Arms of the Order of Teutonic Knights

The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem (Official names: Latin: Ordo domus Sanctæ Mariæ Theutonicorum Hierosolymitanorum, German: Orden der Brüder vom Deutschen Haus St. Mariens in Jerusalem), or for short the Teutonic Order is a German medieval military order.

It was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals. Its members have commonly been known as the Teutonic Knights, since they also served as a crusading military order in the Middle Ages.

The military membership was always small, with volunteers and mercenaries augmenting the force as needed.

Arms of the Order of Teutonic Knights

Wappen Heiliges Römisches Reich

Coat of Arms Holy Roman Empire

Wappen Deutscher Bund

(Coat of Arms of the German Confederation)

Coat of Arms of the North German Confederation

Wappen Hohenstaufen

Preußischer Adler

One of the most familiar heraldic symbols, the German eagle is one of the oldest state symbols in Europe.

The black eagle, with red beak and claws, displayed on a gold shield, also reflects the colors of the German flag.

The imperial eagle of the Holy Roman Empire, similarly, was a black eagle displayed on a gold shield, but it usually had two heads, whereas all modern German state heraldic displays feature a single-headed eagle.

The current coat of arms of Germany, known as the Bundesadler (federal eagle) - see below - is emblazoned: Or, an eagle sable with armaments gules.

Wappen des Königreichs Preußen

The Kingdom of Prussia (German: Königreich Preußen) was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918.

Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire.

It took its name from the territory of Prussia, although its power base was Brandenburg.

Wappen Preußen

Crown of the Kingdom of Prussia

Heraldic Depiction of the Royal Crown of Prussia

Hoher Orden vom Schwarzen Adler

(Order of the Black Eagle)

The Order of the Black Eagle (German: Hoher Orden vom Schwarzen Adler) was the highest order of chivalry in the Kingdom of Prussia.

The order was founded on 17 January 1701 by Elector Friedrich III of Brandenburg (who became Friedrich I, King in Prussia, the following day).

In his Dutch exile after WWI, deposed Emperor Wilhelm II continued to award the order to his family.

He made his second wife, Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz, a Lady in the Order of the Black Eagle.

Wappen von Wittelsbach

Arms of the Royal Family of Bavaria

The Wittelsbach family is a European royal family and a German dynasty from Bavaria.

Members of the family served as Dukes, Electors and Kings of Bavaria (1180–1918), Counts Palatine of the Rhine (1214–1803 and 1816–1918), Margraves of Brandenburg (1323–1373), Counts of Holland, Hainaut and Zeeland (1345–1432), Elector-Archbishops of Cologne (1583–1761), Dukes of Jülich and Berg (1614–1794/1806), Kings of Sweden (1441–1448 and 1654–1720) and Dukes of Bremen-Verden (1654–1719).

The family also provided two Holy Roman Emperors (1328/1742), one King of the Romans (1400), two Anti-Kings of Bohemia (1619/1742), one King of Hungary (1305), one King of Denmark and Norway (1440) and a King of Greece (1832–1862).

The family's head, since 1996, is Franz, Duke of Bavaria.

Krone des königreichs bayern

(Crown of the Kingdom of Bavaria)

Krone des Königreichs Bayern

(Crown of the Kingdom of Bavaria)

Krone des Königreichs Bayern

(Crown of the Kingdom of Bavaria)

Krone des Königreichs Bayern

(Heraldic Rendering of the Crown of the Kingdom of Bavaria

Wappen des Königreichs Bayern

Das Bayerische Staatswappen

The Golden Lion: At the dexter chief, sable, a lion rampant Or, armed and langued gules.

This represents the administrative region of Upper Palatinate. It is identical to the coat of arms of the Electoral Palatinate.

The "Franconian Rake": At the sinister chief, per fess dancetty, gules and argent.

This represents the administrative regions of Upper, Middle and Lower Franconia.

This was the coat of arms of the prince bishops of Würzburg, who were also dukes of Franconia.

The Blue Panther: At the dexter base, argent, a panther rampant azure, armed Or and langued gules. This represents the regions of Lower and Upper Bavaria.

The Three Lions: At the sinister base, Or, three lions passant guardant sable, armed and langued gules. This represents Swabia.

