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Excerpts from the book HERALDRY OF THE WORLD Written
and illustrated by Carl Alexander von Volborth , K.St.J., A.I.H. Copenhagen 1973 Internet version edited
by Andrew Andersen, Ph.D. |
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Germany and Austria (pp.
94-111, 202-206, 7, 9, 49, 148 and 172) In the year 962 the German King Otto the
Great was crowned emperor by the Pope, and this marked the beginning of the imperium which was later given the name of the Holy Roman
Empire of German Nation. It lasted until 1806, when Emperor Franz II
abdicated. In 1804 however he had also assumed the title of Emperor of
Austria, and during the years 1804-6 he was thus both German and Austrian
emperor. The Austrian empire continued until 1918 but it was superseded by
Prussia in political power, and in 1871 the King of Prussia was elected
German emperor as William I. These events were of great importance even
beyond the frontiers of Germany and Austria, because the Holy Roman Empire
and the Austrian empire comprised far more countries than these two. Wholly
or in part, permanently or periodically, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Savoy,
Northern Italy, large areas of the Balkans, Hungary, Bohemia and large parts
of Poland belonged to one or the other of these German- speaking empires, and
this has left its mark on the heraldry of these countries.
All three empires mentioned took the eagle
as their heraldic ensign. In ancient Rome the eagle symbolised Jupiter, and
it was no doubt on the Roman pattern that the emperors took the eagle as
their device (see Figs 11 and 12). An eagle with two heads was known from the
Byzantine Empire, and from the beginning of the fifteenth century the custom
was established that the ordinary eagle should be the device of the German
king before he was crowned emperor, while the double- headed eagle would be
the ensign of the crowned emperor (see below).
But there were many exceptions to this rule.
Free cities, also called imperial cities,
i.e. cities owing allegiance only to the emperor, emphasised this by having
the imperial eagle charged with an inescutcheon of
their own coat of arms, or by bearing the eagle by itself (Fig. 538). Other
combinations also occur - see Fig. 606.
In hundreds of Italian coats of arms there
is an 'imperial chief', or capo dell’ impero, as a
declaration of political allegiance (Fig. 718), and as a sign of favour
certain princes of the Holy Roman Empire Were given the right by the emperor
to superimpose their own arms on the imperial eagle (Figs
792 and 884). When the Austrian empire was established in
1804, the double- headed eagle was continued (Fig. 567), but when the new
German empire was founded in 1871, an eagle with only one head was chosen as
its emblem, probably to emphasise the distinction. It appeared black on a
yellow field. On its breast it bore a shield with the arms of Prussia, also
an eagle, but black on a white field (Fig. 492; the red bordure of this coat is
a difference for the crown prince).
When the Weimar republic was set up in
1918, the old German eagle was retained as an emblem, although in a modernised
form, and this was adopted by West Germany, the Bundesrepublik
Deutschland, after the Second World War (Fig. 494). The colours black, red
and yellow in the coat of arms are the same as those of the present German
flag and they originate from the German wars of liberation against Napoleon
at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In 1919 the Republic of Austria took as its
arms an eagle with only one head as the background for a red shield with a
white fess (Fig. 570). This shield stems from the arms of the family of
Babenberg which ruled in Austria up to 1246; after that time its coat of arms
gradually developed into the arms of Austria. Instead of the sceptre, sword
and orb (see Fig. 567) the republican eagle holds a sickle and a hammer and is
ensigned with a mural crown, these three things
symbolising the farmers, the industrial workers and the bourgeoisie. After
the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1945 the broken fetters around the
eagle's claws were added.
570. Arms of the
Republic of Austria. 1945. In the Holy Roman Empire, as elsewhere, the
oldest coats of arms were self-assumed, but from the close of the fourteenth
century emperors began to grant arms, as time went on mostly through
specially appointed officials called Hofpfalzgrafen
or Pfalzgrafen, (literally translated 'palace
counts') (in this connection the word has nothing to do with the principality
of Pfalz (the Palatinate) on the Rhine). Certain
very noble families, including the Tyrolean branch of the Archdukes of
Austria, were hereditary 'palace counts’, but there were also many others. In
time the king only granted arms personally to cities and the like. Family
coats were dealt with through the 'palace counts', whether for commoners (the
great majority) or for nobles. When raised to the nobility the recipient had
the arms which he may have possessed already augmented by the addition of new
charges or quarterings. The name for this was Wappenbesserung, but according to modern taste the result
was nearly always a coat of arms that was heraldically less satisfactory. In 1702 Prussia established a government
office on French lines which also had to deal with the heraldry of the
country, especially civic arms, and in 1855 this office became the Koniglich Preussisches Her olds
amt, which also dealt with ennoblement etc. After the First World War this
office was done away with and its archives transferred to the Prussian
Ministry of Justice; this is now in Merseburg in
East Germany. Bavaria in 1818 created the office of Reichsherold. In 1902 Saxony instituted the Kommissariat fur Adelsangelegenheiten,
and from 1912 until 1918 patents of arms were also
granted to the middle classes. Such documents of this commissariat that have
survived the Second World War are to be found among the State archives in
Dresden. In Wuerttemberg the Ministry for Foreign Affairs assumed
responsibility for questions concerning nobility and heraldry. In Austria this was done by the Ministry of
the Interior. Its documents, the so-called Gratialregistratur,
are kept today among the Austrian State archives in Vienna. After the First World War the aristocracy
in both Germany and Austria was abolished. Nevertheless it is permissible in
Germany to use noble titles and styles such as von, as these were generally
made part of the family name by the Republic of Weimar, though in Austria it
is a punishable offence to use any form of noble title. Nowadays it is characteristic of both
Germany and Austria that simple coats of arms are preferred to more complicated
ones. Many families of ancient lineage have gone back to using their original
plain arms, often designed in mediaeval style (Figs 525-7), instead of the
composite arms with their many quarterings and
helmets, supporters etc. which their ancestral arms had gradually
accumulated. But whether it is a good thing to have a coat of arms made up in
a style previous to that of the patent of nobility is quite another question,
particularly if it contains a charge, such as a
cannon, which belongs to a subsequent period.
