History of the Seven Mountains area from the Neolithic until today
"Before I left the house I went for a moment to my study. From the window I had a free outlook on the Rhine and the lovely Seven Mountains. How often, gazing upon this charming picture, had I dreamed of a quiet and beautiful life! Now I could in the darkness distinguish only the outline of my beloved hills against the horizon. Here was my room quiet as ever. How often had I peopled it with my imaginings! Here were my books and manuscripts, all testifying of hopes, plans, and endeavors, which now perhaps had to be left behind forever. An instinctive feeling told me that all this was now over."
Carl Schurz, Reminiscences, Volume 1
It was the evening of May 10, 1849 in Bonn. The young Carl Schurz, a student at Bonn University, said good-bye to his family and his home, to join the revolutionary democratic forces in a desperate attempt to save the achievements of the revolution 1848/49. We know they failed, Schurz barely escaped alive and had to emigrate, first to England, and in 1852 to the United States where he became an important politician and almost a friend to President Abraham Lincoln.
Carl Schurz is a historical "cross roads", a person who "links" Rhineland history with the history of English speaking countries. Another one is King Richard I Lionheart of England, whose dear nephew Otto of Brunsvick was elected King Otto IV of the Holy Roman Empire, supported by the Counts of Sayn from the Löwenburg.
So the history of our region is also a bit German and European history. During the last about 2,000 years, people of numerous nationalities have come to the Rhine: Celts, Teutons, Romans, Frenchmen, Prussians, just to mention some of them. Therefore, the history of the Seven Mountains in the Rhineland is also a bit German and European history.
In the Roman Era, the Rhine was the border between the Roman Empire and the free Germania. In the Middle Ages, the front between regional powers, the Archbishopric of Cologne and The Duchies of Sayn and Berg, went right through the Seven Mountains. In the early modern times, the Prussian Kings again and again claimed the Duchy of Berg. Then, in the French Era, the Rhine again became the border, and the Duchy of Berg became a French model state with Napoleon at the top! In 1815 began then the long time the "Prussian Rhineland". As citizens of the State of Prussia, the Rhinelanders lived to see the establishment of the German Empire, the First World War and the Weimar Republic, when there were efforts to create a "Rhenish Republic". Finally, death and destruction in the Second World War, the new start with the Petersberg Agreement and the today's federal city of Bonn.