The Sorbs in the Wojerecy / Hoyerswerda Region

The Hoyerswerda region is an example of how human activity is capable in a short time, within one man's lifetime, of changing the character of the landscape. Where eighty years ago there stretched endless pine-forests, in which were embedded numerous ponds, man with powerful excavators has dug huge trenches to claim the brown-coal. Where once the Sorbian peasants of the heath lived in their low thatched cottages, wresting a scanty living from the sandy soil by working from dawn to dusk, the chains of gigantic excavators rattle and the signals of long freight trains are heard taking the raw, excavated coal to the briquette factory. In places where the brown coal mining has finished there stretch mountainous slag-heaps, now made green once more by young pines and new stocks of birch-trees. But in many places there are huge, yawning cavities, which gradually fill with water. In the mining areas in the last years of the GDR the brown-coal workings left utter devastation behind them.

With the arrival of the monoculture of brown-coal mining, briquette factories, and their associated activities, the structure of the population altered. To a large extent the Sorbian peasants of this region sold their land to the mining industry and moved elsewhere. Many of them became workers in the brown-coal mines and briquette factories. Despite many efforts the Sorbian language in these undertakings lost its function as a means of communication in the production process.

The construction of the gigantic brown-coal refinement plant named 'Schwarze Pumpe' (The Black Pump), with about 16,000 workers, and the building of what was called the 'Second Socialist Residential Town' in Hoyerswerda caused the influx of workers from all parts of the GDR, resulting in a permanent change in the make-up of the population.

At the beginning of the 20th century the nucleus of the Hoyerswerda region was populated almost exclusively by Sorbs. Hoyerswerda has many traditions which originate in the history of the Sorbian people. Of great importance were the activities of the clergyman and poet Handrij Zejler in Lohsa, whose popular songs and poems became part of the life of the Sorbian people, wakening and strengthening their national feeling. Also from the Hoyerswerda region came the Sorbian writers Křesćan Kulman (1805-69) and Jan Bohumił Nyčka (1825-1904), as well as Jan Arnošt Smoler, the prominent scholar, writer, and publisher.

It was in Hoyerswerda on 7 October 1846 and 8 October 1851, respectively, that the third and tenth Sorbian song festivals took place under the direction of the Sorbian composer Korla Awgust Kocor. On 1 February 1885 a Sorbian peasants' league was formed in Hoyerswerda, and it was here too on 13 October 1912 that the foundation of the Domowina, the Union of the Lusatian Sorbs, took place. It was in accordance with these Sorbian traditions that it was originally intended to erect in Hoyerswerda buildings for central Sorbian institutions. In 1956 it was even planned to establish in Hoyerswerda the home of the Sorbian People's Theatre, the Sorbian Folk Ensemble, and many other Sorbian organizations. Thus it was intended to resist the extinction of the Sorbian language and Sorbian culture being caused by industry. In the end these organizations were based in Bautzen simply because Bautzen has since time immemorial functioned as the capital of Upper Lusatia.

Nevertheless, much was done (and is still being done) in Hoyerswerda to ensure a healthy association of the Sorbian and German populations. Evidence of this is provided by the Handrij Zejler bilingual secondary school, Jatzwauk's traditional national costumes house in Senftenberger Strasse, and a permanent exhibition of Sorbian culture in the Hoyerswerda Town Museum. An inscribed ceramic slab in the Old Town commemorates the foundation of the Domowina.

Particularly symptomatic of our present-day social problems, especially in the Hoyerswerda region, is the rapid decline of brown-coal mining and the consequently high rate of unemployment. Nevertheless, the regional authorities and the town of Hoyerswerda, in collaboration with newly founded associations, are striving to protect and foster the Sorbian language and Sorbian culture. Visible signs of this in our region are the Easter Riders in Wittichenau (in Sorbian Kulow), the Easter egg market in Bergen-Neuwiese (Hory-Nowa Łuka), the village festival in Bröthen-Michalken (Brětnjo-Michałki), and the harvest festival in Hoyerswerda. Making common cause, the Sorbian and German citizens of our region, despite all the problems and adversities in the region and in the town of Hoyerswerda, will have a good, secure future.

Manfred Müller, President of the Hoyerwerda Society for Local History (Museum Association)

Further information is available from:
Trachtenhaus Johann Jatzwauk
Senftenberger Straße 19
02977 Wojerecy / Hoyerswerd
tel.: 0 35 71 / 84 85