The Protestant Sorbs of the Budyšin / Bautzen Region

With the Reformation the Bautzen region, with minor exceptions, became Protestant. Luther's teaching on the word of God in the mother-tongue was the starting-point for an enormous cultural achievement: the smallest Slavonic nation developed its own literary language. This led to an age of cultural prosperity such as has been rarely experienced by small nations of similar size. The villages around Bautzen were almost exclusively Sorbian-speaking until far into the 19th century.

Jakub Bart-Ćišinski My Sorbian Creed My friend, the Sorbian land is small And small the Sorbian nation, Like a tiny island amid a huge sea. Yet I believe, resolutely, That its great waves will never swallow Our fields, villages, and farms. Oh, may every Sorbian heart be A rock against those alian waves. And every hand a defence. And every breath Be drawn in love for the Sorbian land Then for ever the Sorbian land will remain Sorbian

The beginning of the industrial age brought radical changes: industrialization, the collapse of rural structures, greater mobility of the population, and German mass media and schools.

At the end of the 19th century the Protestant Sorbs of the Bautzen region gave up wearing national costumes. Traditional customs fell into disuse. The Protestant Sorbs first became bilingual, and then, a generation or two later, they went over to speaking German exclusively. Nowadays in the Protestant villages of the Bautzen region the Sorbian language is only seldom to be heard. It is used mainly among the older generation;Sorbian-speaking families are rare exceptions. In some parishes church services in Sorbian are held once a month. Three Lutheran clergymen (one of whom is the Sorbian superintendent), in addition to caring for their own parishes, put in extra hoursholding Sorbian services, organizing the annual Sorbian Protestant church day, arranging parish afternoons, editing the monthly Protestant magazine "Pomhaj Boh" (God Speed), and giving Sorbian religious broadcasts.

Work with children and young people is possible only to a limited degree. There is only one Protestant parish (St Michael's in Bautzen) in which services for Sorbian children are held and Christian teaching is given in the Sorbian language.

Slavonic surnames and place-names today still attest the Sorbian past of the Bautzen region. In many churches there are Sorbian inscriptions, books, banners, and ornaments.

The relatively close contact between the church and the people, which prevails here to this day, is due to the loyalty of formerly Sorbian inhabitants.

Trudla Malinkowa, Research Worker in the Sorbian Institute

(poem-extract) translated by G.C. Stone

Further information is available from:
Sorbian Protestant Association
Čornobohska 12 / Czornebohstr. 12
02625 Budyšin / Bautzen
ph.: 03591 / 605 371
email: wirth@sorbischer-evangelischer-verein.de
internet: www.sorbischer- evangelischer-verein.de