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The old Lotharingian divisions became obsolete, although the name survives for example in Lorraine in France, and throughout the Middle Ages and even into modern times, the nobility of these areas often sought to preserve the idea of a preeminent duke within Lotharingia, something claimed by the Dukes of Limburg, and the Dukes of Brabant.

Map of the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle in 1799 by John CaryĪs the central power of the Holy Roman Emperor weakened, the Rhineland split into numerous small, independent, separate vicissitudes and special chronicles. The Ottonian dynasty had both Saxon and Frankish ancestry. 973), both banks of the Rhine had become part of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Rhenish territory was divided between the duchies of Upper Lorraine on the Moselle and Lower Lorraine on the Meuse. On the division of the Carolingian Empire at the Treaty of Verdun, the part of the province to the east of the river fell to East Francia, while that to the west remained with the kingdom of Lotharingia. The Merovingian and Carolingian Franks eventually built an empire which controlled first their Ripuarian kin, and then the Saxons.

By the eighth century, the Frankish dominion was firmly established in western Germany and northern Gaul, but at the same time, to the north, Westphalia was being taken over by Saxons pushing south. North of the Sigambri and the Rhine region were the Bructeri.Īs the power of the Roman empire declined, many of these tribes came to be seen collectively as Ripuarian Franks and they pushed forward along both banks of the Rhine, and by the end of the fifth century had conquered all the lands that had formerly been under Roman influence. Julius Caesar conquered the tribes on the left bank, and Augustus established numerous fortified posts on the Rhine, but the Romans never succeeded in gaining a firm footing on the right bank, where the Sugambri neighboured several other tribes including the Tencteri and Usipetes. The Ubii and some other Germanic tribes such as the Cugerni were later settled on the west side of the Rhine in the Roman province of Germania Inferior. The first written account of the area was by its conqueror, Julius Caesar, the territories west of the Rhine were occupied by the Eburones and east of the Rhine he reported the Ubii (across from Cologne) and the Sugambri to their north. As of 2019, the state has the largest economy among German states by GDP but is below the national average in GDP per capita. The city of Bonn served as the federal capital until the reunification of Germany in 1990 and as the seat of government until 1999.Ĭulturally, North Rhine-Westphalia is not a uniform area there are significant differences, especially in traditional customs, between the Rhineland region on the one hand and the regions of Westphalia and Lippe on the other.

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North Rhine-Westphalia was established in 1946 after World War II from the Prussian provinces of Westphalia and the northern part of Rhine Province ( North Rhine), and the Free State of Lippe by the British military administration in Allied-occupied Germany and became a state of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949.

The location of the Rhine-Ruhr at the heart of the European Blue Banana makes it well connected to other major European cities and metropolitan areas like the Randstad, the Flemish Diamond and the Frankfurt Rhine-Main Region. North Rhine-Westphalia features 30 of the 81 German municipalities with over 100,000 inhabitants, including Cologne (over 1 million), the state capital Düsseldorf, Dortmund and Essen (all about 600,000 inhabitants) and other cities predominantly located in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area, the largest urban area in Germany and the fourth-largest on the European continent. Covering an area of 34,084 square kilometres (13,160 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest German state by size. Apart from the city-states, it is also the most densely populated state in Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the most populous state of Germany.

North Rhine-Westphalia ( German: Nordrhein-Westfalen, pronounced ( listen) Limburgish: Noordrien-Wesfale Low German: Noordrhien-Westfalen Kölsch: Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW ( German: ( listen)), is a state ( Land) in Western Germany.

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