1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Proto-Indo- European+	*oynos / *sem	*duwo:	*treyes	*kwetwores	*penkwe	*sweks	*septm	*okto:	*newn	*dekm
Vannetais (Venètes)	unan	deu	tri	pear	pemp	huéh	seih	eih	naù	dek
Polish	jeden	dwa	trzy	cztery	pie,c'	szes'c'	siedem	osiem	dziewie,c'	dziesie,c'
Kashubian	jeden	dva	tr^ë	shtërë	pjin'c	shesc	sétmë	woesmë	dzevjin'c	dzesin'c
Polabian+	janü	dåvo	tåri	citêr	pa,t	sist	sidêm	visêm	diva,t	disa,t
Czech	jeden	dva	tr^i	chtyr^i	pêt	shest	sedm	osm	devêt	deset
Slovak	jeden	dva	tri	shtyri	pät'	shest'	sedem	osem	devät'	desat'
West	jeden	dva	try	shtyry	pet	shest	sedem	ossem	devat	desat
East	jeden	dva	tri	shtyri	pejc	shesc	shedzem	osem	dzevec	dzeshec
Upper Sorbian Wendes	jedyn	dwaj	tr^i	shtyri	pjec'	shêsc'	sydom	wosom	dz'ewjec'	dz'esac'
Lower Sorbian Wendes	jaden	dwa	ts'o	styrjo	pês'	sêsc'	sedym	wosym	z'ewjes'	z'ases'
Ossetian Iron	iu	dIuuæ	ærtæ	tsIppar	fondz	æxsæz	avd	ast	farast	dæs
Hittite+	*a:nt-	da:-	tri-	meiu-			shipta-
Luwian+	*a-	duwa-	*tarri-	*mawi-	*panku			*haktau	*nu-
Lycian+	sñta	tuwa	tri(ja)	teteri				aitãta	ñuñtãta
Serbo-Croat	jèdan	dvâ	trî	chètiri	pêt	shêst	sëdam	ösam	dëve:t	dëse:t
Old Church Slavonic+	jedinu	diva	trije	chetyre	pe,ti	shesti	sedmi	osmi	deve,ti	dese,ti
Bulgarian	edín	dva	tri	chétiri	pet	shest	sédem	ósem	dévet	déset
Macedonian	eden	dva	tri	chetiri	pet	shest	sedum	osum	devet	deset
Russian	odín	dva	tri	chety're	pyat'	shest'	sem'	vósem'	dévyat'	désyat'
Belarussian	adzín	dva	try	chaty'ry	piac'	shesc'	sem	vósem	dzéviac'	dzésiac'
Ukrainian	ody'n	dva	tri	choty'ry	pyat'	shist'	sim	vísim	devyat'	desyat'
Lithuanian	víenas	dù	try~s	keturì	penkì	sheshì	septynì	ashtuonì	devynì	de:shimt
Latvian	viêns	divi	trî:s	chetri	pìeci	seshi	septini	astôni	devini	desmit
Old Prussian+	ai:ns	dwa:i	trijan	keturja:i	pe:nkja:i	*usjai	*septi:njai	*asto:njai	*newi:njai	desi:mtan
Proto-Celtic+	oinos	dvai	treis	qetveres	qenqe	svex	septn	octô	nevn	decn
Gaulish+	*ônos	*duô	treis	petor	*pempe	suex	sextan	*oxtû	*navan	decam

Occupée par des groupes de chasseurs dès 8000 av. J.-C., la région de Berlin est peuplée au début de notre ère par des tribus germaniques, puis, cinq siècles plus tard, par les Wendes. Sa conquête par Charlemagne n'est qu'éphémère.

En 1147, les Wendes sont vaincus par Conrad III de Hohenstaufen, le duc Henri le Lion et le comte Albert l'Ours, qui prend alors le titre de margrave de Brandebourg. Aux environs de 1230 sont fondés les bourgs de Cölln, sur une île de la Sprée (aujourd'hui l'« île des Musées »), et de Berlin, sur la rive droite. Les deux villes adhérèrent en 1359 à la Ligue hanséatique. En 1415, Berlin-Cölln, résidence des électeurs de Brandebourg, passe sous la domination des Hohenzollern, qui les réunissent pour en faire leur capitale.

Le nom de Slaves est mentionné pour la première fois en 500 après J.-C. : il désigne des peuples indo-européens, voisins sur le plan ethnolinguistique et survenus tardivement dans l'Histoire.

The Wends are partly a term by some held equivalent to Vandals through a latinized form of Wendland, and partly a German abbreviation (also often used in English) for some Slavic people from north-central Europe. The term has not historically enjoyed consistent usage, but is most employed specifically for one or two Slavic groups and as an over-arching term. The Franks referred to most Slavs living between the Odra and Laba as either Wends or Sorbs, while in Slavic literature these people are called Polabian Slavs.

À propos du nom

Deux hypothèses sont généralement retenues pour expliquer le mot slave. Reste à savoir laquelle est la bonne et s'il n'y en aurait pas éventuellement une troisième :

1. la plus évidente et la plus simple consiste à rattacher le nom au vieux slave slava, avec le sens de renommée, gloire. Autrement dit, les Slaves primitifs se seraient eux-mêmes qualifiés de glorieux.
2. L'autre hypothèse part du vieux slave slovo (= mot, parole), les Slaves se définissant entre eux comme ceux qui savent parler, dont le langage est compréhensible. Cette hypothèse s'appuie notamment sur le fait que dans les langues slaves le terme désignant un Allemand est dérivé d'un adjectif signifiant muet : en polonais, le mot niemy signifie muet, et Niemiets signifie Allemand.
3. Il y a une troisième hypothèse qui signierait :je jure d’unifier mon peuple.

Toujours est-il que le mot slave est à l'origine de la Slavonie, de la Slovaquie et de la Slovénie. C'est également lui qui a donné le français esclave (latin médiéval slavus, sclavus), de nombreux Slaves des Balkans ayant été réduits en esclavage durant le haut Moyen Âge.

WENDS,

The Serbs belong to the Balkano-Caucasian group

(like the Georgians, Chechens, Circassians,Mingrelians)

Wends the name applied by the Germans to the Slavs (q.v.) wherever they came in contact with them. It is now used for the Slovenes (q.v.), for the Germanized Polabs (q.v.) in eastern Hanover, and especially for the Lusatian Wends or Sorbs (q.v.). It is first found in Pliny (Venedae)

Although the list starts in 580 AD, the first mention of the Wends or Sorbs as a distinct Slavic people was by the Frankish monk Fredegar in 631 AD. The next significant record is from the period of Charlemagne's campaigns in Eastern Saxony and Thuringia circa 804 AD, and his establishment of the so-called Saxon March.

The anonymous author who has come to be known as Fredegar put together a collection of historical sources, together with items of his own composing in the second half of the 7th century. His work forms the most important source for the history of France in the period 594 to 642. It was added to in the mid 8th century, in two continuations that provide vital evidence for their own time.

The Wends, until 814

The German cities of Bautzen and Cottbus are the main centres for the

Upper Wends [Bautzen] and the lower Wends [Cottbus].

The Wendish language is still the first language spoken by many Wends who live in

villages in this area of Germany. Estimates vary, but there are between 30,000 and

50,000 Wends who still speak their native tongue.

The Wends have inhabited the area called 'Lusatia' for over 1,500 years, and in earlier

times their territory was much larger and included Berlin, which was originally a Wendish settlement.

In Germany the name ‘Sorb’ is usually preferred to ‘Wend’, but the term ‘Wend’ has

usually been preferred in the English speaking countries where the Wends have settled,

including Australia, Canada, South Africa and the U S A.

THE HISTORY OF THE SORBS/WENDS

In the south-east corner of Germany today you can see bilingual inscriptions on signposts. About 60,000 Sorbs/Wends live in this area called Lusatia. Where does their history begin? Where do they come from? How has this small group of people preserved its own culture, despite being oppressed and persecuted throughout its history and surrounded by a foreign-speaking environment?

9. Possibly suffixed form *wen-eto-, “beloved.” Wend, from Old High German Winid, Wend, from Germanic *Weneda-, a Slavic people.

indo-european roots

Hrvati

The Indo-European Family is thought to have originated in the forests north of the Black Sea (in what is now Ukraine) during the Neoloithic period (about 7000BC). These people bagan to migrate between 3500BC and 2500BC, spreading west to Europe, south to the Mediterranian, north to Scandinavia, and east to India.

The Serbs belong to the Balkano-Caucasian group

(like the Georgians, Chechens, Circassians,Mingrelians)

Languages, like people, are related to one another, and their relationships can be drawn up in the form of a genealogical chart. Wherever you find two languages with similar vocabularies and grammatical structures, you can be sure that they were descended from some common ancestor, no matter how widely separated they might be in space and time. The greater the separation, of course, the harder it becomes to detect the relationships. When a group of speakers emigrates from the common homeland to a new location, they will for a time continue to speak the same language as their former compatriots; but eventually, little differences in pronunciation and idiom will creep in, which over a long period of time become so great that a wholly new language is born. We can observe in the modern world many differences between English as spoken in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, South Africa, and Australia. Modern telecommunications act as a brake preventing these dialects of English from becoming altogether different languages, but the natural process of differentiation is still operating. If we ever suffer the collapse some apocalyptic visionaries predict, future historians will pick over the surviving documents and conclude quite readily that the occupants of the mentioned countries, at least those who came to them at a crucial stage in their formation as modern nations, were descended from inhabitants of the British Isles.

THE INDO-EUROPEAN MIGRATION OF NATIONS

Suddenly emerging from the mists of antiquity as one of the great phenomena of history, wave on wave of related tribes moved westward into Europe to possess the rich but vacant lands awaiting settlement. From this parent stock called Indo-European stem practically all the

European peoples, including the Greek, Roman, Frank, Celtic, Teutonic, Gothic, Scandinavian and Slavic nations.They came from a common ancestral home in the region of the Caspian and Black Sea, beginning their great trek possibly more than 4000 years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_language http://www.bartleby.com/61/IEroots.html

Interestingly, the Italic languages stand higher up in the tree than Greek, even though our oldest evidence for the Greek language, the famous Linear B tablets of the fifteenth to the thirteenth centuries BC, antedates considerably our oldest evidence for Latin, and antedates even more our oldest evidence for Celtic languages. The linguists theorize that the German group, who migrated after the Celtic and Italic groups but subsequently came back into contact with them, acted as a catalyst on these two and produced, at a late stage, Latin, Gaelic, and the others mentioned above. The similarity between the Celtic and Germanic languages is readily seen and the contact of the groups a matter of historical record, but the theory is a little harder to accept in the case of Latin. At any
http://gcjm.dyndns.org/sw/index.afp

http://www.sorben.com/Sorbs/

Gone with the Wends
Listen

http://graduationspeeches.us/graduation-speeches/library/Chronicle_Kings_of_Norway/Chronicle_Kings_of_Norway/C8P5.shtml

http://www.scriptoriumnovum.com/l/olaf02.html

http://www.stavacademy.co.uk/mimir/crusader1.htm

http://www.orme.org.uk/harald_hardrade1.html

http://www.fullbooks.com/Heimskringla-The-Chronicle-of-the-Kings-of5.html

The Wends were descended from a group of Slavic tribes that had developed a common language and, in the 10th Century, occupied much of central Europe. By the 19th Century, the Wends had been decimated by conquest and assimilation with other cultures until only a small area along the River Spree was inhabited by true Wends.

The Wendish migration to Texas was impelled, in part, by the Prussian insistence that the Wends (or Sorbs, as they called themselves) speak and use the German language, even to the extent of Germanizing their names. "

It is a sad irony that Eastern Germany's tiny ethnic Slav minority, known as the Wends or Sorbs, may have survived both Hitler and Stalin, but they are facing an uncertain future in a world of freedom, democracy and the free market. Iwona Lejman travels to the land of the Wends to witness their struggle to keep up their disappearing culture.

The WENDS - a collective name for the west Slavic people who settled the region west of the Oder river - have settled the lands to the east of the Elbe and Saale rivers, and beyond that line in the upper Main and Altmark-Luechow-Dannenberg region during the Barbaric Peoples Migration, probably in the 6th century.
At the time of Charlemagne, sources report of the OBODRITES who settled between the Baltic Sea and the lower Elbe in what is Mecklenburg today, the WILZI and HEVELLI in modern Brandenburg, the SORBS (LUSATIANS) in modern Saxony. They were pagans; Frankish attempts to conquer them resulted in the establishment of the SORBIAN MARCH (806), but not in permanent conquest of the areas beyond.
The German settled area in Holstein was separated from the Baltic Sea by a small stretch of Slavic country, WAGRIA; the Wagrians were a branch of the Obodrites

http://www.ciudadseva.com/textos/estudios/roldan/epica.htm

. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/5424

http://graduationspeeches.us/graduation-speeches/library/Chronicle_Kings_of_Norway/Chronicle_Kings_of_Norway/C8P5.shtml

WENDS, a horde of savage Slavs who, about the 6th century, invaded and took possession of vacant lands on the southern shores of the Baltic, and extended their inroads as far as Hamburg and the ocean, south also far over the Elbe in some quarters, and were a source of great trouble to the Germans in Henry the Fowler's time, and after; they burst in upon Brandenburg once, in "never-imagined fury," and stamped out, as they thought, the Christian religion there by wholesale butchery of its priests, setting up for worship their own god "Triglaph, ugliest and stupidest of all false gods," described as "something like three whales' cubs combined by boiling, or a triple porpoise dead-drunk." They were at length "fairly beaten to powder" by Albert the Bear, "and either swept away or else damped down into Christianity and keeping of the peace," though remnants of them, with their language and customs, exist in Lusatia to this day.

Historical background
The term Wend is the name given to all Slav peoples, or tribes, who during the great migration in the sixth century settled in the eastern part of present-day Germany. Today, around 60,000 descendants of these West Slav tribes live in the Lausitz (English: Lusatia) region of eastern Germany along the Polish and Czech borders. 20,000 descendants of the ancient Sorb tribe of the Lusizer live in Lower Lusatia (Niederlausitz) in the Federal State of Brandenburg, and speak the particular dialect of this tribe, that once gave its name to the countryside (Lužica: marshland). 40,000 Sorbs live in Upp er Lusatia (Oberlausitz), in the Federal State of Saxony, and are the descendants of the ancient Sorb tribe of the Milzener, using the idiom peculiar to this tribe. There are considerable differences between both Sorb dialects, that more or less impede mutual understanding. In both dialects the people call themselves Serbske. Those Serbske living in Upper Lusatia call themselves Sorben in German, and their language sorbisch; those living in Lower Lusatia call themselves Wenden, and their language wendisch.
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The name Sorb was for hundreds of years only used by scientists. Also in Upper Lusatia the name Wend was used by the population. In view of the fact, that the name Wend was a generic term of German origin, which did not correspond with the proper names of the Slavs living in the Lausitz, after 1945 one began in official usage to use the actual name, Sorb. The DOMOWINA, with its headquarters in Cottbus, in Brandenburg, was founded in 1912 and refounded in 1945 as an umbrella organization of all Sorb institutions.
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The accompanying map was drawn up by the DOMOWINA during the GDR period,, which accounts for the fact that it only shows Sorb settlements west of the River Neiße. Until the end of the Second World War, the Sorb/Wend settlement area extended, of course, east of the River Neiße. But as the National Socialists had ordered by decree the Germanizing of Wend village names in 1937, so after 1945, everything to the east of the River Neiße – behind the so-called "peace frontier" – that was a reminder of pre-war Germany, including, tragically, the Wend villages, was expunged from public perception.
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Brown coal strip-mining before and after German reunification
During the course of the 20th Century 117 villages in the Lausitz were sacrificed to brown-coal strip-mining. At least two-thirds of them had a majority Sorb/Wend population. Up to 1989, 25,351 people were resettled. The expansion of the brown-coal industry during the GDR regime contributed significantly to this assimilation pressure. The population of the Lausitz grew steadily in the period from 1950 through the influx of workers from all corners of the GDR, seeking employment in the brown-coal industry. One after another, Sorb/Wend villages were sacrificed to brown-coal mining. Between 1945 and 1989 73 Sorb/Wend villages were destroyed, their inhabitants resettled in high-rise tenements in cities such as Hoyerswerda and Cottbus, where they were quickly assimilated in the majority German population.
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Wend :any member of a group of Slavic tribes that had settled in the area between the Oder River (on the east) and the Elbe and Saale rivers (on the west) by the 5th century AD, in what is now eastern Germany. The Wends occupied the eastern borders of the domain of the Franks and other Germanic peoples. From the 6th century the Franks warred sporadically against the Wends, and, under Charlemagne…
Au Xe siècle, la dynastie des Premyslides y affirma son pouvoir sous le règne de saint Venceslas (921-935). Venceslas, confronté à la puissante Saxe, devint le vassal d'Henri l'Oiseleur et se plaça sous la protection du pape afin de consolider son pouvoir. Se heurtant à l'opposition des nobles et de son frère en raison de cette politique qui renforçait l'autorité centrale, il fut tué par ce dernier en 935 et devint martyre à la fin du siècle.

