bamberg)
  • Bayreuth County (Landkreis Bayreuth)
  • Coburg County (Landkreis Coburg)
  • Forchheim County (Landkreis Forchheim)
  • Hof County (Landkreis Hof)
  • Kronach County (Landkreis Kronach)
  • Kulmbach County (Landkreis Kulmbach)
  • Lichtenfels County (Landkreis Lichtenfels)
  • Wunsiedel County (Landkreis Wunsiedel)
• Counties before the 30th June 1972 municipal reform:
  • Ebermannstadt County (Landkreis Ebermannstadt)
  • Höchstadt County (Landkreis Höchstadt)
  • Pegnitz County (Landkreis Pegnitz)
  • Staffelstein County (Landkreis Staffelstein)

• Franconia (Franken)
• Higher Communal Associations (Höhere Kommunalverbände, including Bezirke)
• Bavaria (Bayern, Germany)
• Germany

Oberfranken district

The coat-of-arms of Oberfranken (since 30th May 1960) is very complicated. It combines the Franconian rake with symbols for Bamberg (the lion), the burgraves of Nürnberg (later princes of Brandenburg-Bayreuth: quartered Argent and Sable) and Coburg (the green crancelin). The official flag was adopted and approved together with the arms. It is horizontally divided white-red with the arms in the center.
Source: Linder 1997 which is available online at the Der Flaggenkurier website.
Further information at the Bezirk Oberfranken website (only illustration of the arms).
M. Schmöger, 27 Jan 2001

The lion covered with a thin white line [bendlet sinister] represents the Bishopric of Bamberg which owned large parts of the territory until the area was allocated to Bavaria. This image also appears in the arms of many counties (Kreise) in the area.
Stefan Schwoon, 30 Jan 2001

I have not got yet official information from the Bezirk to clarify the question of how the flag actually looks like, especially if it is used as a normal horizontal flag or as a hanging flag (Banner). A photo taken recently (April 2001) at the Bayreuth town hall shows the flag of the Bezirk Oberfranken as a horizontal flag. The above image is based on this photo. Other variants of the flag are used as well.
M. Schmöger, 10 May 2001

Hanging Flag (Banner)

Obviously there are also hanging flags used in Oberfranken, not only hoisted (horizontal) flags. My image is made after a drawing in Dieter Linder, The "Höhere Kommunalverbände" in Germany, oral presentation during the 19th International Congress of Vexillology at York (23-27 July 2001).
M. Schmöger, 21 Oct 2001

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