Berg was a state—originally a county, later a duchy —in the Rhineland of Germany . Its capital was Düsseldorf . It existed as a distinct political entity from the early 12th to the 19th centuries. It was a member state of the Holy Roman Empire .
68-452: The name of the county lives on in the modern geographic term Bergisches Land , often misunderstood as bergiges Land (hilly country). The Counts of Berg emerged in 1101 as a junior line of the dynasty of the Ezzonen , which traced its roots back to the 9th-century Kingdom of Lotharingia , and in the 11th century became the most powerful dynasty in the region of the lower Rhine. In 1160,
136-707: A district of Solingen) and then from 1386 to 1822 Düsseldorf , which the dukes became a representative residence - and expanded the capital of the Duchy. The Bergisch lion [ de ] in Düsseldorf's coat of arms still points to the historical affiliation of Düsseldorf to the Bergisches Land. The northern parts of the Bergisches Land included the cities of Mülheim an der Ruhr , parts of Duisburg , Essen and Oberhausen ( Alstaden [ de ; nl ] and Dümpten [ de ; pl ] ), and
204-797: A red lion with a double tail and blue crown, tongue, and claws – blazoned as: Argent a lion rampant gules, queue fourchée crossed in saltire, armed, langued, and crowned azure. This lion originates from the arms of the Duke of Limburg as the Berg title in the 13th century fell to the Limburg line. Circles est. 1500: Bavarian , Swabian , Upper Rhenish , Lower Rhenish–Westphalian , Franconian , (Lower) Saxon 51°12′26″N 6°48′45″E / 51.20722°N 6.81250°E / 51.20722; 6.81250 Bergisches Land The Bergisches Land ( German: [ˈbɛʁɡɪʃəs ˈlant] , Berg Country )
272-512: Is a low mountain range in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany , east of the Rhine and south of the Ruhr . The landscape is shaped by forests, meadows, rivers and creeks and contains over twenty artificial lakes. Wuppertal is the biggest town, while the southern part has economic and socio-cultural ties to Cologne . Wuppertal and the neighbouring cities of Remscheid and Solingen form
340-701: Is marked by the rule of Elector Palatine Frederick V , whose coronation as king of Bohemia in 1619 sparked the Thirty Years' War . After the 1648 Peace of Westphalia , the ravaged lands were further afflicted by the Reunion campaigns launched by King Louis XIV of France, culminating in the Nine Years' War (1688–97). Ruled in personal union with the Electorate of Bavaria from 1777, the Palatinate
408-578: Is one of the largest forest areas and largely uninhabited. Another large forest area is the Heckenberg Forrest [ de ] between Engelskirchen , Drabenderhöhe [ de ; ro ] and Overath - Federath [ de ] . Today, the Bergisches Land corresponds to the "Bergisches Land low mountain range region". In the formerly Bergisch Rhine and Ruhr cities (Düsseldorf, southern districts of Oberhausen, Duisburg-South [ de ; it ] and Mülheim an der Ruhr),
476-526: Is very little structured. Here, with a few heath relics, such as the Wahn Heath [ de ] , Hilden Heath [ de ; ru ] and Ohligs Heath [ de ] , the spacious forest area Königsforst [ ceb ; de ] and individual quarry lakes , such as Lake Unterbach or the Elbsee [ de ; zh ] , valuable nature reserves and recreation areas for
544-626: The County of Ravensberg , which under the Salic laws of the Holy Roman Empire caused the properties to pass to the husband of the female heir (women could not hold property except through a husband or a guardian). With the death of her father in 1511 the Dukes of Jülich-Berg became extinct, and the estate thus came under the rule of John III, Duke of Cleves — along with his personal territories,
612-740: The County of the Mark and the Duchy of Cleves ( Kleve ) in a personal union. As a result of this union the dukes of the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg controlled much of present-day North Rhine-Westphalia , with the exception of the clerical states of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the Bishop of Münster . William the Rich was the second duke of the united Julich-Cleves-Berg. He introduced
680-633: The Ezzonid dynasty governed several counties on both banks of the river. The southernmost point was near Alzey . From about 1085/86, after the death of the last Ezzonian count palatine Herman II , Palatinate authority ceased to have any military significance in Lotharingia. In practice, the Count Palatinate's Palatine authority had collapsed, reducing his successor ( Henry of Laach ) to a mere feudal magnate over his own territories – along
