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City of Balve (Märkischer Kreis County, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany)

Stadt Balve

3:5 | stripes 1+3+1
by Stefan Schwoon
Coat-of-arms adopted 24th June 1911

Description
Hanging Flag (Banner)

See also:

Märkischer Kreis County (North Rhine-Westphalia / Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)
County and Municipal Flags (North Rhine-Westphalia / Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)
North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)
Germany

Description

Balve was formally granted arms in 1911. The earliest seal with the present motif is from 1462. The town belonged to the duchy of Westphalia — hence the black-on-white cross in the arms. The symbols were kept when the town was enlarged in 1974 but redesigned in a more modern style (without changing the blazon) in the following year. The statutes say on the subject of the city flag, "Die Stadtflagge ist weiss-blau-weiss gestreift und trägt das Wappen" i.e. the city flag is striped white-blue-white and bears the arms. The pictures in Hostert 1979 show a flag and a banner; in both of them the stripes have a proportion of 1:3:1. Note: In Stadler 1972 the flag is simply said to be "blue, white".

Stefan Schwoon, 26 June 2001

From Ralf Hartemink's International Civic Arms website:

The arms were granted on June 24, 1911 and confirmed on February 6, 1976. Balve was a town in the County of Arnsberg until 1368, when it became part of the Duchy of Westphalia, part of the State of Köln. The town received city rights in 1430 by the bishop of Köln. The oldest seal probably dates from the same time and shows already the combination of the eagle of Arnsberg and the cross of Köln.
Literature: Stadler 1964-1972.

Santiago Dotor, 2 August 2002

Hanging Flag

Banner

| stripes 1+3+1
by Stefan Schwoon
Coat-of-arms adopted 24th June 1911