the town had two, sometimes three mayors, and in 1552, the council had 13 members. Later, the head of the administration was reorganized several times. In the Württemberg era, the mayor's title was initially called Bürgermeister, then from 1819 it was Schultheiß, and since 1947 it is Oberbürgermeister. The mayor is elected for a term of eight years, and he is chairman and a voting member of the council. He has one deputy with the official title of Erster Bürgermeister ("first mayor") and one with the official title of Bürgermeister ("mayor"). Heads of town in Aalen since 1802 1802–: Theodor Betzler 1812–1819: Ludwig Hölder 1819–1829: Theodor Betzler 1829: Palm 1829–1848: Philipp Ehmann 1848–1873: Gustav Oesterlein 1873–1900: Julius Bausch 1900–1902: Paul Maier 1903–1934: Friedrich Schwarz 1935–1945: Karl Schübel (NSDAP) 1945–1950: Otto Balluff 1950–1975: Karl Schübel (independent) 1976–2005: Ulrich Pfeifle (SPD) 2005–2013: Martin Gerlach (independent) 2013–2021: Thilo Rentschler (SPD) 2021–: Frederick Brütting (SPD) Coat of arms and flag Aalen's coat of arms depicts a black eagle with a red tongue on golden background, having a red shield on its breast with a bent silver eel on it. Eagle and eel were first acknowledged as Aalen's heraldic animals in the seal of 1385, with the eagle representing the town's imperial immediacy. After the territorial reform, it was bestowed again by the Administrative District of Stuttgart on 16 November 1976. The coat of arms' blazon reads: “In gold, the black imperial eagle, with a red breast shield applied to it, therein a bent silver eel” (In Gold der schwarze Reichsadler, belegt mit einem roten Brustschild, darin ein gekrümmter silberner Aal). Aalen's flag is striped in red and white and contains the coat of arms. The origin of the town's name is uncertain. Matthäus Merian (1593–1650) presumed the name to originate from its location at the Kocher river, where "frequently eels are caught", while Aal is German for "eel". Other explanations point to Aalen as the garrison of an ala during the Roman empire, respectively to an abridgement of the Roman name "Aquileia" as a potential name of the Roman fort, a name that nearby Heidenheim an der Brenz bore as well. Another interpretation points to a Celtic word aa meaning "water". Godparenthood On the occasion of the 1980 Reichsstädter Tage, Aalen took over godparenthood for the more than 3000 ethnic Germans displaced from the Wischau linguistic enclave. 972 of them settled in Aalen in