Flag of Bern

The flag of Bern, square like a standard, shows a black bear walking on the diagonal across a golden band on a red field. Bern is the de facto capital of Switzerland: the federal government has met there since 1848.

How it came about

The city was founded in the late twelfth century by the house of Zähringen. The bear appears on the seal of Bern from 1224, and the original coat of arms was that bear rampant on a white field: the one Berlin bears today. According to the Justinger chronicle, Duke Berchtold V gave the city the name of the first animal hunted in the forest that was cleared to found it: a bear, by legend, not by document.

How it has changed

In the late thirteenth century the bear moved onto a golden diagonal band on a red field. Chroniclers linked the change to the battle of Schosshalde (1289): the white standard, they said, was dyed with blood and the ground stayed red for ever —a symbolic explanation rather than a verified one. By 1375 it is already described in songs of Alsatian mercenaries; no modern rule has fixed it.

What it means

• Bear

  the emblem and the name of the city; the blazon requires it to be male, with red tongue, claws and penis.

• Golden band

  the diagonal stripe the bear climbs.

• Red

  in the legend, the blood of the old standard; red and gold are believed to come from the standard of the Holy Roman Empire.

Fun facts

1. The maleness, by law

   In 1957 a law of Bern made it clear that the bear on the coat of arms is always male: nobody may paint it without the red tongue, claws and penis.

2. Extinct bear, full pit

   Bern keeps live bears in its historic bear pit: they are imported, because the species disappeared from Switzerland between 1904 and 2005.

3. Sister of New Bern

   New Bern, a city in North Carolina founded by Swiss emigrants, uses an almost identical flag: its bear does not carry the red penis.

Location