Le centre du pouvoir se déplace alors vers la Bohême, mieux protégée par sa position géographique. Le pouvoir des Premyslides, dont la dynastie s'est imposée à partir du X e  siècle, s'affirme et se consolide sous le prince Vaclav (Venceslas) (vers 921-935 ou 929). Celui-ci, confronté à une attaque du roi de Saxe et d'Allemagne, Henri I er l'Oiseleur, devient son vassal, et se place également sous la protection du pape. Sa politique religieuse, qui porte un rude coup aux habitudes tribales et païennes en vigueur et renforce la puissance du souverain, suscite de vives tensions qui culminent avec la lutte fratricide qui oppose Venceslas à Boleslav, et s'achève en 935 par l'assassinat de Venceslas et le massacre de ses partisans avec leurs familles. Le souverain martyr, canonisé par l'Eglise à la fin du X e  siècle, devient le saint patron de la Bohême. Ses successeurs poursuivent son œuvre, limités toutefois dans leur volonté d'expansion, d'une part par le Saint Empire romain-germanique auquel le royaume de Bohême appartient et qui intervient souvent en cas de discorde au sein de la dynastie, mais qui laisse aux souverains de Bohême leur souveraineté, et d'autre part par la montée en Pologne du pouvoir de la dynastie des Piast.  

Wends (580-1218 AD)
(DBA III-1a)

The Wends (a.k.a. Lusatians or Sorbs) were a western Slavic people who occupied the southern Baltic region bounded at various periods by the Elbe and Saale Rivers in the west and the Oder and Neisse Rivers in the East. They were famous for their hospitality and for their staunch resistance to Christianity. They are treated here as a northern subset of the Slavic peoples, although many historians argue that the term "Wend" originally applied to all Slavic people throughout Europe. Characteristic is the Roman Latin name for the Baltic Sea--Wendile Mare (or Wendish Sea).

Although the list starts in 580 AD, the first mention of the Wends or Sorbs as a distinct Slavic people was by the Frankish monk Fredegar in 631 AD. The next significant record is from the period of Charlesmagne's campaigns in Eastern Saxony and Thuringia circa 804 AD, and his establishment of the so-called Saxon March. During his campaign to subdue the Saxons, which was largely completed by 810 AD, Charlesmagne's armies pushed the Wends east beyond the River Elbe. Thereafter, the Wends faced steady pressure throughout the 10-12th centuries from Saxon, Thuringian, Frankish, and Flemish raiders, who seized the pastoral Wendish as slaves, and by colonists, who moved east to carve out new settlements in Wendish territory.

The next major milestone in Wendish history can be traced to 965 AD, when the Viking Harald Gormsson (a.k.a. Bluetooth) married a Wendish princess and built a stronghold at Jomsborg on the Baltic Coast near the Wendish trading center of Wollin. Here a famous brotherhood of Vikings (i.e., the Joms-Vikings) founded by Harald's son, Svein Forkbeard, is supposed to have collected, fighting with the Wends against foreign invaders on land and sea. The Joms-Vikings were essentially a warrior cult (a sort of Pagan Knights Templar) who lived in barracks under harsh discipline and trained constantly in hopes that they would die in battle so as to join Woden in Valhalla.

Later, after Harald was forced from his Scandanavian kingdom by Jarl Hakon in 985 AD, he again took refuge among the Wends. It is said that Harald Bluetooth taught the Wends to be sea raiders in order to annoy his foes, and if so, he was certainly effective, since they took to Baltic piracy with a vengeance. In 983 AD, King Mistivoj of Wendland invaded Brandenburg and Holstein, burning Hamburg, while the Frankish emperor Otto was distracted by a crusade against Saracens in Italy. The period of 1020-1040 AD then saw heavy Wendish raids by land and over sea into Denmark and Skane (southern Sweden).

In 1043 AD, the Scandanavian Magnus the Good sought to end the Wendish threat to his new kingdom and descended with his army on Jomsburg, destroying the Joms-Viking garrison and burning the Wendish city of Wollin. Meanwhile, a large Wendish army had raided its way deep into Denmark. Magnus (the son of St. Olaf) landed a Danish and Norwegian army at Hedeby in the rear of the Wendish force in order to link up with Saxon allies under Orduff. Fighting on Michaelmas day, the Christian allies joined battle with the Wends on the flat plain of Lyrskov Hede (near modern Schlesig). Despite being heavily outnumbered, and bolstered by the righteousness of their cause, they cut down the pagan Wends in waves according to Adam of Bremen, leaving 15,000 of them dead on the field. The battle of Hedeby marked the end of serious Wendish raiding in Denmark and the beginning of a Danish campaign to seize the Baltic coast from Rugia to Estonia, which denied the Wends access to the sea and effectively ended their piratical expeditions.

In 1147 AD, St. Bernard preached a crusade among the Saxons and Danes, who preferred to attack their pagan Slavonic neighbors rather than setting out to save the Holy Land as Bernard intended. Bowing to necessity, Bernard obtained a Papal Bull blessing the endeavor and a crusading army led by Henry the Lion of Saxony and Albert the Bear of Brandenburg set forth to convert the Wends by sword, but were stopped cold that same year. Set against the backdrop of the "Northern Crusades," the Wendic Crusade continued for nearly 30 years. Waldimar I of Denmark joined forces with Henry and Albert against the Wends. Eventually, persistent pressure by the Christian Saxons, Danes and the expansionistic Poles broke down Wendish resistance. Pagan idols were destroyed and Catholicism was introduced throughout Lusatia. After1185 AD, the Wends fell almost entirely under the sway of Poland.

1218 AD marks the end of the DBA Slav list and has been applied to the Wend list for convenience, although the significance of that date for the Wends is not clear. The Polish domination of the Wends after 1185 AD is another appropriate ending date. Another possible date is the final annexation of Lusatia by Germany and formation of margravates circa 1360 AD, although by that time there was no organized Wendish resistance. As a historical aside, although christianized and long subjected to German rule, the Wends have been able to maintain a distinct identity and language as Sorbs to the present day. There are approximately 150,000 Wends still gathered in Lusatia, in the upper Spree valley which lies within eastern Germany and southwestern Poland. Groups of Wends have also migrated to Texas, Australia and other locations over the past century to escape "germanization."

Allies and Enemies

The Wends find themselves at odds with their Germanic neighbors - the Old Saxons, Frisians, Thurigians as well as with the Swedes, Danes and Norwegians , the East Franks, the Early Poles and the early Medieval Germans . The limited references available to this author seem to indicate that inclusion of the Early Polish as enemies is somewhat dubious as the Wends didn't seem to resist Polish expansion (i.e. fellow Slavs) as heartily as they did the Germans, and may have viewed Polish occupation as preferrable to German conquest.

The Wends only Big Battle ally are the Old Saxons .

Army Composition

Wendish chieftain and retinue

Wendish nobles.

Wendish foot armed with javelins and hand axes or knives.

According to DBM Early Slav list, these represent Viking (Bd) allies after 804 AD, or Danish, Saxon or Thuringian merceniaries after 1057 AD. What do you do for the period 580-804 AD?

Bow should be used after 1056 AD only. They were also trained by Saxons to shoot in groups and deploy with shield bearers after 1170 AD.

Camps and BUAs

Your typical Dark Ages camp such as an A-frame log dwelling is suitable for the Wends. Since they also made their mark as sea raiders, a beached longboat is also appropriate.

Good subjects for BUAs include the Viking stronghold at Jomsborg or a timber pallisaded village.

Miniatures

You won't find a specific "Wendish" range of miniatures, but suitable Slavic, early Saxon and Viking figures are available from various sources including Essex, Two Dragons, Irregular and others. Any Dark Age European "barbarian" foot can be put to good use. Gripping Beast offers "JomsVikings" as part of its 28mm Viking range.

Tactics

Historically, the Wends were known for Viking-like raids along the Baltic coasts, transporting horses to increase their range in-land. As the German marches hemmed in their landward territory, the Wends turned increasingly to sea "piracy." When on the defensive, they tended to avoid pitched battles, preferred ambushes and hit and run attacks. Cavalry was common but not particularly effective; the riders eschewing close formation and shock tactics to ride rings around their opponents, showering them with javelins. In the later periods, as Saxon levies gave way to imperial German armies as their primary foes, the Wends were forced to become more disciplined, beefing up their ranks with mercenaries and employing Saxon archery coaches.

As a littoral, primarily bad going DBA army with relatively low aggression, the Wends make for an interesting mix of troop types and options. Effective use of bad going terrain and their mobility advantage is obviously important when facing Knight-heavy German armies and Blade-heavy Scandinavians. Wendish archers can also help against the Frankish, Polish and German mounted. The littoral option encourages steathly end-runs to get at exposed enemy flanks and camps.

Notes on Resources

In addition to the DBM rules, I relied on bits and pieces of information gleaned from the Hammond Atlas of World History, Gwyn Jones' "A History of the Vikings," Skip Knox's Thesis on The Destruction and Conversion of the Wends and other web sources in preparing this piece. I am not familiar with any books specifically on the Wends, although there are numerous resources on the Slavs available in print and a web search for Wends, Sorbs and Lusatia produced hundreds of links, although few with significant historical details. The story of the Joms-Vikings is recorded in the famous Jomsburg Saga.

.

WENDS. The Wends (also known as Sorbs or Lusatian Serbs) are a Slavic people concentrated in East Germany near Bautzen and Cottbus in the upper Spree River valley, an area long known as Lusatia. They speak Sorbian, which is divided into two dialects, Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian. The language was originally written with Gothic letters, although since 1937 the Latin alphabet has been used. Wends have never had an independent nation, and their homeland has always been surrounded by Germans. During the Middle Ages the Wends survived the raids and massacres of German Eastland horsemen; especially during the Nazi years they were pressured to assimilate the German culture, and gradually they have adopted the German language and many customs, although they still retain a separate identity. In 1840, before overseas migration began, there were about 164,000 Wends in Lusatia. In the 1980s there were only 60,000. Outside Germany, most of the Wends settled in two areas, Australia and Texas. The desire for better economic opportunity was probably the main reason for Wendish immigration to Australia and to Texas a few years later. Although scholars dispute the role of social and religious factors in the process, Texas Wends commonly express the belief that their forefathers came here solely for religious freedom. Around 1848 small groups of Wends began immigrating to Australia, where many Germans^qv had already settled. These pioneers sent letters home, many of which were published in local newspapers, and which influenced Wends still in Europe. A small group of Wends came to Austin County around 1849-50 and were quickly absorbed into the German community. In 1853 a group of thirty-five Wends left Bremen for Texas. They were shipwrecked off the coast of Cuba, but eventually made their way to Galveston, and from there to the communities of New Ulm and Industry.

In the fall of 1854 a newly established congregation of nearly 600 conservative Lutheran Wends, led by John Kilian,^qv left Germany to join their countrymen in Texas. The group constituted the only mass exodus of Wends. Traveling first by railway and steamship to Liverpool, England, the Wends embarked on an English ship, the Ben Nevis, for the journey to Texas. While in Liverpool, however, a number of Wends contracted cholera, and seventy-three of them died on board the ship. After a three week stop in Queenstown, Ireland, to remove the sick and fumigate the ship, the Ben Nevis sailed for Galveston, where it arrived on December 15, 1854. Galveston was having a yellow fever epidemic. From December to January the Wends walked the eighty-five miles to New Ulm and Industry. Two lay leaders of the congregation, Johann Dube and Carl Lehmann, went on ahead thirty miles and purchased a league of land in what is now Lee County. At first services were held in one room of Kilian's two-room house, but the group set aside ninety-five acres for a church and school, later called St. Paul's. This was the first Missouri Synod Lutheran church founded in Texas and is thus the mother church not only of the Wends, but of all conservative Lutherans in Texas. After their first tiny log church was erected, individuals purchased farm acreage and town lots, built crude dugout^qv houses for shelter, and established what became the community of Serbin. In 1860 Serbin had a post office. After 1871, however, a new railroad connection made nearby Giddings the business and commercial center of the region, and Serbin declined in both population and influence.

Over the years, due to religious dissension and economic pressures, the Wends spread throughout south central Texas. Today the leading Wendish centers are in Lee, Fayette, Williamson, Coryell, and Bell counties, especially in the towns of Serbin, Warda, Giddings, Fedor, Manheim, Loebau, Lincoln, Winchester, La Grange, Thorndale, Walburg, Copperas Cove, The Grove, Vernon, Swiss Alp, New Ulm, Industry, Noack, and Aleman. Substantial numbers of people of Wendish descent also live in Houston, Austin, and Port Arthur. While most Wends consider themselves Germans, they have maintained an ethnic identity. Early restrictions against intermarriage have relaxed over the years. Nevertheless, many individuals still claim there have been no intermarriages in their families since the arrival of the Ben Nevis. Early Wends practiced many distinctive customs, of which perhaps the most noticeable to outsiders was the German Lutheran custom of wearing black wedding dresses by Wendish brides to represent the grief and hardship of marriage. This custom died out by the 1890s. Religious conservatism militated against wearing bright colors, dancing, secular singing, or any other kind of frivolity. The Wends valued education, and today St. Paul's still has an accredited parochial school. Church congregations regularly paid for the higher education of promising young men who wanted to become pastors or teachers. In the 1980s Concordia Lutheran College in Austin still received considerable Wendish support.

The proximity of German neighbors eventually resulted in cultural assimilation and adaptation. At the time of their migration, most of the Wends spoke Wendish and German, and those who spoke only Wendish learned German after they moved to Texas. Most of the Wends in Serbin and all of the Wends who settled elsewhere had adopted German as their primary language by the time of World War I.^qv The shift from Wendish to German is documented in the Giddings Deutsches Volksblatt,^qv the principal German-language paper in the area. The newspaper, although largely written in German, also contained articles or letters in Wendish. Wendish, however, was gradually supplanted, reflecting the general shift to German language. By the 1930s the language had begun to die out in Texas, and few people remained who were still completely fluent. In the 1980s only a few people could still speak the language. In rural Wendish areas German continued to be used for church services until after World War II,^qv but today it has also largely died out. The Texas Wendish Heritage Society, founded in 1971, actively seeks to preserve and, whenever possible, revive remnants of the Wendish culture. One project involves an attempt to translate and publish all early Wendish documents. The society, which had about 350 members in 1994, maintains a Wendish museum at Serbin and annually participates in the Folklife Festival of the University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures^qv at San Antonio. The art of Easter egg painting has been maintained as a Wendish tradition. Wendish Fest, an annual festival held at Serbin in September, celebrates the Wendish heritage of the area.

Sylvia Grider

Wends

Northwestern Slavonic peoples who settled east of the rivers Elbe and Saale in the 6th–8th centuries. By the 12th century most had been forcibly Christianized and absorbed by invading Germans; a few preserved their identity and survive as the Sorbs of Lusatia (eastern Germany/Poland).

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.  2001
http://www.bartleby.com/65/we/Wends.html

Wends

or Sorbs, Slavic people (numbering over 100,000) of E Germany, in Lusatia. They speak Lusatian (also known as Sorbic or Wendish), a West Slavic language with two main dialects: Upper Lusatian, nearer to Czech, and Lower Lusatian, nearer to Polish. The towns of Bautzen (Upper Lusatia) and Cottbus (Lower Lusatia in modern Silesia) are their chief cultural centers. In the Middle Ages the term Wends was applied by the Germans to all the Slavs inhabiting the area between the Oder River in the east and the Elbe River and the Saale River in the west. German conquest of their land began in the 6th cent. and was completed under Charlemagne (8th cent.). A coalition of Wendish tribes in the 10th cent. and again in the early 12th cent. temporarily halted German expansion. A crusade against the pagan Wends was launched in 1147 under the leadership of Henry the Lion of Saxony and Albert the Bear of Brandenburg. The crusade itself was, on the whole, a failure, but in subsequent years Henry the Lion, aided by Waldemar I of Denmark, Albert the Bear, and other princes, carried out a systematic campaign of conquest. By the end of the 12th cent. nearly all Germany except East Prussia had been subjected to German rule and was Christianized. However, a group of Slavic-speaking Wends has maintained itself to the present day in Lusatia. They call themselves Srbi and hence are known also in English as Lusatian Sorbs or Serbs.

