The next time you travel to Berlin you should also visit the surrounding state of Brandenburg. In an area south of Berlin, Lower Lusatia, the visitor will soon discover street signs written in two languages. This is the home of the Lower Sorbs who have been living here since the 6th century AD. The Sorbs is a small group of Slavonic people who have maintained their language and culture. They practice their own customs and traditions and are also known as Wends. The term Wends comes from Latin and was used in the Middle Ages to refer to various West Slavonic tribes and peoples settling in all Lusatia. One of these tribes, the Lusici, is the ancestors of the Lower Sorbs. Thus it is no coincidence that today the Lower Sorbs practice a great variety of customs and traditions that differ slightly from village to village.

Most of the customs practiced throughout the year originate from pre-Christian times. It is said, for example, that the Easter fire has a purifying effect. The cock is in the center of some customs and symbolizes fertility. That is why it was believed that the extinction of a cock brings about new power for growing and prospering. A look back into history reveals that the practicing of customs and traditions in the villages was crucial in the process of self-preservation of the national individuality. Scarcely anywhere else in Lusatia were Sorbs treated so badly as in the southern part of Brandenburg under the King of Prussia's rule. Innumerable bans were placed on the Lower Sorbs' mother tongue and decisive Germanization took place in schools and churches. Prussian marching music was played at festive events and the German choir societies were ordered to discontinue their use of a variety of Sorbian folksongs. This all hurt the Lower Sorbian culture immensely.

Under the ruling of the margravate Lower Lusatia and later Brandenburg-Prussia, the "Wendish national character" was strongly repelled. In the year 1667 the founding of the Oberkonsistorium in Lübben, a church authority responsible for all parishes in the southern part of Brandenburg, marked the beginning of another Germanization period. This was the same year the national royal church started to intensively promote Germanization in all spheres of life. In the middle of the 17th century a step-by-step plan was approved to abolish the Lower Sorbian language by order of Duke Christian I. In the following centuries this plan was executed with Prussian severity and persistence. In 1728 priests in Lower Lusatia were instructed that no child was to participate in communion without sufficient knowledge of the German language.

The state of Saxony is home of the Upper Sorbs. Compared to Upper Lusatia it is no surprise that the conditions were different. In Lower Lusatia it was much harder to preserve the national individuality. In the 17th and 18th century alone, nearly 300 Sorbian villages in Lower Lusatia were lost due to the politics of Germanization.

During the 19th century there were only a few times when rigorous anti-Sorbian language politics was less effective. The Sorbian middle-class organized a national movement in the name of enlightenment. It never became strong enough to have an enduring effect. Most of the time organized struggles for nationalistic rights were quickly disbanded.

The founding of the German Reich in 1871 aggravated an already tense situation. A German National atmosphere intensified the anti-Sorbian course of politics especially in Lower Lusatia. In 1896 the president of the province of Brandenburg urged state authorities, the church, and the public to continue Germanizing "the leftovers of the Wendish".

Even after the founding of the Domowina in 1912, the umbrella organization of all Sorbian associations in Upper and Lower Lusatia, the Prussian administration still did not reduce the pressure on priests and teachers. On the contrary, contacts between Lower Sorbs and representatives of the national movement in Upper Lusatia were considered pan-slavistic efforts. Therefore, any political endeavor was regarded as treason. Thus the effectiveness of the Domowina in Lower Lusatia was limited.

Nevertheless, the people in the village communities made us of the remaining possibilities determined to preserve the cultural Sorbian identity. The spinning-room in each village functioned as the core of mar Sorbian customs and tradition It was here where the people organized and planned all youth festivities throughout the year. It was also a place where youth learnt Sorbian folksongs passed down from generation to generation. Every year about three new songs were introduced in the communities. In the middle of the 19th century Smoler and Haupt published nearly 500 Sorbian songs in the book "Folksongs of Upper and Lower Sorbs". Since then more than 1000 folksongs have been collected and published.

While you are visiting South Brandenburg you may often encounter women dressed in the traditional Sorbian everyday wear. On certain weekends you will also see many children and young women in festive dresses portraying and preserving old Sorbian customs.

Although, from generation to generation, there were some who renounced their Slavonic heritage many more have continued the fostering of traditions and customs in Lower Lusatia. One may wonder whether it is the appreciation of the beauty and the diversity of this culture itself, the defiance against ridicule of one's culture, or the strong intention to preserve one's Slavonic identity that has helped keep the Sorbian culture alive. These as well as many others are reasons for the uniqueness of traditions and customs you can still find in this part of Germany.

A custom is determined by its social dimension. It takes a group of people or the whole village community to preserve a custom. Communal spirit and the sense of a common bond are also characteristics that are decisive in preserving customs of the past and today. Repeating customs leads to tradition. Every custom has its own history and undergoes certain developments. As much as the Sorbian groups have changed, their customs have changed accordingly. Even functions have changed which quite often merge into one another. The world of customs and traditions is not static but dynamic. Only the Sorbian origin will remain to be the background for any developments in Lusatia. That is why the uniqueness of this culture needs to be saved and preserved as much as possible despite other future developments. Thus "old Sorbian customs" embody a particular value and have a specific meaning for the future. It remains the positive realization that the Serbian folk culture has always been a very significant link between Germans and Serbians. In the process of building a unified Europe and striving to extend the relations to Slavonic neighboring states Serbian culture will play a more important role.

Max Schurmann