Roer (department)

Roer [ʁo.ɛʁ] was a department of the French First Republic and later First French Empire in present-day Germany and the Netherlands. It was named after the river Roer (Rur), which flows through the department. It was formed in 1798, when the Southern Netherlands and the left bank of the Rhine were occupied by the French. The department was formed from the duchies of Jülich and Cleves, the part of the Archbishopric of Cologne left of the Rhine, the Free City of Aachen, the Prussian part of the duchy of Guelders and some smaller territories. In 1805 the city of Wesel was added to the department. The capital was Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen).

Department of Roer Département de la Roer
Department of the French First Republic and the First French Empire
1798–1814
Flag
Roer (red) besides other departments in the North of the French Empire, 1811
Capital	Aachen
Area transferred
• 1808	Wesel from Prussia
Population
• 1809	616,287
• 1812	631,094
History
• Established	1798
• Disestablished	1814
Preceded by Succeeded by Duchy of Jülich Duchy of Cleves Electorate of Cologne Free Imperial City of Aachen Free Imperial City of Cologne Prussian Guelders Kingdom of Prussia United Kingdom of the Netherlands
Today part of	Germany  Netherlands

Map of the Roer departement, circa the early 1800s.

The department was subdivided in the following arrondissements and cantons (situation in 1812):[1]

• Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), cantons: Aachen (2 cantons), Burtscheid, Düren, Eschweiler, Froitzheim, Geilenkirchen, Gemünd, Heinsberg, Linnich, Monschau and Sittard.
• Cleves, cantons: Cleves, Geldern, Goch, Horst, Kalkar, Kranenburg, Wankum, Wesel and Xanten.
• Krefeld (Crefeld), cantons: Krefeld, Bracht, Erkelenz, Kempen, Moers, Neersen, Neuss, Odenkirchen, Rheinberg, Uerdingen, Viersen
• Cologne, cantons: Cologne (4 cantons), Bergheim, Brühl, Dormagen, Elsen, Jülich, Kerpen, Lechenich, Weiden and Zülpich.

Its population in 1812 was 631,094.[1]

After Napoleon was defeated in 1814, the department was divided between the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (left bank of the Meuse and a strip along its right bank including Gennep, Tegelen and Sittard, in present-day Dutch Limburg) and the Kingdom of Prussia (Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, now part of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany).

References

1. Almanach Impérial an bissextil MDCCCXII, p. 458-9, accessed in Gallica 16 July 2013 (in French)