Last modified: 2026-07-11 by martin karner
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The Austrian state Burgenland contains 171 municipalities. The use of coats-of-arms is similar to adjacent Austrian states, although
Burgenland as a rural and rather poor part of Austria is somewhat lagging behind in municipal heraldry (compared to e.g.
Tyrol, Salzburg
or Vorarlberg).
Regarding municipal colours, only in 1987 the respective paragraph (§4) of the Gemeindeordnung (Law on municipalities) was amended with the
following sentences:
"Die Gemeinde ist zur Führung von Gemeindefarben befugt, deren Festsetzung dem Gemeinderat obliegt. Die Festsetzung bedarf der
Genehmigung der Landesregierung. Die Genehmigung darf nur aus öffentlichen Rücksichten in Beziehung auf den Symbolgehalt der Farben
versagt werden." (The municipality is entitled to the use of municipal colours, whose
establishment is the duty of the municipal council. The establishment needs approval by the state government. The approval may only be refused
for public considerations regarding the symbolic content of the colours.)
Valentin Poposki, 22 June 2020
The State of Burgenland has 7 Districts and 2 Statutory Cities as second level administrative-territorial
divisions and delegated powers. Districts don't have their own emblems or flags. Municipal entities of
various types Cities [Stadt] (yes, same Statutory Cities now counted as municipal entities), Towns
[Stadt or Stadtgemeinde], Municipalities (Wikipedia translates them as Market Towns) [Marktgemeinde], and
Communes [Gemeinde] in total number of 171 entities, are third level administrative-territorial divisions
and local governments. All municipalities in Burgenland (except one) have their own emblems.
Valentin Poposki, 15 July 2025
On the communal website of Klingenbach in Burgenland there are some general informations about the historical development of municipal heraldry in Burgenland:
[...]Source: https://klingenbach.at/serviceinfo/geschichte-kultur/wappen/
The development of municipal heraldry in what is now Burgenland has been a rather complex process. Originally, the granting of the right to bear a coat of arms to a locality was usually linked to the granting of town or market rights. Until the end of the 16th century, villages were granted the right to bear a coat of arms only in isolated cases. In most cases, the coats of arms themselves now appear only on archival documents, in seals or on old, preserved seal fragments (seal impressions, "Petschaften"). It is therefore only possible to draw conclusions about the colours of the localities in a few instances; in many cases, this is only possible to the extent that the areas of the shield on the seals or seal impressions are marked in the manner shown in Figure 1. It should be noted here that the colour (tincture) of the depicted object must always be placed first, followed by the colour of each field of the shield; for example, a red eagle on a gold field = red-gold (yellow) (the coat of arms of Burgenland); or a silver lion on a blue field = silver (white)-blue. As the field designations are often missing, the local colours can usually only be determined on the basis of oral tradition or other clues (e.g. the settlement's feudal affiliation, as some places adopted the colours of their feudal lord). The villages within the Ödenburg municipal jurisdiction also exhibit specific trends in the development of their municipal coats of arms. Originally, these parishes did not have their own coats of arms or seals; instead, the town would affix its own seal to documents concerning important matters for the villages. In less important parish matters, the respective local judge or the jury would affix their seals. However, these were not official seals in the modern sense, but rather the private seals of the judges or jurors in question. The timing of the introduction of official seals in the individual town villages varies considerably. The two town villages of Agendorf (Àgfalva) and Kohlenhof (Kópháza), for example, already had their own municipal seals and coats of arms as early as 1713. [...] The coats of arms depicted on the seals were generally reproduced faithfully in the modern official stamps following their introduction.
[...]
Martin Karner, 8 July 2026
The Österreichische Städtebuch Burgenland [dea96] describes not only the coats-of-arms of the towns, but also the town colours, that are derived from the respective arms. How these are actually used and since when, is not described in the book. Most probably the flags would be similar to other Austrian municipal flags, i.e. vertical flags (hanging flag, "Banner" or "Knatterflagge") striped in the colours, and showing the coat-of-arms.
There is another book containing several municipal colours, namely the book about the symbols of the Croatian-inhabitad municipalities in Burgenland [prp97]. However, the authors are a bit lazy, as they frequently do not mention the order of the colours properly.
The Province of Burgenland has 2 independent cities (flags already reported)
and 7 districts [Bezirke]. However, districts in Austria don't have flags, as
far as I know.
Cities are Eisenstadt and Rust, and districts are
Eisenstadt-Umgebung, Güssing, Jennersdorf, Mattersburg, Neusiedl am See,
Oberpullendorf, and Oberwart.
The District of Eisenstadt-Umgebung (Bezirk
Eisenstadt-Umbegung) in Croatian (Željezno-okolica) has 23 municipalities (Gemeinden).
Valentin Poposki, 22 June 2020
