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/TyleKurris 21h ago

The math ain't mathing

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u/calijnaar 20h ago

25.000 castles (well, at least by that articles definition of a castle). 20% of which are still intact. That's 5.000. Another 40% are ruins,but still visible overground, That's 10.000. So 15.000 that are still somewhat recognisable as castles, which is more than the 13.000 and something McDonald's in the US.

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u/GamingNeos 15h ago

Why include ruins but still visible overground? I think a more accurate count would be your 5,000, if you want to could rubble, then shouldn’t you count anything that once used to be a McDonald’s or closed McDonald’s?

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u/calijnaar 15h ago

I don't know, I think the whole premise is nonsense anyway. German 'Burg' doesn't map exactly onto English 'castle' and the definition used in the linked article is far from what you'd call a 'Burg' in everyday speech. They basically included anything that had any kind of fortification, plus palaces and things that probably wouldn't quite qualify as palaces in English. So you end up with things counted as castles that are essentially manor houses or glorified hunting lodges. And I'd say you definitely shouldn't include things that are just lumps and bumps in the ground. We can argue about whether ruined castles should be included, I'd personally go for if most of the structure is still standing and you're just missing the roof or something, it might be okay to include it, if there's only half a wall remaining, not so much. If you use a halfway plausible definition of castle, you'll definitely end up with less castles than McDonald's in the US. I'm not even sure you wouldn't end up with more McDonald's in Germany than castles, although that would be a closer call. But then, how would you get a good click-baitey title?

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u/nick2473got 20h ago

It's mathing. They took the 25k number and excluded the 40% that are just traces in the ground, thereby including the intact ones and the ruins.

60% of 25k = 15k.

15k > 14k (number of McDonald's in the US).

The math has mathed.