Reflections on the Medieval German Nobility

Abstract

As TIMOTHY REUTER OBSERVED, the nobility has been one of the main concerns of medieval historians since the second world war, but surprisingly little European scholarship on the subject is generally known in the English-speaking world.' Except for Reuter's own translations of a number of important articles, only Georges Duby's studies have been readily accessible to English and American students.2 German scholars have concentrated on the origins of the nobility, the structural transformation of the aristocratic kindred, and the rise of the ministerials. German medievalists began to investigate these topics during the Nazi period,3 but two postwar political developments have stimulated German interest in the nobility. The movement for a united Europe that has invoked Charlemagne as its patron saint-the headquarters of the Common Market are located in the Charlemagne Building in Brussels4-has focused attention on the common Frankish heritage of France and Germany and the nobility's role in the creation