1.
Ganerbschaft
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A Ganerbschaft, according to old German inheritance law, was a joint family estate, mainly land, over which the co-heirs only had rights in common. In modern German legal parlance it corresponds to a community of joint ownership, ganerbschafts arose as a result of the simultaneous nomination of several co-heirs to the same estate, this occurred mainly in the Middle Ages for reasons of family politics. Subject of such relationships was usually a jointly-built or conquered castle or palace. Ganerbschaften were established in order to keep an important family property, like a castle, although the initially very close community of co-heirs tended to become looser over the decades, the unity of the estate to the outside world was maintained. This often expressed itself through the use of a common family, another form of inheritance which permitted similar arrangements, was the fee tail. In the late 11th century, the von Stein family, owners of Künzelsau, was about to die out, one of the last members of the family, Mechthild von Stein, donated a large portion of her estates to Comburg Abbey. On her death, the part of the estate went to her close relatives, the lords of Künzelsau. Over the centuries, the divisions of the estate were inherited, around 1500 the lords of Stetten owned 25% of Künzelsau, 20% belonged to the House of Hohenlohe and 15% to the imperial town of Schwäbisch Hall. Another 10% was owned by the Archbishopric of Mainz, the Bishopric of Würzburg owned 10%, in the period that followed the division of the estate changed hands many times. Following the Tierberg Feud of 1488 a burgfrieden treaty was agreed in 1493 that governed the joint management of the estate under a Gemeinschaftlichen Ganerben-Amts-Schultheißen, the co-heirs pledged themselves henceforth only to transfer their share of the estate to one another, not to anyone outside the community. Only Comburg Abbey was allowed, in 1717, to buy the share of the estate belonging to the lords of Stetten, because they had formerly been members of the Ganerbschaft. In 1802 the estate lost its status as a Ganerbschaft in the wake of secularisation, however, in 1806 the whole estate was seized by the Duke of Württemberg and became part of the Kingdom of Württemberg. In the 13th century Trappstadt was divided by the counts of Henneberg, three hundred years later in 1524, there were already twelve Ganerben issued. The possession of the Ganerben quarters were divided as follows, The residents of Wurzburg had 22 houses, nine houses since 1524 were owned, Schott, Echter, Faust von Stromberg, Grafen von Eltz until 1824). Friedrich Karl Alsdorf, Untersuchungen zur Rechtsgestalt und Teilung deutscher Ganerbenburgen, lang, Frankfurt am Main,1980, ISBN3820464085. In, Horst Wolfgang Böhme, Burgen in Mitteleuropa, theiss, Stuttgart,1999, ISBN 3-8062-1355-0, pp. 39–41. Johannes Hoops, Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, walter de Gruyter, Berlin,1998, ISBN 3-11-015832-9, p.85 Helmut Naumann, Das Rechtswort Ganerbe. In, Mitteilungen des Historischen Vereins der Pfalz,71,1974, ISSN 0073-2680, pp. 59–153
2.
Altenstein Castle (Lower Franconia)
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Altenstein Castle is a ruined castle in Altenstein in the district of Haßberge in Lower Franconia, Germany. The castle was renovated around the turn of the millennium, the ruins of the hill castle lie commandingly over the village of the same name on a ridge in the Haßberge hills between Ebern and Maroldsweisach. The castle hill rises about 150 metres above the Weisach valley, the elongated ridge on which Altenstein Castle stands is also the site of other fortifications. The Bavarian State Office for Monument Protection has categorized it with the monument serial number D-6-5830-0006, a medieval motte south and below the castle on the Galgenberg. About two kilometres south of the ruins on the slopes there are two other heritage sites hidden in the forest and both called Altburg. Another four kilometres south is the large castle of Lichtenstein on the side of the valley. The site of the Teufelsstein rock castle below Lichtenstein Castle is the family seat of the two lines of the lords of Stein. Above the hamlet of Eyrichshof are the remains of Rotenhan Castle, the castle was the seat of the lords of Stein zu Altenstein. The Steins split into two lines around 1200, the Stein von Lichtenstein had their seat at the castle of Lichtenstein. The origin of family is thought to be the Teufelsstein. The originally free knightly family soon had to become vassals of the Prince-Bishops of Würzburg, from the early 14th century the Altensteins only appear as vassals of Würzburg, occasionally of Bamberg, but also had fiefs of the abbeys of Banz and Langheim. The castle appears to be first mentioned in the sources, indirectly, in one document at that time a Marquard Magnus de antiquo lapide is mentioned. In 1231, the castle is first directly referred to as a castrum with an ecclesia, over the succeeding centuries the place developed into a typical Ganerbenburg, a castle occupied and run by several branches of the family in common. In 1296 eight families lived at the fortress above the Weisach valley, as one of the earliest records of a so-called Ganerbschaft this fact is of particular interest for castle researchers. A Burgfrieden agreement in 1441 named ten brothers and cousins from five families, the von Altenstein family was able to establish a small territory for itself around the castle during the 14th and 15th centuries. This enabled the scattered lands of the family to be consolidated. The economic success of the castellans of the time can be seen from the structures of the castle that have survived. In 1525 Altenstein was damaged during the Peasants War, in 1549 Emperor Charles V granted the high court jurisdiction to the Altensteins
3.
Eltz Castle
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Eltz Castle is a medieval castle nestled in the hills above the Moselle River between Koblenz and Trier, Germany. It is still owned by a branch of the family that lived there in the 12th century,33 generations ago. Bürresheim Castle, Eltz Castle and Lissingen Castle are the castles on the left bank of the Rhine in Rhineland-Palatinate which have never been destroyed. The castle is surrounded on three sides by the Elzbach River, a tributary on the side of the Moselle. It is on a 70-metre rock spur, on an important Roman trade route between rich farmlands and their markets, the Eltz Forest has been declared a nature reserve by Flora-Fauna-Habitat and Natura 2000. The castle is a so-called Ganerbenburg, or castle belonging to a community of joint heirs, only a very rich medieval European lord could afford to build a castle on his land, many of them only owned one village, or even only a part of a village. This was an insufficient base to afford a castle, such lords lived in a knights house, which was a simple house, scarcely bigger than those of his tenants. In some parts of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, in the case of Eltz, the family comprised three branches and the existing castle was enhanced with three separate complexes of buildings. The main part of the consists of the family portions. At up to eight stories, these eight towers reach heights of between 30 and 40 metres and they are fortified with strong exterior walls, to the yard they present a partial framework. About 100 members of the families lived in the over 100 rooms of the castle. Platteltz, a Romanesque keep, is the oldest part of the castle, by 1157 the fortress was an important part of the empire under Frederick Barbarossa, standing astride the trade route from the Moselle Valley and the Eifel region. In 1472 the Rübenach house, built in the Late Gothic style, was completed, remarkable are the Rübenach Lower Hall, a living room, and the Rübenach bedchamber with its opulently decorated walls. Between 1490 and 1540, the Rodendorf house was constructed, also in Late Gothic style, the Kempenich houses were finished about 1530. Every room of this part of the castle could be heated, in contrast, the Rübenach and Rodendorf families homes in the castle are open to the public, while the Kempenich branch of the family uses the other third of the castle. The public is admitted seasonally, from April to October, visitors can view the treasury, with gold, silver and porcelain artifacts and the armory of weapons and suits of armor. From 1965 to 1992, an engraving of Eltz Castle was used on the German 500 Deutsche Mark note, the starting events of Le Feu de Wotan, a Belgian bande dessinée in the Yoko Tsuno series, take place in Eltz Castle. The castle was used as the exterior for the fictional American military lunatic asylum in the 1979 William Peter Blatty movie, The Ninth Configuration
4.
Moselle
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The Moselle is a river flowing through France, Luxembourg, and Germany. It is a tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A small part of Belgium is also drained by the Moselle through the Sauer, the Moselle twists and turns its way between Trier and Koblenz along one of Germanys most beautiful river valleys. It flows through a region that has influenced by mankind since it was first cultivated by the Romans. Today, its hillsides are covered by terraced vineyards where some of the best Rieslings grow, Traben-Trarbach with its art nouveau architecture and Bernkastel-Kues with its traditional market square are two of the many popular tourist attractions on the Moselle river. The name Moselle is derived from the Celtic name form, Moseal, via the Latin Mosella, a form of Mosa, the Latin description of the Meuse. So the Mosella was the Little Meuse, the Moselle is first recorded by Tacitus in Book 13 of his Annals and in Book 4 of his Histories. The Roman poet, Decimius Magnus Ausonius, made it a theme as early as the 4th century. In his poem dated A. D. Ausonius describes flourishing and rich landscapes along the river and in the valley of the Moselle, the river subsequently gave its name to two French republican départements, Moselle and Meurthe-et-Moselle. The source of the Moselle is at 715 metres above sea level on the Col de Bussang on the slopes of the Ballon dAlsace in the Vosges. After 544 kilometres it discharges into the Rhine at the Deutsches Eck in Koblenz at a height of 59 metres above NHN. The length of the river in France is 314 kilometres, for 39 kilometres it forms the border between Germany and Luxembourg, and 208 kilometres are solely within Germany, the Moselle flows through the Lorraine region, west of the Vosges. Further downstream, in Germany, the Moselle valley forms the division between the Eifel and Hunsrück mountain regions. The average flow rate of the Moselle at its mouth is 328 m³/s, making it the second largest tributary of the Rhine by volume after the Aare and bigger than the Main and Neckar. The section of the Moselle from the Franco-German-Luxembourg tripoint to its confluence with the Saar near Konz shortly before Trier is in Germany known as the Upper Moselle. The section from Trier to Pünderich is the Middle Moselle, the section between Pünderich and its mouth in Koblenz as the Lower Moselle or Terraced Moselle. Characteristic of the Middle and Lower Moselle are its wide meanders cut deeply into the highlands of the Rhenish Massif, also typical are its vineyard terraces. From the tripoint the Moselle marks the entire Saarland-Luxembourg, the catchment area of the Moselle is 28,286 km² in area
5.
