Editing Cadency (section)

===  Germany  ===

German noble houses did not use cadency marks as systematically as their European peers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dr-bernhard-peter.de/Heraldik/seite38.htm|title=realtime.at – Domain gecatcht|website=www.dr-bernhard-peter.de|access-date=6 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090321004148/http://www.dr-bernhard-peter.de/Heraldik/seite38.htm|archive-date=21 March 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> The sons of noblemen often bore their father's arms, and generally there was no obligation or expectation that they be differenced.

The most common means of differencing was the use of different [[crest (heraldry)|heraldic crests]] to mark apart otherwise identical achievements borne by different branches of a family. Other, less frequent forms include counter-changing or the replacement of individual tinctures, or the addition of ordinaries. Bordures and labels were used occasionally, though not doctrinally. Perhaps the most prominent German family to adopt a system of bordures was the [[House of Hohenzollern]].

As a result of the [[Holy Roman Empire|Holy Roman Empire's]] heavy fragmentation, which form saw more prominent use and when was also influenced by general trends and geographic proximity; for example, the heraldic tradition of the [[Low Countries]] and the [[Rhineland]] saw a great deal of influence by its [[French heraldry|French]] neighbor.