Flag of East Prussia (Prussian Province)

East Prussia was the north-easternmost province of Prussia and the land that gave the whole state its name. On the settlement area of the Baltic Prussians the Teutonic Order built its state in the thirteenth century; in 1525 it became the Duchy of Prussia, which passed in 1618 to the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg. In 1701 Frederick III crowned himself King in Prussia at Königsberg — that is where the royal title comes from. As a province in its own right East Prussia existed from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 to 1945; in between it was joined with West Prussia to form the Province of Prussia. The capital remained Königsberg. After 1919 the Polish Corridor cut the province off from the rest of the German Reich, leaving it an exclave. Its history ended in 1945: the north went to the Soviet Union and forms today's Kaliningrad Oblast, the south to Poland, the Memel Territory to Lithuania.

Meaning

The flag shows two horizontal bands of equal width: black above, white below. These are the colours of Prussia itself — no coincidence in this province, for East Prussia gave the state its name and carried its pair of colours. Black and white go back to the Teutonic Order, which ruled here from the thirteenth century under a black cross on white; from that sign the Prussian colours developed. As with every Prussian province the flag stays plain: two bands, without arms or emblem. The black eagle associated with East Prussia belongs to the coat of arms, not to the flag. Depictions that place the heraldic bird onto the stripes are nevertheless common — they come from heraldry and were never the official version.