The coats of arms of Treptow-Köpenick

The new coat of arms of Treptow-Köpenick was given to the borough by the Berliner Senate on 21st September 2004.

On a blue background a Saint Anthony’s cross with golden borders is represented in the middle, while a couple of silver fish staying on the sides. In the cross a key is depicted along with seven stars. On top of the shield there is a crown in form of a three-towered wall, and in the tower in the middle you can notice the coat of arms of Berlin.

This coat of arms is a combination of heraldic motives which are intended to symbolize the borough as a whole. Fish, key and stars are historic symbols for Köpenick and have a long tradition in its seals and coats of arms.

The oldest seal (1908) shows fish (similar to pikes) and a Saint Peter’s key, which represents pars pro toto (a part for the whole) Saint Peter as the fishermen’s patron. That is the reason why these symbols are a part of the tradition and the natural landscape of Köpenick.

The borough Treptow, which is a little younger, is as watery as Köpenick and therefore you the fishes depicted on the coat of arms are appropriate for the merged borough. The colour blue gives one more time the idea of how full of water the Southern part of Berlin is.

The borough coat of arms is divided by a heraldic Saint Anthony’s cross, which contains both a Saint Peter’s key and seven stars. Key and stars, as well as the fishes, are laid in a way that provides a good sight of all the components of this shield. The green cross stands for Treptow and the “T” is the initial letter of the borough’s name. The colour green symbolise the open green spaces in the largest borough of Berlin.

The coat of arms of the borough Treptow-Köpenick, used from 1993 until 2001, represents on a silver shield with a green shield foot a flowing river between two trees, while a prancing black bear is in front of the river.

The borough has taken the coat of arms of the town community in Treptow, which was created in 1876. After the German Law concerning the town communities on 30th January 1935 gave an official authorisation to the flags and coats of arms, Treptow was no longer a land community. The borough Treptow of the greater Berlin (since 1920) kept on using the Berlin’s bear-representing coat of arms on administration papers.

The Treptow local coat of arms underlines with its symbols that it formerly belonged to the Cöllnischer Moor, an area full of woods and moors. This is also the origin of the name “Treptow” (from the Slavic “drowka”-grove, bosk). The flowing water depicted on the shield is considered a reference to the Teltow or to the Landwehr Canal, but it could also symbolize the Oberspree River, with the oldest representations of an island in the Spree River.

The Treptow coat of arms was used for centuries as a local symbol just as the Köpenick one, but it was not used for official purposes. In 1993, after the Law on the emblems of the Land Berlin was enacted, the Senate administration gave the emblem to the district in the above mentioned form, adding only the crown in the form of a three-towered wall.

The coat of arms of the former borough of Köpenick, used from 1992 until 2001, shows on a blue shield a golden key lightly bent to the left, which is between two raising fishes.

Around the key seven gold crosses (stars) are gathered, three on the sides and one in the key body.
This representation traces back to the medieval seal of the town of Köpenick. The motive could be interpreted in different ways: the fishes surely refer to the watery landscape around the borough and to the fishing tradition of Köpenick, the golden key is a representation of the Town Key as well as the attribute of Saint Peter, the fishermen’s patron.

There are different explanations for the Andrew’s crosses on the seal of the coat of army, which contain a variable number of stars. As some drawings of the above mentioned old seals show, in the beginning there were a dozen Andrew’s crosses.
It is to exclude that this is a representation of a sign of the zodiac, as it is sometimes written. It is more likely that the crosses are only ornamental decoration and an addiction created by the medieval engraver and that they do not have a particular meaning.

The colouring of the coat of arms is the following: the fishes are in silver, the key in gold and the water in blue.
As typical for the communal heraldic tradition, in the case of Köpenick it is not documented how the passage from seal emblem to coat of arms happened. Until the town fusion in the Greater Berlin in 1920 the above described town symbol was used for official purposes in Köpenick and was beyond the Berliner Bear the symbol of the affiliation with the new administrative unit.

Like other boroughs and urban districts, Köpenick obtained a “heraldic business card” (Machatschek), but no national emblem. As it was a part of East Berlin, the borough was not considered in the Law on the emblems of the Land Berlin on 13th May 1954, which allowed every borough to have a coat of arms beside the Berliner one.

For the Eastern part of the city there was no equivalent regulation as far as coats of arms are concerned, although lots of local coats of arms were used unofficially and during the 750th anniversary of Berlin in 1987 the heraldic tradition was re-established.
With the reunion, the Law on the national emblems of the Land Berlin was put into force in the Eastern boroughs too. The Köpenick coat of arms was confirmed in the above-mentioned version by the Senate administration and it was given to the borough as coat of arms in 1992, provided with the crown in the form of three towers.