---

Before 50 BC  Celtic settlement “Vosolvia” or “Vosavia”
50 BC to 450 AD  Roman military camp on the military highway between
                Mainz and Cologne.  In addition to the staging post
                and an inn there is also a civilian settlement.
450 to 900  Following the retreat of the Romans, the Germanic tribe
                of the Franks settles on the Rhine. Oberwesel is now
                part of the Crown Land of the Frankish kings.
966     To further his Ostpolitik (Eastern Policy), Emperor 
               Otto I gives Oberwesel to the Archbishop of Magdeburg.
1166   Emperor Frederick Barbarossa reaquires
                Oberwesel from Magdeburg.
1216   Emperor Frederick returns the town to Magdeburg.
1237   Oberwesel becomes a Free City of the Holy Roman Empire. 
                The 13th Century is  Oberwesel’s heyday the town wall is built,
                and the two great churches erected - Our Lady’s and St. Martin’s.
                Two monasteries, the Werner Chapel and the Holy-Spirit Hospital
                are founded.
1312   King Henry VII mortgages the town to his brother Baldwin, the
                Archbishop-Elector of Trier, to raise funds forhis imperial
                coronation. Oberwesel  remains a provincial town of
                Electoral Trier until 1794.
1689   Troops of the French King Louis XIV destroy Schönburg Castle
                during the Palatine War of Succession.
1794   Capture and occupation of the town by French
                revolutionary troops.
1802   Start of secularisation under Napoleon.  All monasteries and religious
                foundations are dissolved and church property confiscated.

1815   Following the Congress of Vienna, the Rhineland is ceded to Prussia and 
                Oberwesel remains a Prussian town of the Rhine Province until 1945.
1843   Poets of the late Romantic era meet here in the Middle Rhine Valley during the
                “Rhenish  Poets’ Summer”. Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben first recites his 
                “Song of the Germans” at the inn “Zum  Goldenen Propfenzieher”  (The Golden
                 Corkskrew) – this is now the German national anthem.
1859    Opening of the railway line through the Middle Rhine Valley.
1885   New York estate agent T. J. Oakley Rhinelander acquires the ruins of
                Schönburg Castle and restores it.
1950   The town of Oberwesel acquires Schönburg Castle.
1958   The new B9 town bypass is completed.
1971   The Heuss-Adenauer School Complex is opened.
1997   The Waterways and Shipping Authority’s new local headquarters for the
                 monitoring of shipping on the Rhine starts operation.
2002   UNESCO declares the Upper Middle Rhine Valley a “World Heritage Site”.    
                The official presentation of the World Heritage charter takes place in the
                summer of 2003 in the Church of Our Lady in Oberwesel.
2003   The Kulturhaus and Museum of Town History are opened.
2006   Inauguration of the monument to the Jewish townsfolk forced into exile
                or sent to death camps during the Third Reich.