Salzburg Castle
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Salzburg Castle stands on the edge of a plateau above the town of Bad Neustadt an der Saale in Lower Franconia in southern Germany. The large Ganerbenburg is still occupied today and not all areas are accessible to the public. The castle was built about a kilometre east of Bad Neustadt on the end of the plateau above Neuhaus and is separated from the land in front of it by a roughly 160-metre-long neck ditch. Until the 19th century the whole hillside was cleared and was used as early as the High Middle Ages for viticulture, the present, thickly wooded ridge on which the castle stands is also the site of the extensive Franconian Clinic, which dominates the landscape. By the Carolingian era, the Salzgau around Neustadt was already very important, an imperial palace was even built here, it was given to the Bishopric of Wurzburg in 1000 A. D. by Emperor Otto III. This palace was probably on the site of the present village of Salz or in its immediate vicinity, a castle was built on the nearby Veitsberg hill, probably in Ottonian times during the period of the Hungarian invasions, to protect the local populace. A fortified enclosure of unknown date may have located on the site of the present castle of Salzburg. These fortifications, too, may have been upgraded in the first half of the 10th century into a castle in the face of attacks by the Magyars. The first record of the Salzburg occurs in a copy of a deed by Emperor Louis the Pious dated around 1160. Later on, the Veitsberg near Salz was generally reckoned to be the location of the palace while, today, friar Eberhard may have only knew of the new site of the castle and replaced the village name of Salz by the abbreviation Salzb. The walled stone castle replaced an older palisaded ditch hewn from the limestone rock and this discovery was only made in 1984 during an official excavation of the foundations. This originally wooden, protective rampart is about a metre behind the wall and was probably a provisional enhancement to protect the site. The oldest curtain wall was not fully developed. The elements of the fortified site datable to the first phase of construction are up to four metres high, whether the Bishop of Würzburg intended to form a major administrative centre or even a fortified village, here, remains speculative. List of castles in Bavaria Heinz Gauly, The Bonifatius-Kapelle auf der Salzburg, leonhard Hegewald, Neustadt an der Saale, Der Kaiserpfalz auf dem Schlossberg und Bad Neuhaus mit seinen Quellen – ill. The Kunstdenkmäler von Bayern, III,22, Bezirksamt Neustadt a. pp. pp. 166–193, klaus Leidorf, Peter Ettel, Burgen in Bayern –7000 Jahre Burgengeschichte im Luftbild. Programm für The Salzburgfest, The eilfte Säcularfeier The Stiftung fränkischer, thüringischer und hessischer Bisthümer through den heiligen Bonifacius auf d, georg Joseph Saffenreuter, Der eilfte Säcularfeier auf der Salzburg bei Neustadt an der Saale am 12. Otto Schnell, Salzburg-Führer – Geschichte u. Beschreibung d. alten Kaiserpfalz Salzburg a. d. fränk, august Voit von Salzburg, The uralte Kaiserburg Salzburg bei Neustadt an The Saale
6.
Curtain wall (fortification)
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A curtain wall is a defensive wall between two towers of a castle, fortress, or town. In medieval castles, the area surrounded by a curtain wall, the outermost walls with their integrated bastions and wall towers together make up the enceinte or main defensive line enclosing the site. In earlier designs of castle and town, the walls were often built to a considerable height and were fronted by a ditch or moat to make assault difficult. Evidence for curtain walls or a series of walls surrounding a town or fortress can be found in the sources from Assyria. Some notable examples are ancient Lachish and Buhen, enceinte Curry, Anne, Hughes, Michael, eds. The Popular Encyclopedia, or, Conversations Lexicon, I, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London, Blackie & Son, p.444
7.
Enfeoffment
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In the Middle Ages, especially under the European feudal system, feoffment or enfeoffment was the deed by which a person was given land in exchange for a pledge of service. This mechanism was used to avoid restrictions on the passage of title in land by a system in which a landowner would give land to one person for the use of another. The common law of estates in land grew from this concept, in English law, feoffment was a transfer of land or property that gave the new holder the right to sell it as well as the right to pass it on to his heirs as an inheritance. It was total relinquishment and transfer of all rights of ownership of an estate in land from one individual to another, enfeoffment could be made of fees of various feudal tenures, such as fee-tail or fee-simple. Written conveyances were customary and mandatory after 1677, the feoffee was thenceforward said to hold his property of or from the feoffor, in return for a specified service depending on the exact form of feudal land tenure involved in the feoffment. The establishment of a national Land Registry has obviated the need for recitals of descent, feoffee Fief Fiefdom Subinfeudation Chestofbooks Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Feoffment
8.
Chivalric romance
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As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Popular literature also drew on themes of romance, but with ironic, satiric or burlesque intent. Still, the image of medieval is more influenced by the romance than by any other medieval genre, and the word medieval evokes knights, distressed damsels, dragons. Originally, romance literature was written in Old French, Anglo-Norman, Occitan, and Provençal, during the early 13th century, romances were increasingly written as prose. In later romances, particularly those of French origin, there is a tendency to emphasize themes of courtly love. Unlike the later form of the novel and like the chansons de geste, the earliest forms were invariably in verse, but the 15th century saw many in prose, often retelling the old, rhymed versions. Many influences are clear in the forms of chivalric romance, the epics of Charlemagne, unlike such ones as Beowulf, already had feudalism rather than the tribal loyalties, this was to continue in romances. The romance form is distinguished from the epics of the Middle Ages by the changes of the 12th century. This occurred regardless of congruity to the material, Alexander the Great featured as a fully feudal king. Chivalry was treated as continuous from Roman times, historical figures reappeared, reworked, in romance. The entire Matter of France derived from known figures, and suffered somewhat because their descendents had an interest in the tales that were told of their ancestors, unlike the Matter of Britain. Hereward the Wakes early life appeared in chronicles as the embellished, romantic adventures of an exile, complete with rescuing princess, fulk Fitzwarin, an outlaw in King Johns day, has his historical background a minor thread in the episodic stream of romantic adventures. The earliest medieval romances dealt heavily with themes from folklore, which diminished over time, morgan le Fay never loses her name, but in Le Morte dArthur, she studies magic rather than being inherently magical. Still, fairies never completely vanished from the tradition, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late tale, but the Green Knight himself is an otherworldly being. In Italy there is the story called Il Bel Gherardino and it is the most ancient prototype of an Italian singing fairy tale by an anonymous Tuscan author. It tells the story of a young Italian knight, depleted for its magnanimitas, other examples of Italian poetry tales are Antonio Puccis literature, Gismirante, Il Brutto di Bretagna or Brito di Bretagna and Madonna Lionessa. Another work of a second anonymous Italian author that is worth mentioning is Istoria di Tre Giovani Disperati e di Tre Fate, some romances, such as Apollonius of Tyre, show classical pagan origins. Tales of the Matter of Rome in particular may be derived from such works as the Alexander Romance
9.
Parzival
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Parzival is a medieval German romance written by the poet Wolfram von Eschenbach in Middle High German. The poem, commonly dated to the first quarter of the 13th century, centers on the Arthurian hero Parzival, Parzival begins with the knightly adventures of Parzivals father, Gahmuret, his marriage to Herzeloyde, and the birth of Parzival. The story continues as Parzival meets three elegant knights, decides to seek King Arthur, and continues a spiritual and physical search for the Grail. A long section is devoted to Parzivals friend Gawan and his adventures defending himself from a murder charge. Among the most striking elements of the work are its emphasis on the importance of humility, compassion, sympathy, a major theme in Parzival is love, heroic acts of chivalry are inspired by true love, which is ultimately fulfilled in marriage. The romance was the most popular vernacular verse narrative in medieval Germany, Wolfram began a prequel, Titurel, which was later continued by another writer, while two full romances were written adapting Wolframs story of Loherangrin. Richard Wagner based his famous opera Parsifal, finished in 1882, Parzival is divided into sixteen books, each composed of several thirty-line stanzas of rhyming couplets. The stanza lengths fit perfectly onto a manuscript page, for the subject matter Wolfram von Eschenbach largely adapted the Grail romance, Perceval, the Story of the Grail, left incomplete by Chrétien de Troyes. Book I opens with the death of King Gandin, Parzivals grandfather and his oldest son, Galoes, receives the kingdom but offers his brother Gahmuret the land of Anjou in fief. However, Gahmuret departs to gain renown and he travels to the African kingdom of Zazamanc, whose capital is besieged by two different armies. Gahmuret offers his services to the city, and his offer is accepted by Queen Belacane and he conquers the invaders, marries Queen Belacane, and becomes king of Zazamanc and Azagouc. Growing bored with peace, Gahmuret steals away on a ship, Belacane later gives birth to a son, Feirefiz. In Book II, Gahmuret returns to the West, where he meets, ever restless, however, he soon returns to fight for the Baruch in the Far East, where he is later killed by a treacherous acquaintance. His seclusion is shattered by three knights passing who tell him of King Arthurs court at Camelot, enamored, he decides to go join Arthurs court. His mother is heartbroken at the news of his decision but allows him to depart, soon after his departure she dies, utterly bereft. The first part of the takes place completely in the world of King Arthur. After becoming entangled in courtly intrigue between Duke Orilus and his wife Jeschute he meets his cousin Sigune who reveals to him his true name, Parzival also fights and kills Ither, the red knight of Kukumerlant. Putting on the red armor he rides away from the court and meets Gurnemanz, from whom he learns the duties of a knight, especially self-control
10.
