Emperor Frederick Barbarossa popularised use of the eagle as the Imperial emblem by using it in all his banners, coats of arms, coins, and insignia.
An early depiction of a double-headed Imperial Eagle in a heraldic shield, attributed to Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, is found in the Chronica Majora by Matthew Paris (circa 1250).
Segar's Roll (circa 1280) likewise depicts the double-headed Imperial Eagle as the coat of arms of the King of Germany.
In 1804, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II established the Austrian Empire from the lands of the Habsburg monarchy, and adopted the double-headed eagle, aggrandized by an inescutcheon emblem of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine and the Order of the Golden Fleece, as its coat of arms; the Holy Roman Empire was subsequently dissolved in 1806.
It was once again restored in 1871 when a single-headed eagle with a Prussian inescutcheon became the insignia of the German Empire; the single head was used to represent the so-called Kleindeutschland, i.e. it excluded Austria.