748-656: The French revolutionary wars separated the two duchies of Jülich and Berg, and in 1803 Berg separated from the other Bavarian territories and came under the rule of a junior branch of the Wittelsbachs . In 1806, in the reorganization of the German lands occasioned by the end of the Holy Roman Empire , Berg became the Grand Duchy of Berg , under the rule of Napoleon's brother-in-law, Joachim Murat . Murat's arms combined
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#1732780480664816-656: The Gregorian Calendar into the duchies. However, the new ducal dynasty also became extinct in 1609, when the last duke died insane. This led to a lengthy dispute over succession to the various territories before the partition of 1614 : the Count Palatine of Neuburg , who had converted to Catholicism, annexed Jülich and Berg; while Cleves and Mark fell to John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg , who subsequently also became Duke of Prussia . Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg , became duke. He
884-706: The House of Salm (Count Otto I of Salm in 1040) and the House of Babenberg ( Henry Jasomirgott in 1140/41). The first hereditary Count Palatine of the Rhine was Conrad , a member of the House of Hohenstaufen and younger half-brother of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa . The territories attached to this hereditary office in 1156 started from those held by the Hohenstaufens in the Donnersberg , Nahegau , Haardt , Bergstraße and Kraichgau regions (other branches of
952-696: The University of Heidelberg , the oldest University in Germany . In 1400, the Elector Palatine, Rupert III , was elected as King of the Romans , but he was never crowned as Holy Roman Emperor because he was defeated in Italy while attempting to travel to Rome for a coronation. Due to the practice of dividing territories among different branches of the family, by the early 16th century junior lines of
1020-631: The orb represented their position as Arch- Steward of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1806, Baden was raised to a grand duchy and parts of the former Palatinate including Mannheim became part of it. At the Congress of Vienna in 1814 and 1815, southern parts of the left-bank Palatinate were restored and enlarged by mediatisation (consuming the former Prince-Bishopric of Speyer , the Free Imperial City of Speyer , and others) up to
1088-660: The Bergisches Städtedreieck ( Berg City Triangle ). The Bergisches Land emerged from the historic Duchy of Berg . The region also owes its name to the former sovereigns, the Counts (and later Dukes) of the House of Berg [ bg ; de ; ru ; uk ] . The adjectival Latin term terre Montensis, i.e. of the Bergisches Land, was first recorded in writing in a Bergisch office constitution in 1363 [ de ] , although terra de Monte or Land von Berg appeared in earlier documents. Important places in
1156-649: The Electoral Palatinate was merged into the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1805, the House of Wittelsbach provided the Counts Palatine or Electors. These counts palatine of the Rhine would serve as prince-electors ( Kurfürsten ) from "time immemorial", and were noted as such in a papal letter of 1261; they were confirmed as electors by the Golden Bull of 1356 . The territory stretched from
1224-528: The Grand Duke of Berg; French bureaucrats administered the territory in the name of the child. The Grand Duchy's short existence came to an end with Napoleon's defeat in 1813 and the peace settlements that followed. In 1815, after the Congress of Vienna , Berg became part of a province of the Kingdom of Prussia : the Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg . In 1822 this province united with the Grand Duchy of
1292-479: The Hohenstaufens received lands in the Duchy of Swabia , Franche-Comté , and so forth). Much of this was from their imperial ancestors, the Salian emperors, and apart from Conrad's maternal ancestry, the Counts of Saarbrücken . These backgrounds explain the composition of Upper and Rhenish Palatinate in the inheritance centuries onwards. About 1182, Conrad moved his residence from Stahleck Castle near Bacharach up
