The efforts of the village of Dettensee, which was still independent back then, to get a
coat of arms go back to an initiative of the last district president of Hechingen, Dr. Hans Jörg
Mauser.
When the municipal council heard of the district president's suggestion to design an own coat of
arms, they very much appreciated the idea. They wanted a coat of arms that was simple in form and
historically reasonable. The idea to put all the coats of arms of former dynasties of Dettensee
into one new shield was refused because on the one hand, the possessors of Dettensee had changed very
often and on the other hand the shield would have been to overcrowded.
To point to the last syllable of the village name, “See” (German for “lake”)
and the nearby “Bodenloser See” (“Bottomless Lake”), a draft was made that showed a
silver (white) water-lily on a blue background. The idea was refused since some municipal councillors
could not imagine a water-lily on an official coat of arms.
Now the archive administration suggested that the shield should show a red, six-sided star, which was
to remind of the lords of Neuneck (It is not understandable why this family, that did not reign much longer
than any other owner of the village, was chosen), on a golden background. When a coat of arms that
referred to ![[Deutsche Flagge]](../../bilder/nav/flagge-de-klein.gif "deutschsprachig"){kind=small}
Hohenzollern,
whereof Dettensee once was part, too, had proven unpractical due to the lot of similar shields
in the area, and a hawk - the nickname of the people from Dettensee - was refused by the archive
administration since that “eagle” was heraldically impossible, the municipal council agreed on
September 16, 1968, on the coat of arms initially proposed by the archive administration.
A six-sided red star upon a golden background; a blue river beneath. (see picture) Flag colors: red and yellow.
The blue river refers both to the last syllable of the name of the village and to the
legendary “Bottomless Lake”. The star is to remind of the Lords of Neuneck, who owned the village
between 1596 and 1620 and who had a golden star in a red field upon their coat of arms. In order
to correspond with the heraldic color rule, which does not allow a red field above a blue river,
the Neuneckian colors were switched.
The coat of arms and the flag were officially given on February 28, 1969, by the Ministry of
the Interior.
Last change: April 1, 2003 - www.dettensee.net
Picture and lower text from: Zeitschrift für Hohenzollerische Geschichte, 12th issue, 1976