Saxony (Germany)

Sachsen, Free State of Saxony, Freistaat Sachsen

Last modified: 2013-11-20 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: saxony | sachsen | free state of saxony | freistaat sachsen | barry(black-yellow) | crancelin(green) |
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• Introduction
• Civil Flag - Landesflagge
• State Flag - Dienstflagge der Landesbehörden or Landesdienstflagge
• Vertical Flags - Hängefahnen or Banner
• Coat-of-Arms - Landeswappen
• Former Silesian Areas

• Flag Legislation
• County and Municipal Flags - Kreis- und Gemeindeflaggen
• Sorb People
• Upper Lusatia Region - Oberlausitz
• Saxony-Anhalt - Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany
• Historical Flags
• Index of all German Pages

• Saxony symbolic - Sachsen symbolisch - Saxony official website (German text only)

Introduction

The flag article in the Constitution allows the Sorbs to fly their flag and to have arms. The inhabitants of the part of Saxony which belonged to Lower Silesia in the past can fly the flag of this former province.
Pascal Vagnat, 19 December 1995

Source List:

1. Laitenberger and Bassier 2000
2. Schurdel 1995
3. Günther 1999
4. Verfassung des Freistaates Sachsen vom 27. Mai 1992. Sächsisches Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt 1992, S. 243-257 (Constitution of the Free State of Saxony of 27 May 1992. Saxon Law and Official Gazette 1992, pp. 243-257)
5. Gesetz über das Wappen des Freistaates Sachsen vom 18. November 1991. Sächsisches Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt 1991, S. 383-385 (Law on the arms of the Free State Saxony of 18 November 1991. Saxon Law and Official Gazette 1991, pp. 383-385)
6. Verordnung der Sächsischen Staatsregierung über die Verwendung des Staatswappens vom 4. März 1992. Sächsisches Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt 1992, S. 70 (Regulation of the Saxon state government on the use of the state arms of 4 March 1992. Saxon Law and Official Gazette 1992, p. 70)

Falko Schmidt reported the recent legislation finally establishing the proportions of the Saxon flag. The Verwaltungsvorschrift des Sächsischen Staatskanzlei über die Beflaggung der Dienstgebäude im Freistaat Sachsen (Administrative Regulation of the Saxon Prime Minister's Office on the Display of Flags in Official Buildings in the Free State of Saxony), published 19th March 2002, is available online here (pp. 442-443), including flag illustrations.
     The Saxon flag has proportions 3:5 and the coat-of-arms is placed on the centre of the flag (both on the horizontal and vertical flag versions), occupying half of each the white and green stripes. However, the official design in the Regulation show the arms quite offcentred towards the hoist in the vertical version.
Santiago Dotor, 19 April 2002

The new regulation of 19 March 2002 describes the two flags in Saxony, the Landesflagge (flag of the state) and the Landesdienstflagge (state service flag, with the arms). Both can be displayed as normal horizontal Hissflagge, as vertical Hissflagge im Hochformat (a.k.a. Knatterfahne) and as Banner [i.e hung from a crossbar]. These three are the main variants common in Germany.
Article 3 defines when, where and how should official buildings etc. be decorated with flags.
Marcus Schmöger, 22 May 2002

     A screen capture of the PDF file shows the shade of green as RGB 0-132-57, whose nearest browser-safe shade is 0-153-51. However, I do not trust the colour of this PDF too much, especially as the yellow is somewhat odd (a greenish RGB 231-239-0). Based on other sources (Laitenberger and Bassier 2000 and Schurdel 1995) and my own observations I would say FOTW dark green (RGB 0-153-0) would be appropriate.
     The graphics of one of the vertical variants of the state flag (Knatterfahne or Hissflagge im Hochformat i.e. flapping flag) shows the coat-of-arms offset to the white stripe. This can be seen in the PDF version as well as in the printed version. However, the drawing of the other vertical form (Banner, hanging flag) does not show this. Anyway, for me it is clear that this is simply an editing error. I have never seen any German vertical flag with the coat-of-arms offset to the side.
     My images use FOTW dark green and a darker yellow (the 'usual' German gold-yellow) and show a centred coat-of-arms on the vertical variant.
Marcus Schmöger, 14 June 2002

