User:Ahoerstemeier/Coat of arms in the Amt Menden

The Amt Menden as well as its member municipalities all receiced their coat of arms on April 15 1937. The coat of arms of the Amt showed a barrel iron, which was taken from a seal used by the court Menden in the 18th century. The colors red and white were chosen as the traditional colors of Westphalia.

The coat of arms of the municipalities of the Amt were all designed in a similar fashion - in the bottom a scaled down version of the coat of arms of the Amt, and a symbol representing the municipality in the top. If possible a symbol of a noble family from the municipality was chosen.

Bösperde
The top part of the coat of arms shows a black horse head on silver ground. The horse was chosen as a talking symbol, as in the popular (but wrong) enthymology the name Bösperde comes from böses Pferd (angry horse).

Halingen
The top part of the coat of arms of Halingen shows a black cattle hook on silver ground. The symbol is taken from then coat of arms of the family von Werlhausen, the first owners of the house Dahlhausen.

Lendringsen
The coat of arms of Lendringsen shows a wall anchor, which was taken from the coat of arms of the family von Rödinghausen, who lived in Lendringsen from medieval times till the 18th century.

Oesbern
The top of the coat of arms of Oesbern shows two black wolf hooks. As no symbol of a noble family was found for the municipality, the wolf hooks were chosen to represent both the many forests as well as the village Wolfskuhle which belonged to the municipality.

Schwitten
The coat of arms of Schwitten shows three triangular red peaks growing out of the red bottom. On top of each is a red rose with silver leaves. The symbol to the top was taken from the coat of arms of the family Cosack, who owned the Hof Oberstade.

Sümmern
The top of the coat of arms of Sümmern shows a row of three red roses, with a golden bar underneath it. The symbol was taken from the coat of arms of the noble family von Sümmern.

Wimbern
The top of the coat of arms of Wimbern shows a red mill wheel. The mill wheel was chosen to represent the old mill at the Mühlenbach, as no other heraldic symbol was found to represent the municipality.