Various Flags (Switzerland)

Last modified: 2026-02-06 by martin karner
Keywords: switzerland |
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• Swiss Peace Flag
• Switzerland-Iceland Association
• Decorative Swiss and Cantonal Flags (Geneva)
• Unusual Swiss "Flagge" at Olympic Games in St. Moritz
• Early 20th century flag design
• Association of Swiss Artillery Clubs
• Swiss Cantons Patchwork Flag

• Flags by Mai-Thu Perret
• Gay Flag – Switzerland
• Kadebostany (pop music band)
• Swiss Institute (New York)
• Swiss Post
• Swiss Red Cross
• Thin Blue Line Flag – Switzerland
• Various Nautical Flags (Switzerland)

• Switzerland
  
  
• Die Burg in der Heraldik (by Eugen Schneiter, 1945, German)
• Die ältesten Fähnlein der Schweiz (by Hans Rudolf Bächtold, 1974, German)
• The emblem of the Swiss community abroad (by Lucien Paillard, 1980)  French  German
• Banners and Flags in the Archives of Federal Charters in Schwyz (by Joseph Wiget/Erwin Horat, ICV 15, 1993, German/English/French)
• Die Fahnen im Schweizerischen Landesmuseum (by Matthias Senn, 1994, German)
• Die Schweiz und Österreich – und die Stellung des Doppeladlers in der Geschichte beider Staaten (by Franz-Heinz Hye, 1996, German | French/Italian/Romansh abstract)
• 1000 Jahre Habsburg – Heraldische Spuren in der Schweiz (by Günter Mattern, 1998, German | résumé français)
• Das neue Gotthardwappen für die Schweizerischen Bundesbahnen (by Rolf Kälin, 2018, German | résumé français)
• Da la Battaglia da Morgarten enfin la Republica helvetica – Las bandieras en il Museum dal Patg federal a Sviz (chatta.ch, 2020, Romansh)
• Tiere in der Heraldik (symbolforschung.ch, German)

Swiss Peace Flag

Switzerland-Iceland Association (Association Suisse-Islande)

The Switzerland-Iceland Association (Association Suisse-Islande) was founded in 1988 in Geneva (Switzerland) by Léonard Pierre Closuit. Sent in 1978 to Iceland by the Botanical Garden of Geneva, Closuit fell in love with Iceland and founded an association "to promote cultural and artistic exchanges between the two countries". On 25 October 2008, the association held its 19th General Assembly in Martigny (Valais, Switzerland). Reporting the event on 27 October 2008, the newspaper "Le Nouvelliste" shows a photograph of the board members of the association, with the association's flag hanging on the wall. The flag is a combination of the symbols of the two countries. The perspective does not allow to restore the specification of the flag, which appears to be made of an Icelandic flag with the cross centered and a Swiss "cross" superimposed in the middle. The Swiss "cross" is indeed disk-shaped, even if the disk seems to have been "cut" along the outer edges of the cross arms.

http://www.lenouvelliste.ch/fr/news/valais/sur-un-meme-drapeau_9-114114

More on the banker-explorer Léonard-Pierre Closuit (b. 1931) in the Encyclopaedia of Valais:
http://www.vs.ch/encyclo/navig.asp?mnu=know&idRubrique=1771&idLangue=1

Ivan Sache, 3 November 2008

Decorative Swiss and Cantonal Flags (Geneva)

Aleksandar Nemet noted photographs of the Swiss flag with flames along one edge (picture #1 [source], picture [source]). This is a decorative Swiss national flag, which is (as far as I know) only hoisted on a bridge in Geneva city. On this bridge all the [cantonal] flags fly together with the Swiss flag for a mere decorative purpose. All these flags on this specific bridge over the Rhodan river, at the outflow from Geneva Lake, show a special pattern, which consists of little flames along one or more borders of the flag (see also postcards from 1950s, 1960s and 1970s [#2] with cantonal flags). Flames, though also sometimes seen in 17th and 18th century military flags all across Europe, are a specific Swiss flag design element since the 17th century until today. Flames may be placed across the flag or in the four areas separated by a white cross in varied ways, or at the edges of a flag or at the edges of a cross, or in any other possible way (like for instance in our case here).
[The referenced pictures here show both the same kind of flag. The flags may be wrapped around the pole like here and thus give the wrong impression to have the flames only on one side.]
Emil Dreyer, 21 November 2008

