The coat of arms of Austria, a red shield with a white horizontal central stripe, is attributed to Duke Leopold V in the late 12th century. Legend has it that King Henry VI granted him that shield because the duke’s tunic was drenched in blood, except for the white area beneath his belt, after the Battle of Ptolemais in 1191 in the Holy Land. Modern historians discredit this story, and the earliest known example of the arms dates from the seal of Duke Frederick II in 1230. Even when Austrian rulers held sway over the heartland of a great European empire, the duchy of Austria used that coat of arms and a flag of corresponding design.
With the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 and of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, Austria lost its imperial banners and was reduced to its present borders. The new republic adopted the simple red-white-red flag, which reappeared in 1945 after seven years of Austrian amalgamation with Nazi Germany. The black imperial eagle, sometimes with one head and sometimes with two, has appeared on Austrian flags for hundreds of years and even today recalls the legacy of the nation. A broken chain was added to the legs of the eagle in 1945, as a symbol of freedom. The sickle clasped in its right talon symbolizes peasants, while the hammer is for workers and the crown on its head stands for the middle class. Like many older symbols, the Austrian shield (on the eagle’s chest) has no established symbolic attributions, although it is sometimes said that the white stands for the shining waters of the Danube River.