Wends

	Wends, name given by the Germans in medieval times to all the Slavic tribes occupying the territory roughly between the Elbe and Saale rivers on the...
The Wends during the Viking Age (814-1043)
Jomsborg Hird Witajcie na stronie Jomsborg Vikings Hird - drużyny wojowników z Jomsborga. Jesteśmy bractwem odwołującym się do tradycji Jomsborczyków (Jomswikingów), którzy niegdyś mieli swoją siedzibę na wyspie Wolin. Byli wśród nich przedstawiciele różnych grup etnicznych żyjących wokół Bałtyku, ale trzon Jomsborczyków stanowili Skandynawowie i Wenedzi. Wenedzi, to Słowianie Zachodni, a więc i my - Polacy, jako że we wszystkich sagach Polska występuje jako "Vendland". Jomsborczycy byli znani jako niezwykle dzielni wojownicy, ale zarazem wielcy zbóje, w szeregach których szukali ochrony wszelkiego rodzaju zabijacy, często ścigani prawem w rodzinnych stronach, za rozbój i gwałty. Staramy się więc odtwarzać tamtą, wczesnośredniowieczną rzeczywistość, a ponieważ żyjemy już w XXI wieku, więc mamy w pamięci słowa z filmu Eryk Wiking. Stary ojciec pouczał Eryka ; "pamiętaj synu - najpierw rabuj, potem gwałć, a na końcu spal; nigdy na odwrót" http://www.jomsborg.pl/

Under the Saxon kings, renewed attempts were made to conquer the Slavic lands to the east of the Elbe. The Sorbic March was MARCH MERSEBURG, MARCH ZEITZ and MARCH LUSATIA; temporarily the Wends were subjugated, the land partitioned in further marches, the work of mission begun. But the Slavs repeatedly rose in revolt, burnt the churches and killed the priests.
In 968, the ARCHDIOCESIS OF MAGDEBURG was established, with the task to promote the conversion of the Wends (and other Slavic peoples further east). The conversion of the Bohemians, Danes and Poles (late 10th century) turned the areas settled by the Wends into an island of paganism; now pressure was also exerted by the Danes and Poles. The ARCHDIOCESIS OF BREMEN was interested in converting the Obodrites living on the shores of the Baltic Sea.

http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/germany/wends2.html

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Wends are partly a term by some held equivalent to Vandals through a latinized form of Wendland, and partly a German abbreviation (also often used in English) for some Slavic people from north-central Europe. The term has not historically enjoyed consistent usage, but is most employed specifically for one or two Slavic groups and as an over-arching term. The Franks referred to most Slavs living between the Odra and Laba as either Wends or Sorbs, while in Slavic literature these people are called Polabian Slavs.

As a result, it is still difficult today to present a coherent picture of the Wends as a people. For the Slavic interpretation, the term Wends was presumably used in the history in the following meanings:

1. In general - a German name for West Slavic people formerly inhabiting teritories of present day Pomerania and Eastern Germany. The term Wends was used in connection to all Slavs inhabiting west of Poland and north of Bohemia - Polabians, Pomeranians and Sorbs.

2. German and English name for Sorbs, a Slavic people who moved into Central Europe during the great migration, most likely in response to pressure by the westward movement of warlike peoples such as the Huns and Avars. Some of their descendants, also called Wends or Lusatian Sorbs (Lužički Srbi), still live in Lusatia today, where the Sorbian language is maintained in schools. Many Wends were driven out of Prussia during the revolutions of 1848. The Prussian (German Imperial) government insisted that Wends living in the area give up their language in schools and other public arenas. Moreover, the Wends who wished to continue living in the Empire were compelled to practice Lutheranism. A large part of the Wendish population of Prussia emigrated to countries that welcomed immigrants as a source of cheap labor, including the United States and Australia. In the United States, the majority of Wends landed in Texas, where they became some of the earliest members of the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran church. A notable settlement of Wends in Texas is the town of Serbin, in Lee County, where a church, St. Paul's Lutheran Church, stands as a typical example of Wendish architecture. In St. Paul's, the pulpit is located in the balcony of the church.

3. German name for Kashubians.

4. Some Finnish historians claim that words Wends or Vandals used in Scandinavian sources occasianally meant all peoples in Eastern coast of Baltic from Pomerania to Finland, including some Finnic peoples. The existance of these supposed Finnic Wends is far from clear. In 13th century there was indeed a people called Wends or Vends living as far as in Northern Latvia around the city of Wenden and it is not known if they were indeed Slavs as their name suggests. Some researchers think they were related to Finnic speaking Votians.

Wenden

The term Wends was used formerly by Germans also in connection to Slavs in general.

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Related articles

• Kashubians
• Wendland
• Sorbs
• Polabian
• Venedes

[edit]

External link

By Ron Lammert

In December of 1854, an English sailing vessel, the Ben Nevis, docked in Galveston harbor loaded with some 500 immigrants from Lusatia, an area in Germany comprising parts of Saxony and Prussia. These immigrants were not the typical lot of Germans, Swedes, Czechs, and Poles who flocked to Texas in the 1850's seeking cheap land and economic opportunity. This group was different. The group brought a strange new language to the frontier state-the Wendish language. And even more striking, these Slavic pioneers who were to settle in Lee County made the journey from their homeland, not in search of prosperity, but rather in search of religious liberty and the right to speak their Wendish tongue.

The Wends were descended from a group of Slavic tribes that had developed a common language and, in the 10th Century, occupied much of central Europe. By the 19th Century, the Wends had been decimated by conquest and assimilation with other cultures until only a small area along the River Spree was inhabited by true Wends.

The Wendish migration to Texas was impelled, in part, by the Prussian insistence that the Wends (or Sorbs, as they called themselves) speak and use the German language, even to the extent of Germanizing their names. The oppression of the Wendish minority extended to working conditions, with Wends being denied the right to do the skilled labor for which they were trained. If they were hired at all, they received less pay than their German counterparts. Prussian agrarian reform laws of 1832 dispossessed the Wends of their real property so they were, in effect, vassals to their Prussian lords.

But most intolerable was the requirement that the Lutheran Wends join the Evangelical Reform churches in one state-regulated Protestant body. The Wends believed this action would dilute their pure Lutheran faith and, rather than accept this decree, they made plans to immigrate to the New World.

The Wends organized the journey under the leadership of their Pastor, The Reverend Jan Kilian. Rev. Kilian was a scholar and prolific writer who translated from German into Wendish many books, such as Luther's Large Catechism and the Augsburg Confession. He also wrote Wendish prayer books, sermons, and tracts, as well as hymns and poems. Years later, Rev. Kilian was known to preach the same sermon in Wendish, German, and English on a Sunday morning. Kilian, a graduate of Leipzig University, was a strong leader and a logical choice to be the Moses of this 19th Century Exodus.

On March 25, 1854, a new Lutheran congregation was organized at Dauban, to become the cornerstone of a large Wendish emigration. Rev. Kilian was called as Pastor. Most likely, the group chose Texas as its destination because of glowing reports returned by several families of Wends who had previously settled in Central Texas. Other smaller groups of Wends also departed during this period to find new homes in Australia.

Knowing that the odds favored many losing their lives on the journey, almost 600 Wends left their homes and loved ones in the first week of September, 1854, bound for Texas. The group traveled to Liverpool, England, where they boarded the three-masted Ben Nevis. They soon encountered their first tragedy as the dreaded cholera epidemic struck. Fifteen died before the ship reached Ireland. At Queenstown, Ireland, the ship was quarantined for three weeks and thoroughly fumigated. Twenty-three more succumbed to cholera during this time. At last, on October 22, 1854, the Wends again boarded the Ben Nevis bound for Galveston. Although the cholera had somewhat abated, another eighteen died at sea during the Atlantic crossing.

The decimated congregation arrived at Galveston in early December, only to be faced with another scourge, yellow fever. Many contracted the disease, but only one died before the Wends could flee inland to Houston. From Houston, the Wends journeyed further inland by oxcart in early January 1855. Two men had been sent ahead to find a place where they could settle. The epic migration to a new homeland ended on the banks of Rabbs Creek in what is today Lee County, near Giddings. Here, the Wends purchased a league of land for $1.00 per acre. The first winter was hard and food was scarce. Many Wends lived in dugouts and log cabins until proper homes could be built.

The newcomers set aside 95 acres of the land for the Lutheran church and school. About one mile northwest of the church property, the colonists began work on their town, which they named Serbin. This was to be the capital of their "Wendenland" in Texas, where they could continue forever their Wendish language and cultural traditions.

One of the first acts accomplished by Rev. Kilian was to apply for membership in the fledgling Missouri Synod Lutheran Church. St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Serbin became the first of many Missouri Synod churches in Texas, and it had the only Wendish school in America. The present St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Serbin was completed in 1871. It is a beautiful, yet simple, structure, the obvious product of pioneer craftsmanship. The unique interior includes a balcony extending around the interior with a pulpit nearly 20 feet above the lower floor. Originally, the men sat in the balcony, while the women and children occupied the floor level pews. St. Paul's is one of the oldest churches in America in continual use since its construction.

Many groups of Wendish colonists struck out for other parts of Texas in the latter 1800's. Wends formed sub-colonies in such places as Austin, Houston, Warda, Fedor, Swiss Alp, Giddings, Port Arthur, Mannheim, Copperas Cove, Vernon, Walburg, The Grove, Bishop, and the Rio Grande Valley. In each case, the Wends built a new church and affiliated with the Missouri Synod, thus helping spread Missouri Synod congregations throughout Texas. In the new congregations, the Wendish language and culture soon died out. Only in Serbin did it survive, where Wendish services continued to be held until 1921. Today, only a few elderly Wends still know the language. The great irony of the Wendish emigration was that in the effort to establish a pure Wendish colony where the language and culture could be preserved, these very things were lost due to the economic and social realities of the frontier.

Throughout Texas, particularly on the church rolls of Missouri Synod Lutheran Churches, can be found Wendish names from the passenger list of the Ben Nevis-names like Lehman, Moerbe, Schatte, Fritsche, Becker, Schubert, Dube, Teinert, Wukasch, Kiesling, Prellop, Kasper, Zoch, Miertschin, Urban, Wenke, Knippa, Noack, Groeschel, Wuensche, Melde, and many more. Strong emphasis on biblical religious faith and basic education is evident today in families descendant from the Wendish pioneers. Today, thousands of Texans and other Americans, many unaware of their background, can lay claim to the courageous and fascinating heritage of the Wends.

Wendish Noodles

One egg
One half egg shell of water (about 3 tablespoons)
One and one-half to two cups of flour

Beat egg and water together. Add a sprinkle of salt and enough flour to form a stiff dough. Roll out thin on a pastry cloth. Let stand to dry, turning over occasionally. Cut into thin strips when dry but still pliable. Cook in a rich chicken broth until tender. Chopped parsley, chopped green onion tops, and a dash of nutmeg may be added for flavor, if desired.

Wendish Easter Eggs
The Wends are Slavic-Germans who have four techniques of decorating eggs: Wax Batik, Acid, Scratch, and Embossed.

The most commonly used technique in Texas is the Wax Batik. In this method, the wax design is applied to the egg with a tip of a goose feather cut into geometrical shapes, or the head of a straight pin. The wax protects the egg from taking the dye. Multicolored eggs are created by applying the design in stages, dipping the egg in a different color dye after each wax application. When the egg is completely decorated, the wax is removed and the egg oiled.

The Embossed technique uses the same instruments and designs as the Wax Batik, but with colored wax on a white egg. In the Acid and Scratch techniques, the egg is dyed first and the design is etched with acid or scratched with a sharp instrument.

Wends

or Sorbs, Slavic people (numbering about 60,000) of Brandenburg and Saxony, E Germany, in Lusatia. They speak Lusatian (also known as Sorbic or Wendish), a West Slavic language with two main dialects: Upper Lusatian, nearer to Czech, and Lower Lusatian, nearer to Polish. The towns of Bautzen (Upper Lusatia) and Cottbus (Lower Lusatia in modern Silesia) are their chief cultural centers.	1
In the Middle Ages the term Wends was applied by the Germans to all the Slavs inhabiting the area between the Oder River in the east and the Elbe River and the Saale River in the west. German conquest of their land began in the 6th cent. and was completed under Charlemagne (8th cent.). A coalition of Wendish tribes in the 10th cent. and again in the early 12th cent. temporarily halted German expansion. A crusade against the pagan Wends was launched in 1147 under the leadership of Henry the Lion of Saxony and Albert the Bear of Brandenburg. The crusade itself was, on the whole, a failure, but in subsequent years Henry the Lion, aided by Waldemar I of Denmark, Albert the Bear, and other princes, carried out a systematic campaign of conquest. By the end of the 12th cent. nearly all Germany except East Prussia had been subjected to German rule and was Christianized. However, a group of Slavic-speaking Wends has maintained itself to the present day in Lusatia. They call themselves Srbi and hence are known also in English as Lusatian Sorbs or Serbs.	2
See G. Stone, The Smallest Slavonic Nation: The Sorbs of Lusatia (1972).

The Sorbs or Wendish People

In my research I encountered an ethnic group which lived in Silesia and resided in many of the villages of my ancestors. Thanks to Tonya Hetler I have learned of their culture. Here are some excerpts she sent to me.

Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups

Stephan Thernstrom, editor

Copyright 1980 by The President & Fellows of Harvard College

ISBN #0-674-37512-2

WENDS

The Wends, a little-known immigrant group, settled in Texas among the Germans in the mid-19th century. An ancient Slavic people also known as Lusatian Sorbs, they had resisted assimilation in Europe for over 1,000 years, preserving their own language and customs though not their political independence.

BACKGROUND

The ancestors of the Wends were West Slavs called the Milceni and Luzici who occupied an area east of the Oder River in the early Middle Ages. The Wendish homeland is part of the territory known as Lusatia in East Germany. Approximately 50 miles southeast of Berlin, it is about 1,800 square miles in area and is bordered by Czechoslovakia on the south and Poland on the east. The Spree River flows through its two major towns, Bautzen and Cottbus. The Wends have managed to maintain their identity although they have been ruled at various times by Germans, Hungarians, Poles, and Bohemians. In both world wars they unsuccessfully sought recognition by the major powers as a nation-state.

The first of their foreign conquerors was Charles, one of Charlemagne's sons, who defeated the Wends and burned Bautzen in 806; by the year 1100 the Wends had been subjugated. German nobles dominated the Wendish peasants and relegated the urban Wends to homes outside the walls or to restricted sections of the city. They could become active in society only through German institutions and the German language. The guilds were German, and the mercantile activity was conducted in the German manner. Under pressure, especially in the part of Lusatia under Prussian control, many Wends adopted German names and relinquished their Slavic traditions.

The Christianization of the Wends began prior to the German conquest, but it was vigorously promoted by the Germans. They also followed the Germans in the Reformation; most Wends converted to Lutheranism in 1530 after the Council of Augsburg. Martin Luther's emphasis on the vernacular encouraged the Wends to devise a written language, and in 1574 Luther's Small Catechism became the first work to be published in it.

There are two versions of Sorbian, also called Sorbic, Wendish or Lusatian, corresponding to the divisions of the Lusatian region. Both versions belong to the Western Slavic group. The southern area called Upper Lusatia speaks a dialect nearer to Czech (Luther's Catechism was translated into Upper Sorbian); the northern area, or Lower Lusatia, a dialect nearer to Polish. Traditionally the Wends call themselves Srbi in their own language, but the Germans call them Wenden, a term widely used both by others and by, many of the Slavic Lusatians themselves, including those who migrated to foreign lands in the 19th century. In the Middle Ages, Wend was the German name for all West Slavs, however, and as a result it came to symbolize the Germanization of the Wends that began in the 9th century with the Carolingians and continued through the Weimar Republic and the Nazi period.

Although Lusatia was also ruled at times by non-German princes, it has remained under German control since the Peace of Prague in 1635. Prior to German unification in 1871 it comprised parts of the kingdoms of Prussia and Saxony-Lower Lusatia being under Prussian administration and Upper Lusatia under that of Saxony. Since World War II it has been part of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and divided administratively between the districts of Dresden and Cottbus. Wendish ethnic awareness has been encouraged under the German Democratic Republic, and the term Sorb has been adopted for the Slavs of Lusatia. The name is meant to reflect their Slavic heritage and at the same time to distinguish them from the Serbs of southern Europe. At present approximately 60,000 people in Lusatia call themselves Sorbs. They are served by a Sorbian cultural center (the Domowina) and a Sorbian-language newspaper, radio station, theater, folk ensemble, and publishing house. The Sorbian language is also taught in the schools.

MIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT

The Wendish migration to the United States was closely associated with that of the Germans. In 1849 some Wends settled in Austin County, Tex.; in 1853 a party of 35 Wends sailed for Texas, and the next year Pastor Jan Kilian (1811- 1884) and 500 Wends landed at Galveston. Although some of the Wends had been driven there by economic hardship, especially crop failures in the 1840s and a land shortage resulting from population growth in Lusatia, the Kilian group were religious dissenters: some of them had lived under Prussian administration and left in reaction to government attempts to force the Lutherans and Calvinists to worship in a single state church; others had lived under Saxon administration and were unhappy over the doctrinal laxity in the Lutheran Church of Saxony and theimpact of rationalism on the clergy.

A citizen of Saxony during his early life, Kilian denounced both administrations and in 1845 contemplated emigrating to Australia. In 1848 he resigned his position in the Saxon state church and became the pastor of several samll clusters of independent Lutherans who refused to worship in the Prussian church.

Although Kilian exercised religious leadership, the migration to Texas was directed by laymen living along the Prussian-Saxon border who had formed an organization to manage the emigrants and then asked Kilian to be their pastor and to serve the Wendish congregation they hoped to establish in Texas. Wends from both Saxony and Prussia joined the group, along with members of Kilian's own congregations. A few more Wends migrated before the Civil War broke out in the United States; altogether approximately 600 had arrived by 1860. Between 1865 and the end of the century another 600 came, followed by a few in the early 20th century. But of all the groups to migrate, Kilian's remained the largest and most significant.

The Kilian party first fraveled to Hamburg, from where they sailed to Hull, England. They took the railroad to Liverpool where they waited for a ship that was scheduled to return to Texas for another cargo of cotton. Before this ship, the Ben Nevis, could be boarded, however, several Wends were exposed to cholera, and 73 eventually succumbed to it or to other sicknesses.

The survivors arrived at Galveston in December 1854. Most of them traveled by wagon to join the earlier Wendish immigrants at New Ulm. During the winter months their leaders purchased the Delaplain League (4354 acres) present-day Lee County, and there built a church and a town called Serbin. A few built homes in the village, but most of the Wends were farmers, and, like other Texans, settled on isolated farms.

The first few years in Texas were difficult for the Wends. Delays in purchasing the Delaplain League prevented early planting the first year, and two years of drought followed. Inadequate shelter and diet resulted in more sickness and death. The familiar crops of Lusatia, such as rye, wheat, and flax, did not grow well in Texas, and the Wends had to adopt the local cotton and corn economy. The Civil War brought some prosperity, when the prices for cotton rose in both the Houston and Mexican market, and many Wends turned to carting cotton across the Rio Grande. But the Wends were also confronted with the conscription laws. Not owning slaves and not interested in fighting for Confederacy, as many as possible evaded military service, but nonetheless several of their young men lost their lives in the war.

Even in those more profitable years the Wends did not achieve the prosperity of their Texas neighbors. The agricultural censuses of 1870 and 1880 show that their farms were smaller and the productivity lower than those of the more established population. Handicapped by the low fertility of the Delaplain League, the Wends became prosperous farmers only through frugality, selfdenial, and hard work. The local German community played a significant role in Serbin's development. Many of the Wends who migrated to Texas were equally fluent in German and Sorbian, and Kilian, trained in German schools and at the University of Leipzig, preached in both languages. The church records of births, marriages, and deaths he kept in German, but the congregational minutes and obituaries he recorded in Sorbian. Some Germans had accompanied Kilian's migration, and several families had German spouses. Initially the church services were conducted in Sorbian, as was the language of the Lutheran school, taught by Kilian. However, German Lutherans also settled in the Serbin area and joined the Wendish congregation; by 1862 Kilian was preaching in German every sixth Sunday. Eventually tensions in the congregation arose over a variety of problems, and most often they were expressed in controversy about which language to use. Because of the conflict over the use of Sorbian, some Germans and "progressive" Wends left Kilian's congregation in 1870 and formed their own fellowship. Though weakened by the schism, Kilian's congregation continued construction of a larger sanctuary begun in 1866. The most significant monument to the Texas Wends, the building was dedicated in 1871 and is still in use.

The two congregations existed side by side. In the period after the congregational division, more and more of the Wends began speaking German, and Kilian increased the use of German in his church services. Shortly before his death in 1884, Kilian began to receive assistance from his son Herman, who had graduated from the Lutheran Seminary in St. Louis. Through the diplomatic activities of the younger Kilian, the two groups renewed their friendship and, because German now predominated in the entire community, the two churches merged in 1914. Sorbian was taught in the school until 1916 and used in the pulpit from time to time until 1920, when Herman Kilian died and a replacement willing to preach in Sorbian could not be found. The new pastor, Herman Schmidt, although a Wend, used Sorbian only in private devotions and in pastoral visits. Ironically, the German culture and language that the Wends had resisted for so long in Europe finally became theirs in the United States, just as they had made the transition, however, World War I broke out, and widespread anti-German sentiment induced the Wends to shift to English. At the end of the 1970s some older people continued to speak Sorbian, but German remained the more common second language. The group that accompanied Kilian was interested in forming a single congregation, but the Wends who had settled earlier in Austin County did not join the settlement, and those whose occupations were suited to urban life remained in Houston. Establishing a tight, cohesive colony was complicated further by the low productivity of the land of the Delaplain League. As a result some of the Wends moved on, establishing settlements in Swiss Alp, Fedor, Warda, Manheim, and other places. Most of the Wendish immigrants who arrived after 1865 stopped at Serbin first and then continued on to one of these other Texas settlements. In more recent years the Wends have followed the general pattern of rural to urban migration by moving to Austin, Houston, Port Arthur, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio. In spite of this dispersion, however, unity among the Wends and recognition of their common heritage remain. This fellowship is maintained to an extent through membership in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and also, at least during the early decades of the 20th century, through the pages of the Giddings Deutsches Volksblatt (Giddings, Tex., 1899-1949). The Wendish Culture Club was founded in Serbin in 1971. In 1976 it was renamed the Texas Wendish Heritage Society and is now engaged in perpetuating Wendish tradition.

The folkways of the Wends are tied closely to the church calendar, especially the major festivals of Easter and Christmas, and to the personal milestones of birth, death, and marriage that are also sanctified in the church. Easter is celebrated with both religious services in church and the coloring of eggs. A particular custom observed in both Texas and Europe, and also found among other Slavic groups, is the use of "Easter water.'' The water dipped from a brook early on Easter morning supposedly stimulates health and beauty; in Texas it was sprinkled on sleepers' faces to awaken them. Of the personal observances, most elaborate is the wedding, which involves both a church service and an elaborate celebration. In Europe a professional wedding manager called a braska supervised practically all aspects of the celebration, but in Texas his role was limited to calling at the bride's home, leading the wedding party in songs and prayers, and directing the procession to church and back to the home. Some social gatherings in the earlier years also reflected the Wendish heritage. Feather-stripping parties, accompanied by dancing and singing, required each person to remove the soft part of the goose feathers until a cup was filled with feathers; then followed the merrymaking. In more recent years the Wendish customs have been neglected, and the celebrations of personal observances no longer reflect the Wendish heritage, but simply follow the practices of the larger Texas community.

In addition to the Texas settlement and the Wends who migrated elsewhere in the world - to Australia, Canada, South Africa - a small number went to Nebraska. Although there was some communication between a few Texas and Australian families, there was apparently none between the Texans and the small group in Sterling, Nebraska, which was closely tied to the German community; at least no record of any correspondence between the Nebraska and Texas Wends remains. The Wendish poet Mato Kossyk (1853-1940), who migrated to the United States and became a Lutheran pastor, visited the Sterling group in the 1880s and communicated with them in Sorbian. But by now awareness of the Wendish heritage of some Sterling families is only a dim memory in the minds of a few of the old people.

Bibliography

The best study in English of the European Wends is Gerald Stone, The Smallest Slavonic Nation: The Sorbs of Lusatia (London, 1972). George Engerrand, The So-Called Wends of Germany and Their Colonies in Texas and in Australia (1934; reprint, San Francisco, 1972), also examines the European background as well as the Texas settlement. Anne Blasig, The Wends of Texas (San Antonio, Tex., 1954), is valuable because of its emphasis on the Serbin settlement, and Lillie Moerbe Caldwell, Texas Wends: Their First Half Century (Salado, Tex., 1961), adds material on the social life of the group. The most recent study is George R Nielsen, in search of a Home: The Wends (Sorbs) on the Australian and Texas Frontiers (Birmingham, England, 1977). Source materials on the Texas Wends are to be found in the Concordia Historical Institute, St Louis, Mo., and the Texas District Archives of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod in Austin.

Written by: Geroge R Nielsen

You can find many of the families listed in this publication:

http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/germany/wends2.html

ABOUT THE WENDS

About our Lusatian/Wend Pech background I would like to quote, in part, from what my sister, Ruth Fehlberg has written in our family history book, "The Pech Heritage", where she explains about the Wends, pages 23-25.

"Because the Wends quickly merged with the Germans in South Australia and Victoria, many of the offspring in the younger generations never realised that they had ancestors who were Wends and not Germans....."

"Our forebears were the Sorbs of Upper Lusatia in Saxony. Lower Lusatia was the home of other Sorbs and the two areas had two distinct languages. In their homelands they are still known as Sorbs, but in Australia and in Texas they are known as Wends, and that is how we refer to them."

"A number of wends migrated to Canada, a few settled in South Africa, but the migration to Texas was extensive right into the 1880's. America was closer, the fares were cheaper, and the larger numbers of Wends in Texas helped sustain the flow of immigrants. About 2000 Wends came to South Australia, most of them between 1850 and 1860. Early settlements included Klemzig, Ebenezer, Peter's Hill, St. Kitts, Hoffnungsthal, Rosedale, Bethany, and the Barossa areas generally. A few went to Appila. Over the years they spread to Victoria where Wends settled mainly at Tabor and Tarrington in the Hamilton district, others took up wheatlands in the Wimmera. Then there was the great trek to Walla-Walla in 1868 by Wends from the Ebenezer area where the soil had become exhausted. Two of Johann Pech's children, Helene with her family and Ernst, also travelled over to the Riverina and settled there. In the course of time, people of Wend extraction have been found in many parts of Australia....."

"It is a paradox that the Sorbs (Wends) who were so oppressed by the Germans, are now promoted and recognised, There is a resurging interest in peoples and customs in Europe, similar to the interest in things historical in Australia. The Sorbs and their traditions and customs are promoted for tourism, and, because there is a close affinity between the Russian and Sorb languages, their culture and outlook, the Sorbs have received favourable treatment under the Socialistic government. There has been an upsurge in Sorb literature, drama and culture. National costumes and dances are featured at the regular Sorb festivals, They are politically represented and there are comprehensive schools in Lusatia with all lessons in Sorb, and others which provide Sorb language instruction. Sorb newspapers and periodicals are published regularly and local signposts bear the names of towns and villages in both Sorb and German languages. Pastor Siegfried Albert who supplied us with information, speaks Sorbish and preaches monthly at Bautzen (Budysin) and Grosspostwitz in the Sorb language."

---

"There are really no characteristically Wend traditions that have survived in Australia. Easter was always particularly highly regarded in Europe, coming as it does at the end of the long, hard winters, and the Wends zealously coloured Easter eggs. Because there are so many waterways, lakes and ponds in Lusatia, the children were always warned of the "Wõdñy Muz" the Water Man who lurked at the streams and ponds, waiting to pull victims down to his domain. We had a number of dams on our farm, and the Pine Creek, which crossed it, had deep, muddy pools, from all of which we kept a wary distance because the "Wassermann" was waiting to grab us! It certainly kept us from drowning"

"The visitor to present day Lusatia would find the largest power generation enterprise of East Germany in that area. It has extensive coal deposits and numerous factories. However, forty per cent of Lusatia is still devoted to agriculture and there are extensive forests. The Spreewald is well known for its market gardening and vegetable processing. Lakes and ponds are used for fish breeding. There are many fine resorts, and places such as Bautzen are of great historical interest. Anyone considering a visit to this area while on overseas travels, would be well rewarded....."

"In Australia the Wends are certainly not identifiable any more and just think of themselves as "Dinkum Aussies". But the historical background of the Wends will nevertheless not be forgotten. I wish to acknowledge George Nielsen's "In search of a home" and Pastor Burger's "The coming of the Wends" as sources of information and for anyone who wishes to be further aquainted with the Wends and the Wend migrations, I recommend them both. Pastor Rufus Pech, has supplied background material and checked historical facts. There is extensive information on Wends in many family history books that have already been published in South Australia."

So far Ruth Fehlberg's explanations.

"Nineteenth- Century Emigration of 'Old Lutherans' From Eastern Germany (mainly Pomerania and Lower Silesia to Australia, Canada, and the United States)"
Clifford Smith
Westland Pubns ISBN:0915162067 This publication is a summary of a work entitled "Die altlutherische Auswanderung um die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts" by Wilhelm Iwan, published in 1943. It explains the history of why some of the "Old Lutherans" felt enough persecution to emigrate. Most of these individuals left in groups as members of organized congregations and most were of the lower classes. Most were from small towns excepting a few from Magdeburg and Erfurt.
Silesia was the first region in which the idea of emigration emerged. At first the idea of Russia attracted some but then a letter from a blacksmith, Karl Berger, from Guttmansdorf, Kreis Reichenbach, Silesia, told of his life in Michigan. Many settled in New York, Michigan, Wisconsin and Canada.
Those that went to Australia arrived first at Port Adelaide aboard the Solvay, on 16 Oct 1837.
The book is organized by date of emigration, then by province, district and village emigrated from and then family names are listed along with first names and ages.
I received this book through interlibrary loan from Indianapolis University Libraries, 755 Michigan Street,

The Wends of Texas represent a small Slavic group of people who have never had an independent nation and who have undergone a double assimilation in Texas.

Known as Sorbs or Lusatian Serbs, Wends have lived in Lusatia, Eastern Germany, as a recognizable group from the Middle Ages until today. Just before 1850 some Wendish families emigrated to Australia; then, hearing of German settlement in Texas, a few Wends came to Austin County. In 1853 about 35 Wends entered Galveston to settle in New Ulm and Industry.

The only larger group of Wends ever to leave Europe was a congregation of Lutherans led by Johann Kilian. This group, decimated by cholera in Liverpool and yellow fever in Galveston, eventually settled in present Lee County, where Johann Dube and Carl Lehmann had purchased a league of land. Johann Kilian's two-room house served as the church, and the settlers initially lived in dugouts. By 1860 a community named Serbin warranted a post office. The settlement grew until 1871, when a new railroad turned Giddings into the population center for the area.

Life for the first generation was hard, and the Wends were conservative. Dancing and secular music were considered inappropriate activities; the main job in life was making a living, not preserving tradition. Since they came from Germany, most Wends considered it natural to live among already-established Germans in Texas.

Even in Europe, the Wends were largely “Germanized” by the 19th century. In Texas they became more so; Wendish families living in German settlement areas were quickly assimilated. Those Wends who spoke only Sorbian learned German as their second language, then English. By World War I most of the Wends in the state had adopted German. The Giddings Deutsches Volksblatt contained a few columns of Wendish for a number of years, then shifted entirely to German.

Many Texas Wends simply consider themselves German, but in the Serbin area, considerable identity has been maintained through a revival of interest in earlier Wendish characteristics.

Some individuals today maintain that no intermarriage has taken place in their families since the main Wendish arrival in 1854. But for the most part, intermarriage and an acceptance of German, then Anglo, customs has meant a thorough acculturation for most families.

The Texas Wendish Heritage Society was founded in 1971, when the group began its annual participation in the Texas Folklife Festival of the Institute of Texan Cultures, and the membership maintains a Wendish museum at Serbin. The group has revived interest in European costume, foods, and crafts and is attempting to collect, translate, and publish early Wendish documents. Many were lost during the first years in Texas.

The community at Serbin holds an annual Wendish Fest and extends a welcome, Witajcže K'nam, to visitors. During the affair church services are conducted in German and English, a Czech band may play, and corn-shucking contests are held. Some of the local descendants dress in European Wendish costume.

The Wends of Texas represent one of the strongest examples of cultural revival by later generations.