The bridge is the famous Mont-Blanc bridge ("pont du Mont-Blanc"), built in 1902–1903 and enlarged in 1964–1965. Photo showing the flag display here (picture #3). During the last football European championship the flags were replaced by the official UEFA Euro 2008 Genève flags.
Ivan Sache, 22 November 2008

See also:   FLAMMULETS in Dictionary of Vexillology

Unusual Swiss "Flagge" at Olympic Games in St. Moritz

image located by Martin Karner

A Swiss newspaper published an article about the use of airplanes at the Winter Olympic Games of 1928 and 1948 in St. Moritz (Grisons). One photo from 1948 shows a so-called "Flagge" (vertical banner) with the Swiss cross on red, a vertical flag hoisted from a crossbar in the manner of a gonfanon. The lower end of the flag is not visible. The special thing about the flag is the cross, which is not centered or placed in the hoist as usual with these flags, but offset towards the upper end. It has neither the design of "Flaggen" we present on FOTW with the cross in the hoist and a bicolour fly part. The airplane with the HB-ARU marking is a "Fieseler Storch" Fi-156. These planes could fly very slow and were well suited for photography.
(Source: Südostschweiz am Wochenende/Bündner Zeitung, suedostschweiz.ch, 25 February 2023)
Martin Karner, 3 March 2023

Early 20th century flag design

At the beginning of the 20th century, flamed flags were still in use, with the white cross replaced by a (baroque) shield in the centre of the flag. These decorative flags had been used until WWII and then somewhat forgotten in preference of the current cantonal flags. Not only cantonal flags were made with this design, but also the Swiss national flag.
Photo #1 above shows cantonal flags with the flame pattern (detail of postcard of the Federal Shooting 1929 in Bellinzona TI).
Photo #2 shows a flamed Swiss national flag, used by playing school children in Wabern BE, ca. 1914 (picture, source).
Photo #3 was made in Bern on 1.8.1936 (national holiday | picture, source).
Today this kind of flags are being produced again (photo #4: club members at 300m shooting range Pelindaba, South Africa, 2018 | picture, source).
Pascal Gross, 30 June 2002 / Martin Karner, 6 December 2023

See also:

• Cantonal flags with "Early 20th century flag design": AG, AI, AR, BE, BL, BS, FR, GE, GL, GR, JU, LU, NE, NW, OW, SG, SH, SO, SZ, TG, TI, UR, VD, VS, ZG, ZH
• Modern flamed flags
• FLAMMES in Dictionary of Vexillology

Association of Swiss Artillery Clubs

image located by Martin Karner

The flag of the national Asscociation of Artillery clubs (introduced 1937), French version (Association suisse des Sociétés d'Artillerie). (source)
Website National Association (VSAV/ASSA): https://vsav.info
Martin Karner, 6 December 2023

See also:   Artillerie-Verein Baselland

Swiss Cantons Patchwork Flag

This is a makeshift flag and not an official flag at all, but it sure does portray a colorful design, and it seems that it is used quite often (Photo by Esteban Rivera, 2011).
The flag is a red background square featuring 25 (26) Cantons in five rows of five, from top to bottom, from left to right, as follows [in the official order]:

1st row: Zürich, Bern, Luzern, Uri, Schwyz
2nd row: Obwalden, Nidwalden, Glarus, Zug, Fribourg
3rd row: Solothurn, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, Schaffhausen, Appenzell (AI+AR)*
4th row: St. Gallen, Graubünden, Aargau, Thurgau, Ticino
5th row: Vaud, Valais, Neuchâtel, Genève, Jura
* The half-cantons AI and AR have to share a field with their common flag

Esteban Rivera, 7 January 2024

See also:   PATCHWORK FLAG in Dictionary of Vexillology