Wolfram von Eschenbach
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Wolfram von Eschenbach was a German knight and poet, regarded as one of the greatest epic poets of medieval German literature. As a Minnesinger, he also wrote lyric poetry, little is known of Wolframs life. There are no documents which mention him, and his works are the sole source of evidence. In Parzival he talks of wir Beier, the dialect of his works is East Franconian, the arms shown in the Manesse manuscript come from the imagination of a 14th-century artist, drawing on the figure of the Red Knight in Parzival, and have no heraldic connection with Wolfram. Wolframs work indicates a number of patrons, which suggests that he served at a number of courts during his life. In his Parzival he claims he is illiterate and recorded the work by dictation, Wolfram is best known today for his Parzival, sometimes regarded as the greatest of all German epics from that time. Based on Chrétien de Troyes Perceval, le Conte du Graal, in the poem, Wolframs narrator expresses disdain for Chrétiens version of the tale, and states that his source was a poet from Provence called Kyot. Some scholars believe Wolfram might have meant Guiot de Provins, however others believe Kyot was simply a device invented by Wolfram to explain his deviations from Chrétiens version. Wolfram is the author of two other works, the fragmentary Titurel and the unfinished Willehalm. These were both composed after Parzival, and Titurel mentions the death of Hermann I, which dates it firmly after 1217, Titurel consists of two fragments, which tell us the story of Schionatulander and Sigune. First fragment deals with the birth of love between main characters, the second one is quite different. Schionatulander and Sigune spend some time in the forest, when all of a sudden their peace is disturbed by the mysterious dog. Siguna eagers to read the story, but dog runs away from them, Schionatulander sets off to find him, but, as we already know from Parzival, he dies trying. Willehalm — the unfinished poem based on Old French chanson de geste Aliscans, Willehalm was quite a significant work, as survived 16 manuscripts in total. The plot goes like that, main character kidnaps a princess and, after turning her into christianity. Pegan king gathers an army to fight his daughter back, Wolframs nine surviving songs, five of which are dawn-songs, are regarded as masterpieces of Minnesang. Dawn-songs recount the story of a knight who spends the night with his beloved lady, mostly its the lady who wakes the knight up in the morning, but sometimes this mission is made by the watchman. The 84 surviving manuscripts of Parzival, both complete and fragmentary, indicate the popularity of Wolframs major work in the following two centuries
11.
Old High German
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Old High German is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 700 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the half of the 8th century. There are, however, a number of Elder Futhark inscriptions dating to the 6th century, as well as single words, during the migration period, the Elbe Germanic tribes settled in what became Alamannia, the Duchy of Bavaria and the Kingdom of Lombardy. Old High German comprises the dialects of these groups which underwent the Second Sound Shift during the 6th Century, namely all of Elbe Germanic, in the south, the Langobards, who had settled in Northern Italy, maintained their dialect until their conquest by Charlemagne in 774. This area did not become German-speaking again until the German eastward expansion of the early 12th century, though there was some attempt at conquest, Old High German literacy is a product of the monasteries, notably at St. Gallen, Reichenau and Fulda. Its origins lie in the establishment of the German church by Boniface in the mid 8th century, einhard tells how Charlemagne himself ordered that the epic lays should be collected for posterity. It was the neglect or religious zeal of later generations that led to the loss of these records, thus, it was Charlemagnes weak successor, Louis the Pious, who destroyed his fathers collection of epic poetry on account of its pagan content. Hrabanus Maurus, a student of Alcuins and abbot at Fulda from 822, was an important advocate of the cultivation of German literacy, among his students were Walafrid Strabo and Otfrid of Weissenburg. Notker Labeo towards the end of the Old High German period was among the greatest stylists in the language, the main difference between Old High German and the West Germanic dialects from which it developed is that it underwent the High German consonant shift. This is generally dated approximately to the late 5th and early 6th centuries—hence dating its start to around 500, the result of this sound change is that the consonantal system of German remains different from all other West Germanic languages, including English and Low German. Grammatically, however, Old High German remained very similar to Old English, Old Dutch, by the mid 11th century the many different vowels found in unstressed syllables had all been reduced to /ə/. Since these vowels were part of the endings in the nouns and verbs. For these reasons,1050 is seen as the start of the Middle High German period, for this reason the dialects may be termed monastery dialects. It declined after the conquest of the Lombard Kingdom by the Franks in 774 and it is classified as Upper German on the basis of evidence of the Second Sound Shift. The continued existence of a West Frankish dialect in the Western, claims that this might have been the language of the Carolingian court or that it is attested in the Ludwigslied, whose presence in a French manuscript suggests bilingualism, are controversial. The charts show the vowel and consonant systems of the East Franconian dialect in the 9th century and this is the dialect of the monastery of Fulda, and specifically of the Old High German Tatian. Old High German had five long vowels and six phonemic short vowels. Both occurred in stressed and unstressed syllables, notes, All back vowels likely had front-vowel allophones as a result of Umlaut
12.
Alsace
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Alsace is a cultural and historical region in eastern France now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Alsace is located on Frances eastern border and on the west bank of the upper Rhine adjacent to Germany, from 1982 until January 2016, Alsace was the smallest of 22 administrative regions in metropolitan France, consisting of the Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin departments. Territorial reform passed by the French legislature in 2014 resulted in the merger of the Alsace administrative region with Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine to form Grand Est. The predominant historical language of Alsace is Alsatian, a Germanic dialect also spoken across the Rhine, but today most Alsatians primarily speak French, the political status of Alsace has been heavily influenced by historical decisions, wars, and strategic politics. The economic and cultural capital as well as largest city of Alsace is Strasbourg, the city is the seat of several international organizations and bodies. The name Alsace can be traced to the Old High German Ali-saz or Elisaz, an alternative explanation is from a Germanic Ell-sass, meaning seated on the Ill, a river in Alsace. In prehistoric times, Alsace was inhabited by nomadic hunters, by 1500 BC, Celts began to settle in Alsace, clearing and cultivating the land. It should be noted that Alsace is a surrounded by the Vosges mountains. It creates Foehn winds which, along with irrigation, contributes to the fertility of the soil. In a world of agriculture, Alsace has always been a region which explains why it suffered so many invasions and annexations in its history. By 58 BC, the Romans had invaded and established Alsace as a center of viticulture, to protect this highly valued industry, the Romans built fortifications and military camps that evolved into various communities which have been inhabited continuously to the present day. While part of the Roman Empire, Alsace was part of Germania Superior, with the decline of the Roman Empire, Alsace became the territory of the Germanic Alemanni. The Alemanni were agricultural people, and their Germanic language formed the basis of modern-day dialects spoken along the Upper Rhine, Clovis and the Franks defeated the Alemanni during the 5th century AD, culminating with the Battle of Tolbiac, and Alsace became part of the Kingdom of Austrasia. Under Clovis Merovingian successors the inhabitants were Christianized, Alsace formed part of the Middle Francia, which was ruled by the eldest grandson Lothar I. Lothar died early in 855 and his realm was divided into three parts, the part known as Lotharingia, or Lorraine, was given to Lothars son. The rest was shared between Lothars brothers Charles the Bald and Louis the German, the Kingdom of Lotharingia was short-lived, however, becoming the stem duchy of Lorraine in Eastern Francia after the Treaty of Ribemont in 880. Alsace was united with the other Alemanni east of the Rhine into the duchy of Swabia. Alsace experienced great prosperity during the 12th and 13th centuries under Hohenstaufen emperors, Frederick I set up Alsace as a province to be ruled by ministeriales, a non-noble class of civil servants
13.
Management
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Management is the administration of an organization, whether it be a business, a not-for-profit organization, or government body. The term management may also refer to the people who manage an organization, management is also an academic discipline, a social science whose objective is to study social organization and organizational leadership. Individuals who aim at becoming management researchers or professors may complete the Doctor of Business Administration or the PhD in business administration or management, in larger organizations, there are generally three levels of managers, which are typically organized in a hierarchical, pyramid structure. Senior managers provide direction to the managers who report to them. Middle managers, examples of which would include branch managers, regional managers and section managers, middle managers communicate the strategic goals of senior management to the front-line managers. Lower managers, such as supervisors and front-line team leaders, oversee the work of regular employees, in smaller organizations, the roles of managers have much wider scopes. A manager can perform several roles or even all of the commonly observed in a large organization. There are many smaller organizations than larger ones. Views on the definition and scope of management include, According to Henri Fayol, to manage is to forecast and to plan, to organise, to command, to co-ordinate, fredmund Malik defines it as the transformation of resources into utility. Management included as one of the factors of production - along with machines, materials, peter Drucker saw the basic task of management as twofold, marketing and innovation. Nevertheless, innovation is also linked to marketing, peter Drucker identifies marketing as a key essence for business success, but management and marketing are generally understood as two different branches of business administration knowledge. Management involves identifying the mission, objective, procedures, rules and this implies effective communication, an enterprise environment implies human motivation and implies some sort of successful progress or system outcome. As such, management is not the manipulation of a mechanism, not the herding of animals, management does not need to be seen from enterprise point of view alone, because management is an essential function to improve ones life and relationships. Management is therefore everywhere and it has a range of application. Based on this, management must have humans, communication, plans, measurements, motivational psychological tools, goals, and economic measures may or may not be necessary components for there to be management. At first, one views management functionally, such as measuring quantity, adjusting plans and this applies even in situations where planning does not take place. Critics, however, find this definition useful but far too narrow, one habit of thought regards management as equivalent to business administration and thus excludes management in places outside commerce, as for example in charities and in the public sector. More broadly, every organization must manage its work, people, processes, technology, nonetheless, many people refer to university departments that teach management as business schools
14.
Military
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The armed forces of a country are its government-sponsored defense, fighting forces, and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their body and to defend that body. Armed force is the use of armed forces to achieve political objectives, the study of the use of armed forces is called military science. Broadly speaking, this involves considering offense and defense at three levels, strategy, operational art, and tactics, all three levels study the application of the use of force in order to achieve a desired objective. In most countries the basis of the forces is the military. However, armed forces can include other paramilitary structures, the obvious benefit to a country in maintaining armed forces is in providing protection from foreign threats and from internal conflict. In recent decades armed forces personnel have also used as emergency civil support roles in post-disaster situations. On the other hand, they may harm a society by engaging in counter-productive warfare. Expenditure on science and technology to develop weapons and systems sometimes produces side benefits, although some claim that greater benefits could come from targeting the money directly
15.
