The coat of arms was formally adopted by King William I of Württemberg on 30 December 1817, lasting between 1817 and 1922, and occasionally seen on state flags of this period. This version derived from the escutcheon found in the centre of the much larger and more elaborate coat of arms that was used when the Electorate of Württemberg was elevated to the status of a kingdom in 1806. Württemberg had recently acquired several territories under the mediatisation system and incorporated their heraldries into its arms, resulting in a complicated design. This caused the need to choose something much simpler, and the 1817 arms had the two essential elements – 3 lions for the whole region of Swabia, and 3 antlers for its largest ruling dynasty. By 26 December 1816, the kingdom had also settled on the colours red and black for its flag; gold and black being too similar to the ruling Habsburg dynasty of the Austrian Empire, and red and gold being the colours of Würzburg, their allies in the Napoleonic Wars. From 1949 the insignia form part of the present-day Coat of arms of Baden-Württemberg.
Ducal arms (1495−1803)
The antler motif had been used for centuries previously by the Counts of Württemberg. From 1495, the Duchy of Württemberg's coat of arms included the four quarters shown below. Their symbolism is:
Quarters
1st: on a field of gold, three black stag's antlers of 4 branches - the County/Duchy of Württemberg, whose seat was in the original Württemberg castle on a hilltop near Stuttgart. It is based on the arms of their cousins, the Counts of Nellenburg, which was in turn based on the arms of their cousins, the Counts of Veringen.
After the abdication of the last king in 1918, the Free People's State of Württemberg in the Weimar Republic continued to use the three antlers motif and the former kingdom's flag on its coat of arms. Today, the larger version of the Coat of arms of Baden-Württemberg includes the three Swabian lions and a small shield on top with the three antlers of Württemberg. The arms can also be seen in the trademark of Porsche, a local car firm. During the Nazi era, the state of Württemberg became virtually defunct due to the de facto transformation of Germany from a federal to a unitary state. Yet the new "Gau Württemberg-Hohenzollern" adopted a new coat of arms which was only a slightly modified version of the Republican arms. After the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, Württemberg was split into two successor states along the borders of the occupation zones: Württemberg-Baden in American-administered Germany, which also included the northern part of Baden, and Württemberg-Hohenzollern in the French occupation zone, which also included the Prussian territory of Hohenzollern. Both states adopted their own flags and coat of arms. They joined the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 and were subsequently merged with South Baden into the present-day state of Baden-Württemberg in 1952.
