The Village, center of the universe for the typical medieval German, as anyone would easily imagine, was of meager huts, dirt roads, primitive or no sanitary outlets and a population constantly facing danger from every aspect of life. The village was target for invaders constantly swooping in from land and sea and from every neighboring country, district and kingdom. And yet the village survived or revived to provide some consolation and sense of community to its inhabitants throughout the Middle Ages.

The Villagers, in their life of endless toil, ceased daily labor only for the questionable refuge of dark huts that offered little relief from the miseries of the elements. In fact, they only traded the exterior elements of weather for often worse interior elements. Fires that warmed the home and cooked the meager meals made breathing a choking, laborious task. In reflecting on the conditions in the typical village I marvel that civilization ever survived, much less progressed.

Germany remains a land of thousands of villages, still producing the nation's crop and, in many ways, remaining the center of the universe for its residents. The living conditions have certainly improved. When considering the size of Germany's population it is natural to assume there remains little land left for agricultural activities. But even today we can drive hours without entering a major city. And that is part of the pleasure of free-style traveling and castle hunting in Germany. In Germany the village is forever.