Szczecin (Poland)

Zachodniopomorskie vojvodship

Last modified: 2001-11-30 by jarig bakker
Keywords: hansa | eagle | crown | szczecin | stettin |
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• Szczecin flag
• Szczecin other flag
• Szczecin 14th century flag

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• Zachodniopomorskie Vojvodship
• Stettin historical flags

Szczecin flag

According to the specifications available at this website, it looks like the flag we had at FOTW-ws was not correct. I adapted the image according to the details available there
Pascal Gross, 13 Nov 2001

Here's a FOTW standard image of the flag of Szczecin, Poland after image from this site. Nice one, I sure enjoyed giffing it! My image is different, especially in the order of the stripes. While Jan Oskar's image is BRBRBR, mine is RBRBRB. Any ideas?
Antonio Martins, 11 Dec 1998

I have just found flag of my home city, Szczecin, at the "Flags of The World" site described by yourself. Please be advised that in fact those strips are not red-blue, but rather crimson-navy blue, and there is a head of the griffin, which is the symbol of Western Pomerania (Szczecin is the capital of this province).

You mentioned that Szczecin used to be a German city. In fact, originally it was Pomeranian. So called "Polish nation" consisted of five tribes: Polans, Vistulans, Silesians, Mazovians and Pomeranians. So we can say that Szczecin is Polish in origin. But in its long history it was part of Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Poland, and for a long period of time Szczecin was the capital of the independent Pomeranian Duchy.
Tomek Kwiecien, 12 Mar 1999

Stettin was a settlement of Slav tribes (Pomeranians, Abodrites and Wilzi) in the 8th century, which was conquered and annexed to Poland in 980 but again independent in 1033. The German Emperor Lothair pushed the German frontier to the Oder (including Stettin) in 1135. German immigration and eventual domination of Western Pomerania began in the late 12th century, and in 1225 the situation was such that the two Pomeranian bishoprics were made subject to the German archbishopric of Magdeburg. Stettin joined the Hanseatic League in 1360 and was ruled by Pomeranian dukes (Duchy of Stettin) under suzerainty of the German Emperor. When the last Pomeranian duke died without issue in 1637, the Elector of Brandenburg acquired the duchy. Stettin was given to Sweden by the Peace of Westphalia (1648) but passed back to Prussia in 1720. Finally, it was deemed to become a "Polish administered territory" under the Yalta Conference agreements and in the end was incorporated to Poland in 1945.
Sources: Encyclopędia Britannica; The Times Atlas of World History.
Santiago Dotor, 22 Mar 99

Szczecin other flag

Szczecin, or Stettin, is another Polish city that used to be German. The flag I saw, was striped six times blue and red with a coat of arms in the hoist. The arms are a crowned eagle's head (?, or perhaps a griffin), in red with yellow crown and beak, on a blue background. I guess the red and blue colours of the stripes are taken from the arms. The flag I saw was long, proportions 1 : 2 perhaps.
Jan Oskar Engene, 13 May 1996

I made the image based on personal observations of the flag used by the Szczecin participants at the 1996 Hansa Days festival here in Bergen, with the possibility that my observations and notes were erroneous or that the flag used at the occasion was not made according to official specifications (several flags used during the festival appeared to be "home made"). I would think that a flag corresponding to the one on the home page is more likely to be correct than my image.
Jan Oskar Engene, 22 Aug 2000

Szczecin 14th century flag

Znamierowski, 'The World Encyclopedia of Flags', shows several interesting flags of the Port Cities of northern Europe.  These are derived from gonfanons, originally red in color.  The flags, in a banner form, were flown from the stern of the vessels, the mast carrying the gonfanon of the colors. Szczecin's (Stettin) flag dates from the 15th century.
Phil Nelson, 20 Feb 2000