Last modified: 2024-09-14 by martin karner
Keywords: switzerland | basel | crozier (black) | crozier (red) | german |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
![[Flag of Basel]](../images/c/ch-ba.gif)
image by António Martins
Left (Basel-Stadt): Argent, a bishop's crozier sable.
On a white field, a black bishop's crozier, with the crook turned
toward the hoist.
Right (Baselland): Argent, a bishop's crozier with seven bosses at the
crutch turned to sinister gules.
On a white field, a red bishop's crozier (Baslerstab, or "Basel
staff") turned toward the fly and adorned with seven bosses on the
crook.
The croziers on both flags are highly stylised (thickened and
shortened beyond recognition), and their peculiar heraldic shape was
well established by 1249. The three-pronged foot represents a very
real spike on pastoral staffs which permitted planting them in the
ground.
When the emblems of Basel-Stadt and Baselland
are shown together on
one flag, the croziers are impaled (i.e. side by side), and they must
be separated by a black planar line. The crooks are turned away from
each other, with Basel-Stadt in the hoist and Baselland in the fly.
T.F. Mills, 22 October 1997
The bishop's crozier has three well accepted meanings since early
Christianity: it is a support or guide (the shepherd's crook that
saves straying sheep), an emblem of authority and ministration, and a
instrument of punishment and correction. The seven bosses or
roundels on the crozier of Basel-Landschaft are actually a Gothic
architectural device, and represent the former districts of that
canton.
T.F. Mills, 22 October 1997
T.F. Mills, 22 October 1997
Since the adoption of the new constitution in 1999, there isn't anymore
any "half-canton". The effective difference between a full and a half
canton is the fact that a "half-canton" has only one representative in the
Swiss States Council while the other cantons have two.
In the new constitution, the old "half-canton" are listed as those
cantons that have only one representative (Basel-Stadt, Baselland, Appenzell
Innerrhoden, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Nidwalden and Obwalden).
Pascal Prince, 24 August 2007
In fact the term "half-canton" (or semi-canton) was never in the Swiss Constitution (although it was
used in official documents and legislative texts). The only thing that changed in 1999 was that the
half-cantons were now called cantons, even officially. However, the actual status of these cantons has not
changed since 1848 (the new federal state). Although only represented with one vote in the State Chamber
(Ständerat), they always had the same status as a full canton. Regardless of this, the term "half-canton"
is used unchanged in the population and in the geographical and cultural context (i.e. also in
vexillology).
The common flag depicted here has only a cultural (and sometimes military) meaning, but no political.
Since the partition in 1833 there has been no political entity named "Basel canton" or
"State of Basel" (This also applies to the other "common flags" of the semi-cantons, see
Appenzell and Unterwalden).
The concept of half-cantons is indeed somewhat strange and only understandable against the backgound of
Swiss history. As T.F. Mills wrote somewhere else, the divided cantons have a past when they weren't divided yet. The causes of
partition were different. In the case of Basel a conflict existed between town and country. The Basel
canton split into city and countryside (see caricature)
because the rural part was not represented equally in the cantonal parliament
(and there is a centuries-old history of urban oppression of the countryside – see also the
Baselland page).
The other states/cantons didn't accept that the new formed cantons had each two representatives in the
Assembly of the Confederation (Tagsatzung) because that would have doubled their weight in comparison to
the situation before the partition. Therefore the new cantons had to limit themselves to send only one
delegate each to the Assembly. So the old balance of power was maintained. Thus came the notation
"half-canton", it's referring only to the half representation in the Assembly (today: Council of States,
Ständerat) but not to their status as a full member of the Confederation.
Martin Karner, 11 January 2023
[Revolutionary "Freedom Flag" (1798). Divided by black, white and red. In November 1797
the revolutionaries had taken power and declared equality of all citizens, on the country as well as in the
formerly dominating city. With the enactment of the Helvetic Republic on 12 April 1798 the
old state of Basel ceased to exist and became the Canton of Basel, until the birth of the Baselland canton in
1833 led into the division of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft (source: [b7b42]). –
Dragoon standard (early 19th c., 53x53 cm, b/w photo). On white
cloth painted green basilisk with red crest and tongue, yellow claws and beak, holding the CoA of Basel.
White and black fringes on three sides. Bruckner assumes that the painting is from Marquard Wocher (+ 1830).
In this case the flag would be of the common Basel canton (source: [b7b42]). –
Postcard (postmark 1912) with coats of arms of Switzerland and Basel (common emblem)]
![[Colour Flag BA]](../images/c/ch-ba_56.gif)
image
by Ole Andersen
Simple rectangular cantonal flag, as shown in Kannik (1956). Common for
both half-cantons [So-called colour flag (Farbenfahne in German)].
Ole Andersen, 4 August 2002
![[Reunification flag]](../images/c/ch-blbs.jpg)
image located
by Martin Karner
A flag promoting the reunification of the half-cantons Basel-Landschaft and Basel-Stadt, hung over the
railings of a bridge (probably in Basel) on occasion of the vote about the reunification on 28 September
2014. The vote was going to be lost because the Baselland voters rejected the proposition with 68.3
percent, while Basel-Stadt said yes with 54.9 percent.
The square flag shows the two Basel staffs on white, facing and hugging each other and forming a heart-like
shape between them. (picture,
source)
Martin Karner, 8 January 2024
1912.jpg){kind=link}
