^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Memel Historical Flags (Prussia, Germany)

nowadays Klaipėda (Lithuania)

Civil Ensign 1818-1823
Civil Ensign reported 1862
Memel 1685 and 1737 (doubtful)
Memel District 1920-1939

See also:

Civil Ensign 1818-1823

Reported 1848 and 1862

by Jaume Ollé

A black-white-black horizontal triband, swallow-tailed. In the white stripe the letters "MEMEL".

Norman Martin, 20 January 1998

The Prussian government allowed ship owners and sailors to add the name of their own town or province on the white stripe of the merchant ensign (which was the same as the national flag) of the period 1818-1823. The ensign was often swallowtailed. Hamburger (c. 1848) and Norie and Hobbs 1848 report correctly the flag with the name "MEMEL". In conclusion the black-white-black swallowtailed flag with the word "MEMEL" should be considered as a variant of the Prussian 1818-1823 merchant flag used by ships from Memel. It is not to be excluded that such a flag could have been used for some time even after the adoption of the new Prussian ensign in 1823, but it surely would not have survived too long.

Mario Fabretto, 11 August 1998

Norie and Hobbs 1848 shows under "126: Memel" the above flag, except white letters outlined black and slightly smaller.

Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 12 November 2001

Variant

by Jaume Ollé

A variant in Bromme's Atlas shows the Memel flag in dark blue — this may be a printing error.

Norman Martin, 20 January 1998

Civil Ensign reported 1862

by Jaume Ollé

A black-white-black horizontal triband, swallow-tailed.

Norman Martin, 20 January 1998

Memel 1685 and 1737 (doubtful)

by Jaume Ollé

Reported dubiously as a horizontal triband green-yellow-green. (Memel is a city then in Northern Prussia, now in Lithuania, where it is called Klaipeda).

Norman Martin, 20 January 1998<