In Germany, the title of Vogt (advocatus or "advocate") was given not only to the advocati of churches and abbeys but also, from early in the Middle Ages, to officials appointed by the Holy Roman Emperor to administer lands directly under his dominion, as opposed to the comital domains, owned by counts who had become hereditary princes of the Empire.
Though the site has probably been fortified since the 9th century, the present castle was built at the start of the 11th century, by the Counts of Eguisheim-Dabo, then advocatus.
Giso IV acquired considerable possessions and bailiwicks via her, mostly in the Werra area, the Upper Lahngau and on the Rhine — among these were the advocatus positions over Hersfeld Abbey and the St. Florins church in Koblenz.
The collection included e.g. the allod villages of Bellevaux, Mogimont, Senseruth, and Assenois, the advocacy of the monastery of Saint-Hubert and Ardennes, and the land to the south of Bouillon, formerly the land of the abbey of Mouzon, now held as a fief of the Archbishop of Reims.
He dedicated this work to the Bernese patrician and poet, Johann von Rinkenberg, advocatus (Vogt) of Brienz (d. c. 1350).