The wildlands of Westphalia are a rugged mountainous region sitting between the rolling fields of Hessen and the industrial Rhine Valley. The region was once home to the rump Duchy of Westphalia, a remote area under the control of the Cologne Prince-Bishops, who governed from the town of Arnsberg. Aside from Hagen, Siegen, and Soest, it’s almost uninhabited, known best for dense forests and forgotten mines.
The Sauerland is a rugged beauty. Despite a rich bounty of natural resources, the region largely escaped industrialization, and access to Sauerland is limited to only a few major railroads and highways. For us today, it is a remarkably remote destination for travel. Full of dense forests, hidden villages, and crumbling castles, there are few other places in Germany where one can so easily disappear. Among the highlights in the region are a plethora of museum mines, carefully maintained by their local communities and thus accessible to interested tourists.
The Sauerland has many different forms. My current manifestation is represented by the ancient political boundaries of the Westphalian Duchy and the Counties of Siegen and Wittgenstein, which were split from the Westerwald by Prussia. A more geographical definition would encompass only the Rothhaar Mountains, which define about 80% of the political region. The city of Soest, for example, fought for its independence from Cologne in the Middle Ages and is often not considered part of the Sauerland. Likewise, the citizens of Siegen prefer to call their area Siegerland rather than associate with Westphalia.
However, Soest and Siegen form a core part of the region’s historical development. Soest sits astride the ancient trade route between the Elbe and Rhine, the Hellweg. As such, it was the gateway to the Sauerland, which otherwise was poorly connected with the outside world. Siegen sits on the Sieg river, part of the Rhine Basin, unlike the rest of the Westerwald to the south. This brought Siegen in closer contact with Sauerland than its Southern counterparts. Siegen was traded away by the Nassau dynasty in the wake of Napoleon’s defeat and annexed directly to Prussia and the rest of Westphalia. The differences in development between the different regimes are evident even today.