Civil Flag
Landesflagge

The civil flag is a bicolour of white over green. These colours are considered as the colours of the Land since 1815, and were used as Landesflagge for instance during 1947-1952. The flag was used during the demonstrations in the German Democratic Republic in 1989-1990 and was immediately used after 3rd October 1990 as the flag of the refounded Freistaat Sachsen, even without formal legislation.
Marcus Schmöger, 5 October 2001

Civil flag for horizontal hoisting (Landesflagge als Hissflagge im Querformat).
Marcus Schmöger, 14 June 2002

State Flag
Dienstflagge der Landesbehörden or Landesdienstflagge

The state flag of Saxony is white on green and has the Arms in the middle.
Pascal Vagnat, 19 December 1995

National flag of Saxony with the arms at the center. Adopted 1991. Illustrated in Dorling Kindersley 1997 p. 122.
Norman Martin, March 1998

This is the civil flag with the coat-of-arms added. The state flag is first mentioned in the Verordnung der Sächsischen Staatsregierung über die Verwendung des Staatswappens of 1992. However, there are some uncertainties, when the state flag was de facto introduced, as Laitenberger and Bassier 2000 claims that the flag "has not yet been introduced". Recently I got an e-mail from Falko Schmidt saying the state flag is indeed used by the authorities in form of a hoisted flag (proportions 2:3 or 3:5) or in form of a Knatterflagge (flapping flag).
Marcus Schmöger, 5 October 2001

State flag for horizontal hoisting (Landesdienstflagge als Hissflagge im Querformat).
Marcus Schmöger, 14 June 2002

Vertical Flags
Hängefahnen or Banner

     images by Marcus Schmöger, 14 June 2002

Civil and state flags for vertical hoisting or hanging (Landesflagge und Landesdienstflagge als Hissflagge im Hochformat oder in Bannerform). Please be aware that the drawn proportions (in the Regulation and therefore in these images) are 5:3, but in reality vertical flags are almost always longer, say 5:2 up to 4:1 or even 6:1. The Regulation defines the proportion of the horizontal flag, but it does not properly define the proportion of the vertical flags in the text. The drawings are not authoritative in this case, I think.
Marcus Schmöger, 14 June 2002

Coat-of-Arms
Landeswappen

    
both by Marcus Schmöger, 14 June 2002

The coat-of-arms comes in two versions, as defined by the law in 1991. The first one uses a simple escutcheon (half-round), the second one a more elaborate one which is only used by the Saxon parliament.
Marcus Schmöger, 14 June 2002

I noted that the coat-of-arms in the current official version has the green bend being made of straight lines. Wasn't it at least sometimes in history shown as embowed? And, is this disctinction of any importance?
Željko Heimer, 30 May 2002

As Željko Heimer says, sometimes. The Saxon royal standard, for instance, showed it straight. The green "bend" is actually a crancelin, i.e. the ring of a crown placed bendwise. Drawing it embowed is an artistic license to make it look more like an actual crown.
Santiago Dotor, 30 May 2002

Former Silesian Areas

3:5 image by Santiago Dotor

The Constitution of Saxony [says that] the inhabitants of the part of Saxony which belonged to Lower Silesia in the past can fly the flag of this former province (white on yellow), and can use the former arms of Lower Silesia.
Pascal Vagnat, 19 December 1995

In the Flags of Aspirant Peoples chart appears "78. Silesia [Schlesien] (Silesian German exiles from South-West Poland) Horizontal white-yellow". Identical to Lower Silesia (Prussian Province).
Ivan Sache, 14 September 1999

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