Flag of Silesia (Prussian Province)

Silesia was the largest and one of the wealthiest of Prussia's provinces. Frederick II had taken the land from Austria in the Silesian Wars between 1740 and 1763; in 1815 it became, together with the County of Glatz and parts of Upper Lusatia, the Province of Silesia with Breslau — today's Wrocław — as its capital. Some 40,000 square kilometres held more than five million people by 1900. With coal, zinc and steel, Upper Silesia grew into one of Europe's great industrial districts, while weaving dominated the Owl Mountains and farming the plains. In 1919 the province was split into Lower and Upper Silesia, reunited in 1938 and separated again in 1941. After 1945 almost the whole territory passed to Poland.

Meaning

The flag shows two horizontal bands of equal width: white above, yellow below. Both colours come from the provincial arms, which bear the black Silesian eagle with its silver crescent on a golden shield — gold became yellow, silver became white. The flag itself carries no device, only the two bands. Depictions do exist that place the eagle on the stripes; that was not the official version of the provincial flag, since such devices belong to the coat of arms, from which only the colours were taken.