Last modified: 2015-05-10 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-sh-nf.gif)
image by Stefan Schwoon
There is an official coat of arms for the Landkreis of North Friesland, 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 Jul 1972, according to Dirk Schönberger's Administrative Divisions of the World website.
Note that this flag does not collide with the North Frisian flags below. 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 February 2001
From Ralf Hartemink's International Civic Arms website:
"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."
Literature: Stadler 1964,p.30 and Reißmann 1997, p.28.
Santiago Dotor, 23 October 2001
On 11 Nov 2004 the parliament of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein passed a "Law on the Furtherance of the Frisian Language in the Public".
The law, which was passed in both German and (North) Frisian, can be found online here.
Among other things, the law establishes (North) Frisian as an official language in the county [Landkreis] Nordfriesland and on the island of Heligoland [Helgoland]. Paragraph 5 states: (My translation):
"In the county of Nordfriesland, the colours and the coat-of-arms of the Frisians can be used alongside the colours and coat-of-arms of the state [i.e. Schleswig-Holstein]. The Frisian colours are yellow-red-blue."
Some more information on the law (in German) can be found in an online article on the website of the parliament of Schleswig-Holstein.
Note that, although the law consistently speaks of "Frisians", the "Frisian language" etc, it only pertains to the Frisians living in Schleswig-Holstein, i.e. the North Frisians. The "coat of arms of the Frisians", which is mentioned but defined in the law, is as follows: Parted per pale, in dexter per fess azure a king's crown or and gules a pot of porridge sable, in sinister or a demi-eagle sable. [See also the "Civil flag"] The first use of this coat-of-arms is generally attributed to a North Frisian festival at Bredstedt in 1844.
The "Frisian colours" mentioned in the law usually translate to flags with three stripes, yellow, red, and blue, occasionally with the afore-mentioned coat-of-arms, which are quite popular in the coastal areas and islands
of North Frisia. The new law now allows official buildings in North Frisia to fly this flag along with the state flag.
Stefan Schwoon, 7 Dec 2004
Description of flag:
The ratio is 3:5. 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
Description of coat of arms:
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 (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)]](../images/d/de-nf-fce964.gif)
image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 14 Nov 2012
Description of flag:
The ratio is 3:5. It is a blue over yellow horizontal bicolour. The coat of arms is in the centre of the flag.
Description of coat of arms:
In a blue shield are three golden (= yellow) sailing ships having three masts each. The sails are silver (= white). The masts are topped by red pennants. The ships are ordered 2:1. Upon the main sails are charges as follows: 1st ship: a blue demi-lion issuant, leopardized and tongued red; 2nd ship: a blue crucian carp; 3rd ship: a red bull's head.
Meaning:
Eiderstedt County became part of the newly established Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein in 1867. It consisted of the nowadays Eiderstedt Subcounty (Amt Eiderstedt) and the city of Tönning being the capital. The county was incorporated to newly formed Nordfriesland County in 1970.
The charges of the main sails are symbolizing the three maritime districts (Frisian(?): Harde ; pl.: Harden). The blue demi lion resp. leopard is symbolizing the well-fortified district of Utholm, the fish is symbolizing the district of Everschop. Finally the bull's head is symbolizing the rural district of proper Eiderstedt.
Utholm in the West around nowadays St.Peter-Ording and Everschop in the Northwest around Garding had been made islands by the great 2nd Marcellus flood in 1362. By dyking both had been connected again with the Eiderstedt peninsula. The maritime district of Eiderstedt was located in the Southeast incl. Tönning.
The coat of arms is based upon the common seal of the maritime districts, the so called "Three Lands".
The colours of the flag's sheet are those of the Duchy of Schleswig.
The coat of arms was approved on 22 June 1959 by minister of interior of Schleswig-Holstein
Source: [sta64], p.30
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 14 Nov 2012
The coat of arms was approved on 22 June 1959 by minister of interior of Schleswig-Holstein
![[Eiderstedt County 4-stripes (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)]](../images/d/de-nf-fce012.gif)
image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 14 Nov 2012
Description of flag:
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.
Description of coat of arms:
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 [rem97], 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.
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.
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
![[Plain Nordfriese flag]](../images/d/de-nf.gif)
image by Stefan Schwoon, 7 Dec 2004
An article in the German weekly magazine "Der Spiegel" about the law features a photo of school children holding the plain flag. Flag manufacturers also produce other variants for private use, see e.g.
here.
Background: Frisians are living along the coast of the North Sea in areas belonging to the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. Their language belongs to the West Germanic branch, is related to German and English, and consists of three dialect groups: West Frisian, with about 400,000 speakers in the Dutch province of Friesland, Sater Frisian with only about 1,500 speakers in the Lower Saxon municipality of Saterland, and North Frisian with about 10,000 speakers in the coastal areas and islands of Schleswig-Holstein. Quite many Frisians do not speak the language anymore (e.g. it has all but died out in East Frisia) as it has been replaced by Low German and nowadays increasingly by High German, or by Dutch, respectively.
The above mentioned law defines the cultural rights of the North Frisians living in Schleswig-Holstein and intends to strengthen attempts to revive the use of the Frisian language.
Finally, some comments about the current situation at FotW-ws. Currently, this page shows the flag of the county of Nordfriesland, followed by the yellow-red-blue flag plus variants. My feeling is that these two things should be kept on separate pages. The county is an administrative unit, whereas the yellow-red-blue flag expresses affiliation with North Frisian identity. Therefore, the yellow-red-blue flag cannot properly be called a Civil Flag variant of the county flag.
The Scandinavian cross variant appears not to be in use anymore. A while ago, DGF member Friedrich Rackow reported on the German flag mailing list that he never sighted this flag despite many visitsto North Frisia - the stripe flag was used throughout. He concludes that the Scandinavian cross variant was only used in a brief period after WW2, during which the Danish tried to lure the Frisians to their side in an attempt to revise the German-Danish border of 1920.
