r/interestingasfuck • u/The_Love-Tap • 22h ago

Germany has more castles than the United States has McDonald’s. This is the Eltz castle, located in Wiershem. It has been owned and occupied by the same family for 33 generations over 800 years

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u/Hunkus1 21h ago

There are 2 words we use Schloss which is for castles people permanently lived in and Burg which is for millitary fortifications.

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u/DisorderedArray 21h ago

Yes, I didn't want to come across angry about it, but in my experience (as someone who moved to Germany) when Germans translate schloss into English, they always use the word castle, and as lovely as all those buildings were, I was always a bit disappointed about the complete absence of defensive structures.

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u/LittleMsWhoops 21h ago

I actually think palace is a more accurate translation for Schloss, as in Buckingham Palace = Schloss Buckingham and on thr other hand Windsor Castle = Burg Windsor.

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u/DisorderedArray 20h ago

Yes, I think you're completely right. But for whatever reason, I've never heard anyone in Germany translate schloss to palace, except for my German wife, and only after years of me bitching about the lack of battlements and moats in all the schloss we have visited.

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u/Sh1n1ngM4n 20h ago

That’s probably because Germans speak English well, but often not well enough to differentiate the intricate nuances of medieval architecture- lol.

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u/jenioeoeoe 19h ago

Or maybe its also because we have the word Palast which means palace too. And not every Schloss is a Palast

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u/Myrialle 19h ago

Because palace gets translated to Palast, and a Palast is only one kind of Schloss. 

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u/SpunkyMcButtlove07 17h ago

A Palace is a "Palast" in german, though.

Burg = Defensive structure that might also be used as a place of residence.

Schloss = fancy "we live here"-castle, less defensive.

Palast = super duper fancy "we live here" big big house. Not a defensive structure.

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u/koomGER 21h ago

German here, but not an expert in english.

I would say "Schloss" is often more like a very big manor. But even in german we have several buildings that would be considered more as a "Burg" (generally: military fortificated building with walls). Biggest and most well known example is "Schloss Neuschwanstein", that overall more resembles the definition of a Burg.

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u/Jazzlike-_-Growth 20h ago

And because it's not fun enough:
There is also a Schloss Burg.

I'd say palace is closest to Schloss.
(Though not quite identical, as Palace would be Palast, but it's closer)

Buckingham Palace, Palace of Versailles, Winter Palace, Palace of Justice, etc.

A Schloss can be smaller than a palace, but palaces also don't have to be enormous.

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u/koomGER 20h ago

I'd say palace is closest to Schloss.

Yeah, that fits really good!

And yeah, Schloss Burg makes everything worse. ;-)

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u/jfl561407 19h ago

This one is a Burg though, so plenty of defensive structures. I believe it was built to control the confluence of two traffic areas, but I was there almost 30 years ago, so my memory is a little lacking. I remember a cool armory too.

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u/Square-Singer 21h ago

Schloss = palace, burg = fortress. Castle just means either of them.

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u/DisorderedArray 16h ago

Castle does not mean palace. Schloss does. 

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u/Square-Singer 16h ago

Then why is Neuschwanstein a Castle in English and a Schloss in German? It's not fortified at all, it's just a fancy palace.

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u/DisorderedArray 13h ago

It's a folly. A folly designed to look like a castle. 

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u/Square-Singer 13h ago

And yet it's called "Neuschwanstein Castle" in English. Similar to a lot of other places that are called "Schloss" in German.

Schloss and castle aren't mutually exclusive terms.

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u/DisorderedArray 5h ago

And if you would care to read my earlier posts, you will be able to see that I am only referring to translating from Schloss, which is almost always translated to castle by Germans in Germany. Because of this, one should not assume that all 14,000 'castles' mentioned are actually castles. 

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u/Sh1n1ngM4n 20h ago

Can we add Residenz, Lustschloss, Anwesen, Palast, Festung and a few others to that 😂😂

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u/robot_pirate 2m ago

Then the name Schlossberg is very odd to me.