“The coat of arms of the Counts of Hoya shows in gold two upright, outward turned, black bear paws with long claws.” – Translated from the german wiki page
“Das Wappen der Samtgemeinde Grafschaft Hoya zeigt auf goldenem Grund zwei, unten verbundene, rot bewehrte, aufrecht stehende Bärentatzen sowie einen blauen Wellenbalken. Die Bärentatzen erinnern an die historische Grafschaft Hoya, der Wellenbalken an die Weser.”
“The coat of arms of the Samtgemeinde Grafschaft Hoya shows on a golden background two, below connected, red armored, upright standing bear paws as well as a blue wave bar. The bear paws remind of the historical county of Hoya, the wave bar of the Weser.”
A piece of advise: the wikipedia pages of most places are more detailed in the native language version of the area, than in other languages. Switching the language to german (and then using your browsers translate function, or deepl), gives you your answer: bear claws
They are the paws of a bear, used as the coat of arms of the House of Hoya, the counts who ruled the County of Hoya.
They acquired the arms after the extinction of the House of Stumpenhusen, the family that originally used this symbol. It’s an example of what in heraldry is known as a “cant”, a kind of visual pun: they represent the “stumps” in “Stumpenhusen”.
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Looks like the arms of a bear.
“The coat of arms of the Counts of Hoya shows in gold two upright, outward turned, black bear paws with long claws.” – Translated from the german wiki page
“Das Wappen der Samtgemeinde Grafschaft Hoya zeigt auf goldenem Grund zwei, unten verbundene, rot bewehrte, aufrecht stehende Bärentatzen sowie einen blauen Wellenbalken. Die Bärentatzen erinnern an die historische Grafschaft Hoya, der Wellenbalken an die Weser.”
“The coat of arms of the Samtgemeinde Grafschaft Hoya shows on a golden background two, below connected, red armored, upright standing bear paws as well as a blue wave bar. The bear paws remind of the historical county of Hoya, the wave bar of the Weser.”
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samtgemeinde_Grafschaft_Hoya#Wappen
A piece of advise: the wikipedia pages of most places are more detailed in the native language version of the area, than in other languages. Switching the language to german (and then using your browsers translate function, or deepl), gives you your answer: bear claws
They are the paws of a bear, used as the coat of arms of the House of Hoya, the counts who ruled the County of Hoya.
They acquired the arms after the extinction of the House of Stumpenhusen, the family that originally used this symbol. It’s an example of what in heraldry is known as a “cant”, a kind of visual pun: they represent the “stumps” in “Stumpenhusen”.
r/heraldry