Ottfried Neubecker
Encyclopedia
Ottfried Neubecker was a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 vexillologist
Vexillology
Vexillology is the scholarly study of flags. The word is a synthesis of the Latin word vexillum, meaning 'flag', and the Greek suffix -logy, meaning 'study'. The vexillum was a particular type of flag used by Roman legions during the classical era; its name is a diminutive form of the word velum...

 and heraldist
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...

.

Early life and education

He was born 22 March 1908 in Berlin-Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen consort Sophia Charlotte...

 in Germany, into the family of a university teacher. From 1925 he studied in Heidelberg, Geneva and Berlin and from 1926 he worked for Ministry of the Interior and for the Reichskunstwart Edwin Redslob, in field of national heraldic and vexillological matters.

Career

His first work was Die Reichseinheitsflagge, published with Erik Wolf in 1926. This small tract was about the dispute between the black-red-gold and black-white-red colors in Germany. The work was expanded in 1929 and published as Die deutschen Farben. In 1931 he earned doctorate with the thesis Das deutsche Wappen 1806-1871. In those years he (mainly anonymously) began the series of cigarette cards (with their corresponding albums) showing German flags, flags of the world, state coats of arms of the world, German military colors and German civic coats of arms. Each series consisted of 200-500 cards and there were 12 series.

In 1931 Neubecker had married a woman of Jewish descent and was dismissed from state services. During the Nazi regime
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 he received commissions from the state and municipal archives, Ministry Foreign Affairs, the Air Ministry and from Kriegsmarine
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...

, but his name could not be mentioned and his great book Flaggenbuch des Oberkommandos der Kriegsmarine was published without Neubecker's name. He was paid clandestinely and unofficially for this work. From the summer of 1944 he was without a permanent residence, being continuously on the run from the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...

, surviving with the help of friends.

After the war he lived in East Germany and here he was consulted about municipal and state heraldry, and he lectured, wrote and published many articles. His wife settled in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 and in 1950 they were divorced and he remarried. In 1962 he escaped from East to West Germany, luckily with his archive.

In 1965 he participated in the First International Congress of Vexillology and was a Councillor of the Fédération internationale des associations vexillologiques
Fédération internationale des associations vexillologiques
The Fédération internationale des associations vexillologiques is an international federation of 55 regional, national, and multinational associations and institutions across the globe that study vexillology, which FIAV defines in its constitution as "the creation and development of a body of...

 (FIAV) from 1969 to 1973, he was President of FIAV from 1973–1981 and Secretary General of FIAV from 1981-1983. He was posthumously named a Laureate of FIAV in 1999 at the 18th International Congress of Vexillology in Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...

. He was Member of the Board of the Académie Internationale d'Héraldique
Académie Internationale d'Héraldique
L'Académie Internationale d'Héraldique is a prestigious body that was founded in Paris in 1949 to bring together experts in heraldry representing the various areas of the world. Admission is by election, and the number of active academicians is limited to 75. There is no limit to the number of...

(International Academy of Heraldry), Founder, President and Honorary President of the Wappen-HEROLD of the Deutsche Heraldische Gesellschaft e.V. (German Heraldic Society), and an honorary and corresponding member of many national and international heraldry associations.

He died in Wiesbaden 8 July 1992.

Publications

  • Die Reichseinheitsflagge, 1926 (The Reich
    Reich
    Reich is a German word cognate with the English rich, but also used to designate an empire, realm, or nation. The qualitative connotation from the German is " sovereign state." It is the word traditionally used for a variety of sovereign entities, including Germany in many periods of its history...

    Unity Flag)
  • Die deutschen Farben, 1929 (The German Colours)
  • Das Deutsche Wappen 1806-1871, Berlin 1931 (The German Coat of Arms 1806-1871)
  • Deutsch und Französisch für Heraldiker, Berlin 1934, (German and French for Heraldists)
  • Fahnen und Flaggen, Leipzig 1939, (Standards and Flags)
  • Flaggenbuch des Oberkommandos der Kriegsmarine, 1939 (Flag Book of the High Command of the Kriegsmarine
    Kriegsmarine
    The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...

    )
  • Kleine Wappenfibel, Konstanz 1969, (A Coat of Arms Primer)
  • Heraldik / Wappen - ihr Ursprung, Sinn und Wert, Frankfurt/M. 1977 (translated into five languages) ; Wappenkunde, München 1980, (Heraldry and Coats of Arms - Their Origin, Meaning and Value)
  • Wappenbilderlexikon, München 1985, (Coats of Arms Picture Lexicon)
  • A Guide to Heraldry, Adligenswil 2006


The complete bibliography covering his publications, radio and television programs comprises 42 pages.

External links

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