Stefan Schwoon, 7 Dec 2004
Some time ago I got a different flag from the North Frisian Institute in Braeist (Bredstedt). It is a simple yellow-red-blue flag, the gölj-rüüdj-ween as it is called in the North Frisian language (also the title of the unofficial gold, red and blue) have been the North Frisian colours since the beginning of this century. The colours are taken from the fields of the coat of arms.
Source: Thomas Steensen: "The Frisians in Schleswig-Holstein", Braeist/Bredstedt: Nordfriisk Instituut, 1994.
Jan Oskar Engene, 6 December 1995
![[Civil Flag (North Frisia, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)]](../images/d/de-nfri1.gif)
image by Jorge Candeias
The flag shown here with the coat of arms is sometimes shown with a smaller shield above a white scroll on which is written Lever düd as Slav.
Source: Walther Stephan, Das Wappen der Landschaft Nordfriesland, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte, 16er Band, Neumünster, 1931. According to this source, the North Frisian flag originated at the same time as the flag Schleswig-Holstein, also during feasts, and with the coat of arms and the motto in the middle.
Pascal Vagnat, 17 May 1999
Lever düd as Slav means 'Rather dead than slave'. It is another rendering of the motto Leaver dea as slaef, which can still be found on a monument on the Rode Klif (Gaasterland,
Fryslân, Netherlands), remembering the victory of the Frisians over the Hollanders in 1345.
Jarig Bakker, 18 May 1999
I have a flag, yellow-red-blue, with arms, which is used as the flag of the island of Sylt. In FOTW it is shown as the civil flag of North Friesland County. I suspect that the island of Sylt and North Friesland County are
one and the same. This may well explain why the inhabitants of the island fly this as and call it the flag of Sylt.
Robert Jungst, 10 Sep 2002
"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
![[Nordfriesland 1844 flag]](../images/d/de-nf844.gif)
image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 29 Jul 2009
The oldest flag of Nordfriesland was hoisted on 10 June 1844 on a local festival in Bredstedt.
According to source the coat of arms doesn't match heraldic rules. A former coat of arms for whole Nordfriesland didn't exist, because the region always was divided between their neighbours. There are traces, that this coat of arms was created by the Frisian frontman Reverend Christian Feddersen (1786-1844) or a member of his circles. His motto was: "Love to your own people must coincide with love to all mankind."
The half double eagle is taken from the coat of arms of Holy Roman Empire and is symbolizing the privileges, which have said being granted by the German Emperors in early middle ages. The crown is symbolizing the King of Denmark, who had been souvereign of the whole region until 1864. The pot of grits is symbolizing the brotherliness, for which Feddersen
fought.
Also the motto "Lewer duad üs Slav!" has been reducted to ideas of Feddersen. In his book "Fünf Worte an die Nordfriesen" (Engl.: Five words to the Northern Frisians), published in 1845, but already written in 1842, he claims: "Be no man's slave, at first not your own slave, i.e. slave of your own cravings!"
In the eve of the first Schleswig-Holstein war (1848) on Bredstedt festival this motto was also considered to be a statement against Denmark, so was the half double eagle.
I also talked to the owner of the flag, I spotted. She told me that the pot was considered being the pot of curly cale, in which fisherman Pidder Lüng killed the representative of the Danish king, who made the
attempt to collect the taxes, the people of Sylt didn't pay with respect to their privileges. The Dane became impatient, spit into the pot and was for this insult killed by the fisherman immediately, the latter crying out "Lewwer duad üs Slaav!". Having lost their leader the Danish soldiers committed a massacre killing all the people in the village. This story is told in the ballad of Pidder Lüng, by German poet Detlev von Liliencron (1844-1909). He inserted a 2nd !"w!" to mark a short vowel and a 2nd "a!" to mark a long vowel in the motto to fit German pronounciation. But the motto has many regional differences.
The first lines of the ballad are written in Frisian language:
"Frii es de Feskfang, //Frii es de Jaght, //Frii es de Strönthgang, //Frii es de Naght, //Frii es de See, de wilde See //En de Hörnemmer Rhee."
In English: "For free is fishing, //for free is hunting, //for free is beachwalking (to pick up goods of stranded ships??), //for free is the night, //for free is the sea, the furious sea // at the roadstead (German:
Reede) of Hörnum (a small municipality at the southernmost horn of Sylt Island)."
The complete text can be found e.g. here.
Source: I spotted this flag on 19 July 2009 in HH-Moorfleeth
We have already a variant of this flag, painted by Jorge Candeias, on our pages. According to the regional differences, both versions of the motto may be right.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 29 Jul 2009
![[North Frisia (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany), Scandinavian cross variant]](../images/d/de-nfr-x.gif)
image by Jan Oskar Engene, 6 Dec 1995
Kannik 1958a shows a Frisian (Germany) flag which has a blue Scandinavian cross, fimbriated red, on a yellow field. Horizontal proportions 6+1+2+1+12.
Pascal Vagnat, 6 Dec 1995
I noticed the same in Kannik 1956a. In the notes it is explained that the Scandinavian cross pattern was chosen to symbolise the relationship of the Frisians to the Nordic countries (whatever that may have been — except for the fact that the North Frisians once were ruled by Denmark).
Jan Oskar Engene, 6 Dec 1995
In the Flags of Aspirant Peoples chart appears "75. North Frisians (Helgoland & Schleswig-Holstein) - North Germany". Identical to the Scandinavian cross variant in FOTW.
Ivan Sache, 14 Sep 1999
back to Schelswig-Holstein counties and municipalities index page click here.