Last modified: 2017-09-02 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: bad bentheim | balls(yellow) | cypher | bentheim pennies |
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![[Bad Bentheim city flag]](../images/d/de-gb-bb.gif)
2:3
image by Jörg Majewski, 25 Nov 2007
It is a red over yellow bicolour with centred arms.
Source: Hanns Fettweis: "Die Wappen der Städte, Gemeinden und Altkreise des Emslandes", 1989.
Jörg Majewski, 25 Nov 2007
![[Bad Bentheim plain flag 1891]](../images/d/de-gb-bb891.gif)
1:2 image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 23 Nov 2011
The ratio is given as 1:2. It was a red over yellow horizontal bicolour.
Source:H.Ahrens "Hannoversche Landschafts-und Städtewappen", 1891, plate XX
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 23 Nov 2011
![[Bad Bentheim city coat of arms]](../images/d/de-gb-bb).gif)
image by Jörg Majewski, 25 Nov 2007
Shield Gules semy of balls Or, in centre a cypher Or "EG" twice and entwined in plain writing and mirror writing.
Meaning:
Count Ernst Wilhelm of Bentheim, the settlement's great benefactor granted the first seal to his capital in 1661. The 19 balls, called by the locals "The Bentheim Pennies", are taken from the arms of the Counts of Bentheim, the former rulers. The cypher is the abbreviation of the benefactor's Latinised name Ernestus Guilelmus. Others are interpreting the cypher as "CB" (= Civibus Bentheimensibus), which means "to the citizens of Bentheim". Bentheim gained city rights in 1865 and the extension "Bad" and the title of a spa on 6 June 1979. In the 19th century the use of seals declined. Literature often displayed the charges of the shield erroneously. E.g. Otto Hupp omitted the cypher and reduced the number of balls to 18. The correct pattern was restored in 1955.
The arms, based on the seal, were confirmed in 1955 by Minister of Interior of Lower Saxony and adopted in 1961.
Source: Stadler 1970, p.23
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 26 Aug 2017
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