Nobility
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The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be largely honorary, and vary from country to country and era to era. There is often a variety of ranks within the noble class. g, san Marino and the Vatican City in Europe. Hereditary titles often distinguish nobles from non-nobles, although in many nations most of the nobility have been un-titled, some countries have had non-hereditary nobility, such as the Empire of Brazil. The term derives from Latin nobilitas, the noun of the adjective nobilis. In modern usage, nobility is applied to the highest social class in pre-modern societies and it rapidly came to be seen as a hereditary caste, sometimes associated with a right to bear a hereditary title and, for example in pre-revolutionary France, enjoying fiscal and other privileges. Nobility is a historical, social and often legal notion, differing from high socio-economic status in that the latter is based on income. Being wealthy or influential cannot, ipso facto, make one noble, various republics, including former Iron Curtain countries, Greece, Mexico, and Austria have expressly abolished the conferral and use of titles of nobility for their citizens. Not all of the benefits of nobility derived from noble status per se, usually privileges were granted or recognised by the monarch in association with possession of a specific title, office or estate. Most nobles wealth derived from one or more estates, large or small and it also included infrastructure such as castle, well and mill to which local peasants were allowed some access, although often at a price. Nobles were expected to live nobly, that is, from the proceeds of these possessions, work involving manual labour or subordination to those of lower rank was either forbidden or frowned upon socially. In some countries, the lord could impose restrictions on such a commoners movements. Nobles exclusively enjoyed the privilege of hunting, in France, nobles were exempt from paying the taille, the major direct tax. In some parts of Europe the right of war long remained the privilege of every noble. During the early Renaissance, duelling established the status of a respectable gentleman, Nobility came to be associated with social rather than legal privilege, expressed in a general expectation of deference from those of lower rank. By the 21st century even that deference had become increasingly minimised, in France, a seigneurie might include one or more manors surrounded by land and villages subject to a nobles prerogatives and disposition. Seigneuries could be bought, sold or mortgaged, if erected by the crown into, e. g. a barony or countship, it became legally entailed for a specific family, which could use it as their title. Yet most French nobles were untitled, in other parts of Europe, sovereign rulers arrogated to themselves the exclusive prerogative to act as fons honorum within their realms. Nobility might be inherited or conferred by a fons honorum
16.
Dienstmann
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A Dienstmann was a medieval retainer or vassal and, later, a hired man, in German-speaking countries, particularly in Austria until the first half of the 20th century. However the term Dienstmann could also refer to men who were obliged to pay duties or render socage to their liege lords a socager, unlike ministeriales, they held a lower social rank equivalent to the English serf. Later, the term described was used to describe a man who. His main duties were the carriage of belongings, such as suitcases, well-known fictional Dienstmänner are the Dienstmann, Alois Hingerl, in Ludwig Thomas Satire Ein Münchner im Himmel or Hans Moser and Paul Hörbiger, the Dienstmänner in the film Hallo Dienstmann. As a so-called Berliner Original, the Dienstmann, Ferdinand Strumpf, went under the name, history of the Art of War, Volume III, Medieval Warfare Fritz Keller, Hallo Dienstmann. Fritz Keller, Ignaz Israel Pokart – der letzte jüdische Dienstmann, in, Verena Pawlowsky, Harald Wendelin, Raub und Rückgabe. Mandelbaum-Verlag, Vienna,2005, ISBN 3-85476-161-9, pp. 85–88, valentin Ferdinand von Gudenus, Friedrich Carl von Buri, Heinrich Wilhelm Anton Buri, Codex Diplomaticvs. Exhibens Anectoda Ab Anno DCCCLXXXI, Ad MCCC, mogvntiaca, Ivs Germanicvm, Et S. R. I. In, Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum NF4 =16,1872, ISSN 1619-6627, richard Schröder, Lehrbuch der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte. 6th revised edition by Eberhard von Künßberg. de Gruyter, Berlin etc.1922, the American Historical Review 28, no.3 440-474
17.
Bad Neustadt an der Saale
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Bad Neustadt is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany. It is the capital of the Rhön-Grabfeld district in Lower Franconia and it is situated on the rivers Fränkische Saale and Brend, near the Rhön Mountains,30 km north of Schweinfurt, and 47 km southeast of Fulda. Between 1972 and 1978 some originally separate villages were gathered together administratively, the church was later renamed St. Johannes der Täufer as it became a baptism church. In 790 Charlemagne founded the palatinate Salz in the territory of Bad Neustadt, Neustadt was first mentioned as nova civitas in a document of the bishop of Würzburg in the year 1232. The medieval town wall of Bad Neustadt is shaped as a heart, so it is part of a romantic legend. According to this, the town was founded by Charlemagne as a present for his beloved wife, the castle Salzburg on a hill near Bad Neustadt was founded in the 12th century. The castle was never destroyed but often renovated so the architecture has elements of Roman art, Gothic art, the Rhön Klinikum AG that is headquartered in Bad Neustadt is a well known enterprise for several specialized hospitals in Germany. The hospitals in Bad Neustadt are especially famous for cardiac and hand surgery, besides, there are several industry companies in Bad Neustadt. In 1979 Bad Neustadt founded a community of all towns called Neustadt, today 34 towns of 5 different countries are members of this project Neustadt in Europe. Bad Neustadt is the only Neustadt with the prefix Bad, soccer is the most popular sport in Bad Neustadt. In spite of this Bad Neustadt is most successful in handball, Bad Neustadt has played in the third division for several years. One season Bad Neustadt even played in the second division, during the 2006 FIFA World Cup Bad Neustadt was the host town of the national team of Anguilla. According to the FIFA rankings, Anguilla was ranked 196 out of 205 teams in 2006, as a member of the FIFA family the team was invited as a representative for all not-qualified teams
18.
Steckelberg Castle
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Steckelberg Castle is a ruined hill castle near Ramholz, in the borough of the East Hessian town of Schlüchtern in Germany. The ruins of the old castle lie east of Vollmerz and northeast of Ramholz on the domed crest of a hill spur, the name of the castle goes back to the Middle High German term for steep hill. As an imperial castle the fortification was used to guard the routes that ran through the hills. From 1131 to 1391 had their seat at an earlier castle on a nearby site. This Old Steckelberg Castle was located to the northeast of the present ruins on a spur of the Breite First which is today as Alteburgberg or Nickus. The baronial line of Hermann von Steckelberg is mentioned around 1167, roughly between 1240 and 1276 the castle must have been in the possession of the Bishopric of Wurzburg. In 1274 Bishop Berthold II pledged the castle to Count Reinhard I of Hanau, in 1276 it was illegally occupied and used as a robber baron castle. It was destroyed by order of King Rudolph I in 1276 and he issued a decree on 14 October 1276 which ordered that the Steckelburg is to be demolished and is not to be rebuilt without imperial leave. The castle was supposedly a threat to the peace or Landfrieden, more probably it served to tidy up the estates of the Landvogt and confidant of the king, nevertheless, the lords of Steckelberg retained rights of management and use. There are no details of the history of the Old Steckelberg Castle. It is, however, certain that this was not the oldest fortification in this location, in 1969 the remains of a large circular rampart, about 0.38 hectares in area and dating to the Early Middle Ages, were discovered in the immediate vicinity. The male line of the Steckelberg family was extinguished in the mid-14th century and he inherited inter alia arable fields and pasture land at Steckelberg. Frowins son, Ulrich von Hutten, used this point to re-fortify the castle hill in 1388. In order to circumvent the royal prohibition, the castle was moved a few hundred metres to a site above the earlier castle destroyed in 1276. e. After Ulrichs death the family was enfeoffed with Steckelberg Castle. In spite of this settlement, a dispute broke out that year between Hutten-Steckelberg and their Wurzburg liege lord when he wanted to take on 32 external heirs. As a result, in 1458 the castle was besieged and finally conquered by Bishop John, by 1459 he had returned the castle, however, after an agreement had been reached. The partially demolished buildings were rebuilt or renovated and occupied once more, on 21 April 1488, the reforming knight, Ulrich von Hutten, was born here
19.
John III of Grumbach
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John of Grumbach was prince-bishop of Würzburg as John III from 1455 until his death in 1466. Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities
20.
Free imperial city
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The evolution of some German cities into self-ruling constitutional entities of the Empire was slower than that of the secular and ecclesiastical princes. In the course of the 13th and 14th centuries, some cities were promoted by the emperor to the status of Imperial Cities, essentially for fiscal reasons. The Free Cities were those, such as Basel, Augsburg, Cologne or Strasbourg, like the other Imperial Estates, they could wage war, make peace, and control their own trade, and they permitted little interference from outside. In the later Middle Ages, a number of Free Cities formed City Leagues, such as the Hanseatic League or the Alsatian Décapole, to promote and defend their interests. In the course of the Middle Ages, cities gained, and sometimes — if rarely — lost, some favored cities gained a charter by gift. Others purchased one from a prince in need of funds, some won it by force of arms during the troubled 13th and 14th centuries and other lost their privileges during the same period by the same way. Some cities became free through the created by the extinction of dominant families. Some voluntarily placed themselves under the protection of a territorial ruler, a few, like Protestant Donauwörth, which in 1607 was annexed to the Catholic Duchy of Bavaria, were stripped by the Emperor of their status as a Free City — for genuine or trumped-up reasons. There were approximately four thousand towns and cities in the Empire, during the late Middle Ages, fewer than two hundred of these places ever enjoyed the status of Free Imperial Cities, and some of those did so only for a few decades. The military tax register of 1521 listed eighty-five such cities, from the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 to 1803, their number oscillated at around fifty. These cities were located in small territories where the ruler was weak. They were nevertheless the exception among the multitude of territorial towns, Cities of both latter categories normally had representation in territorial diets, but not in the Imperial Diet. The cities divided themselves into two groups, or benches, in the Imperial Diet, the Rhenish and the Swabian Bench. To avoid the possibility that they would have the vote in case of a tie between the Electors and the Princes, it was decided that these should decide first and consult the cities afterward. Constitutionally, if in no way, the diminutive Free Imperial City of Isny was the equal of the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Instead, many found it more profitable to maintain agents at the Aulic Council in Vienna. At the opposite end, the authority of Cologne, Aachen, Worms, Goslar, Wetzlar and they were the most economically significant burgher families who had asserted themselves politically over time. The burgher status was usually a privilege renewed pro-forma in each generation of the family concerned
21.
