The problem with the Volapük flag
Now I want to discuss in detail the issue of the Volapük flag, which has been written about a lot in Volapük, but there isn’t enough information in English. Many websites (for example, Facebook group, the former official website of the International Community of Friends of Volapük) use the flag designed by Michael Everson around 2010, influenced by the Esperanto flag: a schematic purple globe in a yellow square in the upper left corner of a purple field (the Esperanto flag: a green star in a white square in the upper left corner of a green field). Michael Everson explained the need for the flag as follows:
“We all know that Esperanto is identified by the green star, and that they have a flag, which could be blazoned "Vert, on a canton argent a star vert" (a green flag with a green star in a white canton). Green is certainly the colour of Esperanto. <…>
It turns out that Volapük also has colours: Gold and Purple. Or Yellow and Lilac.
The source for this is a web page on Danish Volapükist Malling Hansen, <…> Here is the text: <…>
[In English:]
"One of the Charlottenburg Art Exhibitions during the 1880s included a painting by Engelsted depicting the so-called Quartet: Malling-Hansen, head teacher Kaper (father of the mayor), Director Ritzau (the founder of Ritzau's News Agency), and the keeper of the archives of the War Office, captain Feilborg, as they are sitting around a table playing a game of ombre. These 4 men and their wives – all of them on familiar terms with each other – used to meet during the winter season once a week for a game of cards. Quite often this was combined with some other amusing activity, for instance M.-H arranged a Volapük-dinner, having copied the menu in Danish as well as Volapük – except for the wine which in both languages was designated "pumpenhejmer". The lamps and the table were decorated and covered with the Volapük colours – yellow and mauve. It was very festive and amusing."
Danish "gul" certainly means 'yellow', and "lilla" means 'mauve, lilac'.
I think we should celebrate this by using these colours!”
(Aug 29, 2010, Yahoo groups)
So, Volapük needs a flag just as much as Esperanto does; the colour scheme of the flag should be based on tradition — two colours of Volapük. Unfortunately, the “tradition” mentioned in the Malling Hansen Society’s message is presented with omissions: 1) in fact, there were three colours of Volapük; 2) they were used not only to decorate the interior, but also on ribbons and flags in a certain sequence — even before the Esperanto flag was created (and even before its first textbook was published). That is, the flag doesn’t need to be invented; it needs to be remembered! But to do that, one had to read the press of the 19th century, primarily in Volapük.
In fact, Schleyer first wrote about the colours of Volapük in 1885: “Si! äslik vp. ailabom ya monogami oma, leiko ailabom i kölis kil oma, o. b. violeti, golüdi e glüni, bi vp. ebeginom müko, äs viòl; nedom al mostep golüdi mödik; e spelom, aiblinön läbadi gletikün menade” — “Yes, just like Volapük already has its own monogram, it has its own three colours, namely purple, gold, and green, because Volapük was at first modest, like a violet; it requires a lot of gold for its development; and it hopes to bring the greatest good to the mankind” (Volapükabled, 1885, N. 59, publication No. 632). In heraldry, the gold is used as a name of yellow. This is interesting, that green as the color of hope is mentioned before the emergence of Esperanto symbolism.
Later, at the Volapük Bureau in Constance it was possible to order distinctive three‑colour Volapük signs (Volapükabled, 1886, N. 66, publication No. 716), namely: “a. tans lonedikum (zi blöti) ko välapüked ‚Menadè bal pükì bal!‘ plo maks bal e lafik; e. tans blefik (len ketis pokaglokas) leigo sa välapüked plo fenigs tels” — “a) longer ribbons (around a chest) with the motto ‘One humanity, one language’ for one and a half marks; b) short ribbons (for a pocket watch chain) for twenty pfennigs.” Schleyer specifically clarified the order in which the colours should be arranged: “Leod kölas kil vpk. aibinom at: diso glün, zenodo golüd, löpo violet: also len stäns, sköts e votöpo…” — “The order of the three Volapük colours is always as follows: green at the bottom, gold in the middle, and violet at the top — this is how it is on flags (!), coats of arms, and so on…” (Volapükabled, 1889, N. 98, publication No. 1514, point 50).
Three‑colored ribbons were used at events. For example, for the Second Volapük Congress in Munich (1887), a master Rudolf Kubics produced Volapük ribbons with brooches. At the banquet of the Second Congress, “the menu was exquisitely executed in the three Volapük colours: purple, gold, and green” — “Lised zibas äbinom peblimöl lejöniko me köls vpik: violet, golüd e glün” (Cogabled volapükelas, https://wikisource.org/wiki/Nunod_d%C3%B6_kongef_telid_vpanas_in_M%C3%BCnchen_1887.) In 1900, the Volapük club in Styria proposed that all Volapük speakers participating in the World’s Exchibition in Paris wear tricolour ribbons — purple, gold, and green — as identification marks (“polön nefikulo logiko tanili kilkölik vpk (o. b. violetik, golüdik e glünik) as lesevamaloti vpanas” — Volapükabled, 1900, N. 234, p. 975). In Russia, there was a tradition of giving bouquets in Volapük colours: the bud was purple, the stem was green, the bouquet was fastened with a golden ribbon (or a golden inscription was made on one leaf). In the cap of the newspaper “Jveizapot”, the personified Switzerland rested on a shield (escutcheon) with the image of the globe, and the escutcheon was divided into three parts: purple (dotted lines from the lower-left corner to the upper-right corner), gold (dots) and green (obliques from the upper-left corner to the lower-right corner).
Thus, the flag of Volapük has long been a tricolor (purple/violet, yellow, green). Along with this, a complex coat of arms was used, which in the 20th century was replaced by the well-known Volapük emblem. No one abolished the tricolor — it was simply forgotten. There were no events where it needed to be used. Nevertheless, the historical flag of Volapük (not trimmed down to a two‑color scheme and not imitating the Esperanto flag) is also used today. You can see it in online groups on Discord, Telegram and Vkontakte, and in the header of the official organ “Vög Volapüka”. Ironically, if Malling Hansen’s biography contained more complete information, there would be no need to invent a new flag. It is logical to consider it the official symbol of some websites, but not of the entire movement.