Lusatia

Categories: Polish historical regions | Czech historical regions | German historical regions | Saxony | Brandenburg | Sorbs

Lusatia (German Lausitz, Upper Sorbian Łužica, Lower Sorbian Łužyca, Polish Łużyce, Czech Lužice, sometimes called Sorbia, is a historical region between Bóbr-Kwisa rivers and Elbe river in northeastern Germany (states of Saxony and Brandenburg), south-western Poland (voivodship of Lower Silesia and northern Czech Republic. It is divided into the Lower Lusatia: northern part with the main city Cottbus, and the Upper Lusatia with the main city of Bautzen.

Lusatia comprises a region in the southern parts of Brandenburg, eastern parts of Saxony, Germany and south-western Poland. The name derives from a Sorbian word meaning "swamps/water-hole". There are also the Lusatian Mountains in the north Czech Republic.

Sorbian-Lusatian people

The Sorbian Slavic minority continues to live in the region. Many still speak their language (though numbers are dwindling and Lower Sorbian especially is considered endangered), and road signs are usually bilingual. Sorbians try protect their typical culture shown in traditional clothes and styles of villages houses. Coal industry in the region, needing vast areas of land, threatens to destroy some Lusatian villages.

Upper and Lower Lusatia

The region is divided into two parts.

Upper Lusatia (Oberlausitz) belongs to Saxony; it consists of hilly countryside rising to the Lausitzer Bergland (Lusatian hills) near the Czech border, which rises even higher to form the Lusatian Mountains (Lužické hory/Lausitzer Gebirge) in the Czech Republic.

Upper Lusatia is characterised by fertile soil and soft hills, as well as historic towns and cities such as Bautzen, Görlitz, Zittau, Löbau, Kamenz, Lubań, Bischofswerda, Hoyerswerda, Bad Muskau. A few big villages in the very south of the Upper Lusatia are a typical attraction of the region, the so-called Umgebindehäuser, half-timbred-houses as a mixture between Franconian and Slavic style. Among those villages are Wehrsdorf, Jonsdorf, Sohland an der Spree, Taubenheim, Oppach, Varnsdorf or Ebersbach.

Most of the portion belonging to Brandenburg is called Lower Lusatia (Niederlausitz), and is characterised by forests and meadows. In the course of much of the 19th and the entire 20th century, it was shaped by lignite industry and extensive open-cast mining. Important towns include Cottbus, Lübben, Lübbenau, Spremberg, Finsterwalde, Senftenberg.

Between the Upper and Lower Lusatia is a region called Grenzwall meaning something like "border-wall". This region has been damaged by the coal-industry with small and big villages destroyed. The former open-cast mines are being regenerated by creating artificial lakes under the name of Lausitzer Seenland.

Lusatian capitals

Lusatia is not an administrative unit, though the city of Cottbus (Chośebuz, Chociebuż) may be regarded as the capital of the region. (Historically, Luckau (Łuków) was Lower Lusatia's capital. Bautzen (Budyšin) is often regarded as the capital of Upper Lusatia.)

History

Lusatia was first inhabited by numerous tribes. According to the earliest of records, Slavs known as the Sorbs were the first to settle in the region. In 928, the Germans entered the region. The formation of kingdoms and subsequent expansion would lead to further developments, as Lusatia changed hands repeatedly, belonging to Samo's Empire, Great Moravia, and then Bohemia. In 1002, the Poles took control of the region. Lusatia became a part of Poland in 1018 shortly after the Kingdom of Poland was established. It remained a part of Poland until it was absorbed by Meissen and Brandenburg less than twenty years later. Lusatia was awarded by King Henry IV of the Holy Roman Empire to the Bohemian duke Vratislav II in 1076. Afterwards, Lusatia would remain under Bohemain rule until the Thirty Years' War resulted in yet another change of leadership. Though the countryside remained largely Slavonic, Germanic influence had become particularly strong. By the 16th century, Lusatia was primarily Protestant.

Saxon rule

In the year 1635 most of Lusatia became a province of Saxony, except a region around Cottbus possessed since 1462 by Brandenburg. After 1697 when the electors of Saxony were elected Polish kings, Lusatia became a politically important region, and the electors-kings sought to create a land connection between their Polish and Saxon possessions. During the peace congress of Vienna in 1815, most of Lusatia was awarded to the Kingdom of Prussia, except the southern part with Löbau, Kamenz, Bautzen and Zittau, which remained part of Saxony. The Lusatians in the Prussian state demanded their land to become a separate administrative unit (province or region/bezirk) but their land was divided between several Prussian provinces.

Prussian and German rule

During the 19th and 20th centuries the country suffered intensive Germanisation policies, but despite administrative coercion, this period was also an era of national revival for Slavonic Lusatians. The modern languages of Upper and Lower Lusatian (or Sorbian) were formed, national literature flourished, many national organizations were initiated like (Macica Serbska and Domowina). During the Nazi regime in Germany, all of Sorbian-Lusatian organizations were abolished and forbidden, the newspapers and magazines closed, any usage of Sorbian-Lusatian languages forbidden. Most of the Lusatian activists were arrested, executed, exiled or sent to the concentration camps, where most of them died. In years 1942-1944 the underground Lusatian National Comittee was formed and active in Nazi occupied Warsaw, Poland.

After World War II

After World War II the region was divided between Eastern Germany and Poland along the Lusatian Nysa/Neiße river. There have been endeavours by the Sorbs to create a Lusatian Free State in the past - particularly after World War II, when the Sorbian National Committee demanded that Lusatia be attached to Czechoslovakia. In 1950 the Lusatians obtained language and cultural autonomy (by - then - Saxony). Lusatian schools and magazines were launched, the Domowina association was revived, under increasing political control of the ruling communist party. The local institutions support the development of the regional Sorbian-Lusatian arts and culture.

At the same time, the great German speaking majority of Lusatia still kept up a considerable degree of local, 'Lusatian' patriotism of its own.

Autonomy movement

Another attempt to regain limited autonomy after German reunification in 1990 was rejected by Helmut Kohl's government. Currently, a Görlitz-based initiative demands a Lusatian Free State.

Demographics according to 1900 census

Share of Polabian Slavs:

• Cottbus (Provinz Brandenburg) 55,8 %
• Hoyerswerda (Provinz Schlesien) 37,8 %
• Bautzen (Königreich Sachsen) 17,7 %
• Rothenburg i. d. Oberlausitz (Provinz Schlesien) 17,2 %
• Kamenz (Königreich Sachsen) 7,1 %

Total number: 93,032

The number of Polabian Slavs decreased since then due to Germanisation.

See also

• Sorbian languages
• Upper Sorbian language
• Lower Sorbian language
• League of Six Towns
• Herrnhut (Moravian Church) and Zinzendorff

External links

• Sorbian Cultural Information
• Sorbian umbrella organization "Domowina"
• Sorbian internet portal
• Hoyerswerda, an important Sorbian town
• Organization "Friends of Lusatia" in Czech Republiccs:Lužice

da:Lausitz de:Lausitz es:Lusacia eo:Luzacio fr:Lusace ja:ラウジッツ pl:Łużyce