Nuremberg
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Nuremberg is a city on the river Pegnitz and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia, about 170 kilometres north of Munich. It is the second-largest city in Bavaria, and the largest in Franconia, the population as of February 2015, is 517,498, which makes it Germanys fourteenth-largest city. The urban area also includes Fürth, Erlangen and Schwabach with a population of 763,854. The European Metropolitan Area Nuremberg has ca.3.5 million inhabitants, Nuremberg was, according to the first documentary mention of the city in 1050, the location of an Imperial castle between the East Franks and the Bavarian March of the Nordgau. From 1050 to 1571, the city expanded and rose dramatically in importance due to its location on key trade routes, Nuremberg is often referred to as having been the unofficial capital of the Holy Roman Empire, particularly because Imperial Diet and courts met at Nuremberg Castle. The Diets of Nuremberg were an important part of the structure of the empire. The increasing demand of the court and the increasing importance of the city attracted increased trade. Nuremberg soon became, with Augsburg, one of the two great trade centers on the route from Italy to Northern Europe. In 1298, the Jews of the town were accused of having desecrated the host, behind the massacre of 1298 was also the desire to combine the northern and southern parts of the city, which were divided by the Pegnitz. The Jews of the German lands suffered many massacres during the plague years, in 1349, Nurembergs Jews were subjected to a pogrom. They were burned at the stake or expelled, and a marketplace was built over the former Jewish quarter, the plague returned to the city in 1405,1435,1437,1482,1494,1520 and 1534. Charles was the patron of the Frauenkirche, built between 1352 and 1362, where the Imperial court worshipped during its stays in Nuremberg. Charles IV conferred upon the city the right to conclude alliances independently, frequent fights took place with the burgraves without, however, inflicting lasting damage upon the city. Through these and other acquisitions the city accumulated considerable territory, the Hussite Wars, recurrence of the Black Death in 1437, and the First Margrave War led to a severe fall in population in the mid-15th century. During the Middle Ages, Nurembergs literary culture was rich, varied, the cultural flowering of Nuremberg, in the 15th and 16th centuries, made it the centre of the German Renaissance. In 1525, Nuremberg accepted the Protestant Reformation, and in 1532, during the 1552 revolution against Charles V, Nuremberg tried to purchase its neutrality, but the city was attacked without a declaration of war and was forced into a disadvantageous peace. The state of affairs in the early 16th century, increased trade routes elsewhere, frequent quartering of Imperial, Swedish and League soldiers, the financial costs of the war and the cessation of trade caused irreparable damage to the city and a near-halving of the population. In 1632, the city, occupied by the forces of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, was besieged by the army of Imperial general Albrecht von Wallenstein, the city declined after the war and recovered its importance only in the 19th century, when it grew as an industrial centre
22.
Rothenberg Fortress
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Rothenberg Fortress is a fortress on the eponymous hill,588 m, near Schnaittach in the Franconian Jura. The first fortifications were built between 1300 and 1330 by Dietrich von Wildenstein. He sold it in 1360 to the emperor and Bohemian king, Charles IV, in 1478, Count Palatine Otto II set the condition for Rothenberg Castle to become a joint-fief or Ganerbenburg. The castle also had rights of patronage in the Nuremberg area. The community of co-vassals had the characteristics of a type of union called an Einung, at the time of Silvester von Schaumberg the castle was a wasps nest - which even princes feared to fall out with. The community of co-heirs nominated a burgrave, construction lasted from about 1729 to 1750. Two bastions were named after him and his wife, Maria Amalia, from time to time up to 400 soldiers were garrisoned here. It was built on an older and smaller fortification that was slighted, the site was built to geometric principles. Because they wanted to blind spots, bastions were built to a star-shaped design. The overall plan was a polygon with a tower at each corner. The crest of the embankment was kept low in order to minimise the target area, the outer defences on the north side began with a gently rising glacis, followed by a covered way and a moat. Behind that, and scarcely higher than the glacis, rose the main rampart and this was designed to be difficult to shell because the wall was protected by the glacis. The site of the fortress on a hill ridge resembled that of medieval castles, in this case, the hillside thus protected the fortress to the south, east and west from being stormed, but not from the powerful siege guns of that time. The fortress was built entirely of brickwork and this was sixteen metres high on all sides and had vaulting on the inside, ten metres high. There were two, two-storey barrack buildings inside the fortress, an armoury, the headquarters and a church. The garrison lived in the fortress with their families, protected water supplies came from a fortress well and, later, by the Schneckenbrunnen well, built in 1759-67, in the counterguard outside the fortress. Built to counter the imperial city of Nuremberg only 25 kilometres away, the fortress was intended to guard the Bavarian border, in 1806 Napoleon annexed Franconia to the Kingdom of Bavaria and Rothenberg then became superfluous to the Bavarian Army as a border fortress. It continued to be used, however, as a fortress prison, in 1838 the Bavarian Minister of War sold the entire inventory, including doors, beams and everything that could be removed
23.
Schnaittach
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Schnaittach is a market town in Middle Franconia, Bavaria, Germany. Schnaittach is on a river of the name, a tributary of the Pegnitz. Schnaittach was first mentioned in 1011, until 1806 the Christian population of Schnaittach was Catholic, in contrast to the surrounding areas. Schnaittach has had a large Jewish community since the 15th century, today, the building complex of the synagogue houses a branch of the Jewish Museum of Franconia. Twinned with Frohnleiten, Austria Friendship with Schlettau Official town Web site Fortifications near Schnaittach Jewish Museum of Franconia
24.
Knight
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A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a monarch or other political leader for service to the monarch or country, especially in a military capacity. Historically, in Europe, knighthood was conferred upon mounted warriors, during the High Middle Ages, knighthood was considered a class of lower nobility. By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, often, a knight was a vassal who served as a fighter for a lord, with payment in the form of land holdings. The lords trusted the knights, who were skilled in battle on horseback, since the early modern period, the title of knight is purely honorific, usually bestowed by a monarch, as in the British honours system, often for non-military service to the country. The modern female equivalent in the United Kingdom is Dame, furthermore, Geoffroi de Charnys Book of Chivalry expounded upon the importance of Christian faith in every area of a knights life. This novel explored the ideals of knighthood and their incongruity with the reality of Cervantes world, in the late medieval period, new methods of warfare began to render classical knights in armour obsolete, but the titles remained in many nations. Some orders of knighthood, such as the Knights Templar, have become the subject of legend, each of these orders has its own criteria for eligibility, but knighthood is generally granted by a head of state or monarch to selected persons to recognise some meritorious achievement. This linkage is reflected in the etymology of chivalry, cavalier, the special prestige accorded to mounted warriors finds a parallel in the furusiyya in the Muslim world, and the Greek hippeus and Roman eques of classical antiquity. The word knight, from Old English cniht, is a cognate of the German word Knecht and this meaning, of unknown origin, is common among West Germanic languages. Middle High German had the phrase guoter kneht, which also meant knight, the Anglo-Saxon cniht had no connection to horsemanship, the word referred to any servant. A rādcniht, riding-servant, was a servant delivering messages or patrolling coastlines on horseback, a narrowing of the generic meaning servant to military follower of a king or other superior is visible by 1100. The specific military sense of a knight as a warrior in the heavy cavalry emerges only in the Hundred Years War. The verb to knight appears around 1300, and, from the same time, an Equestrian was a member of the second highest social class in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. This class is often translated as knight, the medieval knight, both Greek ἳππος and Latin equus are derived from the Proto-Indo-European word root ekwo-, horse. In the later Roman Empire, the classical Latin word for horse, equus, was replaced in common parlance by the vulgar Latin caballus, sometimes thought to derive from Gaulish caballos. From caballus arose terms in the various Romance languages cognate with the English cavalier, Italian cavaliere, Spanish caballero, French chevalier, Portuguese cavaleiro, the Germanic languages have terms cognate with the English rider, German Ritter, and Dutch and Scandinavian ridder. These words are derived from Germanic rīdan, to ride, in turn derived from the Proto-Indo-European root reidh-, in ancient Rome there was a knightly class Ordo Equestris from which European knighthood may have been derived. Some portions of the armies of Germanic peoples who occupied Europe from the 3rd century AD onward had been mounted, in the Early Medieval period any well-equipped horseman could be described as a knight, or miles in Latin
25.
