English: coat of arms of Cottbus, Brandenburg, Germany

English: Argent, issuant from base an embattled castle gules masoned sable with port gules, two towers topped by balls gules, between the towers two little houses of the same, in chief an impending escutcheon argent charged with a crayfish gules.

English: In the 12th century a German castle was built, commanded at least since 1156 by a burgrave of the German king. A tradepost developed near the castle and in 1230 city rights were granted by the Lords of Cottbus. In 1445, finally in 1455 the city became a possession of the Margraves of Brandenburg. Between 1807 and 1813 there had been a short interruption and the city was given to the Electorate of Saxony then. The escutcheon displays the arms of the Lords of Cottbus. The castle is alluding to the status of a city. The pattern basically could be found on the oldest city seal from the 14th century, having a circumscription SIGILLUM CIVIUM DE GOTEBUZ. The pattern remained more or less the same, but changed in details. A city seal from around 1900 displays an additional cross patty on top of the escutcheon. Minor details also changed. Otto Hupp (1925) displayed the castle with blue roofs and a golden port. In times of the GDR the background colour was changed to golden.