Duchy of Berg

Abbacy of Siegburg

Berg was founded in the 11th century as a county based in Altenberg (now part of Odenthal). In 1348, Berg entered into a personal union with the County of Jülich (which itself had entered into a personal union with the County of Ravensburg two years earlier). In 1380, the counties of Jülich and Berg (but not Ravensburg) were elevated to duchies and ruled together from Düsseldorf.

 

In 1521, the Jülich line died out and Jülich, Berg, and Ravensburg entered into a personal union with the Duchy of Cleves, which itself had entered into a personal union with the County of Mark in 1362, making the combined entity part of Markian Germany. I start the database at that point. (Some sources treat all of Markian Germany as a unified country under the name of the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg. I treat each duchy or county as a separate country within the Markian nation.)

 

In 1609, the Markian line died out and a succession dispute followed. In 1614, it was agreed that the Duchies of Jülich and Berg would enter into personal unions with the Principality of Palatinate-Neuburg and become part of Wittelsbachian Germany. (Cleves and Mark joined Hohenzollern Germany and later, the Kingdom of Prussia. The partition underwent a variety of adjustments—which I ignore—until 1666, when it was finally stabilized.) Because the principality was of lower rank than the duchy, I do not note the personal union in the full country name–I simply call it the Duchy of Berg. However, the Neuburg branch of the Wittelsbachs inherited the Palatinate Electorate in 1690 and Bavaria in 1777. Those entities outranked the duchy, so I note the personal unions in the full country names—e.g., the Duchy of Berg (in personal union with the Palatinate Electorate). Nevertheless, in all cases I treat each entity as a separate country, going all the way back to the 1348 combination of Jülich and Berg. In other words, within Wittelsbachian Germany I do not use hyphenated names to signal personal unions.

 

From the time I start the database in 1521, the Duchy of Berg underwent the following boundary adjustments:

 

• 1604—resolved a long-standing dispute between Amt Windeck of Berg and Herrschaft Homburg of the County of Sayn-Wittgenstein. Documentation of the boundary before that date does not permit me to assign villages to one country or the other, so for those two areas, I start the database then (actually the following year, when the Wittgenstein lands were partitioned).
• 1676—acquired sovereignty over Vogtei Siegburg, which it had previously administered on behalf of the Abbacy of the same name.
• 1710—acquired sovereignty over Güterbezirk Hugenpoet from the Abbacy of Werden.

 

The list of subdivisions below includes only those that were both under Berg sovereignty and administration. Subdivisions that were administered by entities not subject to the Berg dukes, were part of condominiums, or where sovereignty was disputed can be found here.