Holy Roman Eagle

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The Holy Roman Empire was not holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. It was a confederation of German states that lasted for almost a thousand years.

The first mention of a double-headed eagle as representing the Holy Roman Emperor dates from 1250, for Emperor Frederick II. Usually depicted black on a gold background, it replaced the earlier single-headed eagle. In all likelihood, the double-headed eagle was adopted from the arms of Byzantium to strengthen the claim that the Holy Roman Empire was the rightful heir of the Roman Empire.

The text is from the Gothic language version of the Lord's Prayer, as found in the Codex Argenteus, the Gothic Language translation of the Bible by the medieval bishop Wulfilas.

Polish Eagle

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A white eagle is the symbol of Poland because the nation's legendary founder Lech saw a white eagle in a nest bathed in the light of the sun and chose to settle and make a home for himself on that spot. He named the place Gniezdno from the Polish word gniazdo meaning nest.

The white eagle was first used on the Polish coat of arms during the thirteenth century. During the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the eagle was quartered with the Lithuanian coat of arms. Under communist rule, the white eagle remained as the coat of arms, but the crown was removed. After the fall of the Communist government in 1989, the crown was restored.

The red shield in this design is made up of words from a poem by the famous Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz

Russian Eagle

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The double-headed eagle was adopted in the fifteenth century by Russia to signify its place as the successor to Byzantium, which also used a double-headed eagle as its symbol. It was used by the Russian Empire until the October Revolution of 1917. After the fall of the Soviet Union, The Russian Federation again adopted the double-headed eagle as its symbol.

The question on the banner is "And where will fate send death to me?" a line from an 1829 poem by Alexander Pushkin, one of the greatest Russian poets. Click here to see the poem in English and in Russian.