City of Osnabrück (Germany)

Stadt Osnabrück, Lower Saxony

Last modified: 2017-11-11 by german editorial team
Keywords: osnabrueck | wheel |
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3:5 image by Mark Sensen, 10 Jan 2003

• City of Osnabrück
• Banner
• Mistaken Variant
• Plain Flag reported 1891

• County and Municipal Flags (Lower Saxony / Niedersachsen)
• Osnabrück County (Landkreis Osnabrück)
• Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen)
• Hannoverian Flags reported 1891
• Germany

City of Osnabrück

White with the wheel from the arms and two black stripes at the top and bottom edges according to Stadler 1964-1971's description.
Stefan Schwoon, 21 Feb 2001

From Ralf Hartemink's International Civic Arms website:
"Osnabrück became a city already early in the 13th century. The first seal is mentioned in 1217, but the oldest existing seal dates from 1243. It already shows a wheel with 8 spokes. In another seal in 1274 the wheel has only 6 spokes. The arms thus never changed since. The colour used to be red, but probably already in the 15th century the colour was changed to black."
Literature: Stadler 1964-1971.
Santiago Dotor, 18 Dec 2001

The spokes should be at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 o'clock.
Mark Sensen, 10 Jan 2003

Banner

Description of Banner:
It's ratio is 5:2. The ratio between bannerhead and the rest is according to source estimated 2:7 (but not in the image, head is bigger there(!)). The head is a white field with a black wheel with 6 spokes. The lower part is also white but with a black stripe at both edges. The ratio of the stripes (b-w-b) is 1:2:1.
I spotted this flag sometime in the late 70ies of the 20th century in front of the townhall of Osnabrück. I believe that they use a variant with 3 stripes of equal width today.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 13 Mar 2007

Mistaken Variant

White with the wheel from the arms, according to Staack 1997.
Stefan Schwoon, 21 Feb 2001

The flag of Osnabrück was wrongly depicted in my flag chart (Staack 1997).
Gunnar Staack, 31 Dec 2002

Plain Flag reported 1891

Description of  flag:
The ratio is given as 1:2. It was a white over black horizontal bicolour.
Source:H.Ahrens "Hannoversche Landschafts-und Städtewappen", 1891, plate XX
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 23 Nov 2011