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![[Lindau County until 1972 (Schwaben District, Bavaria, Germany)]](../images/d/de-by_li.gif)
5:2 image by Stefan Schwoon
From Ralf Hartemink's International
Civic Arms website: "The old arms were granted on November 28, 1956.
The hand (...) was the symbol of the imperial convent of Lindau, which
owned many estates in the Western part of the county. The banner [actually
a Kirchenfahne or gonfanon] (...) is taken from the arms of the
Counts of Montfort, who also held many parts of the county. The waves in
the base of the arms are a symbol for the Bodensee [Constance] lake, on
which the county borders."
Source: Stadler 1964-1972.
Santiago Dotor, 31 Jul 2003
Those new Bavarian flags make an interesting display. I especially like
the heraldic content in them.
Something I picked up through stamp collecting was the fact that during
the Allied Occupation of 1945-52, Kreis Lindau was administratively not
part of Bavaria. It was included, for some reason, in the French Zone,
and formed part of the Land Württemberg-Hohenzollern. As such it used the
French-issued stamps of Württemberg (discontinued in 1949, when the federal
republic was formed).
In 1952, when Südbaden (French Zone), Württemberg-Hohenzollern (French
Zone) and Württemberg-Baden (US Zone) were consolidated into the new state
of Baden-Württemberg, Lindau was returned to Bavaria.
This means that from 1945 to ’52 the Kreis Lindau also used the black-over-red
Landesfarben of Württemberg-Hohenzollern.
Mike Oettle, 9 Aug 2003
It looks like the area around Lindau today is the only non-Baden-Würtemberger
German coast of the Bodensee. Could it be that by adding Kreis Lindau to
the French zone, all of the German Bodensee coast was brought under the
same, French, jurisdiction?
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 12 Sep 2003
Kreis Lindau was included in the French Zone of Occupation to provide
a land bridge between the French Zones in Germany and Austria.
The exact status of the Kreis between 1945 and 1955 is not clear to
me. According to some sources, the area remained a part of Bavaria and
formed a "land" of its own within the French zone, according to
other sources it had ties to Württemberg-Hohenzollern. Does someone else
have a more definitive answer?
Mike's remark brings me to another issue: The official name of the land
formed in the southern part of Baden from 1945 to 1952 is "Land Baden".
Not "Land Südbaden". The term "Südbaden" is occasionally
(and inofficially) used to provide a clearer distinction between this land
and the larger geographical entity that is normally meant when speaking
of "Baden".
This page and this
one mention this term.
Stefan Schwoon, 15 Sep 2003
Lindau belonged to the French Occupation Zone, but was still considered
part of Bavaria, therefore having a special status. It was never part of
Württemberg-Hohenzollern, and therefore never used the Württemberg-Hohenzollern
flag. Quite the opposite: until the adoption of the Bavarian constitution
(defining, inter alia, the Bavarian flag) on 1st December 1946, the Bavarian
flag was not allowed in the American Occupation Zone, whereas the French
had allowed the use of the Bavarian flag earlier (proclamation of the county
president Groll, 8 May 1946). This led to the weird situation, that the
Bavarian Prime Minister,
Wilhelm Hoegner, was greeted with Bavarian flags during his visit to
Lindau, 19 Aug 1946, but he was not entitled to use the flag in his part
of Bavaria.
Source: Wilhelm Hoegner (1959) Der schwierige Außenseiter. München
(Isar-Verlag), p. 262, 273.
Marcus E.V. Schmöger, 25 Sep 2003
What puzzles me about Lindau's status is a remark on the web
page of the county, which states that the county sent three delegates
to the "Beratende Versammlung" (advisory assembly) of Württemberg
(I suppose that either Württemberg-Hohenzollern or Baden-Württemberg is
meant).
Stefan Schwoon, 25 Sep 2003