Duchy of Berg
County (Duchy) of Berg | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1101–1815 | |||||||||
|
Left: Arms of Bergins (from around 1225), who ruled the Duchy of Berg last Right: Coat of arms of the Duke of Berg | |||||||||
Map of the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle around 1560, Duchy of Berg highlighted in red | |||||||||
| Status | Duchy | ||||||||
| Capital |
| ||||||||
| Common languages | German | ||||||||
| Government | Absolute monarchy | ||||||||
| Duke of Berg | |||||||||
• 1360–1380 | Wilhelm II (first duke) | ||||||||
• 1809-1813 | Napoléon Louis Bonaparte (Grand Duke) | ||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||
• Emergence from Lotharingia | 1101 | ||||||||
• Split with County of Mark | 1160 | ||||||||
• United with County of Jülich | 1348 | ||||||||
| 1521 | |||||||||
| 1609 and 1690 | |||||||||
• Awarded to Prussia | 9 June 1815 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Berg (German pronunciation: [bɛʁk] ⓘ) 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.
The name of the county lives on in the modern geographic term Bergisches Land, often misunderstood as bergiges Land (hilly country).