City of Bremerhaven (Bremen, Germany)

Stadt Bremerhaven

Last modified: 2002-05-10 by santiago dotor
Keywords: bremen | bremerhaven | stadt bremerhaven | coat of arms (ship: red) | coat of arms: base (water) | coat of arms: base (fish: white) |
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3:5
by Stefan Schwoon
Coat-of-arms adopted 1947

• Introduction
• Description

See also:

• Bremen (Germany)
• Germany

Bremerhaven is situated at the mouth of the river Weser. Although separated from Bremen itself by some 50 kilometers, it belongs to the city-state of Bremen. The city has a comparatively short, but complicated history. In 1827, when the sea port of Bremen became handicapped because the river Weser became shallower, Bremen built a new port at the mouth of the Weser. This port, Bremerhaven, got city rights in 1851. The surrounding area belonged to the Kingdom of Hanover which built its own port, Geestemünde in Bremerhaven's neighbourhood. In 1929, the city of Wesermünde was formed by uniting Geestemünde with Lehe and some other neighbouring municipalities. In 1939 Bremerhaven was annexed to Wesermünde (and hence to the Prussian province of Hanover). In 1947 the united city was renamed to Bremerhaven and transferred back to Bremen.

Stefan Schwoon, 30 March 2001

The flag of Bremerhaven is red-white-red with the arms. The arms show a ship with three sails which show the arms of the former towns (from right to left): Lehe, Geestemünde and (former) Bremerhaven. An image of the flag can be seen at this flag-seller's website. According to Keyser 1939-1974, the flag of former Bremerhaven was vertically divided red-white-red in proportions 1:2:1 with the arms on the white stripe. The city colours of Wesermünde were black-red-blue.

Stefan Schwoon, 30 March 2001

From Ralf Hartemink's International Civic Arms website:

Bremerhaven was founded in 1827 and became a city in 1851. In 1947 the towns of Geestemünde and Lehe were added. The arms were granted at the same time and are a combination of the old arms of Bremerhaven, which showed a ship with on its sail the key from Bremen and the cross of the Hanseatic League. The anchor and fish were added for Geestemünde and the sail with the knives for Lehe. The latter were taken from a 16th century seal of Lehe.

Literature: Stadler 1964-1972.

Santiago Dotor, 27 March 2002