1360-561: The Lower Rhine to form the Rhine Province . – in union with Ravensberg – – in union with Ravensberg (except 1404–1437) and after 1423 in union with the duchy of Jülich – – from 1521 a part of the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg – – in union with Jülich und Palatinate-Neuburg , from 1690 also with the Electorate of the Palatinate , from 1777 also with Bavaria – The historic coat of arms of Berg shows
1428-504: The Mettmann district belongs to the Bergisches Land cultural region. The capital of the Bergisches Land is usually no longer seen as the historic capital Düsseldorf , but rather as the city Wuppertal , which was created in 1929 and forms the economic, cultural and industrial center of the eastern Bergisches Land. However, the south of the region has now developed a stronger connection to Cologne . Even in those districts of Cologne on
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#17327804806641496-530: The Neuburg line inherited the Electorate and generally made Düsseldorf its capital. Elector Charles III Philipp disliked Düsseldorf, because the estates there did not want to grant the funds he demanded. As such, he moved his capital from Düsseldorf to Mannheim , where it remained until the Elector Palatine, Charles Theodore , inherited the Electorate of Bavaria in 1777. The French occupation (1794–1801) and annexation (1801) of Jülich (French: Juliers) during
1564-638: The Palatinate The Electoral Palatinate ( German : Kurpfalz ) or the Palatinate ( Pfalz ), officially the Electorate of the Palatinate ( Kurfürstentum Pfalz ), was a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire . The electorate had its origins under the rulership of the Counts Palatine of Lotharingia in 915; it was then restructured under the Counts Palatine of the Rhine in 1085. From 1214 until
1632-669: The Palatinate married Philippe of Orléans , younger brother of Louis XIV ; on this basis, Louis claimed the Rhineland territories of the Palatinate for France. However, he was outmaneuvered by Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor , whose third wife was Eleonore-Magdalena of Pfalz-Neuburg , eldest daughter of Philip William , a Catholic who was the closest male heir in the direct line. Leopold installed his father-in-law as Elector Palatine, ensuring that his electoral vote and this strategic region remained in Imperial control. When France invaded
1700-469: The Palatinate in September 1688 to enforce its claim, these wider connections meant the conflict rapidly escalated, leading to the outbreak of the Nine Years' War . The French were forced to withdraw in 1689 but before doing so, destroyed much of Heidelberg, another 20 substantial towns and numerous villages. This destruction was systematically applied across a large section of the Rhineland but especially
1768-674: The Palatinate restored to her son Charles Louis and the Protestant cause. When the Peace of Westphalia ended the war in 1648, he regained the Lower Palatinate and the title 'Elector Palatine' but now ranked lower in precedence than the others. He was succeeded by Charles II, Elector Palatine , in 1680, but the Simmern branch became extinct in the male line after he died in 1685. In 1670, Charles II's sister Elizabeth Charlotte of
1836-654: The Palatinate territories until 1918. During a later division of territory among the heirs of Duke Louis II, Duke of Upper Bavaria , in 1294, the elder branch of the Wittelsbachs came into possession of both the Rhenish Palatinate and the territories in the Bavarian Nordgau (Bavaria north of the Danube river) with the centre around the town of Amberg . As this region was politically connected to
1904-402: The Palatinate, which was raided again in 1693; the devastation shocked much of Europe. France later renounced its claim to the region in the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick . Johann Wilhelm succeeded as elector in 1690, changing his residence first to Düsseldorf , then back to Heidelberg and finally Mannheim in 1720. Like his father, he was a Catholic, which under the 1555 Peace of Augsburg meant
1972-535: The Palatinate. By marriage, the Palatinate's arms also became quartered with those of Welf and later Wittelsbach. The arms of Bavaria were used with reference to the elector's holdings in Bavaria. This was extended to quartering of the lion and the Bavarian Arms upon the ascension of Maximilian I to the position of elector of the Palatinate in 1623, used concurrently with the arms shown. From 1356 onwards,
