The following pages cannot take the place of a history book. Rather, they are intended to bring out important events and present data that mark the history of the German southwest. Much of it continues into our time and has left traces. Each subject will be presented by means of a simply presented map with an explanatory text, often expanded through pages with narrative contents.
The State Coat of Arms
If a government sends written communications, it uses stationery with the state coat of arms. The state coat of arms is also printed on the publications of the ministries. A particularly attractive presentation of the state coat of arms adorns the façade of the session hall in the Baden-Württemberg state legislature in Stuttgart.
The alert observer distinguishes two coats of arms, the greater and lesser
state coats of arms. The greater coat of arms is found in the state legislature,
as well as on the letterhead of the ministries. Subordinate authorities
use the lesser state coat of arms.
With reasonable legal language that the state legislature passed on 3
May 1954, the two coats of arms were determined.
Law governing the coat of arms
of the state of Baden-Württemberg
of 3 May 1954
The state legislature, based on Art. 24, Section 2 of the Constitution, passed the following law on 28 April 1954, which is proclaimed herewith:
Section 1
(1) The coat of arms of the state of Baden-Württemberg displays on a golden escutcheon three striding black lions with red tongues. It will be used as a greater and a lesser state coat of arms.
(2) In the greater state coat of arms a crest rests on the escutcheon with plaques of the historical coats of arms of Baden, Württemberg, Hohenzollern, the Palatinate, Franconia and Anterior Austria. The escutcheon will be supported by a golden stag and a golden griffin, which are armed in red.
(3) In the lesser state coat of arms, there rests on the escutcheon a crown of leaves (people's crown).Section 2
For the construction of the state coat of arms the appended models 1 and 2 are authoritative. The models shall be conserved in the Stuttgart Main State Archive.
Section 3
The Government shall provide court orders and administrative regulations necessary for carrying out this law. It may further delegate this authority.
Section 4
(1) The law enters into force with its proclamation.
(2) At the same time the earlier specifications about state coats of arms and official seals are repealed.
Stuttgart, 3 May 1954
The Government of the State of Baden-Württemberg:
Dr. Gebhard Müller
Fr. Ulrich
Simpfendörfer
Dr. Frank
Leibfried
Hohlwegler
Fiedler
Farny
Dichtel
Dr. Werber
The state coat of arms with the three black striding lions on a golden
field were something quite new for most citizens. One did not simply combine
the coats of arms of Baden and Württemberg, as in the coat
of arms of Württemberg-Baden (1945 to 1952) and as happened with the
name of the new state. Because it was not possible to find a name for
the new state with its own character. "Swabia," "Rhine-Swabia" and "Alemannia,"
found no approval with the majority. So it came to the "hyphenated name"
Baden-Württemberg.
The state coat of arms reaches with its three Staufen lions back to a
time when the southwest was extensively ruled by the Staufen
family. They were the dukes of Swabia, and they
had properties in East Franconia and in the Palatinate. The three lions
were also to be found in the coat of arms
of the Kingom of Württemberg of 1817-1918. The coat of arms of the
new federal state reminds us of the history of the southwest German area.
Black and gold are the state colors.
The connection with history becomes clearer yet in the crest over the
escutcheon of the greater state coat of arms. Placed prominently in the
middle are the coats of arms of the most important constituent parts of
the state. The red bars on a golden field is the coat of arms of the former
state of Baden and its ruling house. Next to it - in a less eminent place,
according to heraldry - we find the Württemberg stag antlers, which likewise
have been the sign of the House of Württemberg since the Middle Ages.
By way of compensation, the stag stands as the Württemberg escutcheon
holder on the more eminent side opposite the Baden griffin.
Baden and Württemberg in the past were not the only territories in the
German southwest. Four other coats of arms in the crest indicate the the
historical complexity of this region.
The white and black quartered escutcheon of Hohenzollern belongs here
for that reason, since up to 1945 Hohenzollern had a special
position with the two larger lands.
The three silver points in red represent the former Duchy of East Franconia,
the traces of which are to be found in the Hohenlohe landscape. Next to
the Württemberg stag antlers stands the red-crowned golden lion in black
for the former Palatine Electorate, to which
the land in the lower Neckar belonged.
The red-white-red Austrian bordered escutcheon recalls the one-time Anterior
Austrian area on the Upper Rhine and in Upper Swabia.
Thus the greater state coat of arms brings expression on the one hand to a new unity and on the other hand to the old historical complexity of the land.