Photo: Dolls in Wend costumes, in Wend museum, Bautzen, by K Zwar

The Wends of Lusatia, an area in the Eastern part of Germany, make up the smallest

group of the many Slavic races who include the Poles, Czechs and Russians.

The Wendish language is closely related to Polish and Czech.

The German cities of Bautzen and Cottbus are the main centres for the

Upper Wends [Bautzen] and the lower Wends [Cottbus].

The Wendish language is still the first language spoken by many Wends who live in

villages in this area of Germany. Estimates vary, but there are between 30,000 and

50,000 Wends who still speak their native tongue.

The Wends have inhabited the area called 'Lusatia' for over 1,500 years, and in earlier

times their territory was much larger and included Berlin, which was originally a Wendish settlement.

In Germany the name ‘Sorb’ is usually preferred to ‘Wend’, but the term ‘Wend’ has

usually been preferred in the English speaking countries where the Wends have settled,

including Australia, Canada, South Africa and the U S A.

Links

A history of the Wends
http://www-user.tu-cottbus.de/Sorben/inhalt06/domowina/eng/historie.htm

Home page of the Sorbs/Wends in Australia
http://lakoma.rz.tu-cottbus.de/Sorben/inhalt08/d02.htm

The Texas Wendish Heritage Society Web site
http://wendish.concordia.edu

Bautzen turns 1000 in year 2002
http://home.t-online.de/home/03593980627-1/history.htm

Bautzen
http://www.bautzen.de/
click on the union jack for the English version
or
http://www.bautzen.de/ueber_bautzen.asp?iid=244

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.  2001.

Wends

	1
	2
See G. Stone, The Smallest Slavonic Nation: The Sorbs of Lusatia (1972).
or Sorbs, Slavic people (numbering about 60,000) of Brandenburg and Saxony, E Germany, in Lusatia. They speak Lusatian (also known as Sorbic or Wendish), a West Slavic language with two main dialects: Upper Lusatian, nearer to Czech, and Lower Lusatian, nearer to Polish. The towns of Bautzen (Upper Lusatia) and Cottbus (Lower Lusatia in modern Silesia) are their chief cultural centers.
In the Middle Ages the term Wends was applied by the Germans to all the Slavs inhabiting the area between the Oder River in the east and the Elbe River and the Saale River in the west. German conquest of their land began in the 6th cent. and was completed under Charlemagne (8th cent.). A coalition of Wendish tribes in the 10th cent. and again in the early 12th cent. temporarily halted German expansion. A crusade against the pagan Wends was launched in 1147 under the leadership of Henry the Lion of Saxony and Albert the Bear of Brandenburg. The crusade itself was, on the whole, a failure, but in subsequent years Henry the Lion, aided by Waldemar I of Denmark, Albert the Bear, and other princes, carried out a systematic campaign of conquest. By the end of the 12th cent. nearly all Germany except East Prussia had been subjected to German rule and was Christianized. However, a group of Slavic-speaking Wends has maintained itself to the present day in Lusatia. They call themselves Srbi and hence are known also in English as Lusatian Sorbs or Serbs.

referred to pretty much all Slavs living between the Odra and Laba as either Wends or Sorbs), it is still difficult today to present a coherent picture of the Wends as a people. Here is one possible theory:

Wends are a sub-group of the Sorbs, a Slavic people who moved into Central Europe during the Völkerwanderung, most likely in response to pressure by the westward movement of peoples like Huns, and Avars. Some of their descendants, also called Wends or Lusatian Sorbs (Luzicki Srbi), still live in Lusatia today, where the Sorbian language is maintained in schools.

Other Wends, the Kashubians, settled between Kolobrzeg, Slupsk and west of Gdanskin Pomerania. Many Wends were driven out of 19th century Prussia during the 1848 revolutions. The Prussian (German Imperial) government insisted that Wends living in the area give up their language in schools and other public arenas. Moreover, the Wends who wished to continue living in the Empire were compelled to worship in the form of Lutheranism. A large part of the Wendish population of Prussia emigrated and went to the United States and to other countries like Australia -- countries that welcomed immigrants as a source of cheap labor. In the United States, the majority of Wends landed at first in Texas, where they became some of the earliest members of the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran church.

wenden

cesis (latvia) |

wends

hungary - minorities | latvia | sorb people (brandenburg and saxony, germany) |

Wends - definition from gcide

Wends \Wends\, n. pl.; sing. Wend. (Ethnol.)

A Slavic tribe which once occupied the northern and eastern

parts of Germany, of which a small remnant exists.

[1913 Webster]

Wends

The Wends (also known as Sorbs) are a minority Slavic people and are concentrated in an area known as Lusatia in the eastern corner of Germany that borders the Czech Republic. In Australia they are usually known as Wends, and in Germany as Sorbs. Their history goes back more than a thousand years, but they became Lutheran during the Reformation (16th century). In the 19th century the area of Lusatia straddled the political borders of three German territories. The northern part (Lower Lusatia), centred around the city of Cottbus, was part of the Prussian province of Brandenburg, and the southern part (Upper Lusatia), centred around the city of Bautzen, was part of the kingdom of Saxony. After 1815 a section across the centre of Lusatia was added to Silesia.

Although Lusatia was part of the territory of German states, the Wends/Sorbs had their own language, cultural customs and traditional dress. Both the German and Wendish/Sorbian languages were used in Lusatia. The German language was used for all official business. Famine in the late 1840s caused many to emigrate, and encouraging letters back home from the significant number of Wends who had gone to SA increased numbers leaving. Large numbers of Wends emigrated to Texas also. In SA they settled alongside Germans and eventually stopped using the Wendish/Sorbian language, for although they could understand German, their German neighbours couldn't speak Wendish/Sorbian. Most British-Australians thought they were Germans.

For several decades now the German Government has been supporting the maintenance of Sorbian culture and language in Lusatia. Sorbs make up about 10% of the population of Lusatia, though in some local communities in the Kreis (District) of Kamenz, up to 90 per cent of the population is Sorbian. Approximately 45,000 Sorbs are still Sorbian speakers; all Sorbs speak German as well.
The Sorbs are not connected with the Serbs, who are a different Slavic race.

Sorbs/Wends in Australia homepage

History (in English, from the Technische Universität Cottbus)

Sorbian Cultural Information (Foundation for the Sorbian Nation)

Texas Online - About Wends

Texas Wendish Heritage Society

[Diese Seite auf Deutsch]

The Wends during the Viking Age (814-1043)

Under the Saxon kings, renewed attempts were made to conquer the Slavic lands to the east of the Elbe. The Sorbic March was MARCH MERSEBURG, MARCH ZEITZ and MARCH LUSATIA; temporarily the Wends were subjugated, the land partitioned in further marches, the work of mission begun. But the Slavs repeatedly rose in revolt, burnt the churches and killed the priests.
In 968, the ARCHDIOCESIS OF MAGDEBURG was established, with the task to promote the conversion of the Wends (and other Slavic peoples further east). The conversion of the Bohemians, Danes and Poles (late 10th century) turned the areas settled by the Wends into an island of paganism; now pressure was also exerted by the Danes and Poles. The ARCHDIOCESIS OF BREMEN was interested in converting the Obodrites living on the shores of the Baltic Sea.

During the Viking Age, the Wends answered on Viking raids with raids of their own. The Swedish Viking settlement at BIRKA was destroyed in such a raid.
In the early 11th century, Wagrian Slavs had raided the County of Holstein; the Holsteiners retaliated, depopulating Wagria. Settlers were called in from as far as Flanders, and the land now referred to as Ostholstein was settled. The city of LUEBECK was founded (1043), to become the Baltic's dominating trade center.

Hungary: Ratio of Ruthenes and of Wends (1900)

Legend: Ruthenes: from light to dark brown (1% - >90%%), Wends: from light to dark blue (1% - >90%)

WENDS, a horde of savage Slavs who, about the 6th century, invaded and took possession of vacant lands on the southern shores of the Baltic, and extended their inroads as far as Hamburg and the ocean, south also far over the Elbe in some quarters, and were a source of great trouble to the Germans in Henry the Fowler's time, and after; they burst in upon Brandenburg once, in "never-imagined fury," and stamped out, as they thought, the Christian religion there by wholesale butchery of its priests, setting up for worship their own god "Triglaph, ugliest and stupidest of all false gods," described as "something like three whales' cubs combined by boiling, or a triple porpoise dead-drunk." They were at length "fairly beaten to powder" by Albert the Bear, "and either swept away or else damped down into Christianity and keeping of the peace," though remnants of them, with their language and customs, exist in Lusatia to this day.

The Nuttall Encyclopedia -- W Index

WENDS. The Wends (also known as Sorbs or Lusatian Serbs) are a Slavic people concentrated in East Germany near Bautzen and Cottbus in the upper Spree River valley, an area long known as Lusatia. They speak Sorbian, which is divided into two dialects, Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian. The language was originally written with Gothic letters, although since 1937 the Latin alphabet has been used. Wends have never had an independent nation, and their homeland has always been surrounded by Germans. During the Middle Ages the Wends survived the raids and massacres of German Eastland horsemen; especially during the Nazi years they were pressured to assimilate the German culture, and gradually they have adopted the German language and many customs, although they still retain a separate identity. In 1840, before overseas migration began, there were about 164,000 Wends in Lusatia. In the 1980s there were only 60,000. Outside Germany, most of the Wends settled in two areas, Australia and Texas. The desire for better economic opportunity was probably the main reason for Wendish immigration to Australia and to Texas a few years later. Although scholars dispute the role of social and religious factors in the process, Texas Wends commonly express the belief that their forefathers came here solely for religious freedom. Around 1848 small groups of Wends began immigrating to Australia, where many Germans^qv had already settled. These pioneers sent letters home, many of which were published in local newspapers, and which influenced Wends still in Europe. A small group of Wends came to Austin County around 1849-50 and were quickly absorbed into the German community. In 1853 a group of thirty-five Wends left Bremen for Texas. They were shipwrecked off the coast of Cuba, but eventually made their way to Galveston, and from there to the communities of New Ulm and Industry.

In the fall of 1854 a newly established congregation of nearly 600 conservative Lutheran Wends, led by John Kilian,^qv left Germany to join their countrymen in Texas. The group constituted the only mass exodus of Wends. Traveling first by railway and steamship to Liverpool, England, the Wends embarked on an English ship, the Ben Nevis, for the journey to Texas. While in Liverpool, however, a number of Wends contracted cholera, and seventy-three of them died on board the ship. After a three week stop in Queenstown, Ireland, to remove the sick and fumigate the ship, the Ben Nevis sailed for Galveston, where it arrived on December 15, 1854. Galveston was having a yellow fever epidemic. From December to January the Wends walked the eighty-five miles to New Ulm and Industry. Two lay leaders of the congregation, Johann Dube and Carl Lehmann, went on ahead thirty miles and purchased a league of land in what is now Lee County. At first services were held in one room of Kilian's two-room house, but the group set aside ninety-five acres for a church and school, later called St. Paul's. This was the first Missouri Synod Lutheran church founded in Texas and is thus the mother church not only of the Wends, but of all conservative Lutherans in Texas. After their first tiny log church was erected, individuals purchased farm acreage and town lots, built crude dugout^qv houses for shelter, and established what became the community of Serbin. In 1860 Serbin had a post office. After 1871, however, a new railroad connection made nearby Giddings the business and commercial center of the region, and Serbin declined in both population and influence.

Over the years, due to religious dissension and economic pressures, the Wends spread throughout south central Texas. Today the leading Wendish centers are in Lee, Fayette, Williamson, Coryell, and Bell counties, especially in the towns of Serbin, Warda, Giddings, Fedor, Manheim, Loebau, Lincoln, Winchester, La Grange, Thorndale, Walburg, Copperas Cove, The Grove, Vernon, Swiss Alp, New Ulm, Industry, Noack, and Aleman. Substantial numbers of people of Wendish descent also live in Houston, Austin, and Port Arthur. While most Wends consider themselves Germans, they have maintained an ethnic identity. Early restrictions against intermarriage have relaxed over the years. Nevertheless, many individuals still claim there have been no intermarriages in their families since the arrival of the Ben Nevis. Early Wends practiced many distinctive customs, of which perhaps the most noticeable to outsiders was the German Lutheran custom of wearing black wedding dresses by Wendish brides to represent the grief and hardship of marriage. This custom died out by the 1890s. Religious conservatism militated against wearing bright colors, dancing, secular singing, or any other kind of frivolity. The Wends valued education, and today St. Paul's still has an accredited parochial school. Church congregations regularly paid for the higher education of promising young men who wanted to become pastors or teachers. In the 1980s Concordia Lutheran College in Austin still received considerable Wendish support.

The proximity of German neighbors eventually resulted in cultural assimilation and adaptation. At the time of their migration, most of the Wends spoke Wendish and German, and those who spoke only Wendish learned German after they moved to Texas. Most of the Wends in Serbin and all of the Wends who settled elsewhere had adopted German as their primary language by the time of World War I.^qv The shift from Wendish to German is documented in the Giddings Deutsches Volksblatt,^qv the principal German-language paper in the area. The newspaper, although largely written in German, also contained articles or letters in Wendish. Wendish, however, was gradually supplanted, reflecting the general shift to German language. By the 1930s the language had begun to die out in Texas, and few people remained who were still completely fluent. In the 1980s only a few people could still speak the language. In rural Wendish areas German continued to be used for church services until after World War II,^qv but today it has also largely died out. The Texas Wendish Heritage Society, founded in 1971, actively seeks to preserve and, whenever possible, revive remnants of the Wendish culture. One project involves an attempt to translate and publish all early Wendish documents. The society, which had about 350 members in 1994, maintains a Wendish museum at Serbin and annually participates in the Folklife Festival of the University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures^qv at San Antonio. The art of Easter egg painting has been maintained as a Wendish tradition. Wendish Fest, an annual festival held at Serbin in September, celebrates the Wendish heritage of the area.

Wends

Because the term has been used both specifically for one or two Slavic groups and as an over-arching term (the Franks referred to pretty much all Slavs living between the Odra and Laba as either Wends or Sorbs), it is still difficult today to present a coherent picture of the Wends as a people. Here is one possible theory:

Wends are a sub-group of the Sorbs, a Slavic people who moved into Central Europe during the Völkerwanderung, most likely in response to pressure by the westward movement of peoples like Huns, and Avars. Some of their descendants, also called Wends or Lusatian Sorbs (Luzicki Srbi), still live in Lusatia today, where the Sorbian language is maintained in schools.

Other Wends, the Kashubians, settled between Kolobrzeg, Slupsk and west of Gdanskin Pomerania. Many Wends were driven out of 19th century Prussia during the 1848 revolutions. The Prussian (German Imperial) government insisted that Wends living in the area give up their language in schools and other public arenas. Moreover, the Wends who wished to continue living in the Empire were compelled to worship in the form of Lutheranism. A large part of the Wendish population of Prussia emigrated and went to the United States and to other countries like Australia -- countries that welcomed immigrants as a source of cheap labor. In the United States, the majority of Wends landed at first in Texas, where they became some of the earliest members of the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran church.

INVADERE ET SUBIUGARE

"Charles, travelling through Saxony, came to the Elbe River. Invading the land of the Slavs who are called Wilzi, he conquered them in great battles and subjugated them to his law."1 Thus do the Wends first appear in the sources. Political and military mastery over the Wends was from the very first the main problem confronting the Franks along their Elbe River frontier, as it was for their German successors. The Wends were formidable opponents in battle, for only the most skilled of war leaders--such as Charlemagne (768-814), Henry the Fowler (919-936), or Otto I (936-973)--achieved notable victories over them. When the Christians were ruled by lesser leaders, the Wends were able to regain their independence. The great kings and emperors just mentioned shared another trait: they all took an active interest in securing their eastern frontier. They not only led military campaigns, they also set up permanent frontier defenses in the form of strongholds and marches, putting first-rate warriors in command there. Those who neglected the eastern borders tended to lose control of the Wends. The result was three centuries of alternating advances and retreats that left the frontier of the Empire in 1100 almost exactly where it had been in 800: on the Elbe-Saale River line. Charlemagne's advances were followed by a slow retreat under Louis the Pious (814-840) and his successors. The retreat was not halted until the reign of Henry the Fowler. Under Otto I, all the Wendish tribes except the Pomeranians were imperial tributaries. In 983 a major revolt wiped out nearly all traces of Christianity and the Empire beyond the Elbe. Some progress was made under Otto III (983-1002), but in 1018 another revolt won the entire trans-Elbean region back to paganism and independence. There followed tentative advances under Conrad II (1024-1039) and Henry III (1039-1056), which were again undone by a revolt in 1066. An imperial army did not enter Slavia again until 1124.

