This surname of ALTSCHULER is a German and Ashkenazic Jewish name, which was originally derived from the Yiddish ALT (old) + SHUL (synagogue, school). The reason for the adoption of the name is unclear. Other spellings include ALTHUSSER, ALTSCHUL, ALTSCHULLER and ALTSHULER. Surnames which were derived from ancient Germanic personal names have the same meaning in many languages. The court of Charlemagne (Charles the Great, king of the Franks (742-814) was Christian and Latin speaking). The vernacular was the Frankish dialect of Old High German, and the personal names in use were Germanic and vernacular. These names were adopted in many parts of northwest Europe, particularly among the noble ruling classes. Hereditary surnames were found in Germany in the second half of the 12th century - a little later than in England and France. It was about the 16th century that they became stabilized. Louis ALTHUSSER (1918-90) was the political philosopher, born in Algiers. He studied in Algiers and in France, was imprisoned in concentration camps during World War II, and from 1948, taught in Paris. He joined the Communist Party in 1948, and wrote influential works on Marxist theory. When traditional Jews were forced to take family names by the local bureaucracy, it was an obligation imposed from outside traditional society, and people often took the names playfully and let their imaginations run wild by choosing names which corresponded to nothing real in their world. No one alive today can remember the times when Jews took or were given family names (for most Ashkenazim this was the end of the 18th century or the beginning of the 19th) although many remember names being changed after emigration to other countries, such as the United States and Israel in recent years. In the Middle Ages heraldry came into use as a practical matter. It originated in the devices used to distinguish the armoured warriors in tournament and war, and was also placed on seals as marks of identity. As far as records show, true heraldry began in the middle of the 12th century, and appeared almost simultaneously in several countries of Western Europe.