The standard form of a German coat of arms proper
to the nobility is nowadays as is shown on p. 102: shield and barred helmet
with or without coronet, possibly with a medallion around the neck, and with
a crest and mantling.
521. Arms of the family
of Zeppelin, of which the pioneer of airships. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin
(1838-1917), was a member.
530. Arms of the countly family of von Spee, of
which Admiral Maximilian von Spee (1961 -1914) was
a member. It was during the
late Gothic period that the custom began of marshalling several escutcheons
on one shield and using more than one helmet.
531. Arms of the
baronial family of von Richthofen. of which the famous flying ace of the first World War. Manfred
von Richthofen (1892-1918). was
a member. Some titled noble families in Germany have supporters, others do
not and there exist no definite regulations regarding this.
580. Arms of Baron
Rothschild. 1822. The inescutcheon (9 a pun on his name. 'Rothschild' meaning
'red shield'. (The red shield was originally the sign of the house where the
family lived.) The Austrian eagle appears in the first quarter. The hand
holding the arrows in the second and third quarters is no doubt meant to
symbolise strength through solidarity and unity. Motto: 'Unity. Integrity,
Industry’. Many of the aristocratic arms depicted in
this book have a coronet set above the shield with a helmet or helmets above
it (Figs 521, 530, 531 and 580). This was how coats were designed in earlier
times, e.g. in letters patent for armorial bearings, but nowadays there is an
in-clination to get away from such combinations and
either a coronet on its own or a helmet with its appurtenances only is
preferred. Supporters and mottoes are borne mostly by the higher nobility,
but not all of them use them. The custom of having two or more helmets goes
back to the fifteenth century. Noble families, with their armorial bearings
composed of many quarterings,
wanted to have, if possible, an equivalent number of helmets (see Figs 55 and
575).
55. The order of
precedence with five helmets
575. Arms of an
Austrian prince, the statesman Klemens von
Metternich (1773-1859). The earliest arms of non-aristocratic
families are known in Germany from the thirteenth century. Throughout the
centuries new families have assumed coats of arms, and still do, without
interference from any authority. Added to these are the thousands of armorial
bearings of commoners which since about 1400 have been granted by the Pfalz-grafen. Many of these escutcheons contain ciphers
(see p. 104), but these are rarely included in noble arms. Mottoes are not
customary. The standard form of a German coat of arms for a commoner is
nowadays shield and tournament helmet, with or without wreath, with crest and
mantling (see Figs 550, 552, 557 and 562); the barred helmet with crest
coronet is also found.
During the
Renaissance the chanceries of the various countries mostly used the barred
helmet (see p. 18) for the arms of the nobility, in contrast to the
tournament helmet for the non-aristocratic (as above). But many of the latter
for that very reason bore the barred helmet. And many noblemen developed a
preference for the tournament helmet because of the fact that it was an
earlier type.
551. It gradually
became the custom to set the cipher on a shield. Only a few of these 'arms'
were coloured.
People in Germany are more concerned about
'family arms', Familienwappen, than are people in
Western and Southern Europe and the British Isles, and the principle of individual
members of a family varying their arms is usually foreign to German heraldic
ideas. But differencing does occur in a form unlike that in Great Britain and
France. Branches of the same family of high rank can difference their arms by
various combinations of quarterings, and among the
families of commoners we find differences made by a change in crests or
tinctures (Fig. 552). The German Grown Prince differenced his arms from those
of the Emperor with a red bordure.
There is at the present day a great
interest in civic heraldry. New civic arms are constantly being designed and
in this connection various forms of mural crown have come into use (Figs 516,
and 522). In earlier times an attempt was made to establish a social scale of
mural crowns, including a special one for the seat of a reigning monarch, but
this did not catch on. Since the mural crown is a comparatively new
phenomenon in heraldry, it should not be used in conjunction with arms which
have been designed in an earlier style. Civic heraldry also makes use of more
traditional coronets (see Figs 270,518,519 and
560).
270. Arms of the
Hanseatic town of Bremen.
In West Germany it is usual today for the
authority responsible for internal affairs in each federal state to grant and
confirm civic arms. Family arms are a completely private matter, although
they enjoy a certain amount of legal protection under Paragraph 12 of the
Federal Law. There are various heraldic societies in
West Germany, the most important being as follows: Der Herold, 1 Berlin 33 (Dahlem),
Archivstrasse 12-14, West Berlin; Zum Kleeblatt, Hannover-Kirchrode, Forbacherstrasse 8 and Wappen-Herold, 1 Berlin 31, Tharandter Strasse 2, West
Berlin. In Austria there is the Adler Society, Haarhof 4 a, Vienna 1. MORE ILLUSTRATIONS
(GERMANY)
496. Arms of the
statesman Otto von Bismarck (1815-98) as Prussian prince.
.
MORE ILLUSTRATIONS
(AUSTRIA) .
584. Arms of a
hereditary knight Ritter von Liszt of Hungarian descent, the family of the
composer Franz Liszt (1811-86). From the time of
the reign of Charles VI (1711-40) to the collapse of the Empire in 1918
hundreds of hereditary knights were created, nearly all of whom bore two
helmets above the coat of arms.
590. Arms of the
Austrian Oberstfeldarzt (Surgeon General) Matthaeus von Mederer und Wuthwehr, raised to the nobility by
Emperor Joseph II in 1789. . |
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