Twenty-one papers, from a conference held in Schloss Neuwaldegg in Austria in 1998, examine the ethnic identity and social organisation of the populations of Europe, particularly central Europe, during the post-Roman period. The emphasis is on the ways in which nomadic tribes integrated with indigenous populations, filling the political vacuum left by the Romans. Contributors discuss the influence of the papacy and the church, Frankish kings, the Carolingian empire, the Ostrogoths and Visigoths, the ethnic identity of the early Slavs and their rulers, and the transformation from Roman bureaucrats to medieval warlords. Thirteen papers, including the conclusion, are in English, the rest in German.