König
also Koenig
'The king', the man who won the shooting-match.
- Origin
- German
- Register
- German family
The seat of König
Seat vacantChief
No one leads the König community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.
Current mission
No shared goal set yet. Once König has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.
The König clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.
Help rebuild the König clan →What does the König name mean?
Descriptive, Middle High German künic, king, a nickname, never a title: for a man who lorded it over his fellows, or who won the marksmen's contest to be crowned 'king' for the year. Cognate of English King.
The history of König
König almost never meant a real king. It marked the man who carried himself like one, or, far more often, the man who won his town's Schützenfest, the marksmen's festival where the best shot of the year is crowned its König and reigns over the beer and the parade until the next. The German twin of the English nickname-surname King, it is common across the whole language.
It is borne worldwide as Koenig, the spelling that carries the lost umlaut through the diaspora.
The castles of the homeland
The great strongholds of the homeland, look one up, see what it looked like in its prime, and recreate it to explore.
Neuschwanstein CastleStill standing · prime 1886
Hohenzollern CastleRestored · prime 1867
Eltz CastleStill standing · prime 1615All castles in Germany → · Strongest castles in Germany → · Castles of Europe
Play As Your Clan
Hold a real castle against whatever you choose to send at it, take a ship out in her own service years, or stand at the shoulder of someone the record remembers. The chronicler sets the scene; the deeds are yours.