2040-722: The Palatine Wittelsbachs came to rule in Simmern , Kaiserslautern , and Zweibrücken in the Lower Palatinate, and in Neuburg and Sulzbach in the Upper Palatinate. The Elector Palatine, now based in Heidelberg, adopted Lutheranism in the 1530s; when the senior branch of the family died out in 1559, the electorate passed to Frederick III of Simmern, a staunch Calvinist , and the Palatinate became one of
2108-730: The Protestant majority in the Palatinate was theoretically obliged to convert to Catholicism. The 1705 'Palatine Church Division' compromised by allocating five-sevenths of public church property to the Reformed or Calvinist church and the remainder to Catholicism, while excluding the Lutheran Church, whose membership exceeded 40% of the population in some areas. In 1716, Charles Philip succeeded his brother as elector and in January 1742, helped his cousin Charles Albert become
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2176-536: The Rhenish Palatinate, the name Upper Palatinate ( German : Oberpfalz ) became common from the early 16th century in contrast to the Lower Palatinate along the Rhine. With the Treaty of Pavia in 1329, the Wittelsbach Emperor Louis IV , a son of Louis II, returned the Palatinate to his nephews Rudolf and Rupert I . In the Golden Bull of 1356 , the Palatinate was recognized as one of
2244-708: The Rhine ) in a pre-arranged exchange for Tyrol , which Bavaria returned to Austria. Most of the area remained a part of Bavaria until after the Second World War (after 1918 the Free State of Bavaria ), with some western parts becoming part of the Territory of the Saar Basin after World War I. In September 1946 the territory was made part of the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate , along with former left bank territories of Prussia (southern part of
2312-725: The Rhine river to Heidelberg . Upon Conrad's death in 1195, the Palatinate passed to the House of Welf through the (secret) marriage of his daughter Agnes with Henry of Brunswick . When Henry's son Henry the Younger died without heirs in 1214, the Hohenstaufen king Frederick II enfeoffed the Wittelsbach Duke Louis I of Bavaria , whose son, Otto II of Bavaria , married Agnes of the Palatinate , daughter of Henry of Brunswick and Agnes of Hohenstaufen , in 1222. The Bavarian House of Wittelsbach eventually held
2380-552: The Rhine'. The Palatine territories on the left bank of the Rhine were annexed by France in 1795, mainly becoming part of the Mont-Tonnerre department. In 1799 Elector Charles Theodore died and the territory was inherited by the Duke of Palatine Zweibrücken , uniting all the Wittelsbach lands. The loss of the left bank territories was accepted by the new Elector Maximilian Joseph in the Treaty of Paris . Those on
2448-658: The Upper Rhine in south-western Franconia. From this time on, his territory became known as the County Palatine of the Rhine (not because Palatine authority existed there, but as an acknowledgement that the Count still held the title, if not the authority, of Count Palatine). Various noble dynasties competed to be enfeoffed with the Palatinate by the Holy Roman Emperor – among them the House of Ascania ,
2516-422: The areas on the western border also included the area on the right bank of the Rhine, Cologne near Mülheim . Smaller areas on the left bank of the Rhine belonging to the duchy were also Wesseling , Rodenkirchen , Orr [ de ; ksh ; nl ] and Langel [ de ] The former lordships of Gimborn [ de ] and Homburg [ de ] in today's Oberberg district , on
2584-425: The areas that transition into the Sauerland, the Bergisches Land is referred to as peneplain due to the advanced erosion of the mountains. Westwards from the low mountain range, across various Bergische Heideterrasses [ de ] , a plain without significant elevations, which is highly sprawled by the urban agglomerations of Cologne and Düsseldorf and - compared to the low mountain range landscape -
2652-412: The duchies. The Elector of Brandenburg , Frederick Wilhelm , still claimed the Duchy of Berg, and declared war, claiming to be the defender of protestants in Berg. This led to the Düsseldorf Cow War . In the following years however, tension over Berg between Neuburg and Brandenburg greatly decreased. Upon the extinction of the senior Wittelsbach dynasty ruling the Electorate of the Palatinate in 1685,
