Coat of arms of Berlin
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| Berlin City state |
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| Emblazoning | |
| Basic data | |
| Introduction: | 1954 |
| Legal basis: | Seal used ~1253 |
| Supporting Documents: | |
| Alterations: | 1935, 1954 |
| Coats of Arms of Berlins boroughs | |
| Sources | |
The coat of arms of Berlin is used by the German city state as well as the city itself, while Berlin's various boroughs use their own emblems. The bear was not the original symbol of the city, but instead had to 'struggle' to establish its place as such. For many centuries, the bear shared the spotlight with the eagles of Brandenburg and Prussia on Berlin's coats of arms and seals.
[edit] State Coats of Arms
After the formation of the constitution of Berlin, the bear became the animal of coats of arms and seals. The state coat of arms depicted, in a silver (white) shield, a red armed and red tongued, upright, grunting bear.
[edit] History
When more and more cities were being founded in the 12th and 13th centuries, cities wanted official seals and later their personal coat of arms to seal official documents such as covenants or orders. A seal or coat of arms was usually awarded by the sovereign. Berlin and Cölln (not the town today known as Cologne) as well as the surrounding cities of the Margraviate of Brandenburg were governed by the Brandenburg Margraves, whose symbol was the red eagle. Before the bear in Berlin's coat of arms appeared in the heraldic and sigillographic world, the red eagle was predominantly present in the seals and coats of arms of towns along the rivers Spree and Havel as well as in Berlin and Cölln.
The oldest preserved and known seal of Berlin is from 1253. It depicts the Brandenburg Eagle spreading its wings in a clover-shaped archway. The text on the seal is SIGILLVM DE BERLIN BVRGENSIVM (seal of Berlin's citizens). It supposedly was the seal of Berlin's first mayor Marsilius.
Berlin’s citizens, however, wanted their own symbol and coat of arms. How or why they chose the bear remains unknown. Most likely they were thinking of Albrecht I, nicknamed “the bear”, who is considered to have been the conqueror and founder of the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Another possibility is that Berliners etymologically decided on a “speaking” coat of arms since the first syllable of Berlin seems to be related to “Bär” (bear) onomatopoeicaly. In medieval times "speaking" coats of arms were a favorite. People tried to depict cities' names by use of symbols with phonetics similar to the cities' names. However, the name "Berlin" is not related to the German word "Bär". "Berlin" was created when slavic tribes settled in the area and means "place at the swamp" or "in a swampy area". Actually, a pearl would have been more likely to have been chosen for the coat of arms given that the Middle High German word for pearl is "berle". Middle High German was the language spoken at the time and, indeed, pearls were often used in coats of arms. In addition, the Russian comedian and linguist Michail Zadornov asserts a theory that states that the name originated from the word "ber", given the following observations: (1) "ber" is the name of the Slavic ancient god of malevolence, who took the shape of a bear; (2) a bear's hibernation den is known as a "berloga" ("resting place of bear", or "resting bear"); and (3) the area that the city of Berlin currently occupies formerly contained many such "berlogas".
This article is based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia.
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