Main-Kinzig County (Hesse, Germany)

Main-Kinzig-Kreis

Last modified: 2013-12-09 by german editorial team
Keywords: hesse | hessen | main-kinzig-kreis | main-kinzig county | kinzig | hanau | gelnhausen | schlüchtern | stripes: 7 | coat of arms: parted per fess (swan) | coat of arms: parted per pale (eagle) | coat of arms: parted pe |
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stripes 1+3+1 by Stefan Schwoon Flag adopted 23rd November 1992, coat-of-arms adopted 30th December 1980

• Description

See also:

• County and Municipal Flags (Hesse / Hessen, Germany)
• Hesse (Hessen, Germany)
• Germany

A vertical flag, divided 1:3:1 red-white-red. Each red stripe is divided by a thin yellow line. The arms are on the center stripe. The flag is shown in an article by Erich Dieter Linder, Die Flaggen deutscher Landkreise (Flags of German counties), in Der Flaggenkurier no. 2, 1996, pp. 4-10. I have used the arms from Linder and Olzog 1996 found at Ralf Hartemink's International Civic Arms website. Adopted 23.11.1992, according to Dirk Schönberger's Administrative Divisions of the World website.

Stefan Schwoon, 5 February 2001

From Ralf Hartemink's International Civic Arms website:

The arms were granted on December 30, 1980. The swan in the upper part is taken from the arms of the city of Hanau and symbolises thus both the city and former district of Hanau. The eagle is derived from the arms of the city of Gelnhausen and refers to the former district of the same name. The bends are derived from the arms of the Lords of Hutten and the arms of the former district of Schlüchtern. The waves symbolise the Main and Kinzig rivers.

Literature: Linder and Olzog 1996.

The swan is the old crest of the Counts of Hanau. The swan was chosen [for the former Hanau county] as the city of Hanau already used the complete arms of the counts of Hanau. The [wavy stripe] symbolises the Kinzig river, which runs through the [former Hanau] county.

Gelnhausen was in early medieval times a free imperial city. The oldest known seal of the city, dating from 1248, thus shows the imperial eagle (...) In the 16th century the small breast shield [or inescutcheon] appears. The small shield is the original arms of Gelnhausen, which probably dates from the 15th century.

The arms of the Lords of Hütten [red and golden stripes, appeared on the Schlüchtern arms] for the area around the cities of Bad Soden and Salmünster.

Literature: Stadler 1964-1971.

Santiago Dotor, 25 October 2001