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Danzig 1920-1939

Free City of Danzig, Freistadt Danzig, nowadays Gdansk (Poland)

2:3
Civil Ensign 1920-1939
by Jan Oskar Engene

Introduction
Civil Ensign
State Ensign
Senate Ensign
Postal Flag
Police Pennant
Pilot Flag
Harbour Authority Flag

See also:

Introduction

Danzig was set up as a free city after the peace settlement following World War One (1919). The city then had a German speaking majority. The free city was taken by German troops in September 1939. After World War Two, Danzig became part of Poland and the name changed to Gdansk. Flaggenbuch 1939 contains a plate with the flags of Danzig, and here we find a state ensign with a swallow tail. This is simply the ordinary flag (two white crosses placed over each other with a golden crown on top) with a swallow tail cut out of the fly end. Both flags are 2:3 in ratio. There is also a flag for the Senate members on sea (senate ensign may be the proper term). This flag is a red field bordered in yellow all around. On the red field we find two lions standing on two narrow wavy lines and holding a shield with the crosses and crown. The Senate flag is square.

Jan Oskar Engene, 25 June 1996

The flag and the coat of arms of the Free State [City?] of Danzig (1920-1939) were officially adopted with the constitution of the Free State [City?] of the 14th June 1922. Article 2 says:

Das Staatswappen zeigt im roten Schilde zwei übereinander stehende silberne Kreuze, über denen eine goldene Krone schwebt. Die Staatsflagge und die Handelsflagge zeigt auf rotem Tuch im ersten Drittel, von der Flaggenstange an gerechnet, parallel zu dieser zwei weisse Kreuze übereinander und darüber eine gelbe Krone.

That is:

The state coat of arms shows in a red shield two silver crosses one standing one above the other surmounted by a gold crown. The state and the merchant flag show on a red field in the first third from the hoist, parallel to this one two white crosses one above the other surmounted by a yellow crown.

There was also a flag for the members of the senate and another adiministrative flag. See Flaggenbuch 1939.

Pascal Vagnat, 14 December 1997

It is quite sure that the flag of the town wasn't used during World War Two under the Nazi regime. A Nazi law imposed the Nazi flags and emblems to be the (nearly) sole emblems of the Reich. The flag was certainly not used either during the Communist era in Poland, and if so certainly illegally. We have to wait until 1991 to find a law concerning the emblems of the town of Gdansk. (...) Sources: Schurdel 1995 and Jankowski 1997.

Pascal Vagnat, 14 December 1997