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City of Borkum Island (Germany)

Stadt Borkum, Leer County, Lower Saxony

Last modified: 2011-11-11 by german editorial team
Keywords: borkum | lighthouse | east frisian tricolour |
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[Borkum Island flag] 3:5 image by Santiago Dotor, based on the image in van Heijnigen 1998
adopted 28 Sep 1929

See also:

Borkum city

The description in van Heijnigen 1998 [available online at the Der Flaggenkurier website, image here] is (translated): The flag shows in green a white cross whose arms have a width of 3/13 of the flag's length; the canton is striped black-red-blue horizontally. On the intersection of the cross is a blue disc, its diameter half the height of the flag. On the disc is displayed a red lighthouse, radiating from which are yellow beams on either side; the lighthouse rests on a floating green hill with white wavy bars beneath. On the rim of the disc is written in black capital letters "mediis tranquillus in undis" [latin, meaning "calm in the midst of the waves"].
The flag was adopted in 1929 and first hoisted in 1930. Black-red-blue in the canton is of course the East Frisian flag (which of course does not stand for serenity, love and fidelity as the otherwise well-researched article claims!)

It is interesting to note that the flag was adopted before the arms which are quite different, see Ralf Hartemink's International Civic Arms website. Stadler 1964-1972 also describes the flag, but doesn't mention the wavy bars. Keyser 1939-1974 (1952) also mentions a flag for Borkum (presumably the same), describing it as "similar to the English flag (!), with a green field".
Stefan Schwoon, 27 Mar 2001

The Borkum flag was established in Sept. 28th 1929, by local teacher Jacob Everts Teerling; first hoisting in public was on the beach promenade July 31st 1930. Its present form was given in the 1950's by Borkum resident Henning Hobein. Source: van Heijnigen 1998.
Gerd Winkelmann, 12 Mar 2002

Mediis tranquillus in undis (Calm in the midst of the waves): Borkum's latin motto dates back to that of William I of Orange, nicknamed the Silent who acted as the defender of Protestantism in the war between Spain and the Netherlands (1568-1648). Borkum and specially Emden were at that time refuge states for protestant refugees coming from the Netherlands.
Gerd Winkelmann, translated by Santiago Dotor, 20 Mar 2002

I would like to remark that the blue of the sky and the sea in the central disk is the same dark blue as in the canton.
Henning Hobein, 15 Jun 2002

Borkum variant

[Borkum variant flag] 3:5 image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 22 Sep 2009

City of Borkum (Leer county; Lower Saxony)
Description of flag: The differences to the flag already depictes as follows: The green colour is darker and has a grassy shade. The seal in the centre is clearly bigger and the shape of the kighthouse is different, especially the windows containing the fire are bigger. Furthermore the width of cross bars is 1/3 of total height.
Source: I spotted this flag on 14 September 2009 at a stop of Borkum line ferry near Knock tide gate, Krummhörn municipality.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 22 Sep 2009