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Osten municipality (Germany)

Samtgemeinde Hemmoor, Cuxhaven County, Lower Saxony

3:5 image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 24 Apr 2009
unofficial flag

Osten municipality
Coat of Arms

See also:

County and Municipal Flags (Lower Saxony / Niedersachsen, Germany)
Cuxhaven cities and municipalities
Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen, Germany)
Germany

Osten municipality

Osten municipality (Samtgemeinde* Hemmoor, Cuxhaven county, Lower Saxony)
According to the minicipality’s Hauptsatzung from 19 November 1996, last updated on 7 February 2002, there is no municipal flag. §2 only mentions the existence of a coat of arms and a seal. There is however used a flag. In the public session of the municipal council on 28 June 2006 at TOP 5 is mentioned “a flag with the municipal coat of arms”, not a municipal flag, which was ordered by the council due to strong interest of the citizens. You can see an image of this flag at this website. There is a photo of members of the “Schwebefährverein” proudly presenting the flag.
Description of flag: It is a green over white horizontal bicolour with the municipality’s coat of arms in the centre. (Green and white are also the basic colours of the flag of Cuxhaven county.)
Description of coat of arms: The shield is divided per pale. The dexter half shows a blue field superimposed by four silver fessy, wavy lines. The sinister half shows a half sinister facing red eagle in a silver field.
Meaning: The wavy lines are symbolizing the little river Oste and some creeks in the area. I have no information about the red eagle. But the coat of arms is based on a seal of the Kirchspiel Osten from 1633. As far as I know, the region then belonged to the bishopric of Bremen. I guess, the eagle is a symbol of some local kin.
Note: According to Hautsatzung the eagle is armed and tongued golden (and also on Hemmoor’s website), but on this website it is armed and tongued red, and also on website above.
*A "Samtgemeinde" (SG*), also called "collective municipality" is a combination of several municipalities to an administrative community in Lower Saxony.
Jörg Majewski, 7 Apr 2007

Coat of Arms

image from the municipal site.
adopted 1633