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Bukovina

 

Contents

Flag

Meaning/Origin of the Flag

Coat of Arms

Meaning/Origin of the Coat of Arms

Map of the former crown lands of Austria-Hungary (to 1918)

Map of Bukovina

Numbers and Facts

History

Origin of the Country's Name



Flag

Flagge Fahne flag Flag of the country Colours of the country colours colors Bukowina Bukovina Buchenland
Flag of the country (Colours of the country),
ratio = 2:3,
Source, by: Flags of the World



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Meaning/Origin of the Flag

In the time of the monarchy, the country had – like all the other crown lands of the Austrian crown – its own colours (Landesfarben), which were used amongst others on horizontally two- or three-striped flags. The colours (Landesfarben) were very often taken from the respective coat of arms of the country or were supplemented by another colour, which not appears in the coat of arms, or they went back to older models of the coat of arms (e.g. Carniola). Officially, the colours had never been regulated or stipulated, so that their sequence varied in practice or even the colors deviated. The Austrian heraldist Hugo Gerard Ströhl (1851–1919) was probably the first to take care of it and asked for the colors (Landesfarben) on the flags at the respective state authorities around 1890 and compiled them. For Bukovina, blue and red were ascertained as the country's colors of the crown land. The crown land Duchy of Bukovina used a flag with two horizontal stripes in the country's colours blue and red. The colors are those of the old Principality of Moldova, to which Bukovina belonged until the year 1775, and were taken from the coat of arms.

Source: Wikipedia (D), Österreichisch-Ungarische Wappenrolle, Volker Preuß

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Coat of Arms


Wappen coat of arms Bukowina Bukovina Buchenland
ca.1890–1918,
coat of arms of the Duchy of Bukovina,
Source, by: Ströhl, Wappenrolle Österreich-Ungarns, 1890, via Wikipedia (D)

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Meaning/Origin of the Coat of Arms

The coat of arms of Bukovina goes back to the coat of arms of the Principality of Moldova and shows a black buffalo head with a red tongue and silver horns on a vertically divided blue-red shield and three golden six-pointed stars. It was awarded on 9th of December in 1862. The coats of arms of the Principality of Moldova and the Russian governorate of Bessarabia were similar: The coat of arms of the Principality of Moldova showed a horizontally blue-red divided shield with a golden buffalo head, the coat of arms of Bessarabia showed a blue shield with golden buffalo head with a red tongue and red horns.

Source: Wikipedia (D), Österreichisch-Ungarische Wappenrolle, Volker Preuß

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Former crown lands of Austria-Hungary (to 1918)

Map ca. 1910:
interaktive Landkarte – interactive Map
Source: Volker Preuß

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Map of Bukovina

Bukovina
Source: Volker Preuß

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Numbers and Facts

Area: 4.031 square miles

Inhabitants: 568.700 (1880), thereof 42% Ruthens (Ukrainians), 33% Romanians, 12% Jews, 8% Germans, 3% Polish, 2% Hungarians, 1% Czech, nowadays ca. 800.000 inh., in the northern part: Poles, Ruthens, in the southern part: Romanians

Density of Population: 142 inh./sq.mi. (1880), nowadays: 198 inh./sq.mi.

Capital: Chernowitz (Ukrainian: Tschernowzy, Romanian: Cernàuti), 46.000 inh. (1880), nowadays: 940.000 inh.

Languages (1880): German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian

Source: Wikipedia (D)

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History

ca. 7th cent. · settlement by Ruthenians

ca. 1350 · settlement by Romanians

1359 · to the Principality of Moldavia

14th cent. · fiefdom of the Kingdom of Poland

ca. 1450 · settlement by Polish, Armenians and Greek

1482 · first documentary mention of the Landscape of Bukovina

since 1455 · Turkish influence

1511 · Moldavia comes under supremacy of the Ottoman Empire

ca. 1650 · settlement by Hungarians

1769 · Russian conquest

1774 · Russia gives back Bukovina to the Ottoman Empire

1775 · Austrian Troops occupy the country

7th of May 1775 · the Ottoman Empire cedes the country to Austria, Bukovina becomes a duchy

1st of November 1786 · end of the Austrian military administration, to the Kingdom of Galicia

1848/1849 · revolution in Vienna, new constitution: the titular hereditary territories of the Habsburgs in the Austrian Empire become converted to crown lands with their own Landtag (parliament), the Duchy of Bukovina remains initially a part of the crown land of Galicia

1861 · separation of Bukovina (Buchenland) from Galizia as an own crown land of the Austrian Empire

1919 · in context with the dissolution of Austria-Hungaria comes Bukovina to Romania

June 1940 · the northern part of Bukovina becomes occupied by the Soviet Union and incorporated to the Soviet Ukraine

June 1941 · Romanian troops conquer back the northern part of Bukovina during the Second World War

April/May 1944 · soviet troops conquer Bukovina during the Second World War, once more division, the northern part becomes incorporated to the Soviet Ukraine (until today), the southern part remains at Romania

Source: Atlas zur Geschichte, Wikipedia (D), World Statesmen, RetroBib Retrobibliothek, Discovery '97, Volker Preuß

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Origin of the Country's Name

The name "Bukowina" comes from the Middle Ages and means "Buchenland" ("beech tree land"), because the word "buk" means "beech" in many Slavic languages. The name of the country goes back to the beech forests which then growed here.

Source: Handbuch der geographischen Namen

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Further Austria pages (historical flags and coats of arms):

Empire of the Austrian Habsburgs (to 1804)

Empire of Austria (1814–1867)

Austria-Hungary (1867–1918)

Republic of Austria (since 1918)


 

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