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Gelnhausen City (Germany)

Stadt Gelnhausen, seat of Main-Kinzig-Kreis, Darmstadt District, Hesse

Last modified: 2017-11-11 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: gelnhausen | bannerhead | eagle(black) | inescutcheon |
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[Gelnhausen city banner] 5:2 image by Jörg Majewski, 3 July 2006
approved approx. 1963 See also:

Gelnhausen City

Banner:
It is a black-white vertical bicolour. The coat of arms is in the white bannerhead.
inhabitants: 22,687
Main-Kinzig County
Darmstadt District , state Hesse
banner approved approx. 1963
details based on the presentations of Klaus Günther with kind permission
The municipality flags are shown mostly in banner form in Hesse.
Jörg Majewski, 3 July 2006


Coat of Arms

Shield Or, an eagle Sable armed and tongued Gules, upon his breast an inescutcheon Argent charged with a fess Sable.
Meaning:
Gelnhausen was in early medieval times a Free Imperial City (Freie Reichsstadt). The oldest known seal of the city with prints since 1248 thus displays the imperial eagle beneath an Romanic double arch with the Emperor and his wife standing on top of the arches. The blueprint of this seal had been Bracteates (coins or medals) from 1180 displaying Barbarossa and Beatrix. Similar seals were in use until the 18th century. In the 16th a double-headed eagle with inescutcheon appears first, and since around 1700 the inescutcheon appears alone. The inescutcheon is considered to be the actual city arms. It could first be found on an architectural sculpture from 1400. Since 1836 it is denoted officially as city arms, acc. to the depictions of Siebmacher (1605) and later also Otto Hupp.
The current arms were approved in 1964 and are based on the 16th century images. They had been mentioned in the local Hauptsatzung, version 1964.
Source: Stadler 1967, p.37
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 24 May 2017


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