Westdongeradeel is in northeast Friesland, northwest of Dokkum, mainly
grassland (greidhoeke), in which prospective brides were judged
by
'koue-rútsjes' (cow-windows, windows in the stables).
The flag was adopted 22 May 1963, derived from the municipal Coat of Arms. It
was discontinued in 1984 when it merged with Dokkum and Oostdongeradeel
in the municipality of Dongeradeel. The white wavy diagonal symbolizes
the river Dongera, which for some strange reason had another direction
here than in Oostdongeradeel. The very doubtful existence of this 'river'
(also called 'Paesens' after one of the Oostdongeradeel villages) may have
caused this. Another point of confusion was the wavy v. the straight white
diagonal. On all Coat of Arms's of Westdongeradeel I have seen the diagonal is wavy;
in the last issues of the Coat of Arms of Oostdongeradeel the diagonal was straight,
even embellished by a thin black line in the middle. On the base of that
I would tend to think that the flag with the straight diagonal never existed.
But I can add that both municipalities nearly never showed their flags.
At least: I never saw one as citizen of Oostdongeradeel.
Jarig Bakker, 26 October 1999
![[Westdongeradeel flag]](../images/n/nl-fr_wd.gif)
Shipmate Flagchart : http://www.flagchart.net
![[Old Westdongeradeel flag]](../images/n/nl-fr_w2.gif)
Shipmate Flagchart : http://www.flagchart.net
![[Westdongeradiel Coat of Arms]](../images/n/nl-fr)wd.gif)
International
Civic Arms : http://www.ngw.nl/