The reason for the repeated reversals of fortune is that the Germans were unable to maintain constant pressure on the Wends. An imperial army could usually defeat a Wendish army, but the Wends avoided pitched battles. In any case, imperial armies could not always be mobilized to meet a Wendish threat. It was the Saxon levy that more often faced the bands of Wendish warriors that struck at German outposts or invaded Saxony itself. Campaigning in the forests and fens of Slavia was difficult, and only very able leaders could expect success. Moreover, the Saxons were mostly free men. The Saxon duke could command them in the event of an invasion, but for a war of aggression into Slavia there cannot have been much enthusiasm. The almost total absence of feudalism in the first phase of the Drive to the East (that is, before about 1075) had another effect. Once the Wends had been defeated in battle, virtually the only political course open to the victors was to make tributaries of the Wends. This was a status resented by the pagans, and one from which they sought to escape at every opportunity. The very limited manpower and governmental capacities available to the Saxon dukes, or even to the Emperor, made the prevention of revolt all ill

The Drive to the East in the first phase, therefore, was scarcely a drive at all. Military expeditions were largely defensive or punitive. The extension of political control was aimed primarily at creating a frontier secure from raids. protection of churches and clergy was sometimes also a factor, especially in the reign of Otto I. In either case, the aim was essentially defensive. When the twelfth century opened, a new phase was beginning in the Drive to the East. Military expeditions were becoming aggressive campaigns of occupation, and political control was being extended in to exploit the resources of the conquered territory. Before discussion of the factors behind the first phase and the causes of the second, let us turn to the Wends themselves.

We know very little about Wendish society. The sources we possess sometimes disdain to speak of matters relating to pagans, but more often they are simply and frustratingly silent.2 Nearly all the physical traces of the Wends have disappeared, so that there is no prospect of ever reconstructing the whole of their social and economic edifice. On only a few points do the sources speak; on just those aspects that most affected their own Christian world. For the purposes of this analysis, more information is certainly desirable, but is not necessary. There is enough, slim though it is, for historians to discuss the reasons for the many Wendish revolts, the methods of warfare employed by the Wends, something of their political structure, and the importance of piracy and hospitality to these matters.

The Wends were famous for their liberality.3 Gift-giving is, of course, a characteristic of most societies at a certain stage in their history, but it is more prominent among some than others. In twelfth century Germany, where most of our sources were written, gift-giving played a very important social and economic role. When a writer from that culture admires the hospitality of the Wends, we can conclude that the Wends were exceptionally generous even by the standards of the Germans. In fact, what evidence we do possess indicates that liberality was shown by all toward all, implying a less structured society than that of the Germans. A Wendish family had to be prepared to feed anyone, even strangers. Anyone caught denying bread to a stranger was liable to have his home and property burned.4 The Wends were agreed that "he who does not fear to deny a stranger bread is shameful, vile, and to be abominated by all."5 So ingrained was the ethic of hospitality that Wends would even welcome enemies into their own home, as in the case of Thessemar, an "influential man" in Wagria. Thessemar feasted the bishop of Oldenburg and his party with great ceremony and generosity, even while he held and tortured other priests whom he had captured.6

Liberality was a fundamental part of the structure of Wendish society, serving two functions. First, it redistributed wealth in a society where the mechanisms for redistribution were few. there were rich families, of course, but they could not hoard all their wealth without risking the censure and retaliation mentioned above. It also provided what amounted to poor relief, and allowed households to serve as inns for travelers, needs filled by the monasteries in Christian society. Landed property meant very little to the Wends, as befits a pastoral people, who saw wealth only in moveable property.7 Giving away goods, therefore, was virtually the only way, outside of purchasing wives or slaves, to circulate wealth (in the economic sense) in their society. The second function of liberality was as a source of status. The Wends, in common with other tribal cultures, considered "the one who is most liberal as the most manfu1."8 Hospitality was a source of fame and status that was almost a necessity. The only latitude was in the extent of one's generosity. The more one gave away, the more prestige one would acquire. The ethic of hospitality was a characteristic of German culture, too, but in the central Middle Ages this ethic in Germany was undergoing a significant change. on the one hand, the ethic itself was becoming more formalized and structured as society became more structured.9 On the other hand, Germanic society was becoming wealthier and was developing surer sources of income. Though individuals were sometimes impoverished in trying to bear the burden of hospitality, German society as a whole was able to meet the demand from its own resources. The Wends, in contrast, had to seek outside their own society for a steady supply of surplus wealth.

This supply was assured in the main by the prevalence of piracy among the Wends. The two activities were, in fact, intimately bound together. Helmhold stated the connection explicitly:

 The longing for this display [of liberality] impels many of them to theft and robbery. In any case these vices are venial with them; for they are covered by the cloak of hospitality.10

Elsewhere he repeats this ideas: "They are sedulous in their regard for hospitality. For to steal and to be liberal is a boast. . . ."11

The desire for piracy was as strong among the Wends as was their "longing for display," and for similar reasons.12 As already stated, plunder was a most important source of surplus wealth in a society that tended to neglect agriculture. To maintain their hospitality the Wends, especially the great families, had to resort to raids for plunder. As with hospitality also, this form of behavior was encouraged by the society: "He, indeed, who does not know how to make away with plunder is stupid and inglorious."13 Skill in piracy, like liberality, was a necessary attribute of a man.14 The very definition of a leader was one who plundered. This is the reason for the "sorrowful countenances" of the Wilzi when they learned of Duke Henry the Lion's prohibition against raiding the Danes.15 Not only were they being denied loot, they were being denied one more field in which they could behave as men were supposed to behave. This accounts, too, for the persistence of piracy even in the face of retribution and subjugation.16 When the Obodrite Pribislav (ca. 1142), who took the German name Heinrich, took over Cruto's Obodrite realm around 1093 he chose not to promote Christianity even though he was himself a Christian. Realizing the importance of piracy to his people, and desiring to live in peace with the Germans, he promoted farming among the Obodrites and discouraged raiding, albeit with little effect.17 The result of this need for plunder was that it made the Wends wretched neighbors. Saxo complained loud and long of the depredations wrought in Denmark by the Wendish pirates. To the Danes, a truly effective king was one who could deal successfully with the Wendish raids.18 It was this incessant raiding that was the main source of tension between the Wends and their Germanic neighbors.

As the Germans became more and more settled and agricultural, moreover, piratical raids became increasingly intolerable. In a similar process, as Germanic society became more thoroughly Christian, Wendish depredations likewise appeared more intolerable.

In their political structure the Wends were at a more primitive level of development than the Germans, and again, the difference between the two only increased with time. Leaders among the Wends were not chosen solely on the basis of family. The tribal structure was too loose for any strict principle of hereditability to apply. Among the Wilzi, there was no chief office at all (sinus specialiter non presidet ullus).19 This is not to say that there were no leaders, but only that there was no regular position or office continuously occupied, except for religious offices. The lack of political office is underscored by the frequency with which the Wendish leaders bore no title, but were called "elders" or some such term, illustrating how foreign Wendish government appeared to the chroniclers and also how informal the government really was. Chieftains governed only in council with the tribe, and most decisions were made at a meeting of the folk. It is difficult to say exactly who met at these gatherings. Among the Obodrites it appears to have been all the tribe, including women and children, indicating that participation was probably at the level of family or clan rather than of the individual. The councils probably met only to decide questions of war and peace, all other "political. business being in the hands of the clan or the flamen (the pagan priest). It is clear at least that power was not in the hands of a single leader except in unusual cases, like that of Cruto or Pribislav (Heinrich). This made it difficult for foreign princes to deal with the Wends; and agreements made by the tribal leader were not binding. Even if the Wendish chieftains had understood "peace" in the same terms as the Christian princes, he had no way of preventing his people from following their own course. An instance of this is the rebellion of 1160, where the Obodrites continued to raid Denmark despite their leaders' agreement to stop.20

The weakness of central control at the tribal level is one likely reason why the Wends were never able to unite to resist the invasions from the West effectively. There is no doubt that the tribe was the strongest political unit of the Wends, inhibiting the formation of hereditary kingship that characterized the political history of other Slav peoples.21 The priests (flamines) led the tribe as much as the chieftain did, but neither could dominate sufficiently to go against the will of the tribe.22 Their failure to unite, or to meld into a single state, made general, sustained resistance a rare occurrence. The lack of central control also affected the Wends' neighbors. Because no one man or family ruled the Wends, they were free to do as they chose. This meant that piracy could never be checked by the Wends themselves, and Pribislav's failure in this regard is proof of this. In contrast, in other Slav regions, such as Poland, internal changes were often initiated and sustained by native dynasties with sufficient power to overcome traditional opposition.23 The ability of these dynasties to effect change among their people, often by imitating things German, was a major factor in the political survival of Slavic tribes outside of northeast Germany. Interestingly, though, this lack of centralization had another effect, which might be called positive, in Wendish terms. When invaded, the Wends did not, in fact could not, fight openly, with large armies in pitched battles. This kind of decentralized waging of war made it possible to resist indefinitely any invader.

The most common offensive operation by the Wends was the raid for plunder. Sometimes this operation could be quite large, especially if sea-borne, and sometimes it was as small as a cattle raid.24 In addition to cattle, plunder would include precious objects, such as weapons or precious metals and stones, and also slaves. Slaves were used extensively by the Wends, who not only used them in their households and on their farms, but also sold many at local and foreign markets.25 Another type of operation was invasion, one goal of which was general destruction. When Niclot essayed an attack on Wagria prior to the Wendish Crusade in 1147, his aims were to seize Lübeck (which failed) and to lay waste to the countryside. This latter he did, then withdrew before the advancing army.26 A very similar foray occurred in the mid-1130's under Pribislav (Heinrich).27 The devastation reported consisted in large part of burning the fields and buildings, and of the theft of whatever was valuable and movable, making a piratical raid and an invasion appear very similar in their result. These were in a sense terrorist attacks that stopped at the very point at which they threatened to turn into regular military engagements. The wreaking of vengeance could be extremely bloody. In the revolt of 1018 the priests of Oldenburg were tortured to death by the Wends, and equally gruesome tortures were performed on the bishop of Mecklenburg and his priests during the rebellion of 1066.29 Nor were priests the only target. In the 1164 rebellion, the male Flemings living in Mecklenburg were all slaughtered and their families enslaved.30

The Wends also waged wars of conquest. The goal of war was not the acquisition of territory but rather of booty and tribute. The methods used were similar to the raids of Niclot and Pribislav: the main goal was the capturing of a stronghold. The Wends realized that castles and other fortified points represented the most serious threat to their own freedom.31 We possess almost nothing about the methods of campaigning, but the fact that the Circipani and Kicini could, in 1057, sustain three defeats in a single summer and still have sufficient reserves to call in foreign armies and eventually triumph is evidence that Wends had as hard a time subduing other Wends with their armies as the Germans often did, possibly because they employed similar offensive tactics.

Defensively, the Wends used the tactics of guerilla warfare. When they were attacked, they hid their valuables, crops as well as precious objects, in trenches; their families they hid in the forests or in strongholds; their huts they left to the enemy, for they did not mind the loss of these.32 The warriors then would harry the enemy, avoiding set battles, using surprise attacks if forced to engage, attacking in superior numbers wherever possible, and employing ambushes liberally.33 The evidence for these tactics is abundant, most of it found in Helmhold and Saxo. Helmhold says that they "used surprise as a tactic even at sea, and were "exceedingly skilled in making clandestine attacks."34 They learned from their mistakes. Around 1111 the Rugiani suffered a severe defeat when they were attacked by surprise while besieging Lübeck.35 When they attacked the city again around 1128, they made sure the town was "devoid of ships, and they demolished the town with its fortress."36 Ambuscades are reported in numerous sources, usually only very tersely, but Helmhold in two places gives more detail as to what was involved.37 There is other evidence of guerilla methods. The Wends relied on the aid of fellow Slavs in the enemy camp to keep them informed of the enemy's plans.38 Not surprisingly, the Germans feared to trust Wends who were supposedly loyal.39 Once engaged, moreover, the Wends used unusual tactics, such as riding around the enemy on horseback, darting in and out hurling spears.40 These methods were regarded by the Germans as methods only thieves would use.41

The keys to Wendish warfare were mobility and surprise, which were given them by their ships and their horses. It appears that cavalry was used only as an auxiliary force. The Carolingians forbade the selling of horses and arms to the Slavs, but the main force was normally on foot.42 Like their German counterparts, the Wendish warriors may well have used horses to reach the battlefield, dismounting in order to fight.

Like the inherent instability of their political system, and their constant need to raid, the guerilla tactics of the Wends only heightened tensions between them and their German neighbors. These tactics were used by the Wends because they understood and respected no other. To the Germans, however, the tactics were incomprehensible and worthy of no respect. The adjectives "cruel" (crudelissimus) and "treacherous" (infidelis) appear with great regularity in connection with Wendish armies in the sources. The plundering, the taking of slaves, the attacks on villages and farms, the ambushes and surprise attacks, the flight in the face of the enemy, the torturing of captives, all these were abhorrent to a Christian, agrarian society. In the end, they helped justify the harsh treatment accorded the Wends by the Germans; it was, after all, nor more than the Germans had endured at the hands of the Wends. A typical statement comes from Thietmar: the Wilzi, "unfaithful and mutable themselves, required constancy and great fidelity from others."43 Thietmar, like most of his fellow Christians, could not understand why the Wends behaved the way they did, and so were reduced to the conclusion that the Wends were an evil people. This is especially clear with the major revolts, where some simply could not understand why the Wends would exchange "the gentle yoke of Christ for the onerous one of Satan," and expressed great bitterness over their apostasy.44 Others plainly blamed the oppression of the Wends by the various Saxon lords, particularly by the dukes.45 The repeated rebellions were the most serious problem of all, for as reversions to paganism they made the Wends apostates, and so exempt from every consideration of mercy.46 The catalyst for some rebellions was personal, as in the case of Gottschalk in the 1030's when he led a revolt to avenge the murder of his father by a Saxon.47 Another example is the rebellion in 983 when Mistue (980-989?) led the revolt after suffering an insult from the Saxon duke.48 There surely were deeper reasons for these revolts, but they show that random events could set off a rebellion. In 1147 Niclot became a rebel against his will, breaking his alliance with Count Adolf of Holstein, because he was facing imminent invasion by crusaders and hoped to forestall them.49 In 1160 Pribislav rebelled rather than face judgement in the ducal court for raiding the Danes.50 There is also evidence that famine may have touched off rebellion.51

A more widespread reason for rebellion was resistance to Christianity. The 1018 revolt was at least perceived to be a pagan reaction, and was certainly anti-Christian in its course.52 The revolt of 1066 was likewise directed against the Christian clergy in Slavia, though there were also political and military targets.53 The main targets in the twelfth century appear presence sorely troubled There is some evidence that the Wends rebelled whenever the man who had conquered them died, or was distracted by internal matters. This seems to have been the case, for instance, in 983, since it followed the defeat and death of Otto II in Calabria.55 Similarly, the revolt of 1066 followed severe warfare in Saxony that threatened to ruin the duchy.56 The reign of Cruto (1066-1093) also prospered in part because of the strife that racked the Empire during those years.57

The reason given most often, and we should remember that in many cases no reason was given at all, was that the Wends were being oppressed by the Saxons and that they rebelled to gain their freedom. Certainly this idea is what has struck modern historians most forcefully.58 This is understandable, for on first glance there appear to be many cases of oppression and avarice. The following statement is typical, taken from Adam of Bremen: "Duke Bernhard . . . cruelly oppressed by his avarice the Winuli nation and drove it, as a last resort, to paganism."59 The same source contains other examples: the oppressed Slavs, "at length threw off the yoke of their servitude and had to take up arms in defense of their freedom."60 Helmhold, too, "liberty," even having the Wends themselves say that their liberty was the reason for their rebellion.61 We must resist being overwhelmed by Adam and Helmhold. The three lives of Otto of Bamberg do not contain such references, nor does the chronicle of Saxo Grammaticus. The same is true of Widukind and Thietmar. This is not to say that other sources make no mention of oppression or avarice; they do.62 The point is that these references are brief and few. In fact, only in Adam and Helmhold do we find lengthy condemnations of Saxon avarice and frequent references to Wendish love of liberty.63 This is significant because only Adam and Helmhold were in places and times which were directly affected by the ambitions and policies of the Saxon dukes. Moreover, Helmhold borrowed heavily from Adam, and he did so in some cases when giving the cause of a rebellion, so the evidence is not so plentiful as it might first seem.64 Examination of these references further reveals that they center on two Saxon dukes: Bernhard II (1011-1059) and Magnus (1071-1106). Henry the Lion also came in for some criticisms by Helmhold.65 This fact places the problem of Saxon avarice in its proper perspective. The avariciousness of these dukes is being reported by clerics who belong to the very dioceses that suffered, sometimes greatly, at their hands, whereas in authors from outside the region references to avarice are few. Adam and Helmhold were critical of these men not so much because the dukes behaved unjustly toward the Wends, but because they hindered the progress of the Church. Careful reading of the sources, then, shows that "Saxon avarice" was not a characteristic of the Saxons as a whole, nor even of the Saxon lords.66 Rather, we have to do here with a handful of dukes for whom we have undeniable evidence of avarice (avaritia) and oppression (oppressio, iniuria). It remains to be asked what these terms meant in these cases.

