682: munich and berlin Oct 20, 2016

One can tell a lot about a place from its coat of arms, which is good because otherwise there would not be much use for the coat of arms. The coat of arms for Bavarian capital, Munich, for example is of a monk holding a book and pointing, and ones have also depicted a monk for many centuries. The German name for the city helps to interpret this symbol, as 'München' means, 'of monks', and shows off Christian history. The better known coat of arms for Berlin is a bear, but this is misleading. While the symbol was based off of the similarity to the name, 'Berlin' does not come from the German 'Bär' (bear) but is of Slavic origin, as most German cities with '-in' endings do, and may derive from a word for 'swamp'.