Nordwestblock

The name Nordwestblock is applied by historians to a group of Europeans whose homeland was in the western part of present-day Germany during the 1st century, but who were not originally Germanic tribes. They may have been of Old European origin.

Scholars include in the Nordwestblock the Chatti, Hermunduri and Cheruscii. By the first century, these tribes were being led by men of Germanic origin (for example, Arminius the Cheruscan, well-known for his defeat of the Romans at the battle of Teutoberger Wald in 9 AD.

In contrast to other Germanic trbies such as the Goths and Lombards, the Nordwestblock tribes mostly did not take part in the Völkerwanderung or migration of the peoples in the 5th century. They generally remained in their homelands, defined roughly by the rivers Main, Werra, Aller and Rhine.