English Translation

- 4 - 1 2 the important transition of the great North-South trade route over the Möldau. The castle of this time, as Vogt proves, had a new face and through the Germanic influence had undergone a change towards the past. "The new guarantors were bases of the princely power in the country and at the same time fortified settlements of the Prince or his castle count and the prince's followers. In these castles we find already the two characteristics, which constitute the term castle: they were fortifications and settlements, and that is the layer, which was the bearer of the political power. If we are allowed to assume Germanic-German influence in the way the castles are constructed, their task also reveals - as far as we can see with the not quite certain sources - the influence of Germanic and German life forms. Just as the development of a tighter princely power had already taken place according to the Franconian-German model, so the establishment of the following as the military basis of power of the Pürstentum points to the takeover from the Germanic cultural circle, whereby especially the Vikings were thought of as mediators. It is not yet clear how far Viking influence, which was particularly important in Russia, but also in Poland, stood at the cradle of state life in the Sudeten countries. But the fact that in Bohemia and Moravia we can expect the existence of the following system shows that the influence of Vikings cannot be completely denied in our countries either. The princely followers were now set up on the individual castles, which as fortified settlements of this "state-supporting" layer became bases of the princely power in the country. Exactly the same development of the castle system can be traced in Poland. With the unification of Bohemia under the princely family of the Pschemislids, the castles became the center of the prince's administration". -5-