In his Stammesbildung und Verfassung (1961), Wenskus argued that Germanic peoples were not organized upon biological kinship, but instead based their identity upon being led by small warrior elite who maintained the core tradition () of the tribe. He also theorized that the "barbarian" peoples of the Migration Period maintained ethnic identities distinguishing them from the Romance peoples, and referred to this ideology of "barbarian" ethnic identity as Gentilismus. Wenskus' ideas have been highly influential on modern understanding on "barbarian" identity. It contributed to the development of the ethnogenesis concept, and the emergence of the Vienna School of History.
