I came here to point out the difference between Schloss and Burg. However, I would not say that German is necessarily more accurate than English in this sense. For example, as a Scot myself, I could point to places like Holyrood Palace, Falkland Palace, Linlithgow Palace that are all almost purely representational, but I could again point to Glamis Castle or Dunrobin Castle that have military fortifications going back to the 13th or 14th century but have extremely palace-like Renaissance features with very typical round turrets. So when we look at the different architectural periods in different countries we have to take the different traditions into account.

@Alice Milne Yes, I just noticed that many English speakers almost always use Castle instead of Burg or Schloss, including translation apps.

@@alicemilne1444 That's great - but why is Neuschwanstein called a castle in English? It has no military or strategic value whatsoever. By your logic it should be "Palace Neuschwanstein", but then again "Palast" means something different in German. In some areas of Germany, the denomination of "Schloss" was strictly limited to the residences of the territorial ruler, other buildings like this by wealthy people would be called "Herrenhaus", "Gutshaus" and so on. The German feudal system was different from the one found in the area that is now the United Kingdom, so it's no wonder different words exist.

Danke. Mein Englisch ist nicht gut genug. Hab gerade geguckt was der Unterschied in der englischen Sprache ist....

Today a Schloss is a palace, a Festung is a Fortress of firearms age, and a Burg is a fortified Castle of medieval era. But in older days, the words had been used interchangeable. For example in 16. century Württemberg, some medieval castles had been modernized to fortresses, but called Bergschloss.

...das finde ich auch.

Genau! Hier wurde Geschichte geschrieben. Die anderen Burgen/Schlösser sind nur hübsch. ;)

Very good! I wanted to provide the same hint. I was really very surprised that Martin Luther's name wasn't even mentioned (despite me being a catholic). The Reformation was an important historical event not only for Germany.

Wartburgfest?

And then there is Herrenhaus > Manor, which sometimes look to foreigners as castles.

Objection. A Palast was not limited to royalty, just to wealth. Also, the restriction of "Schloss" to the residence of a territorial ruler was not prevalent in all of Germany.

@@Uli_Krosse of course, there are always exceptions. I was speaking in general terms, which can't be denied.

A Burg is actually not in first instance a military building, the term in it's most narrow meaning very much refers to a building that was build in the medieval age and was home to at least a family of low nobility (Ritter/knights). Burgen were built to withstand attacks, but a lot of them never had to. Really, their main purpose was to be the home of a noble family and to also act as the administratrative center, the place of court for a territory and as a symbol of control over an area. It was also like a small to middle-sized business operation with horse breeding, cheese making, wine making ect. in a slightly bigger style than the farmers would to it, although a lot of that would be used to feed the inhabitants of the castle itself. Castles were not "military" buildings in the actual sense, they weren't places to station troops or something like that as with Roman fortresses for example. What we now call a Schloss can just be a modified castle, a lot of Schlösser are (Schloss Marburg for example started as a castle). They can still have many of the same defensive structures as a castle, but they are now mainly just rural country houses of nobles or otherwise rich people without that much of an economic or administritive purpose. A Festung is a building that is mainly used for military purposes, often a base for troops. We mostly use it for the kind of heavily fortified military buildings we see with the start of the early modern period in the 16th century. We talk about buildings built for war with guns and big cannons, Americans would call them forts I guess. Often with star-shaped designs to allow the best angles for heavy artillery. But it can also be used for the military-only buildings of Romans and other pre-medieval civilizations with standing armies. A Palast/Palace is kinda similar to a Schloss, but usually urban, belonging more to the absolute high nobility or even a king or archbishop and they usually have a certain representative value and they tend to be much bigger because of all that.

@@Kuhmuhnistische_Partei well, yes, my comment isn't as precise as your explanation, but I didn't want to write an essay like you. There is such a thing as "close enough"... My point was, that there are differences between German and English and that you cannot smoothly translate what buildings are/were with just a single word.

:-D thx for writing. I love the 'Marksburg' still mostly in its building shape .

Yes, qa Burg is a home with military value (at its time), a Schloss is the poser version - nobles of old lived in a Burg, but it doesn't add any extra defensive value, so they just made it just look like one.

exactly, that's one reason the number of castles are so high in germany, as residential and military ones are counted together in the english word "castle". Another reason obviously is the late unification of all the different german states, so they each had their own military and residential castles.

In old days the words Burg , Schloss and Feste ( Veste) had been often used interchangeable, in contrast to now. And in swabian region also the word Schlössle exists, can be every old , but small representative building .

I know what region you mean. 😁 And the most stunning castle (Burg) around there is Burg Kriebstein. I think its one of the best originally preserved in Germany and the location on the rock is crazy too.

Been to Festung Königstein a few times and It's definitely worth more than one visit. I'm also a big fan of little Schloss Pillnitz and it's beautiful park. Greetings from the Lüneburger Heide, which has a real shortage of castles, but at least quite many interesting convents. 😊

So why does it has a cross on top ? 🙂

@@Yulo2000Leyje Why not? Could now be used as a church tower, but it was probably not built as one.

It was probably not that often the case that people would starve to death, actually we don't have much evidence of people actually using the Bergfried as last line of defense in any way. Usually, when the enemies comes into the castle, it's over anyway and there was no point. It would maybe be a wise thing to do when you know your allies would be there in like a day or so. The nobles wouldn't have that much too lose, they were usually not killed, but just captured. Which often just meant sitting in a fancy room with service and all. And by the way, the entrance often had quite solid stairs. Sometimes there was like a little gap with a small drawing bridge or just some planks you could remove, but it wouldn't be that difficult to put someone there as a improvised bridge and getting the door open was then just a matter of hours. It was probably mostly supposed to look impressive.

Saying so he gave his personal opinion. Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, and there is always something more beautiful than something. Yet by and large, on avergae, it is safe to say that British castle cannot compare to German castles regarding beauty.

Ach, die paar Hundert Jahre... 😂

Veste Coburg is Nr. 1 for me

Definitiv "Veste Coburg"