One trait often associated with the Saxons by modern historians when speaking of avarice is "land hunger." Thompson speaks of "the covetous land-grabbing aspiration of the great" nobles, and of their "lust for land."67 Dvornik uses the actual phrase, also calling it a "greed for new possessions."68 These examples could easily be multiplied. The obvious weakness of these pronouncements is that they lack specificity. They make no reference to time nor to class. Moreover, they do not explain what the words mean. Was it in fact "greed" or were the nobles driven by economic conditions to seek more land? For the first phase of the Drive to the East everything indicates that the motive of land hunger was not a significant factor. Duke Bernhard II, whom Adam castigates more strongly than any other layman, conspicuously failed to acquire or even seek new land in Slavia. On the contrary, he was content to exact tribute from the Wends.69 Otto I conquered nearly all the deeds, yet apart from bishoprics and monasteries, he gave no land and he took none for himself. In fact, it is not until the twelfth century that we can begin to see large-scale appropriation of Wendish territory by German lords beginning with Count Adolf of Holstein's famous expropriations in 1143.70 Was he driven by land hunger? No. The wars on the Wagiri in which he participated but did not lead had left Wagria "without inhabitants." He took the land because it was empty, not because he needed or coveted it. It is possible that Henry the Lion took Wendish land out of greed, but it is difficult to believe that he needed the land, given his vast holdings in Saxony and Bavaria.

Even in the cases where some evidence of land hunger can be produced, it is far from conclusive. True land hunger, the imperative need to acquire land in order to maintain one's position or the simple greed of the peasant to hoard against the inevitable bad times, this hunger was more often found among the lower nobility, among the knights, who were nearly indistinguishable from wealthy peasants.71 This class, however, could not win land. Only the great lords could gain legal possession. "Land hunger," therefore, was a negligible factor in the Drive to the East before the very late twelfth century, except in the very different case of colonization. With colonization, the shortage of land among the peasantry was a major factor in creating a surplus population able to emigrate. We shall take up that question, however, in a later chapter.

how the avaritia of the chronicles must often be understood in terms of avarice toward the Church. In regard to the Wends what appears is more arrogance or callousness than greed. The complaint was leveled that the Saxons levied taxes on the Wends from the very beginning in full force, causing unnecessary hardship.72 The Church was seen as the main culprit here, more often than the laymen. We have no evidence that taxes, tribute, or tithes were levied more heavily on the Wends than upon others, so we cannot properly speak of unfair treatment of them. What this does show is that the German conquerors behaved like conquerors, with little compassion for those who had lost. Some churchmen, our chroniclers at the very least, saw the cruelty and folly of such a course. Our chroniclers, however, were exceptional men in northern Germany in that they belonged to the reform party within the Church. To many, the imposition of tithes and taxes was merely expedient and just. In doing so, the Germans made the subjugation of Slavia more difficult for themselves and so caused unnecessary death and suffering. We need not excuse such tactics, but neither do we need to call them "cruel" or "avaricious." By the standards of their day, the German lords were simply normal.

That the exploitation of the deeds was normal did not mean that the Wends had to like it. With the question of avarice properly understood, we can now place "oppression" in its proper perspective. We possess several instances of the Wends rebelling in order to protect their "liberty" (libertas). Liberty certainly did not carry the connotations that it does today. It is probable that liberty was not understood as an abstract concept at all, and that "liberties" better evokes the Wendish sentiment. This is the way the German chroniclers understood the term; as describing a positive possession of "subjective rights," which the Wends understood as the customs and rights of the tribe, clan and individual: the right to they did, to worship their own gods, and to live as they saw fit, including practicing piracy.73 The Wends feared, rightly as it turned out, the destruction of their tribal customs, their libertates. Any foreign rule was regarded as too heavy, for it represented restraint, the very opposite of freedom. Wendish tribes revolted against rule by other tribes as well as against German rule. Subjugation by other Wends, however, meant little interference with their rights, while subjugation by the Germans meant at the very least payment of tribute and usually the presence of Christian priests putting pressure on the tribe to abandon its traditional ways.

Whenever the Germans sought to do more than simply collect tribute, the Wends resisted. "Pagan" rebellions were as much sociological as they were religious, for custom and religion were intimately bound together. The Pomeranians more than once voiced their opposition to Christianity in these terms, saying that it was a new religion, while theirs was an old and proven one.74 Whenever German rule was strong, and churches began to be built, tribal customs were seriously threatened and the revolts were correspondingly vicious. As the twelfth century progressed, and German rule became more direct and thorough-going, the Wendish rebellions became increasingly frequent and desperate. m e oppression, which figures so largely as a cause of revolts, was not malicious, but was really the result of two cultures coming into conflict with each other. The two were incompatible. When the Germans became conquerors, therefore, they also became oppressors.

The centuries of war between the Germans and Wends were the result primarily of Wendish piracy. This activity was a permanent fixture of Wendish society, and created the need for the Germans to defend the Saxon frontier. It was the desire to stop the raids that led the Germans to attack and subjugate the Wends. The subject status represented by the tribute payment, plus the threat to tribal customs posed by Christianity, caused the Wends to revolt whenever possible, leading to German retaliation, and so on. The other reason why the tale of woe in Slavia is so long is the political limitations of German government before the twelfth century. It is to the German side of "invasion and subjugation" that we now turn.

It is on the German side that the two phases of the Drive to the East can be seen most plainly. Militarily, the first phase was marked by a stalemate, while in the second the Germans achieved clear tactical and strategic superiority. Politically, in the first phase the Germans sought mainly to make tributaries of the Wends. such as Otto I, also sought to make Christians of them, but there is no indication that he intended to bring them within the Empire. He probably desired only to have them acknowledge dependency in some way, as Henry II did with the Poles. In time the goal became the direct possession of Slavia. The German lords of the twelfth century wanted rent, not tribute, desiring to rule personally. In the first period, the Wends were governed by their own laws; in the second, by German laws. It was the change in goals and in capabilities together that made the Germans successful in the twelfth century.

Saxony was not a feudal state until the levies fighting on foot, with very few warriors on horseback (and these normally dismounted before fighting).76 Only the emperor could raise a mounted contingent of any size, with the result that imperial armies were usually successful against the Wends. The levy, however, was all but useless against Wendish raids. Saxony and Denmark, which latter was normally attacked by ship, were easy prey to Wendish pirates, in much the same way and for the same reasons that the Franks were easy prey to the Vikings.

Once mobilized, a German army could achieve only limited success. m e western notion of victory was to drive the enemy from the field of battle or to force a surrender. An army did not usually pursue the vanquished, except as individuals might decide to capture a hostage for ransom. The other basic strategy was the attacking of strongholds. This was unreliable, since German siege techniques were extremely primitive until the middle of the twelfth century. The Slav oppidum of Brunabor (later Brandenburg) was captured thirteen times between 928 and 1157, but it was taken by storm only three of those times.77 Treachery or starvation and disease were the best siege weapons the Germans had. This was why the oppida of the Wends were frequent targets on these expeditions: the tribe could retreat inside the walls and wait for the invaders to go home, which was usually not long. The Wends could not long be cowed by these methods. Retreat was not a disgrace but a tactic with them. Strongholds were sometimes burned before the invaders ever reached them. A great defeat usually made the tribes submit, but their ability and desire to resist was not broken.

Moreover, the strategic goals of invasion were very limited. As already mentioned, the main goal was defensive. Saxo recorded a number of instances where the Danish king led an army to Rügen or Wollin (Jumne) in the hopes of wiping out the pirates there.78 The Poles attacked the Pomeranians for the same reason.79 The defensive nature of the invasions is seen best in the actions of the German emperors. When Charlemagne defeated the Wilzi in 789 he was content to make them foederati.80 When he defeated the Wends again in 80O he made their land into a march, but he left them their own laws and leaders under the rule of a margrave.81 Henry the Fowler defeated one of the largest Wendish armies ever fielded in 929, yet he made no attempt to exploit his victory other than to build a couple of castles.82 Other invasions were similarly limited in their objectives. Punitive expeditions were common.83 The raid of Bishop Burchard of Halberstadt is an interesting example of what one might call a "religious" raid. In the winter of 1067-68, just one year after the greatest Wendish rebellion of all, the bishop led a foray into the land of the Wilzi, attacked and burned the temple of Redigast at Rethra, one of the most holy shrines in all the Wendenland, and rode its sacred horse back to Halberstadt in triumph.84 Finally, there were expeditions that were largely for gain. Booty, of course, was the natural profit of any army, so gain was always a motive, but in some cases it was paramount. Such a one occurred in 1056 when two tribes of the Wilzi made a bid to subjugate the other two tribes. The Circipani and Kicini lost three campaigns in a row to the Tholenzi and Redarii, then called on the Saxons, Danes and Obodrites for help. This coalition soon destroyed the Redarii and Tholenzi. The westerners received a large indemnity and returned home. The goal, Adam bitterly noted, was simply profit.85

Once an enemy acknowledged military defeat, the traditional peace settlement nearly always took the form of tribute payments. A typical record of this transaction is in Arnold of Lübeck's chronicle. In 1177 Henry the Lion laid siege to Demmin, and the inhabitants "bought peace by paying tribute."86 To "buy peace by paying tribute" meant to preclude invasion by rendering up a fixed sum. Tribute was in part "the collection of booty made orderly and normal.87 It was usually paid in precious metals, but payment in horses is also recorded by Saxo.88 Like booty, tribute was normally distributed among the followers of the war leader, though the German rulers may have found other uses for it as well.89 Tribute was more than regularized booty, however; it was a sign of submission. In this political sense tribute was symbolic, and the act was more important than the payment itself. As long as the tribute was paid each year, there was no need to invade.

Another means of asserting control over a subjugated tribe was the taking of hostages. This, like the exaction of tribute, was a very ancient practice. The usual course was to hold a close relative of the enemy leader, on the assumption that the enemy would prefer submission to the death of a loved one. When Cnut Laward ruled Schleswig he took over Wagria and took the two Slav leaders captive "until, ransomed with money and hostages, they should know what is demanded of subjects."90

A similar logic lay behind the building of burgs. This tactic was first used by Henry the Fowler on a limited basis in 929, but was used by all who followed him. Besides taking hostages, once of Cnut Laward's first acts as the new King of the Obodrites was to plan construction of a castle at a strategic spot in Wagria.91 No one attempted to use castles actively to rule Slavia in the way the Salians tried to do in Saxony, but equally no one neglected to build at least some in newly won territory.92 As a fortified strong point with a garrison living in or about the walls, the burg was to serve as a point of retaliation. Its presence would hopefully cow the natives into peace, but in realistic terms the advantage was only that it was a secure place should a rebellion occur.

These were clumsy ways to rule, but the Germans scarcely knew how to do better. Political control in Germany was itself not very sophisticated, and the methods of rule outlined above for Slavia were also used in the stem duchies. The Germans assumed that insurrections would occur, and tried to design measures to minimize their effects. Because piracy was such an integral part of Wendish society, these methods generally failed even in their own modest goal of prevention. Pre-feudal society, especially areas that had not known the Carolingian system, could not expand territorially except in very awkward ways. The only governmental units that Otto I, the greatest conqueror in the first phase, created in Slavia were ecclesiastical ones. The imperial and ducal courts simply did not command the manpower to allow them to add large geographic areas to their control.

There was, besides, no legal mechanism for expansion. As long as the Wends lived according to their tribal customs there would always be a "border problem" for the Germans, but the Germans did not as yet possess the resources to change those the Church could not tame the Wends unaided is attested by the regular slaughter of priests who ventured beyond the Elbe River. Finally, the strategic and tactical limitations on a non-feudal military system placed the invaders at close to the same level as the invaded for a long time. These limitations were in the very nature of non-feudal society it self, and it would require a fundamental change in that society before new methods became available.

In the twelfth century both the methods and the goals of conquest changed for the Germans. The methods of waging war greatly improved from the late eleventh century on, receiving impetus from the First Crusade and from wars in Italy and Spain. The feudalization of Saxon society as a result of the Investiture Struggle gave to the Saxon dukes and counts the manpower they needed to rule Slavia directly. More importantly, the goal of conquest changed. Slavia became not a nest of robbers to be defended against, but a land of much potential wealth, a source of power, whose people were obdurate pagans to be converted at all costs. Slavia became an objective for a generation of bishops, monks and laymen. All the old motives remained, but even defense of the borders was conceived of in new ways as more to realize that a purely defensive policy could never succeed. It was the change in mental attitudes that subjugation of Slavia.

In the 1120's the military balance shifted decisively in favor of the Germans. Boleslav III in Poland successfully subdued the Pomeranians in that decade, who had been fierce antagonists of the Danes. The Danes themselves, though still troubled by succession disputes, began to produce strong war leaders like Eric Ejagod (1095-1103), Cnut Laward, and Waldemar I (1157-1182). The pressures exerted on the Wends by the Danes and Poles helped the Saxons greatly when they began their final offensive. Equally important was the improvement in the military capabilities of the Saxons themselves.

The presence of mounted troops, made possible by the feudalization of Saxony that had begun in the 1070's, raised the Saxon levy to the status of the imperial levy; whereas an imperial army could expect to win in battle against the Wends, now the Saxons could also expect victory. A feudal levy was not only more effective in the field, it was more reliable. Since the number of troops owed was part of the feudal obligation of every vassal, the Saxon lords knew how many troops they had available, for what duration, and their general fighting quality.

Until the middle of the century, only one objective eluded Saxon arms: the oppidum. The Wendish stronghold, although little more than a town surrounded by a wooden palisade sitting atop a cleared and flattened hill, was proof against most sieges.93 These fortresses were doomed, however, once Henry the Lion had learned the latest in siege methods while campaigning with Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) against the Lombard cities.94 Methods of sapping and blockade learned at Milan he turned upon the oppida of the Wends. In 1160 Henry took Werla, and it fell to him again in 1163.95 In 1164 and again in 1177 he took Demmin.96 These are only a few that fell; there were many other oppida that the Wends themselves fired in order to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. What had been only an unreliable military superiority at the beginning of the twelfth century, particularly if unsupported by imperial troops, had become by the 1170's an overwhelming tactical and strategic superiority.

