Coat of arms of Brandenburg

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This article is about the coat of arms of the German state of Brandenburg.

[edit] History

According to tradition, the Märkischer Adler, or red eagle of the Mark Brandenburg, was adopted by Margrave Gero in the 10th century. Gustav A. Seyler states that the Ascanian Albert the Bear was the originator.^[1] He divided his territory among his children, thereby creating the territories which would later become Anhalt, Brandenburg, and Meissen.

The Mark Brandenburg, known as the Holy Roman Empire's 'sandbox' (Streusandbüchse), was bought in 1415 by Burggrave Frederick VI of Nuremberg of the House of Hohenzollern. The Hohenzollerns made the poor marshes and woodlands over the centuries the nucleus of a powerful state.

After being formally enfeoffed as Elector Frederick I of Brandenburg, he quartered the arms of Hohenzollern (quarterly black and white) and the burgravate of Nuremberg (a black lion in gold in a red and silver border) with the Brandenburg red eagle. The blue escutcheon with the golden sceptre as symbol of the office of archchamberlain (Erzkämmerer) of the Empire was added under Frederick II (1440-70).

In December 1470, Emperor Frederick III gave the duchies of Pomerania (red griffin in white), Kashubia (black griffin in gold), Stettin (Szczecin) (red griffin in blue) and Wenden (griffin striped green and red) in liege to the electors of Brandenburg, making them in turn the lords of the dukes of Western Pomerania.^{[citation needed]} Quarters and helmcrest of these duchies and the Principality of Rügen (parted horizontaly, a black lion in gold and a wall of bricks in red and blue), however, were incorporated in the Brandenburg arms.

Elector John Sigismund in (1572-1619) inherited the Duchy of Prussia outside the Holy Roman Empire on the Baltic Sea in 1618. In 1609 John Sigismund's wife had inherited rights to Cleves (in red a silver shield, over all a golden grid), Mark (in gold a bar chequered in red and white), Jülich (black lion in gold) and Berg (red lion in white) in the Rhineland. A compromise over them with the House of Wittelsbach (Palatinate-Neuburg), giving Brandenburg only Cleves and Mark, was reached in 1614 but the arms of the other principalities were put in nevertheless.

Arms of Brandenburg in 1686

The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 brought Brandenburg the former prince-bishoprics of Magdeburg (parted in red and white), Halberstadt (parted white and red), Minden (two keys in red) and Cammin (a silver anchored cross). Rügen and part of Pomerania, however, had to be given up to Sweden. It was around this time to that Elector Frederick William (1620-88), called the "Great Elector", adopted the Pomeranian "wild man" as supporters of his arms. He also placed the outer helmets over the heads of the supporters.

When the Duchy of Prussia gained full sovereignty from Poland in the Treaty of Wehlau on 19 September 1657, the electoral cap, which had until then crowned the smaller versions of the arms on coins, was adorned with bows as in a ducal crown. Elector Frederick III changed the arms substantially when he took the title Frederick I, "King in Prussia", on 18 January 1701.