The Sorbs (Wends) of Lower Lusatia

The Sorbs(Wends) living in Lower Lusatia are the descendants of the Lusici tribe, who gave their name to the once very marshy landscape of Lusatia (Luzyca). Their language, Lower Sorbian, has many similarities to Polish, whereas Upper Sorbian has many similarities to Czech (e. g. gora 'mountain' in Lower Sorbian and Polish, hora in Upper Sorbian and Czech).

The Lower Sorbian word for 'a Sorb' is Serb (as in Upper Sorbian), but the Lower Sorbs (Dolne Serby) often prefer in German to be called Wenden, rather than Sorben. Apart from tradition, the period of the GDR may have something to do with this, because the SED used the Sorbs as a sign-board for the allegedly exemplary Leninist nationality policy. Yet the experiences of the Lower Sorbs with the 'dictatorship of the working class' were distinctly worse than those of the Sorbs in Upper Lusatia. For example, the Domowina of Lower Lusatia, founded in September 1946 in the village of Werben (Sorbian Wjerbno) in the Spree Forest, was soon disbanded by the authorities and permitted again only in 1949. The executive committee of the SED of the Cottbus region took pains to ruin all efforts for the equal treatment of the remains of the Sorbian nation in Lower Lusatia. For example, on 5 August 1946 in the run-up to the local elections they prevented the Domowina from putting up Sorbian candidates and declared that in our region there is no question of a separate popular movement among the 'Sorbs'. And this despite the fact that until the end of the war the Sorbian inhabitants had constituted a majority of the population of the region.

Whereas the Upper Lusatian Sorbs were treated with sympathy and were supported by the Russian occupying forces, these 'Slavonic brothers' were reserved in their behaviour towards the Lower Sorbs. Possibly this can be blamed on the regional SED functionaries, who considered the little nation reactionary owing to its firm attachment to Christian values and its lack of enthusiasm for Communist aims. It was only under the pressure of the Saxon Law for the Protection of the Rights of the Sorbian Population' (1948) that the Brandenburg regional assembly belatedly in 1950 passed a 'Government Regulation for the Promotion and Development of Sorbian Cultural Efforts', which in practice, however, effected little change in the unfriendly attitude of the regional authorities.

It was not until 1952 that a Sorbian high school (later a Sorbian extended high school and today a Lower Sorbian high school) was founded. Yet there were and are in Lower Sorbian territory neither Sorbian pre-school facilities nor Sorbian primary schools; only a few schools with Sorbian as an optional subject. The number of these schools, as well as the number of participants, decreased as a result of measures taken in the GDR's education system. To this day most Sorbs here are illiterate in their own language, unless they learn it in the Lower Sorbian high school, where they can begin it only in the 7th class. As a result of policies earlier this century directed towards Germanizing them, the Lower Sorbs have passed through a stage of German-Sorbian bilingualism until now the younger generation know only German. Yet a surprisingly large number of Lower Sorbs affirm their Wendish origin and are true to the traditions they have inherited. This is seen above all in the maintenance of ancient customs, which at the present time are undergoing a certain renaissance. The roots of these customs date back to pre-Christian times. The first Sorbian book was printed in 1574. It was a Lower Sorbian hymn-book. Somewhat later the shorter catechism appeared. Since 1848, without interruption except in the Nazi period and the first years after the War, there have been Lower Sorbian newspapers.

In 1956 the first Lower Sorbian radio broadcasts were transmitted. Since Easter 1992 the television company Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg (ORB) has been transmitting half-hour television programmes in Lower Sorbian once a month.

A hundred years ago there were more than 70,000 Wends in Lower Lusatia. Now their numbers are estimated at 20,000 at the most. There is a danger that they may disappear from the ethnographic map of Europe altogether, unless suitable methods of advancement are adopted to rescue the language and culture of this little nation.

Werner Meschkank, Lower Sorbian Museum, Cottbus

Further information may be obtained from:
Sorbian Cultural Information Office "LODKA"
Augusta-Bebelowa droga 82
D-03046 Chośebuz / Cottbus
Lužyca / Lusatia
Germany

tel. 0355-48576-469
fax. 0355-48576-469
email: stiftung-lodka@sorben.com