In Germany, whence the conquerors came, the common holding of land rendered governmental organisation personal, not real.

In general, the Germans were not agricultural peoples, although some Germanic nations, such as the Franks and the Burgundians did eventually dedicate themselves to agriculture. Nevertheless, in all cases they preserved for a long time tribal rather than State organisation.
The organisation was as follows. Germany was divided into peoples corresponding to the ancient italic cities.

Each people consisted of various tribes, or great families called fare. The heads of the families were called farones, from which we have `barons'. This was the natural division.
Governmental division was manifest in a king, the supreme head in time of war. During peace, his authority was extremely limited.
Various fare formed a gau corresponding first to the Latin pagus and in later centuries to the comitatus. It was governed by a graf, or count, with a counsel of sworn assistants, or skapins, who can be likened to assessors. Other officials, known as centenarii, or sculdassii (scultheis), and decani, were heads and judges over a hundred families or over ten families. The jurisdiction of these officials was AT FIRST PERSONAL, AND THEREFORE MOBILE AND PERIPATETIC. It became real and geographic as a result of the conquest of sections of the Roman empire where the immigrant Germanic nations acquired ownership of a third (in the case of the Heruli, Goths and Lombards) or two thirds (in the case of the Burgundians) of the lands they had conquered. In these cases, either there was no common land-holding, or it soon disappeared. Every family of harimans, that is, of free soldiers, had its own portion of land.
Dell'Economia politica del medio evo, Bk. 1, c. 1 (Turin edition, 1839)