Coat of arms of Lower Saxony
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the coat of arms of the German state of Lower Saxony.
[edit] History
The coat of arms shows a white saxonian steed ("Sachsenross") on a red background. The horse has a long tradition in today's Lower Saxony; it has been used for the House of Welf as well as for several provinces in Westphalia (therefore, it is also called "Westfalenross", meaning "westphalian steed", or "Welfrenross", meaning "welf steed").
The steed became the coat of arms of the Province of Hanover as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1866 after it had been in use for the Duchy of Brunswick and the Kingdom of Hanover since 1814. It was even in use after the abolition of german monarchy after World War I until 1935. From that year, the use of state flags was prohibited by the nationalsocialistic government; only the Flag of Nazi Germany was to be used.
After World War II, the provice of Hanover became an independent state[dubious ] on August 23, 1946 and used the steed as its coat of arms again. Brunswick, which was an independent state[dubious ] as well, had made the same decision some weeks before on July 8, 1946. When these two states where merged into the new state of Lower Saxony (along with Oldenburg and Schaumburg-Lippe), there was no coat of arms for a while since it was unclear whether the coats of Oldenburg and Schaumburg-Lippe should be included into the new coat of arms as well. Finally, it was decided that a simple motif would be the best solution and the Saxonian steed became the unofficial coat of arms of the new state.
On April 3, 1951, the government of Lower Saxony made the decision which was written down in the preliminary constitution of the State of Lower Saxony dated on April 13, 1951. The "Act about coats of arms, flags and seals", dated October 13, 1952, stated that the prototype drawn by the German heraldic Gustav Völker should be used in the future.
The new constitution of Lower Saxony from May 19, 1993, adopted this settlement.
The horse is similar to the one used for the county of Kent in England and the german state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
[edit] References
[edit] See also
|
|||||||||||
 |
This heraldry-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 |
This Germany-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
