Bructeri

The Bructeri^[1] were a Germanic people, who lived in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia, just outside what was then the Roman Empire. The Romans originally reported them living east of the lower Rhine river, in a large area centred around present day Münster stretching from both sides of the upper River Ems in the north, to both sides of the River Lippe in the south. At its greatest extent, their territory apparently stretched between the vicinities of the Rhine in the west and the Teutoburg Forest and Weser river in the east.

By the end of the first century AD the Bructeri were forced to move south of the Lippe, probably absorbing the remnants of the previous inhabitants, the Sicambri and Marsi. The Ruhr was now their southern boundary separating them from the Tencteri. By the beginning of the fourth century AD they were living still further south, facing Roman Cologne, probably having absorbed their long-time neighbours the Tencteri. In this period the Bructeri were categorized by at least some Roman authors using the new term, "Franks". In the eighth century, tribes known as the Boructuare and Borthari are mentioned as living in Germany, and there may have been some connection between these and the much earlier Bructeri.