The White-And-Blue Heart Shield: The heart shield of white and blue oblique fusils was originally the coat of arms of the Counts of Bogen, adopted in 1247 by the House of Wittelsbach.

The white-and-blue fusils are indisputably the emblem of Bavaria and the heart shield today symbolizes Bavaria as a whole.

Along with the People's Crown, it is officially used as the Minor Coat of Arms.

The People's Crown: The four coat fields with the heart shield in the centre are crowned with a golden band with precious stones decorated with five ornamental leaves.

This crown appeared for the first time in the coat of arms in 1923 to symbolize sovereignty of the people after the dropping out of the royal crown.

Bavaria was one of the stem duchies of the Eastern Franconian Empire and the Holy Roman Empire.

The House of Wittelsbach, who ruled in Bavaria for about eight centuries, used the coat lozengy since 1242, later quartering it with the lion of the Palatinate.

Bavaria became a kingdom in 1806, and in 1835 a new coat of arms was created, similar to today's but representing some regions by different coats of arms.

The first known coat of arms of the house of Wittelsbach is Gules, a golden fess dancetty on a blue shield.

When Louis I married Ludmilla, the widow of Albert III, Count of Bogen, he adopted the coat of arms of the counts of Bogen together with their land.The number of lozenges varied; from 15th century 21 were used, increasing to 42 when Bavaria became a kingdom in 1806.

The official coat of arms was designed by Eduard Ege in a somewhat 'mannered' Art Deco style in 1946. The design above is by the author of this blog.

Arch-Ducal Coat of Arms of Hesse

Wappen Potsdam

The name "Potsdam" originally seems to have been "Poztupimi" from a West Slavonic name meaning "beneath the oaks", highlighting the area's many grand oak trees.

Potsdam has several claims to national and international notability.

In Germany, it had the status Windsor has in Britain: it was the residence of the Prussian kings and German Kaisers, until 1918.

Around the city there are a series of interconnected lakes and unique cultural landmarks, in particular the parks and palaces of Sanssouci, the largest World Heritage Site in Germany.

The Potsdam Conference, the major post-World War II conference between the victorious Allies, was held at another palace in the area, the Cecilienhof.

Babelsberg, in the south-eastern part of Potsdam, was a major movie production studio before the war and has enjoyed increased success as a major centre of European film production since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Filmstudio Babelsberg is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world.

Potsdam developed into a centre of science in Germany from the 19th century. Today, there are three public colleges and more than 30 research institutes in the city.

Stadtwappen München

Stadtwappen Berchtesgaden

Stadtwappen Bayreuth

Bayreuth - Upper Franconian is a sizeable town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains.

The town's roots date back to 1194 and it is nowadays the capital of Upper Franconia with a population of 72,576 (2009).

It is world-famous for its annual Bayreuth Festival at which performances of operas by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner are presented.

Wappen Ruhpolding

Ruhpolding is a municipality of the Traunstein district in southeastern Bavaria, Germany.

It is situated in the south of the Chiemgau region in the Alps.

The name "Ruhpolding" originates from the Bavarian word Rupoltingin and means "the people of the strong famous one".

The town is mentioned as Ruhpoldingen for the first time in 1193.

It was connected through railway in 1895.

Since 1948, Ruhpolding became a famous spa and tourist resort.

click here for more photos and information about Ruhpolding

RUHPOLDING

Wappen der Provinz Westfalen

Stadtwappen Münster

The city of Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region.

It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland.

The city is best known as the location of the Anabaptist rebellion during the Protestant Reformation, as the site of the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia ending the Thirty Years' War in 1648.

Münster gained the status of a Großstadt with more than 100,000 inhabitants in 1915.

Currently there are around 270,000 people living in the city, with about 48,500 students, only some of whom are recorded in the official population statistics as having their primary residence in Münster.

In the Middle Ages Münster was a leading member of the Hanseatic League.

click here for more photos and information about Münster

MÜNSTER

Wappen Deutsches Reich - Reichswappen - 1871

Großes Wappen Seiner Majestät des Kaisers

Kaiser is the German title meaning "Emperor", with Kaiserin being the female equivalent, "Empress".

