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County and Municipal Flags (Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Germany)

Landkreis- und Gemeindeflaggen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Last modified: 2009-08-08 by jarig bakker
Keywords: mecklenburg-vorpommern |
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Counties: County-free cities: Other cities and municipalities: See also:

County Flags / Kreisflaggen

Legislation about county flags from the Mecklenburg-West Pomerania Government official website (my translation):
"The counties have the right to have coats-of-arms and flags".
Santiago Dotor, 25 Oct 2001

Parliament of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Schwerin decided, that the German State will have from 2009 only five counties. Some of the counties will be 2.5 times bigger than the German State of Saarland.
Source: Newspaper Münchner Merkur.
J. Patrick Fischer, 7 Apr 2006

Municipal Flags / Gemeindeflaggen

Legislation about municipal flags from the Mecklenburg-West Pomerania Government official website (my translation):
"The municipalities have the right to have coats-of-arms and flags in accordance with their history and with democratic principles. The adoption of new coats of arms and flags and their modification needs the approval of the Interior Ministry".
Santiago Dotor, 25 Oct 2001

County-Free City Flags / Flaggen kreisfreier Städte

Mecklenburg-West Pomerania has six county-free cities (kreisfreie Städte): Schwerin, Neubrandenburg, Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund and Greifswald. The latter four (all of them situated on the Baltic coast) officially adopted the title Hansestadt [hanseatic city] after 1990 in imitation of Bremen, Hamburg, and Lübeck. Contrary to the latter, who are/were city-states on their own, the title does not have any special significance.
Stefan Schwoon, 13 Feb 2001

The league was primarily concerned with the protection of trade, but it also entered military conflicts - e.g. against the Danish crown. These cities were in fact former members of the Hansa, and the title does not imply independence of the cities. Before 1990, the only cities that called themselves Hanseatic City (as an official part of their name, that is) were Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck. These three happened to be independent city states (at present or in the past). The casual observer might therefore (or for other reasons) think that the title Hansestadt conveys a special status - which it does not.
Stefan Schwoon, 15 Feb 2001