Bructeri

The Bructeri were a Germanic tribe located in northwestern Germany (Soester Börde), between the Lippe and Ems rivers south of the Teutoburg Forest, in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia around 100 BC through 350 AD.

They formed an alliance with the Cherusci, the Marsi, the Chatti, Sicambri, and the Chauci, under the leadership of Arminius, that defeated the Roman General Varus and annihilated his three legions at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD. A large bronze and granite monument to Arminius (colloquially known as "Hermann The German") was erected near Detmold in the 1800s and portrays a rather Romantic interpretation of this Germanic chieftain with a winged helmet, his short sword held aloft in victory, and a Roman Standard ground beneath his foot.

Six years later, one of the generals serving under Germanicus, L. Stertinius defeated the Bructeri and devastated their lands. Among the booty captured by Stertinius was the eagle standard of Legio XIX that had been lost at Teutoburg Forest. Refusing to bow to Roman rule, the Bructeri in 69-70 participated in the Batavian rebellion.

The best known of the Bructeri was their wise woman Veleda, the spiritual leader of the Batavi rising; her subsequent fate is not known, but it is generally believed that she was captured by the Romans.

The Bructeri were eventually absorbed into the larger Frankish community. The best place to find archival documents and history of the tribe is Soest, Germany.