Liberec city, Czech Republic

Liberec city flag, 1978

• Liberec city flag, 1978
• Liberec city flag, c. 1960
• Liberec city flag (19th century)
• Liberec city flag (1906-1920)
• Liberec city CoA

• Czech Republic
• Czech Municipalities
• Liberecký kraj
• Liberec okres

Liberec city flag, c. 1960

Liberec (German: Reichenberg) is in Liberec district, north Czechia, with c. 100.000 inhabitants. Liberec was granted arms in 1657 by emperor Rudolph II: Argent two towers gules with gates, united by the embattled wall of the second. The escutcheon with wheel is that of the von Redern family (which makes it canting: German "Räder" = wheels)
Two different flags with CoA are reported:
Red over white (equal stripes - 19th century)
Light blue (c. 1960)
Ales Krizan:, 19 Dec 2000

Some days ago were posted to the list two flag of the czech city of Liberec. My information is a bit different:
1) after 1848 was used only the German Imperial flag
2) 1906 was adopted flag blue over white
3) Blue flag with arms was adopted c. 1920.
4) 1948 was adopted the flag red over white with arms.
Jaume Ollé, 11 Apr 2001

Perhaps the *Austrian* Imperial flag? (Considering that almost all of current Czechia was Austrian until 1918, except for a small Polish enclave.)
Santiago Dotor, 16 Apr 2001

The present flag of Liberec has been accepted in 1978, and it is indeed RW with COA. The '1948' must be typing error (in fact, after Communist coup-d'etat 1948, using the municipal flags abruptly declined).
Jan Zrzavy, 12 Apr 2001

Perhaps in 1948 was adopted the current flag but it was out of use until 1978. During communist era local flags were scarcely used, but in 1978 the communits are in power yet. I believe that 1948 is not a mistake instead 1978, but a real date because I have two times this date in my notes.
Jaume Ollé, 12 Apr 2001

My sources are giving the year 1848 as a year of the change of Liberec Flag. The Book "Klíč k našim městům" , Page 136 says, that probably AFTER YEAR 1848 the German City administration introduced new blue field with centered CoA. Red and white flag was  considered to be "too Czech". The book was edited in 1979 and there are no other reports after 1945.
By the way: Liberec/Reichenberg was always a "German Fortress" in northern Bohemia and as such was a Capital city of the Reichsgau Sudetenland 1938 - 1945.
The German Administration of "Gauhauptstadt Reichenberg" wanted to replace the lion in the Arms with a golden Swastika, but Archive Aussig (Ústí nad Labem) disagreed.
Aleš Křížan, 17 Apr 2001

The present flag of Liberec has been proposed by Vaclav Zajicek in 1978 and sent to comments to the District Archive and then to the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Socialist Republic. The Ministry asked that the COA's height to be similar to 2/3 of the hoist width of the flag and that the COA should have either black or preferrably golden fimbriation. The flag with golden-fimbriated COA was accepted in 29 November 1978 by the city's administration and first hoisted in July 1980.
Naturally, the red-over-white flag is derived from the city colors and has been used earlier as well. The castle should be red.
Source: Ales Brozek 1984: History of the Liberec flags. Vexilologie 55: 1135-1141.
Jan Zrzavy, 17 Apr 2001

Liberec city flag (19th century)

Liberec city flag (1906-1920)

Another Liberec city flag

The flag of Jicin was not discussed nor approved by the parliamentary subcommittee - and cannot be as it violates the vexillographic rules ("not include complete COA!").
However, it is probably in use although it was  not granted by the chairman of the Parliament.
Jan Zrzavy, 10 May 2002

These districtflags were in a paper "Prapory okresních Měst České Republiky", by Petr Exner, published by Flag Data Centre, Hradec Králové, 2002.
I assume that this is an attempt to get flags for all okres-capitals and that some liberties have been taken.
Jarig Bakker, 10 May 2002

Liberec city CoA