Like the Russian Czar it is directly derived from the Latin Emperors' title of Caesar, which in turn is derived from the personal name of a branch of the gens (clan) Julia, to which Gaius Julius Caesar, the forebear of the first imperial family, belonged.

Although the British monarchs styled "Emperor of India" were also called "Kaisar-i-Hind" in Hindi and Urdu, this word, although ultimately sharing the same Latin origin, is derived from the Greek Kaisar, not the German Kaiser.

In English, the term the Kaiser is usually reserved for the Emperors of the German Empire, the emperors of the Austrian Empire and those of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Deutsches Reich - Kaiserkrone - (1889)

Krone des Heiligen Römischen Reiches

(Crown of the Holy Roman Empire)

(Hofburg weltliche Schatzkammer in Wien)

The Great Arms of the Second Reich

The German Empire (German: Deutsches Reich, but also the called Kaiserlich Deutsches Reich or Kaiserreich by German historians) refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.

Imperial Cypher of Wilhelm I

by the Grace of God, German Emperor and King of Prussia; Margrave of Brandenburg, Burgrave of Nuremberg, Count of Hohenzollern; sovereign and supreme Duke of Silesia and of the County of Glatz; Grand Duke of the Lower Rhine and of Posen; Duke of Saxony, of Westphalia, of Angria, of Pomerania, Lunenburg, Holstein and Schleswig, of Magdeburg, of Bremen, of Guelders, Cleves, Jülich and Berg, Duke of the Wends and the Kassubes, of Crossen, Lauenburg and Mecklenburg; Landgrave of Hesse and Thuringia; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia; Prince of Orange; Prince of Rügen, of East Friesland, of Paderborn and Pyrmont, of Halberstadt, Münster, Minden, Osnabrück, Hildesheim, of Verden, Cammin, Fulda, Nassau and Moers; Princely Count of Henneberg; Count of Mark, of Ravensberg, of Hohenstein, Tecklenburg and Lingen, of Mansfeld, Sigmaringen and Veringen; Lord of Frankfurt.

Imperial Cypher of Kaiser Wilhelm II

by the Grace of God, German Emperor and King of Prussia, Margrave of Brandenburg, Burgrave of Nuremberg, Count of Hohenzollern, Duke of Silesia and of the County of Glatz, Grand Duke of the Lower Rhine and of Posen, Duke of Saxony, of Angria, of Westphalia, of Pomerania and of Lunenburg, Duke of Schleswig, of Holstein and of Crossen, Duke of Magdeburg, of Bremen, of Guelderland and of Jülich, Cleves and Berg, Duke of the Wends and the Kashubians, of Lauenburg and of Mecklenburg, Landgrave of Hesse and in Thuringia, Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia, Prince of Orange, of Rugen, of East Friesland, of Paderborn and of Pyrmont, Prince of Halberstadt, of Münster, of Minden, of Osnabrück, of Hildesheim, of Verden, of Kammin, of Fulda, of Nassau and of Moers, Princely Count of Henneberg, Count of the Mark, of Ravensberg, of Hohenstein, of Tecklenburg and of Lingen, Count of Mansfeld, of Sigmaringen and of Veringen, Lord of Frankfurt

Kaiserliche Fahne der deutschen Kaiser

(Imperial Standard of the German Kaiser)

Wappen Deutsches Reich - (Weimarer Republik)

Arms of the German Federal Republic

Banner of the German Federal Republic

Wappen Memel

AUSTRIA

Wappen Kaisertum Österreich

The Small Arms of the Kingdom of Hungary

Crown of the Kingdom of Hungary

Wappen Österreich-Ungarn 1916

Coat of Arms of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

The Austro-Hungarian Empire, more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in Central Europe.

The union was a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, under which the House of Habsburg agreed to share power with the separate Hungarian government, dividing the territory of the former Austrian Empire between them.

The Austrian and the Hungarian lands became independent entities enjoying equal status. Austria-Hungary was a multinational realm and one of the world's great powers at the time

Wappen Kaiser Franz Joseph

Franz Joseph I (Hungarian: I. Ferenc József, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow.

Franz Joseph died on 21 November 1916, after ruling his domains for almost 68 years.

He was succeeded by his grandnephew Karl.