Kaiserslautern

KAISERSLAUTERN

State : Rheinland-Pfalz
Urban district (Stadtkreis) : Kaiserslautern
Additions: 1969 Dansenberg, Erfenbach (1937 Stockborn), Erlenbach, Hohenecken, Mölschbach, Morlautern, Siegelbach

Official blazon
German	In Rot einen silbernen Pfahl, belegt mit einem steigenden blauen Fisch.
English	blazon wanted

Origin/meaning

The arms were granted on August 3, 1842.

Kaiserslautern became a city already in the 12^th century. The oldest seal is known since 1262 and shows a pale between two towers behind walls. The pale probably is the Lauter river, but can also be derived from the arms of the Lords of Hohenecken, who used a silver pale in red, flanked on each side by 5 golden billets.
In a seal from 1373 two fish are added on the pale, and one tower is transformed into a church. In the 17^th century the buildings are removed and only one fish is shown, identical to the present arms.

The fish have not always been shown on the pale. In a roll of arms from 1530 the arms are as they are today, but without the fish.

Similarly, on another 14^th century seal the arms, without fish, are placed on the breast of the imperial eagle. The colours are also not changed since the roll of arms in 1530, the oldest coloured image of the arms. Sometimes, however, the fish was shown in silver on a blue pale.

Seal from 1266	Seal from 1373
Seal from the 14th century	The arms in a manuscript +/- 1530
The arms in a 16th century manuscript
Seal from around 1900	The arms in the Abadie albums
The arms in the Wappen-Sammlung (1900)	The arms in the Kaffee Hag albums +/- 1925, with the fish in natural colours.

There is another story about the origin of the fish :
In the year 1497 Prince Philipp had a huge fish served at a royal banquet in Heidelberg. The fish was 6m in length and weighed about 350 pounds. This fish was caught in the Kaiserwoog (imperial pond) in Lautern. The fish had a ring around its neck, stating that it was the first fish released in the pond on the 5th of October 1230 by emperor Frederic II. The fish thus was 267 years old at the time.

Literature: Stadler, 1964-1971, 8 volumes.

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