2720-440: The duchy were Gerresheim , Elberfeld , Solingen , Lennep , Radevormwald , Wipperfürth , Bensberg , Siegburg and Blankenberg [ de ; nl ] , most of which received city rights from the 13th century. The seat of the counts and dukes was initially Berge Castle [ de ] in Altenberg near Odenthal , after the construction of Burg Castle the town of Burg an der Wupper [ de ] (today
2788-399: The eastern watersheds of Wupper and Agger , while the (western) Sauerland is mainly drained by the Ruhr and its tributaries. The largest part of the Bergisches Land is characterized by a varied low mountain range landscape with forests, meadows and hills as well as narrow notch valley [ de ; fr ; ja ; nl ; pt ] s also called Siepen with small streams. Except for
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2856-404: The first non-Habsburg emperor in over 300 years. He died in December and the Palatinate passed to Charles Theodore , then Duke of Sulzbach , who also inherited the Electorate of Bavaria in 1777. The title and authority of the two electorates were combined, Charles and his heirs retaining only the vote and precedence of the Bavarian elector, although continuing to use the title 'Count Palatine of
2924-401: The inhabitants of the surrounding cities. The Nature Park Bergisches Land [ de ] also defines the area as a recreational area. Although the proportion of forest is quite large, there are only a few larger contiguous forest areas. Forested mountain ranges in long waves and meadow valleys characterize the landscape. To the east, the proportion of forest landscape increases due to
2992-412: The left bank of the Upper Rhine , from the Hunsrück mountain range in what is today the Palatinate region in the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the adjacent parts of the French regions of Alsace and Lorraine (bailiwick of Seltz from 1418 to 1766) to the opposite territory on the east bank of the Rhine in present-day Hesse and Baden-Württemberg up to the Odenwald range and
3060-507: The major centers of Calvinism in Europe, supporting Calvinist rebellions in both the Netherlands and France . Elector Frederick IV became the leader of the Protestant Union in 1608. In 1619, the Protestant Frederick V , Elector Palatine, accepted the throne of Bohemia from the Bohemian Diet . This initiated the 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War , one of the most destructive conflicts in human history; it caused over eight million fatalities from military action, violence, famine, and plague in
3128-493: The most important of the Counts Palatine. Marital alliances meant that, by the Middle Ages, most Count Palatine positions had been inherited by the duke of the associated province, but the importance of the Count Palatine of Lotharingia enabled it to remain as an independent position. In 985, Herman I , a scion of the Ezzonids , is mentioned as count palatine of Lotharingia (which by then had been divided into Upper and Lower Lotharingia ). While his Palatine authority operated over
3196-440: The new border with France, and given (temporarily) to the Habsburg Austrian Empire ; after this time, it was this new region that was principally known as "the Palatinate". The right-bank Palatinate remained with Baden while northern parts became part of Prussia ( Rhine Province ) and Hesse ( Rhenish Hesse ). In 1816, the Palatinate became a formal part of the Wittelsbach Kingdom of Bavaria (the Rheinkreis or Circle of
3264-425: The north-eastern part of the Rhenish Massif on the right bank of the Rhine. Natural orographic borders form the Ruhr in the north, the Rhine in the west and the Sieg in the south. To the east it merges into the Sauerland without a recognizable scenic border. Political and cultural differences alone determine the course of the border between the two historical landscapes, which, however, roughly corresponds to
3332-445: The other hand, were only added to the Grand Duchy of Berg during Napoleon 's time. This originally non-Bergisch area includes Marienheide , Wiehl , Nümbrecht , the town of Bergneustadt and today's district seat of the Oberbergischer district: Gummersbach . The natural region Bergisches Land lies almost entirely in the main unit group Süder Uplands , which also includes almost the entire Sauerland . The Süder Uplands represent