Feoffee
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A feoffee is a trustee who holds a fief, that is to say an estate in land, for the use of a beneficial owner. The term is more fully stated as a feoffee to uses of the beneficial owner, the use of such trustees developed towards the end of the era of feudalism in the middle ages and became obsolete with the formal ending of that social and economic system in 1660. Indeed the development of feoffees to uses may have hastened the end of the feudal system, nor could the land-holding escheat, that is to say revert permanenly to the overlord, as was customary where the land-holder died without a legal heir. When the fiefdom was held by a group of feoffees, the death of the holder was legally irrelevant to its continued holding by them. They simply allowed the lands to continue to be used by the deceaseds heir, the feoffees were an undying corporation which never suffered a minority and could not be given in marriage. The effect was that on a death he appeared to hold little or no land, whilst in reality he had full use of it. Frequently the verdict of such inquisitions even in the case of the decease of the most influential men of the county, was he holds no lands of the king in this county. Such reports can be a source of confusion to the modern historian or biographer who is unaware of the operation of feoffees to uses. As McFarlane summarised it can make a great landowner appear to die a landless man, such charter appears as a conveyance or alienation, and may be mistaken as such by the unwary modern researcher. Feoffee is thus a historical term relating to the law of trusts and equity, Feoffees essentially had their titles stripped by the Statute of Uses 1535, whereby the legal title to the property being held by the feoffee was transferred to their cestui que use. The modern equivalent of a feoffee to uses is the trustee, one who holds a legal and managerial ownership in trust for the enjoyment benefit and use of the beneficiary. The term is still in use today to mean a trustee invested with a freehold estate held in possession for a purpose. The Feoffees of St Michaels Spurriergate are the trustees of a charity that helps with the restoration of churches in York, in Ipswich, Massachusetts, the Feoffees of the Grammar School have been trustees of a piece of land donated for the use of the town since the 1600s. Fee Fee simple Feu Legal history Feudal land tenure Land tenure McFarlane, K. B. Lancastrian Kings and Lollard Knights, Oxford,1972, Part 2, Introduction, pp. 144–147
26.
Fief
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The fees were often lands or revenue-producing real property held in feudal land tenure, these are typically known as fiefs or fiefdoms. However, not only land but anything of value could be held in fee, including office, rights of exploitation such as hunting or fishing, monopolies in trade. In ancient Rome a benefice was a gift of land for life as a reward for services rendered, originally, in medieval Latin European documents, a land grant in exchange for service continued to be called a beneficium. Later, the term feudum, or feodum, began to replace beneficium in the documents, the first attested instance of this is from 984, although more primitive forms were seen up to one hundred years earlier. The origin of the feudum and why it replaced beneficium has not been well established, but there are multiple theories, described below. The most widely held theory is put forth by Marc Bloch that it is related to the Frankish term *fehu-ôd, in which means cattle and -ôd means goods. When land replaced currency as the store of value, the Germanic word *fehu-ôd replaced the Latin word beneficium. This Germanic origin theory was also shared by William Stubbs in the nineteenth century, a theory put forward by Archibald R. Lewis that the origin of fief is not feudum, but rather foderum, the earliest attested use being in Astronomuss Vita Hludovici. In that text is a passage about Louis the Pious which says annona militaris quas vulgo foderum vocant, a theory by Alauddin Samarrai suggests an Arabic origin, from fuyū. Samarrais theory is that early forms of fief include feo, feu, feuz, feuum and others, Samarrai, however, also advises medieval and early modern Muslim scribes often used etymologically fanciful roots in order to claim the most outlandish things to be of Arabian or Muslim origin. It lacked a precise meaning until the middle of the 12th century, in English usage, the word fee is first attested around 1250–1300, the word fief from around 1605–15. In French, the fief is found from the middle of the 13th century. In French, one also finds seigneurie, which rise to the expression seigneurial system to describe feudalism. Originally, vassalage did not imply the giving or receiving of landholdings, by the middle of the 10th century, fee had largely become hereditary. The eldest son of a deceased vassal would inherit, but first he had to do homage and fealty to the lord, historically, the fees of the 11th and the 12th century derived from two separate sources. The first was land carved out of the estates of the upper nobility, the second source was allodial land transformed into dependent tenures. The process occurred later in Germany, and was going on in the 13th century. In England, Henry II transformed them into important sources of royal income, the discontent of barons with royal claims to arbitrarily assessed reliefs and other feudal payments under Henrys son King John resulted in Magna Carta of 1215
27.
Bergfried
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A bergfried is a tall tower typically found in castles of the Middle Ages in German-speaking countries and in countries under German influence. Friar describes it as a free-standing, fighting-tower and its defensive function is to some extent similar to that of a keep in English or French castles. However, the difference between a bergfried and a keep lies in the fact that a bergfried was typically not designed for permanent habitation. The bergfried served as a watchtower and as a refuge during sieges, the distinction between a bergfried and a keep is not always clear-cut, as there were thousands of such towers built with many variations. There are some French keeps with only austere living quarters, while some late bergfrieds in Germany were intended to be habitable, for maximum protection, the bergfried could be sited on its own in the centre of the castles inner bailey and totally separate from the enceinte. Alternatively, it could be close to or up against the curtain wall on the most vulnerable side as an additional defence. For instance, the Marksburg has its bergfried in the centre, some, like Münzenberg and Plesse Castles, have two bergfrieds. Eynsford Castle in Kent is a rare English example, where the bergfried is the element of the design. The main tower of a castle was often referred to as a tower or big tower. In late medieval Low German documents, however, the terms berchfrit, berchvrede, German castle research during the 19th century introduced Bergfried or Berchfrit as the general term for a non-residential main tower, and these terms then became established in the literature. The etymological origin of the word is unclear, there are theories about it being derived from Middle High German or Latin, or even from a Greek word brought back from the Crusades. The view, often expressed in literature, that the bergfried took its name from the phrase weil er den Frieden berge, i. e. it guaranteed the security of the castle. The bergfried established itself as a new type of building during the 12th century, numerous examples have survived from this period almost to their full height. Individual examples may also be dating to as early as the second half of the 11th century. The precursor of the bergfried is the tower house, whose Western European expression is called a donjon or keep. Residential towers were common before the advent of the bergfried in German-speaking countries, too, donjons combine the two contrasting functions of a stately, comfortable residence and a fortification. The bergfried, however, dispenses with the residential function in favour of its defensive purposes. At the same time, new forms of unfortified residential building became popular, the emergence of the bergfried is thus clearly related to the differentiation of living and fortification within a castle
28.
Chapel
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The term chapel usually refers to a place of prayer and worship that is attached to a larger, often nonreligious institution or that is considered an extension of a primary religious institution. Chapel has also referred to independent or nonconformist places of worship in Great Britain—outside of the established church, the earliest Christian places of worship are now often referred to as chapels, as they were not dedicated buildings but rather a dedicated chamber within a building. Most larger churches had one or more secondary altars, which if they occupied a distinct space, in Russian Orthodox tradition, the chapels were built underneath city gates, where most people could visit them. The most famous example is the Iberian Chapel, although chapels frequently refer to Christian places of worship, they are also commonly found in Jewish synagogues and do not necessarily connote a specific denomination. In England—where the Church of England is established by law—non-denominational or inter-faith chapels in such institutions may nonetheless be consecrated by the local Anglican bishop, non-denominational chapels are commonly encountered as part of a non-religious institution such as a hospital, airport, university or prison. Many military installations have chapels for the use of military personnel, the earliest Christian places of worship were not dedicated buildings but rather a dedicated chamber within a building, such as a room in an individuals home. Here one or two people could pray without being part of a communion/congregation, people who like to use chapels may find it peaceful and relaxing to be away from the stress of life, without other people moving around them. The word, chapel, like the word, chaplain, is ultimately derived from Latin. The other half he wore over his shoulders as a small cape, the beggar, the stories claim, was Christ in disguise, and Martin experienced a conversion of heart, becoming first a monk, then abbot, then bishop. This cape came into the possession of the Frankish kings, the tent which kept the cape was called the capella and the priests who said daily Mass in the tent were known as the capellani. From these words, via Old French, we get the names chapel, the word also appears in the Irish language in the Middle Ages, as Welsh people came with the Norman and Old English invaders to the island of Ireland. While the traditional Irish word for church was eaglais, a new word, séipéal, in British history, chapel or meeting house, was formerly the standard designation for church buildings belonging to independent or Nonconformist religious societies and their members. As a result, chapel is used as an adjective in the UK to describe the members of such churches. A proprietary chapel is one that belonged to a private person. In the 19th century they were common, often being built to cope with urbanisation, frequently they were set up by evangelical philanthropists with a vision of spreading Christianity in cities whose needs could no longer be met by the parishes. Some functioned more privately, with a wealthy person building a chapel so they could invite their favorite preachers and they are anomalies in the English ecclesiastical law, having no parish area, but being able to have an Anglican clergyman licensed there. Historically many Anglican Churches were Proprietary Chapels, over the years they have often been converted into normal Parishes. While the usage of the chapel is not exclusively limited to Christian terminology
29.
Property
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In the abstract, property is that which belongs to or with something, whether as an attribute or as a component of said thing. In economics and political economy, there are three forms of property, private property, public property, and collective property. Property that jointly belongs to more than one party may be possessed or controlled thereby in very similar or very distinct ways, whether simply or complexly, whether equally or unequally. However, there is an expectation that each partys will with regard to the property be clearly defined and unconditional, so as to distinguish ownership and this mediating relationship between individual, property and state is called a property regime. The distinction between property and private property is regarded as a confusion since different individuals often hold differing rights over a single object. An article of property may have physical and incorporeal parts, a title, or a right of ownership, establishes the relation between the property and other persons, assuring the owner the right to dispose of the property as the owner sees fit. Often property is defined by the code of the sovereignty, and protected wholly or more usually partially by such entity. The standards of proof concerning proofs of ownerships are also addressed by the code of the local sovereignty, some philosophers assert that property rights arise from social convention, while others find justifications for them in morality or in natural law. Property, in the first instance, is a thing-in-itself, when a person finds a thing and takes that thing into that persons possession and control, then that thing becomes a thing-for-you for that person. Generally, the ground and any buildings which are attached are considered real property, while movable goods. Also, property cannot be considered a concept, because in the first instance. Various scholarly disciplines may treat the concept more systematically, but definitions vary, positive law defines such rights, and the judiciary can adjudicate and enforce property rights. According to Adam Smith, the expectation of profit from improving ones stock of capital rests on private property rights, Capitalism has as a central assumption that property rights encourage their holders to develop the property, generate wealth, and efficiently allocate resources based on the operation of markets. From this has evolved the modern conception of property as a right enforced by law, in the expectation that this will produce more wealth. In his text The Common Law, Oliver Wendell Holmes describes property as having two fundamental aspects, the first, possession, can be defined as control over a resource based on the practical inability of another to contradict the ends of the possessor. The second, title, is the expectation that others will recognize rights to control resource and he elaborates the differences between these two concepts, and proposes a history of how they came to be attached to persons, as opposed to families or to entities such as the church. Classical liberalism subscribes to the theory of property. They hold that each own their own life, it follows that one must own the products of that life
30.
