![[Flag for Northern Frisia]](../images/d/de-nf844.gif)
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by
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 29 July 2009
Last modified: 2014-10-04 by zoltán horváth
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by
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 29 July 2009
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The oldest flag of Northern Frisia was hoisted on 10 June 1844 on a local
festival in Bredstedt. According to source the coat of arms doesn’t match
heraldic rules. A former coat of arms for whole Northern Frisia didn’t exist,
because the region always was divided between their neighbours. There are
traces, that this coat of arms was created by the Frisian front man Reverend
Christian Feddersen (1786-1844) or a member of his circles. His motto was:
"Love to your own people must coincide with love to all mankind." The half
double eagle is taken from the coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire and is
symbolizing the privileges, which have said being granted by the German Emperors
in the early middle ages. The crown is symbolizing the King of Denmark, who had been
sovereign of the whole region until 1864. The pot of grits is symbolizing the
brotherliness, for which Feddersen fought. Also the motto "Lewer duad üs
Slav!" has been reducted to ideas of Feddersen. In his book "Fünf Worte an
die Nordfriesen" (Engl.: Five words to the Northern Frisians), published in
1845, but already written in 1842, he claims: "Be no man’s slave, at first not
your own slave, i.e. slave of your own cravings!" In the eve of the first
Schleswig-Holstein war(1848) on Bredstedt festival this motto was also
considered to be a statement against Denmark, so was the half double eagle.
Source:
www.nordfriesland.de/index.phtml?NavID=45.589&La=1
I also
talked to the owner of the flag, I spotted. She told me, that the pot was
considered being the pot of curly kale, in which fisherman Pidder Lüng killed
the representative of the Danish king, who made the attempt to collect the
taxes, the people of Sylt didn’t pay with respect to their privileges. The Dane
became impatient, spit into the pot and was for this insult killed by the fisherman immediately, the latter crying out "Lewwer duad üs Slaav!". Having
lost their leader the Danish soldiers committed a massacre killing all the
people in the village. This story is told in the ballad of Pidder Lüng, by
German poet Detlev von Liliencron (1844-1909). He inserted a 2nd "w" to mark a
short vowel and a 2nd "a" to mark a long vowel in the motto to fit German
pronunciation. But the motto has many regional differences. The first
lines of the ballad are written in Frisian language:
"Frii es de Feskfang,
Frii
es de Jaght,
Frii es de Strönthgang,
Frii es de Naght,
Frii es de See, de
wilde See
En de Hörnemmer Rhee."
In English:
"For free is fishing,
for
free is hunting,
for free is beachwalking (to pick up goods of stranded
ships??),
for free is the night,
for free is the sea, the furious sea
at
the roadstead (German: Reede) of Hörnum (a small municipality at the
southernmost horn of Sylt Island)."
The complete text can be found e.g. at:
http://www.handmann.phantasus.de/g_pidderlueng.html
Source: I
spotted this flag on 19 July 2009 in HH-Moorfleeth
Klaus-Michael Schneider,
29 July 2009
Note that this flag is also shown on our
German pages.
According to the regional differences, both versions of the motto may be right.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 29 July 2009