3400-440: The period 1621–1622, the Palatinate was occupied by Spanish and Bavarian troops and Frederick was exiled to the Dutch Republic . His territories and electoral rights were transferred to the distantly related but Catholic Maximilian I of Bavaria , Duke of Bavaria and now Prince Elector Palatine After his death in 1632, Frederick's daughter Princess Elizabeth and wife Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia , worked tirelessly to have
3468-428: The population today, a sense of belonging to the region Bergisches Land is notable in the hilly northern part, but not so much anymore in the areas near the Cologne Lowland , the Ruhr area or the city of Düsseldorf . The region became famous during the period of its early industrialisation in the 19th century. At that time Wupper Valley was a historical Silicon Valley . Its twin cities Barmen and Elberfeld were
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#17327804806643536-415: The population's historical affiliation with the Bergisch region is hardly still present. In these places, people mostly see themselves as Rhinelanders or belonging to the Ruhr area . Above the Rhine plain, however, people take their affiliation to the Bergisches Land for granted. In the news of WDR , only the eastern areas are referred to as "Bergisches Land", whereas the western ones are counted as part of
3604-426: The prevailing regional awareness is part of the Bergisches Land region. The long-established population in particular has a very strong sense of belonging to the Bergisches Land. Bergisches Land used to be territory of the County of Berg, which later became the Duchy of Berg , who gave the region its name. The Duchy was dissolved in 1815 and in 1822 the region became part of the Prussian Rhine Province . Amongst
3672-523: The red lion of Berg with the arms of the duchy of Cleves . The anchor and the batons came to the party due to Murat's positions as Grand Admiral and as Marshal of the Empire . As the husband of Napoleon's sister Caroline Bonaparte , Murat also had the right to use the imperial eagle. In 1809, one year after Murat's promotion from Grand Duke of Berg to King of Naples , Napoleon's young nephew, Prince Napoleon Louis Bonaparte (1804–1831, elder son of Napoleon's brother Louis Bonaparte , King of Holland) became
3740-496: The right bank of the Rhine that are historically and geographically part of the Bergisches Land, it can be seen that there is hardly any sense of belonging to the Bergisches Land, and that the inhabitants of these districts almost exclusively see themselves as Rhinelanders. An exception is the Rath/Heumar district of Cologne, which arose in the course of the Regional Reform in North Rhine-Westphalia [ de ] and borders on Bergisch Gladbach and Rösrath , which according to
3808-410: The right were taken by the Elector of Baden , after the 1805 Peace of Pressburg dissolved the Holy Roman Empire; the remaining Wittelsbach territories were united by Maximilian Joseph as the Kingdom of Bavaria . In 1156 Conrad of Hohenstaufen , brother of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, became Count Palatine. The old coat of arms of the House of Hohenstaufen , the single lion, became coat of arms of
3876-439: The secular electorates, and given the hereditary offices of archsteward ( German : Erztruchseß , Latin : Archidapifer ) of the Empire and imperial vicar ( Reichsverweser ) of Franconia, Swabia, the Rhine, and southern Germany. From that time forth, the Count Palatine of the Rhine was usually known as the Elector Palatine ( German : Kurfürst von der Pfalz , Latin : Palatinus elector ). In 1386, Rupert I helped establish
3944-431: The semi-independent authority of the dukes (and their successors). Under the Merovingian dynasty , the position had been a purely appointed one, but by the Middle Ages had evolved into an hereditary one. Up to the tenth century, the Frankish empire was centered at the royal palace ( Pfalz ) in Aachen , in what had become the Carolingian kingdom of Lotharingia . Consequently, the Count Palatine of Lotharingia became
