Sorbs

The Sorbs are a Slavic minority indigenous to the region known as Lusatia in the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg (in former GDR territory). They are or were also known as Lusatians, Wends Lusatian Serbs or Serbs of Luzice.

Demographic

Since ethnicity is not a legal category in Germany for German citizens, their number can only be guessed. The constitutions of Brandenburg and Saxony explicitly forbid any inquiry about ethnicity. But every citizen is free to view himself/herself as a Sorb and thus choose his/her ethnic identity, which explicitly must not be testified or examined by any state authority. Current estimates speak of 20,000 to 30,000 active speakers of Sorbian (almost all of them are bilingual) and about 60,000 people who subjectively consider themselves Sorbs.

History

Historically, the Sorbs are the last remainder of the once-mighty Polabian Slavic peoples living in most of what is now eastern Germany until the high Middle Ages. The Sorbs arrived in the area now known as Lusatia during the 5th century A.D. In the years since then, the Sorbs have often fallen under foreign rule. While they have predominately been under German control, they were under Polish occupation in the 11th century and under Bohemian rule from the mid 14th century until the Peace of Prague in 1635 . Most Slavs in the area were Germanised or driven away during the German Drang nach Osten of the 12th and 13th centuries. The Sorbs have been a much-persecuted group of western Slavs, especially in Nazi Germany, which viewed Slavs as a people designed to be slaves for the Aryan race.

At the end of the 19th century there were 150,000 Sorbian speakers in Lusatia, the majority of whom were monolingual. However the Sorbs were quickly becoming Germanized on a mass-level, a phenomenon spurred on by industrialization. By the 1920s the majority of Sorbian speakers were bilingual. The Sorbs were the victims of forced Germanization from 1933 to 1945, viewed by the Nazis as Sorbian-speaking Germans, rather than ethnic Slavs. With this distinction, the Nazis aimed to “re-Germanize” the Sorbs, a process which involved removing Sorbian from street signs and Germanizing Sorbian names in official documents. The Nazis also sought to eliminate the Slavic tendencies of the Sorbs by banning the Domowina in 1937 and banning the last remaining Sorbian-language newspaper, the Catholic paper Katolski Posol, in 1939. Sorbian teachers and priests were deported from the Reich, and those explicitly labeled as “Sorbian nationalists” were sent to concentration camps.

After World War 2

Following the end of the war, three million Germans were expelled from Silesia and the Sudetenland. Many of these people moved to Lusatia, where they were confronted with a Germany with clear Slavic colorings. The confusion of this ethnic and linguistic mix increased Sorbian-German tensions in the area. Even before this influx of Bohemian Germans, as a result of industrialization and Germanization, by the 1940s Sorbs were a minority in Lusatia. Their numbers were greatest in rural areas, where Sorbian speakers made up between 35% and 40 % of the population.

However, despite their minority status, in 1945 the Sorbs, driven by their experiences with Nazi oppression, sought to be recognized as an independent state and asked for Czechoslovak protection. The Lusatian Sorb National Council in Bautzen was the main force behind this movement, succeeding in convincing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Prague to forward memoranda to Moscow, urging Czechoslovak military occupation of Lusatia.

The Sorbs received no response to their petition; Sorbian independence did not align with Soviet socialist policy. The Soviets were also unwilling to cede Lusatia due to practical territorial concerns. Unluckily for the Sorbs, politics demanded that the Czechs choose the Soviets over their Slav sympathies in this period directly following World War II. While the Czechs were drawn to the Sorb cause, relating especially to the fate of a Slav minority persecuted by German occupiers, their allegiance lay with the Soviets. When Moscow declared that they would not aid the Sorb cause, the Czechs too withdrew their support. This ended any hope the Sorbs had for an independent Lusatia.

Although they failed to receive Soviet support for an independent Sorbian state, the Sorbs were able to receive some gains in the postwar period. In 1945 the Domowina was re-licensed by the Soviets, followed in 1947 by the licensing of a Sorbian printing press. In 1948 the Sorbian grammar school opened in Bautzen.

Despite these improvements (and officially declared presence of 'all the necessary conditions for developing Sorb culture' as GDR authorities claimed), Sorb nationalism outside home was subjected to harsh control by the state, which aimed at Germanising the people. In 1956, there were open protests against the massive industrialisation campaign in Lusatia. To this one should also add re-organisation of teaching in Sorb schools (1964), direct result of which was the reduction in number of Sorb children being taught Sorbian language. By year 1989, most of the Sorbs living in East Germany had been Germanised. On November 11, 1989, Sorb National Assembly gathered, demanding the GDR authorities to establish a dialogue with the Sorbs and decisive changes in the state-run 'Domowina'. In 1991, 'Domowina' emerged as an independent organisation and Sorb People Foundation (Załožba za serbski lud) was established. Andrus Mölder Łužyca/Łužica

Horisont 2001-5, lk 48-49

In today's Germany they have certain minority rights, for example the right to send their children to Sorbian-language schools, the right to use Sorbian in dealings with local government, and the right to bilingual road signs.

Since 2005, Sorbs have their own political party, the Wendische Volkspartei.

Sorbian communities overseas

During the mid 19th century many protestant Sorbs emigrated to Texas and Australia. The town of Serbin in Lee County, Texas was founded by these Sorbian immigrants. There they established a Missouri Synod Lutheran church. Most of these Sorbian immigrants spread throughout central Texas and were subsequently assimilated into the German culture of the region. Ironically, the fear of assimilation into German culture and language is exactly why they left the old world. However cultural identity remained important to some families and has led to the establishment of the Texas Wendish Heritage Society which every September hosts "Wendish Fest" in Serbin. Wendish Fest activities include traditional Sorbian cultural pastimes such as egg painting, dancing, sausage-cooking, noodle-cooking, and beer drinking.

In Australia, communities sprang up around the South Australian town of Kapunda (such as Peters Hill), and in the Barossa Valley region, as well as small areas of south-western Victoria. Like their counterparts in Texas, they were seen by the Anglo-Celtic population as another group of German immigrants, and eventually because of their small numbers, assimilated into that larger cultural group.

Culture

The Sorbs are very well known for their Easter traditions:

very artistically painted Easter eggs
Osterreiten (riding tradition during Easter) - Radibor and Bautzen are well known

Toponyms

A large number of toponyms in Eastern Germany are of Slavic origin (notably those ending in -ow), and some well-known cities in south-eastern Germany have names derived from the Sorbs, witnessing Sorbian ancestry in these territories (eg. Leipzig).

Examples

Many cities in the German Lausitz area have city signs with both the German and the Sorbian name.

Famous Sorbs

Reference

External links

Ethnic groups in Europe | Indigenous peoples of Europe | Slavic ethnic groups | Germans | Sorbs

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