Amt Bornefeld

Amt Hückeswagen

Bornefeld was one of the original Ämter in the County of Berg, as documented in 1363. It originally consisted of the city of Lennep (the seat) and five parishes. Its territory corresponded roughly to the modern cities of Remscheid and Wermelskirchen and included parts of southwestern Wuppertal. In 1407, the parish that extended into Wuppertal (Lüttringhausen) was transferred to Amt Beyenburg, and at some point during the 15th century, the seat of the Amt moved to Wermelskirchen, after which I name the Gericht covering the five parishes outside of Lennep.

 

Hückeswagen was a separate parish (roughly corresponding to the modern city of the same name) that was not originally part of Amt Bornefeld, functioning as its own Amt. Some sources indicate that it was merged into Bornefeld in 1555; others place the merger in 1772. Sources also differ on which name came first after the merger. In fact, it was not unusual to refer to the pre-merger names even after 1772. Rather than pretend to settle those debates, I simply ignore the merger when constructing simplified place names.