Feud
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Feuds begin because one party perceives itself to have been attacked, insulted or wronged by another. Intense feelings of resentment trigger the initial retribution, which causes the party to feel equally aggrieved. The dispute is subsequently fuelled by a cycle of retaliatory violence. This continual cycle of provocation and retaliation makes it difficult to end the feud peacefully. Feuds frequently involve the original family members and/or associates, can last for generations. They can be interpreted as an outgrowth of social relations based in family honor. Until the early period, feuds were considered legitimate legal instruments and were regulated to some degree. For example, Serb culture calls this krvna osveta, meaning blood revenge, in the English-speaking world, vendetta is sometimes extended to mean any other long-standing feud, not necessarily involving bloodshed. Sometimes, it is not mutual, but rather refers to a series of hostile acts waged by one person against another without reciprocation. Blood feuds were common in societies with a rule of law. An entire family is considered responsible for any one of them has done. Sometimes two separate branches of the family have even come to blows, or worse, over some dispute. The practice has mostly disappeared with more centralized societies where law enforcement, in Homeric ancient Greece, the practice of personal vengeance against wrongdoers was considered natural and customary, Embedded in the Greek morality of retaliation is the right of vengeance. Feud is a war, just as war is a series of revenges. In the ancient Hebraic context, it was considered the duty of the individual, the executor of the law of blood-revenge who personally put the initial killer to death was given a special designation, goel haddam, the blood-avenger or blood-redeemer. Six Cities of Refuge were established to provide protection and due process for any unintentional manslayers, the avenger was forbidden from harming the unintentional killer if the killer took refuge in one of these cities. According to historian Marc Bloch, The Middle Ages, from beginning to end, the onus, of course, lay above all on the wronged individual, vengeance was imposed on him as the most sacred of duties. The solitary individual, however, could do but little, moreover, it was most commonly a death that had to be avenged
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Late Middle Ages
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The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th and 15th centuries. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the modern era. Around 1300, centuries of prosperity and growth in Europe came to a halt, a series of famines and plagues, including the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the Black Death, reduced the population to around half of what it was before the calamities. Along with depopulation came social unrest and endemic warfare, France and England experienced serious peasant uprisings, such as the Jacquerie and the Peasants Revolt, as well as over a century of intermittent conflict in the Hundred Years War. To add to the problems of the period, the unity of the Catholic Church was shattered by the Western Schism. Collectively these events are called the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages. Despite these crises, the 14th century was also a time of progress in the arts. Following a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman texts that took root in the High Middle Ages, combined with this influx of classical ideas was the invention of printing, which facilitated dissemination of the printed word and democratized learning. These two things would lead to the Protestant Reformation. Toward the end of the period, the Age of Discovery began, the rise of the Ottoman Empire, culminating in the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, eroded the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire and cut off trading possibilities with the east. Europeans were forced to seek new trading routes, leading to the expedition of Columbus to the Americas in 1492 and their discoveries strengthened the economy and power of European nations. The changes brought about by these developments have led scholars to view this period as the end of the Middle Ages and beginning of modern history. However, the division is artificial, since ancient learning was never entirely absent from European society. As a result there was continuity between the ancient age and the modern age. Some historians, particularly in Italy, prefer not to speak of the Late Middle Ages at all, but rather see the period of the Middle Ages transitioning to the Renaissance. The term Late Middle Ages refers to one of the three periods of the Middle Ages, along with the Early Middle Ages and the High Middle Ages, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodization in his History of the Florentine People. Flavio Biondo used a framework in Decades of History from the Deterioration of the Roman Empire. Tripartite periodization became standard after the German historian Christoph Cellarius published Universal History Divided into an Ancient, Medieval, for 18th-century historians studying the 14th and 15th centuries, the central theme was the Renaissance, with its rediscovery of ancient learning and the emergence of an individual spirit
32.
Tours de Merle
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The Tours de Merle are the ruins of a castle in the commune of Saint-Geniez-ô-Merle, in the Corrèze département of France. A feudal fortress from the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, which was subject of a classification as a monument since July 30,1927. In the fourteenth century, Merle included seven castles, two chapels and village, owned by seven noblemen from Merles, during the Hundred Years War, the English took one of the towers and a castle in 1371. In 1574 the Calvinists took the citadel, where established an garrison. But the fortress was abandoned by those who preferred to live in places that were more pleasant, list of castles in France Château de Merle Château de Merle, Mérimée database
33.
Limousin
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Limousin is a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it is part of the new region Nouvelle Aquitaine and it was composed of three departments, Corrèze, Creuse and Haute-Vienne. Situated largely in the Massif Central, as of January 1,2010, forming part of the southwest of France, Limousin is bordered by the regions of Centre to the north, Poitou-Charentes and Aquitaine to the west, Midi-Pyrénées to the south and Auvergne to the east. Limousin is also part of Occitania, the modern region of Limousin is essentially composed of two historical French provinces, Limousin, the department of Corrèze in its entirety and the central and southeastern part of Haute-Vienne. The entire old province of Limousin is contained within the modern Limousin, Marche, most of the department of Creuse and the north of Haute-Vienne. The old province of Marche is almost entirely contained within the region of Limousin. Limoges, the capital and largest city of the province of Limousin, is the capital of the Limousin administrative region. With a slowly rising population of just under 750,000, the population of Limousin is aging and, until 1999, was declining. The department of Creuse has the oldest population of any in France, between 1999 and 2004 the population of Limousin increased slightly, reversing a decline for the first time in decades. Brive-la-Gaillarde Guéret Limoges Panazol Saint-Junien Tulle Ussel Limousin is a rural region. Famed for some of the best beef farming in the world, the region is also a major timber producing area. It is a partnership that is over 100 years old, the regional capital, Limoges, was once an industrial power base, world-renowned for its porcelain and still a leader and innovator in electric equipment factories. However, large factories are now few in number, some of the rivers belonging to the Loire basin run through the north, west and east of the region, waterways belonging to that of the Dordogne through the south. The region is crossed by three rivers, the Vienne, the Dordogne and the Charente. The region is known for the high quality of its water. The Limousin region is almost entirely an upland area, the lowest land is in the northwest of the region and the highest land is roughly in the southeast. However, the part of the region is above 350 m. Limousin is one of the provinces of France
34.
Central Europe
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Central Europe lies between Eastern Europe and Western Europe. The concept of Central Europe is based on a historical, social and cultural identity. Central Europe is going through a phase of strategic awakening, with such as the CEI, Centrope. While the regions economy shows high disparities with regard to income, elements of unity for Western and Central Europe were Roman Catholicism and Latin. According to Hungarian historian Jenő Szűcs, foundations of Central European history at the first millennium were in connection with Western European development. The keyword of Western social development after millennium was the spread of liberties and autonomies in Western Europe and these phenomena appeared in the middle of the 13th century in Central European countries. There were self-governments of towns, counties and parliaments, in 1335 under the rule of the King Charles I of Hungary, the castle of Visegrád, the seat of the Hungarian monarchs was the scene of the royal summit of the Kings of Poland, Bohemia and Hungary. They agreed to cooperate closely in the field of politics and commerce, in the Middle Ages, countries in Central Europe adopted Magdeburg rights. Before 1870, the industrialization that had developed in Western and Central Europe, even in Eastern Europe, industrialization lagged far behind. Russia, for example, remained rural and agricultural. The concept of Central Europe was already known at the beginning of the 19th century, an example of that-time vision of Central Europe may be seen in J. Partsch’s book of 1903. On 21 January 1904, Mitteleuropäischer Wirtschaftsverein was established in Berlin with economic integration of Germany, another time, the term Central Europe became connected to the German plans of political, economic and cultural domination. The bible of the concept was Friedrich Naumann’s book Mitteleuropa in which he called for a federation to be established after the war. The concept failed after the German defeat in World War I, the revival of the idea may be observed during the Hitler era. According to Emmanuel de Martonne, in 1927 the Central European countries included, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, italy and Yugoslavia are not considered by the author to be Central European because they are located mostly outside Central Europe. The author use both Human and Physical Geographical features to define Central Europe, the interwar period brought new geopolitical system and economic and political problems, and the concept of Central Europe took a different character. The centre of interest was moved to its eastern part – the countries that have appeared on the map of Europe, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, however, the conflict of interests was too big and neither Little Entente nor Intermarium ideas succeeded. The interwar period brought new elements to the concept of Central Europe, after the war, the Eastern part of Central Europe was placed at the centre of the concept
35.
