Last modified: 2019-05-18 by rob raeside
Keywords: schiermonnikoog | herkenning |
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![[Municipality flag of Schiermonnikoog]](../images/n/nl-scoog.gif)
image from
Shipmate Flagchart : http://www.flagchart.net
Schiermonnikoog recently has been a thorn in the thigh of small Zuid-Holland
municipalities, because the sparsely populated island is steadfastly winning
the contest of "which municipality is the first to have counted the votes?"
When all of Fryslân was liberated by Canadians and Poles after the
second world war the Germans held on to Schiermonnikoog and threatened to
shell Metslawier, the seat of our municipality of Oostdongeradeel. My dad
and others always had the opinion that Metslawier was a lousy village,
but were severely let down by the Germans, when they lamely surrendered.
What we didn't know was that as a result of the fighting many brave
soldiers died on Schiermonnikoog. All soldiers were buried on the same
graveyard in the only village on the island, Oosterburen. Later on it was
suggested to separate the dead, but the island council decided against
it, and it has remained so until now. The "Nieuwe Dockumer Courant" has
monitored the meetings between the relatives of the former enemies and
made some moving articles, recently edited into a book.
Jarig Bakker, 11 August 2003
A scan of a newsletter from Schiermonnikoog was submitted to FOTW. Upon
translation, it states:
"The island flag then had the attention of the
council. It was considered necessary to officially adopt the flag as the
municipal flag. The flag consists of seven laying stripes with from top to
bottom the colours red, white blue, green, red, white, blue."
It appears to date from slightly after the war, and would have been part of the re-emergence of the country, in which everything was going to be done right. This is the only reason I see why it was considered proper to formally adopt the flag the island had been using for centuries already.
de SchiermonnikoogShop (https://schiermonnikoogshop.nl/wimpel-schiermonnikoog-25x200-cm)
sells an "Eilander wimpel", island wimpel, 2 x 0.25, with the obvious
pattern of the seven flywise stripes of the flag.
Peter Hans van den
Muijzenberg, 23 April 2018
Note that in the flag archive of Schiermonnikoog there is a drawing where
the flag is drawn different from how it's mostly produced. The status of the
drawing is unclear to me.
Peter Hans van den
Muijzenberg, 29 April 2019
Concerning the documents mentioned above:
1: Apparently an answer to
a request for information about the order of stripes on the flag of
Schiermonnikoog. Hesman, the original that [sie75] reproduces in part, is
used as the authority. (4 November 1946, thus after the war, but before the
island flag was confirmed as municipal flag).
Note that this concerns the
order of the stripes; not their width. It does address a concern about the
brightness of the colours, especially relative to the green. (Probably: Dr
M.P.v. Buijtenen)
2: An instruction to order several flags: a Dutch
flag with orange pennant for the tower, the same for the public school, and
for general purposes an island flag. (All three with the same measurements.)
Since Napoleonic times, church towers have been municipal property. The
public school is likewise municipal. There is apparently only one church and
one school. It also speaks of the" island flag" without specification. I'd
say we're seeing a town clerk of Schiermonnikoog at work. As there is a note
reflecting doubt about the green, I find it likely this is the same quest
that also produced #1.
3: Drawing of the flag, with a wider centre
stripe. This represent the idea the top and bottom are merely national edges
set to the actual colour of the island. Below this drawing is a document by
Sierksma. I've checked [sie62], and Sierksma does indeed write from that
assumption on the flag. There's no mention of anything to either support or
disprove that assumption, though.
I expect that Sierksma was asked for
help about the Schiermonnikoog island flag, It could also be that he himself
had started this. Either way, he likely sent a design of how the flag ought
to look, as he was wont to do. (Unfortunately, Sierksma's correspondence is
not included in this stack of scans.) I add Sierksma's
proposal. I like it better, but the island decided
otherwise.
4: Adoption of the current flag. As with the current Dutch
flag, all that was decided was the order of the colours. The flag design
being seven stripes was apparently thought to go without saying. Had the
design had one wider stripe, though, it would have been worth mentioning,
which tells us that Sierksma's proposal didn't make it. (19 April 1949.
Two and a half year after the initial exchange.)
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg,
29 April 2019
![[Municipality flag of Schiermonnikoog]](../images/n/nl-scoog2.gif)
image by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 29 April 2019
![[Schiermonnikoog Coat of Arms]](../images/n/nl)scoog.gif)
from the Schiermonnikoog
website.
Granted 19 Oct 1954. The monk has a grey (schier) habit, making the Coat of Arms canting.
![[Zeemanscollege De Herkenning]](../images/n/nl~dhs.gif)
image
by Jarig Bakker, 11 Aug 2003
Somewhere between 1851 and 1878 the "Zeemanscollege De Herkenning"
(the Recognition) was founded on Schiermonnikoog. Peter Hans van den
Muijzenberg wrote 6 Dec 2001: Collegie Schiermonnikoog, at Schiermonnikoog.
Leen Smit pictures number X. By 1979 this college had disappeared.
Flag: Dutch flag with on the white a black bal and a number in Roman
numerals.
In "College Zeemanshoop 1822-1972" is a flag plate with said
flag (#1)
The undoing of this college has probably to do with the centralization
of the whaling-trade into the huge "Willem Barendsz" whaler.
Jarig Bakker, 11 Aug 2003
De Herkenning was founded in 1859.
Ron van Staveren, 15 Aug 2005
![[Zeemanscollege De Herkenning - variant]](../images/n/nl~dhs1.gif)
image
by Jaume Ollé, 15 Nov 2003
#246 in Steenbergen's Vlaggen van alle Natiën, 1870 - Schiermonnikoog,
island of the Netherlands, Navigation society.
Jaume Ollé, 15 Nov 2003