Flag of Posen (Prussian Province)

At the Congress of Vienna in 1815 Prussia regained the western part of the South Prussia it had lost, and formed from it the Grand Duchy of Posen — at first with guarantees for the language and administration of the Polish majority. That special standing was cut back as early as 1830, and in 1848 the grand duchy was turned into the ordinary Province of Posen. It covered the regions of Greater Poland and northern Kuyavia, was divided into the districts of Posen and Bromberg, and with barely 29,000 square kilometres was overwhelmingly agricultural. The population grew from 820,000 in 1816 to 2.1 million in 1910; the majority was Polish, with German majorities only in the west, the north and in Bromberg. After the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918–19 and the Treaty of Versailles almost the whole territory went to Poland; the remainder left with Germany was absorbed into the Posen-West Prussia Border March.

Meaning

The flag shows three horizontal bands of equal width in white, black and white. These are the Prussian colours, here arranged the other way round from the neighbouring provinces: where West Prussia put black on the outside and white in the middle, Posen reverses the relation. This allowed the provincial colours to be told apart even though all rested on the same pair. The flag carries no charge — neither arms nor emblem, just the three bands. The province's coat of arms showed the white Polish eagle beneath the Prussian one; such signs stayed within heraldry. Depictions that place them on the stripes do exist, but they do not match the official version.