The assumption that the Germans had no coats of arms before the 12th century and that the latter only began to develop under oriental influence has hitherto been considered a foregone conclusion, about which no debate is permissible any more. However, even with the first, only superficial, assumption, the important fact arouses justifiable doubts about the incontestability of such a dogma, namely the fact that it is worth noting that only the Germans, and only those European peoples who had adopted German culture, knew and used coats of arms , while specifically the Orient, not even the westernmost part of it, has the slightest idea of what we call coats of arms, what we call heraldry, quite apart from the proto-Germanic nobility and its peculiar ranks, which is completely unknown to the oriental peoples.
If the Germans from the Orient had brought home the knowledge of coats of arms, even the most modest beginnings of heraldry, then logically the Orient of the Crusade period must have known coats of arms. Since, however, both in the Orient and elsewhere outside of Germany and German culture, coats of arms and everything that is inseparably connected with them were and still are unknown things, Germany itself must necessarily be the country of origin of heraldic science and heraldic art be what the task of the present work is to prove.
71 p., several illustrations, softcover
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