Franconia
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However, there is no fixed area that is officially defined as Franconia. The German word Franken - Franconians - also refers to the people group and they are to be distinguished from the Germanic tribe of the Franks and who historically formed their easternmost settlement area. The origins of Franconia lie in the settlement of the Franks from the 6th century in the area probably populated until then mainly by the Elbe Germanic people in the Main river area. Known from the 9th century as Francia Orientalis. in the Middle Ages the region formed much of the part of the Duchy of Franconia and, from 1500. In the course of the restructuring of the south German states by Napoleon after the demise of the Holy Roman Empire, the German name for Franconia, Franken, comes from the dative plural form of Franke, a member of the Germanic tribe known as the Franks. The onomatologists largely follow the book compiled by early medieval scholar, Saint Isidore of Seville. This syllable occurs in the Middle Dutch vrac, avaricious, and old Norwegian frakkr, quick, bold, according to this the Franks were thus the brave ones, courageous ones or audacious ones. From the 9th century the name no longer referred to the whole of France, but increasingly to the region along the River Main. The German word frank in the sense of free is, by contrast, not a description of the Franks. Not until the 15th century was the German word frei borrowed from the French, other large rivers include the upper Werra in Thuringia and the Tauber, as well as the upper Jagst and Kocher streams in the west, both right tributaries of the Neckar. In southern Middle Franconia, the Altmühl flows towards the Danube, the man-made Franconian Lake District has become a popular destination for day-trippers and tourists. The landscape is characterized by numerous Mittelgebirge ranges of the German Central Uplands, to the north rise the Rennsteig ridge of the Thuringian Forest, the Thuringian Highland and the Franconian Forest, the border with the Upper Saxon lands of Thuringia. In the east, the Fichtel Mountains lead to Vogtland, Bohemian Egerland in the Czech Republic, the hills of the Franconian Jura in the south mark the border with the Upper Bavarian region, historical Swabia, and the Danube basin. The northern parts of the Upper Bavarian Eichstätt District, territory of the historical Bishopric of Eichstätt, are counted as part of Franconia. In the west, Franconia proper comprises the Tauber Franconia region along the Tauber river, the states larger Heilbronn-Franken region also includes the adjacent Hohenlohe and Schwäbisch Hall districts. In the city of Heilbronn, beyond the Haller Ebene plateau, furthermore, in those easternmost parts of the Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis which had formerly belonged to the Bishopric of Würzburg, the inhabitants have preserved their Franconian identity. Franconian areas in East Hesse along Spessart and Rhön comprise Gersfeld, the two largest cities of Franconia are Nuremberg and Würzburg. Though located on the periphery of the area, the Nuremberg metropolitan area is often identified as the economic
36.
Hesse
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Hesse or Hessia is a federal state of the Federal Republic of Germany, with just over six million inhabitants. The state capital is Wiesbaden, the largest city is Frankfurt am Main, the English name Hesse originates in the Hessian dialects. The variant Hessia comes from the medieval Latin Hassia, the German term Hessen is used by the European Commission because their policy is to leave regional names untranslated. The term Hesse ultimately derives from a Germanic tribe called the Chatti, an inhabitant of Hesse is called a Hessian. The synthetic element hassium, number 108 on the table, is named after the state of Hesse. As early as the Paleolithic period, the Central Hessian region was inhabited, due to the favorable climate of the location, people lived there about 50,000 years ago during the last glacial period, as burial sites show from this era. Finds of paleolitical tools in southern Hesse in Rüsselsheim suggest Pleistocene hunters about 13,000 years ago, the Züschen tomb is a prehistoric burial monument, located between Lohne and Züschen, near Fritzlar, Hesse, Germany. Classified as a grave or a Hessian-Westphalian stone cist, it is one of the most important megalithic monuments in Central Europe. Dating to the fourth millennium BC, it belongs to the Late Neolithic Wartberg culture. An early Celtic presence in what is now Hesse is indicated by a mid-fifth-century BC La Tène style burial uncovered at Glauberg, the region was later settled by the Germanic Chatti tribe around the first century BC, and the name Hesse is a continuation of that tribal name. The ancient Romans had a camp in Dorlar, and in Waldgirmes directly on the eastern outskirts of Wetzlar was a civil settlement under construction. Presumably, the government for the occupied territories of the right bank of Germania was planned at this location. The governor of Germania, at least temporarily, likely had resided here, the settlement appears to have been abandoned by the Romans after the devastating Battle of the Teutoburg Forest failed in the year 9 AD. The Chatti were also involved in the Revolt of the Batavi in 69 AD, Hessia occupies the northwestern part of the modern German state of Hesse, its borders were not clearly delineated. Its geographic center is Fritzlar, it extends in the southeast to Hersfeld on the Fulda river, in the north to past Kassel and up to the rivers Diemel, to the west, it occupies the valleys of the rivers Eder and Lahn. It measured roughly 90 kilometers north-south, and 80 north-west, the area around Fritzlar shows evidence of significant pagan belief from the first century on. Excavations have produced a horse burial and bronze artifacts, a possible religious cult may have centered on a natural spring in Geismar, called Heilgenbron, the name Geismar itself may be derived from that spring. By 650, the Franks were establishing themselves as overlords, which is suggested by evidence of burials
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Rhine
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The largest city on the river Rhine is Cologne, Germany, with a population of more than 1,050,000 people. It is the second-longest river in Central and Western Europe, at about 1,230 km, with an average discharge of about 2,900 m3/s. The Rhine and the Danube formed most of the inland frontier of the Roman Empire and, since those days. The many castles and fortifications along the Rhine testify to its importance as a waterway in the Holy Roman Empire, in the modern era, it has become a symbol of German nationalism. The variant of the name of the Rhine in modern languages are all derived from the Gaulish name Rēnos, spanish is with French in adopting the Germanic vocalism Rin-, while Italian, Occitan and Portuguese retain the Latin Ren-. The Gaulish name Rēnos belongs to a class of river names built from the PIE root *rei- to move, flow, run, the grammatical gender of the Celtic name is masculine, and the name remains masculine in German, Dutch and French. The Old English river name was variously inflected as masculine or feminine, the length of the Rhine is conventionally measured in Rhine-kilometers, a scale introduced in 1939 which runs from the Old Rhine Bridge at Constance to Hoek van Holland. The river length is shortened from the rivers natural course due to a number of canalisation projects completed in the 19th and 20th century. The total length of the Rhine, to the inclusion of Lake Constance and its course is conventionally divided as follows, The Rhine carries its name without distinctive accessories only from the confluence of the Vorderrhein and Hinterrhein near Tamins-Reichenau. Above this point is the catchment of the headwaters of the Rhine. It belongs almost exclusively to the Swiss Canton of Graubünden, ranging from Gotthard Massif in the west via one valley lying in Ticino, traditionally, Lake Toma near the Oberalp Pass in the Gotthard region is seen as the source of the Vorderrhein and the Rhine as a whole. The Hinterrhein rises in the Rheinwald valley below Mount Rheinwaldhorn, the Vorderrhein, or Anterior Rhine, springs from Lai da Tuma, near the Oberalp Pass and passes the impressive Ruinaulta formed by the largest visible rock slide in the alps, the Flims Rockslide. A multiday trekking route is signposted along the young Rhine called Senda Sursilvana, the Hinterrhein/Rein Posteriur, or Posterior Rhine, starts from the Paradies Glacier, near the Rheinwaldhorn. One of its tributaries, the Reno di Lei, drains the Valle di Lei on politically Italian territory, after three main valleys separated by the two gorges, Roflaschlucht and Viamala, it reaches Reichenau. The Vorderrhein arises from numerous source streams in the upper Surselva, one source is Lai da Tuma with the Rein da Tuma, which is usually indicated as source of the Rhine, flowing through it. Into it flow tributaries from the south, some longer, some equal in length, such as the Reno di Medel, the Rein da Maighels, and the Rein da Curnera. The Cadlimo Valley in the Canton of Ticino is drained by the Reno di Medel, all streams in the source area are partially, sometimes completely, captured and sent to storage reservoirs for the local hydro-electric power plants. In its lower course the Vorderrhein flows through a gorge named Ruinaulta through the Flims Rockslide, the whole stretch of the Vorderrhein to the Rhine confluence near Reichenau-Tamins is accompanied by a long-distance hiking trail called Senda Sursilvana
38.
Swabia
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Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. This territory would include all of the Alemannic German area, but the concept of Swabia is more restricted. Swabians are the natives of Swabia and speakers of Swabian German and their number was estimated at close to 0.8 million by SIL Ethnologue as of 2006, compared to a total population of 7.5 million in the regions of Tübingen, Stuttgart and Bavarian Swabia. Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabias borders are not clearly defined, like all of Southern Germany, Swabia was part of the La Tène culture, and as such has a Celtic substrate. In the Roman era, it was part of the Raetia province, in the third century, it was gradually settled by the Elbe Germanic Suebi and other components that came to make up the Alemanni. The Alemanni were ruled by independent kings throughout the fourth and fifth centuries, Swabia became a duchy under the Frankish Empire in 496, following the Battle of Tolbiac. Swabia was one of the stem duchies of East Francia. Due to the foundation of the important abbeys of St. Gallen and Reichenau, in the following years the original duchy gradually broke up into many smaller units. Rudolf I of Habsburg, elected in 1273 as emperor, tried to restore the duchy, but met the opposition of the higher nobility who aimed to limit the power of the emperor. The rural regions were merged into the Reichslandvogtei of Swabia, which was given as Imperial Pawn to Duke Leopold III of Austria in 1379 and again to Sigismund and he took the title of a Prince of Swabia and integrated the Landvogtei of Swabia in the realm of Further Austria. Charlemagnes family is known to have hailed from Swabia, the major dynasties that arose out of the region were the Habsburgs and the Hohenzollerns, who rose to prominence in Northern Germany. Also stemming from Swabia are the dynasties of the dukes of Württemberg. The Welf family went on to rule in Bavaria and Hanover, smaller feudal dynasties eventually disappeared, however, for example, branches of the Montforts and Hohenems lived until modern times, and the Fürstenberg survive still. The territory of Swabia as understood today emerges in the modern period. It corresponds to the Swabian Circle established in 1512, the Old Swiss Confederacy was de facto independent from Swabia from 1499 as a result of the Swabian War, while the Margraviate of Baden had been detached from Swabia since the twelfth century. Fearing the power of the princes, the cities and smaller secular rulers of Swabia joined to form the Swabian League in the fifteenth century. The region was divided by the Reformation. In the wake of the reorganization of the empire of 1803 by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss
39.
Baden
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Baden is a historical German territory. Together with Württemberg and the former Prussian province of Hohenzollern, two other territories, it currently forms the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg. Finally, the state of Baden-Württemberg was formed a few years later, history of Baden List of states in the Holy Roman Empire Baden-Württemberg Province of Hohenzollern Württemberg Baden in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