4012-417: The southern Kraichgau region, containing the capital cities of Heidelberg and Mannheim . The counts palatine of the Rhine held the office of imperial vicars in the territories under Frankish law (in Franconia , Swabia and the Rhineland ) and ranked among the most significant secular Princes of the Holy Roman Empire . In 1541 elector Otto Henry converted to Lutheranism . Their climax and decline
4080-426: The territory split into two portions, one of them later becoming the County of the Mark , which returned to the possession of the family line in the 16th century. The most powerful of the early rulers of Berg, Engelbert II of Berg died in an assassination on November 7, 1225. In 1280 the counts moved their court from Schloss Burg on the Wupper river to the town of Düsseldorf . Count Adolf VIII of Berg fought on
4148-666: The trading- and industrial capitals of Prussia at that time. This economic upswing caused the expansion of the Ruhr as coal-mining area and gave birth to research on, and the theoretical underlining of social entrepreneurship and socialism: Friedrich Engels was born in Barmen to a textile mill owner. After the industrial downturn from the 1960s on, the region lost importance but cooperations by Bergisches Land entrepreneurs, active citizens and politicians are bringing back some regional awareness and economic power. 51°03′00″N 7°18′25″E / 51.05000°N 7.30694°E / 51.05000; 7.30694 Electorate of
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#17327804806644216-399: The unclearly circumscribed " Rhineland ". The Mettmann district is also included in the cultural region Bergisches Land. The Bergisches Land cultural region includes the cities of Wuppertal , Remscheid, Solingen and the districts of Mettmann, Oberberg and Rhein-Berg. In addition to the cities of Wuppertal, Remscheid and Solingen, as well as the Rheinisch-Bergisch and Oberbergisch districts,
4284-408: The unfavorable weather conditions for agriculture associated with the altitude. Naturally, mainly beech forests and beech-oak forests would grow on the hillsides. However, since the considerable deforestation in the early modern period, large areas have been reforested with spruce, which was not native to the region. The Nutscheid [ arz ; de ] on the southern edge of the Bergisches Land
4352-406: The vast majority in the German states of the Holy Roman Empire. In terms of proportional German casualties and destruction, it was surpassed only by the period January to May 1945 and remains the single greatest war trauma in German memory. Frederick was evicted from Bohemia in 1620 following his defeat by the forces of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor , at the Battle of the White Mountain . Over
4420-409: The whole of Upper Lorraine , the feudal territories of his family were instead scattered around south-western Franconia, including parts of the Rhineland around Cologne and Bonn , and areas around the rivers Moselle and Nahe . In continual conflicts with the rivalling Archbishops of Cologne , he changed the emphasis of his rule to the southern Eifel region and further to the Upper Rhine, where
4488-522: The winning side in the Battle of Worringen against Guelders in 1288. The power of Berg grew further in the 14th century. The County of Jülich united with the County of Berg in 1348, and in 1380 the Emperor Wenceslaus elevated the counts of Berg to the rank of dukes, thus originating the Duchy of Jülich-Berg. In 1509, John III, Duke of Cleves , made a strategic marriage to Maria von Geldern , daughter of William IV, Duke of Jülich-Berg , who became heiress to her father's estates: Jülich , Berg and
4556-406: Was a member of the powerful House of Wittelsbach , which ruled Bavaria and the Electoral Palatinate . During his reign, Düsseldorf served as his center of court on occasion. During the 30 Years' War, even though there were no significant battles around Berg, the territories still had to deal with the stresses of war. At the end of the 30 Years' War, Wolfgang Wilhelm tried to spread Catholicism in
4624-412: Was finally disestablished with the German mediatization and annexation by Baden on 27 April 1803 and the rest eventually to the Kingdom of Bavaria as the Circle of the Rhine . The comital office of Count Palatine at the Frankish court of King Childebert I was already mentioned about 535. The Counts Palatine were the permanent representatives of the king in particular geographic areas, in contrast to
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