Military conquest, even when it was very efficient, could not solve the Wendish problem. Force of arms drove the Wagiri out of Wagria around 1140, but they simply fled to the Polabi. No matter how effective their armies were, the Germans could not prevent the ,d ends from raiding Saxony or Denmark. On the contrary, the dislocation caused by the increasingly effective invasions of Slavia actually drove the Wends all the more certainly to piracy.97 What was required was the Germanization of Slavia. This meant the conversion of the pagans to Christianity, the conversion of their economy to a more settled agricultural form, and the conversion of their society to a German form, adopting German laws and overlords. Victory on the battlefield was a necessary prerequisite to all this, for there was too much hostility for Germanization to proceed peacefully. The military innovations of the twelfth century made conquest surer, but more importantly they meant that conquest could be carried out using only local resources--from Denmark or Saxony, from Brandenburg or Holstein. As the Empire became less interested in Slavia after the death of Lothar II in 1137 this fact assumed increasing importance.98

In the political sphere, the most significant change in method was the gradual abandonment of tribute as a means of rule in favor of occupying the land and ruling it directly. m e first instance of this actually being done was in Wagria in 1143, when Count Adolf of Holstein annexed Wagria to his own county. He made no attempt to give the land to a lieutenant or to find a native ruler, but rather he took the land as his own, called in settlers, and began administering the land himself.99 The direct exploitation of Slavia reached a fully-developed form under Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony and Margrave Albert the Bear of Brandenburg (1106?-1170). Two examples from the work of the Lion will illustrate the thoroughness of this new way of ruling the Wends. Henry began his reign fairly conservatively, being content to support missions in Slavia and to receive tribute from subject tribes. Perhaps the examples of Adolf in Wagria and Albert in Brandenburg caused Henry to become more aggressive. Perhaps he had planned expansion all along and was only able to begin in the late 1150's. The first indication that he was intending to expand eastward came in 1159 when he received from Emperor Frederick the right (potestas) to constitute and invest bishops "for the purpose of spreading Christianity in Slavia."100 The next year he conquered most of Mecklenburg on the pretext of a rebellion.101 The same year, 1160, Henry invested the three bishops of Oldenburg, Ratzeburg, and Mecklenburg. Once in possession of the land, Henry constituted lay as well as ecclesiastical rulers. He placed one of his ministeriales, Guncelin, in charge of a garrison at Schwerin, later making him a count there. He also set up Henry of Scathen as the prefect of Mecklenburg, and two more of his ministeriales, both named Ludolph, he made prefects at Malchow and Ilow.102 By 1162 large numbers of settlers were being brought in from the West. Henry also contrived to profit from lands that others conquered. In the 1160's, probably after the 1160 or 1164 revolt, King Waldemar I agreed to pay to Henry half of whatever tribute the king gained from victories in Salvia if any of Henry's vassals aided in the effort. When Waldemar conquered Rügen in 1169 he naturally refused to pay, even though Pribislav of Mecklenburg accompanied the expedition. Henry unleashed the Wendish pirates on Denmark, and Waldemar soon agreed to accede to Henry's demand, provided that Henry call off his Wends.103

The most important change, the change in mental attitudes. To a that made a change in methods of rule possible also made them conceivable. That is to say, the improved armies, the larger and better trained staffs of ministers and clerks, and the orderly delegation of power made possible by the feudal system, made possible also a more intensive and rationalized use of political power. The same process that was behind the increasing subjugation of the peasantry in the twelfth century was also behind the increasing subjugation of the Wendenland.104

A second important change came in the understanding of what was being ruled. Even into the twelfth century the Germans saw their rule in very traditional terms, as rule over a people rather than a territory. This was still the case in 1128 when Cnut Laward became King of the Obodrites (not of Wagria).105 Here again Adolf of Holstein's annexation of Wagria stands out as a turning point. There were no Wagiri left in Wagria, so it Has easier for Adolf to usurp the land. In the 1150's Albert the Bear inherited rule of Brandenburg.106 Here was a land still inhabited by Wendish tribes, but one in which the tribal leaders had died. Rather than take over the ancient tribal titles, Albert became Margrave of the new administrative unit of Brandenburg. The change is most clearly seen in the establishment of Mecklenburg in 1170.107 When Duke Henry allowed Pribislav to return to the rule of his own people, after being an exile and renegade deposed by that selfsame duke, he made Pribislav Prince of Mecklenburg. Pribislav did not become Prince of the Obodrites, which was the traditional title. Lordship in Henry's terms was seen as lordship over a land and its inhabitants, whereas the older notion of lordship was over a people and their lands. This change in thinking is what made the division of Slavia into territories a reality, and the division of Slavia in turn helped destroy the tribal identity of the Wends and thus their power to resist.

The single most important event in causing a change in the way in which the governing of 81avia was conceived was the First Crusade. The First crusade had Christian knights making war on the heathen in the name of God.108 The sight of Christian knights winning land back from the heathen that properly belonged in Christian hands fired the imagination of many throughout Christendom. Because the Holy Land was too valuable and vulnerable to be left under local rulers after the Crusaders triumphed, they stayed on to rule the lands they had won. The model was easily transferable to Slavia, for it too had once been in Christian hands, under the Ottos, and no; there was an ideology to support its liberation. In 1108 there was issued by a number of Saxon lords a call for a crusade into Slavia.109 Directly inspired by the example of the First Crusade, the letter was official in character, taking the form of a plan that supposedly had the support of Emperor Henry himself. What makes this call significant for the idea of conquest is its offering of lands as yet unconquered to western magnates. It specifically called upon them to convert the pagans by force, take possession of the land, occupy it, and exploit it for the benefit of the conquerors.110 This was quite a new proposal in Germany, and one which provided a pious rationale for seizing land that belonged by custom to another people.

The third factor that made the exploitation of Slavia conceivable was the increasingly numerous examples of the great profits that were to be won by colonization efforts. By the time the first victories were being won by Boleslav III in Pomerania there was developing a regular system for reclamation and colonization, pioneered largely by the bishops. By the 1140's, when the Saxons began their final push across the Elbe, there was a whole generation in the Low Countries and Saxony that had experience in colonization, and a whole range of legal precedents on which the eastern princes could model their own efforts. There were laws and privileges and modifications of institutions that had grown out of the "inner colonization" that had begun well before the twelfth century, that helped make colonizing in Slavia not only conceivable but very attractive.

Finally, it should be pointed out that the Church led the way in establishing the direct rule over Slavia and that laymen tended to follow the clergy into the Wendenland. m e first real settlers in Slavia were monks and clerics, and it was they who were the first to use grants of land and privileges to attract settlers in order to reclaim land. In the twelfth century, the Cistercians and Premonstratensians established numerous monasteries in the "desert" of Slavia, and both brought in many settlers to work monastic lands. Bishops and abbots were the lords of these lands and their inhabitants, and they sought to impose church law upon them.111 The Church in Slavia provided a close network of control, not because of ideas of conquest, but because of profoundly felt convictions about right order and the proper governance of the Church. The effect, nevertheless, was to provide one firm pillar on which the edifice of German control was built.

The beginning of the direct rule and exploitation of Slavia provoked the most extensive and extended violence in the history of the Drive up to that time. The tributary status that normally accompanied defeat in the first phase was something to be resisted, but it was at least understandable; it was the same methods of conquest used by the Wends themselves. It might bring with it the repugnant necessity of conversion, but the Christian faith could easily be shed in a revolt, for there was no way to eradicate pagan practices without an extensive parish system. In the twelfth century all this changed. Their German overlords no longer lived far away in Saxony, but close by, where they could police the Wends.112 Churches were going up everywhere, making it more and more difficult to keep pagan practices alive in secret. Most seriously, the presence of German communities among them, protected by armies, threatened by very existence of the tribe by threatening its economic base. By the 1160's most of the Wendish tribes had suffered one or more major invasions. In these invasions the wends burned their strongholds, fled into the forests, and in general followed their traditional methods of waging war. This time, though, the German armies did not leave. They stayed in Slavia, garrisoning the Wendish oppida, and continued to pursue the rebels who were still in the field.

Under these circumstances, the Wends could do little. They could not resist occupation, but neither could they accept it. Raiding brought down upon them the armies of Henry the Lion or Albert the Bear, yet not to raid meant abandoning all hope of recovering from the losses incurred during the invasions, as well as all hope of maintaining tribal customs. since acquiescence meant the death of the tribe, it is small wonder that the Wends resisted long and harl. In the end, however, conquest, even when carefully planned, could not alone subdue the Wends. Final victory came only after the destruction of Wendish society and the conversion of the Wendish people to Christianity.

		THE WENDS ARE COMING The Wendish Booths in the Fakse area Until the end of the 12th Century, pirates raged and plundered the Wendish folk in the Danish coastal regions.  It was particularly bad from 1131 to 1157, when civil war raged in Denmark.
While the royals fought for the power of the throne, it was relatively easy for foreigners to plunder the coastal regions of the land. The Wends were a west-slavic people, who had worked themselves down along the south coasts of the Baltic Sea.  Not all Wends were plunderes.  Many came to trade and were integrated into the community.  One of the commercial centers of the Wends lay in the spot that is now the village of Vindbyholt.  The name means “The little wood by the Wendish huts”. The Wendish Campaign In 1160, King Valdemar I. (the Great) entered into the first of many battles against the Wends.  For retribution, scattered excursions extended into Denmark.  The last substantial plundering on the part of the Wends took place around 1170, along with the benediction of the German Duke, Henry the Lion.  He had been united with Valdemar and agreed to share the war bounty of the Wends, something Valdemar forgot however.  Due to the numerous plundering campaigns of the Wends in the 12^th Centruy, their name became synomous with “pirates”.  Thus, one hears of the Wendish pirates for a long time – long after their plundering campaigns had ceased. Pirate Attack at Smerup Church Smerup Church was fortified in approximately 1270 and was used by the surrounding inhabitants for defense.  Immured heads from chalk on the church walls allegedly deterred aggressors According to legend, the river contained more water than it does today and could be sailed upon it up to Smerup.   It is told that the inhabitants of the city lay behind the church wall on the lookout and howled at the enemy.  This howling, combined with the chalk heads, was so frightening that a Wendish pirate ship once turned around so fast that she capsized and all aboard were drowned.  The Wends were quite possibly in reality Stig Andersen and his men (see below).  Pirate Attack on Karise In the legend of Mrs. Marthe it is told that her property (Karise Manor) was destroyed by Wendish pirates.  Mrs. Marthe saved her own life by fleeing into a chamber over the arches of Karise Church.  Here she remained until her manor was again rebuilt.  After this event she became very religious and is remembered as the "Holy Mrs. Marthe" by history.  On her land was a spring, which also became sacred and at which offerings were made until 1758.  Pirates blockade the Øresund One of the more well-known “pirates”, which preyed along the Øresund coastline, was Stig Andersen.  In the year 1282 he, together with other powerful lords, forced the king to sign a document relinquishing his self-determination as the king.  Stig Andersen became one of the highest army leaders of the realm, while Uffe Nielsen Neb, whose son took over Vemmetofte near Fakse, became Drost of the country.  In 1268 Stig Andersen was accused of the murder of Erik Klipping in Finnerup Lade and, together with eight other powerful lords, expelled from the country.
He went to Norway and arranged repeated attacks (many in the form of piracy) against Denmark in the years following.  He blocked the Øresund for an entire year with his ships, in the exact season when the Skanør market was supposed to begin. He thus prevented the people from around Fakse and other nearby areas along the coast from arriving and trading at the market.
		Old farm in Vindbyholt
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	The Wends in the Vindeboder suburb

The Wends is a general term denoting the Slavic tribes that inhabited the areas along the southern shore of the Baltic during the Viking Age and the late Middle Ages. The Wends were skilled seafarers and merchants, and there were close links between them and the inhabitants of the Danish islands. Evidence for this comes from archaeological finds on both sides of the Baltic, including pottery, jewellery, ships and much more. Political links were also cultivated - for example, Harald Bluetooth himself was married to a Wend princess and died in exile in the Wend town of Wolin (known as Jomsborg in Danish).
Right from its earliest days, Roskilde had two harbour areas: Bjerget (St. Jørgensbjerg) with St. Clemens'' Church and Vindeboder with St. Ib''s Church. The name ''Vindeboder'' actually means ''the market stalls of the Wends'', and archaeological surveys conducted here have revealed traces of settlement along with well-preserved remains of harbour installations.
The low-lying, moist nature of the soil in this harbour area means that finds are often unusually well preserved, and large quantities of wood have thus survived. It has therefore been possible to undertake excavations of the old harbour frontage from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, which was in part built of timber from worn out ships that had been broken up. Conditions here have also made it possible to excavate many kinds of wooden artefacts that are not found in the Roskilde city centre area, where the layers of soil are normally too dry.
In the eleventh century and the first half of the twelfth century, the Vindeboder area was the city marketplace, inhabited by foreigners from many different countries but early on predominantly by Wends.During the course of the twelfth century the relationship between Danes and Wends gradually turned hostile. This tense state of affairs culminated in 1169, when an army led by Valdemar the Great and Bishop Absalon of Roskilde conquered the Wend island of Rugen and laid waste the heathen temple dedicated to the god Svantevit. The population was converted to Christianits; and Rügen remained part of the bishopric of Roskilde until the Reformation. In 1193, the Vor Frue nunnery established an affiliate institution in Bergen on the island of Rügen.
The Wends disappeared in the course of the late Middle Ages. They married into German and Danish families and their language and culture disappeared

FIRST WENDS (Veneti) IN AUSTRALIA

"A little group of strangers in this very strange land"

by Jozica Gerden

Across this vast and remote land of North Western and Eastern Victoria, to the well known Barossa Valley and other country areas of South Australia, there is a strong representation of the group of people who identify themselves as Wends from Silesia and Lusatia; although Australians rather describe them as the 'old German immigrants'. I have met a number of them and upon learning their names and their Windisch background, they tell me they are not really German, but rather Windisch or Wends or Veneti from Germany or Austria. At once there is a warmth between us, perhaps due to our historical connection.

Last year I met with Fr. Ivan Tomazic at the Slovenian World Congress meeting in Tinje, Austria, who is the co-author of the books on history: "Veneti - First Builders of European Community". Since then I have read the book on Slovenian Venetian background and studied this well documented theory about 'Veneti' with great interest.

Ivan Tomazic states: "My intention is to present in a clear and accessible manner, important evidence showing that we Slovenes are a people rooted in central Europe since time immemorable. We created our own social system, and the first form of statehood before the Roman times (Noric Kingdom). We re-established them in the Middle Ages, and we have maintained the same foundation of social and judicial organisation in the tradition of our village community up to modern times..."

The Veneti - In the region extending from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic, the Po River region and further south into Apennines, numerous Slovene or Slavic names aroused the attention of linguists and other researchers during the last century...archaeologists have shown that the bearers of the Urnfield culture came from Lusatia and were, according to research, Proto-Slavic Veneti or Wends. (*3, page 72)

...Polish science gives its attention in further studies predominantly to the area of present Poland and neighbour regions.... and have confirmed two fundamental points:

• Lusatian culture is to be regarded as the foundation on which the development of Proto-Slavs or Veneti took place; and
• the Veneti or Wends are to be regarded as bearers of the ensuing Urnfield culture, which spread outward into different areas of Europe, including the Mediterranean region;

The ruins of the fortified settlements in the area of Lusatian culture show that its bearers possessed a strong military organisation and often battled with neighbouring Scythian and Germanic tribes...." (*3, page 78)

I came across many more articles and also met such people as a living example of our common history. But, this well proven theory has been ignored and even denied by the official Slovenian and European historians. One must understand that no current nation in Europe would like to acknowledge that within their borders, their population does not consist entirely of their original indigenous people. Many European countries hold a large population of old Venetic culture.

...The School of Gustav Kossinna "lex kossinna" has a profound influence not only on ensuing German historiography, but on European history-writing in general. According to Kossinna school, ancestors of the Germans were the Indo-Germanic people from Indo-European background. Only the Celts, Romans, and Germanic people were seen as bearers of European culture. Slavs, on the other hand, who came out of the Pripet swamps in the 6th century, and consequently were at a low level of civilisation, could have adopted their culture only from the central-European culture-bearers. Under the pretext of bringing culture and progress to the "unhistorical, primitive" Slavs, the Germans justified their nationalistic eastward expansion and the so-called bridge to the Adriatic...(*3, page 73)

* * *

Recently I shared the book "Veneti" with a local and a much respected pastor Mr. Noel Uebergang, who displayed great interest about the Wendish history. He introduced me to the Holy Bible in their original language and also to his well documented family history which was compiled in detail in the following books: "Mirtschin (Mercin) Family in Australia from 1851 - 1990" and "A Little Leaven The Peucker History" from 1853 - 1984. These great and well known families have openly and proudly professed the cultural and historical background of their Wendish culture. Such historical texts have inspired and amazed me as I have developed an awareness of these "little group of strangers in this very strange land".

Noel's great great grandfather, Johann Mirtschin, with his family was one of the vast number of pioneer families from Tabor and Gnadenthal in Western Victoria who were considered to be German, but who were in fact Wendish of the Slavic race, also called Sorbs. Johann was born into a very different community, in the village of Steindorfel in 1809 in what was the Kingdom of Saxony, who married Maria Gude in Saxony. They made their home in Doehlen by the river Spree, the ancient hiding ground of the Wends in times of war. The political turmoil throughout Europe had an impact on Saxony during the occupation of Napoleon and his forces. The instability of the political scene lasted into 1840's and combined with some dissatisfaction with the church scene, poor harvests over successive drought seasons and subsequent lack of sufficient food and depression times, all led to the longing for a more peaceful existence in Australia.

Saxony was a kingdom with everything officially done in German. The Sorbs-Wends were an ethnic minority and not all could speak German well. Place names had their official German names but also their Wendish names. Johann Mirtschin was known back home as Jan Mercin.

Wends were a very superstitious people who prized personal freedom. Crimes against the individual, family or tribe were severely punished. The marriage bond was held sacred among them. Often called 'stubborn' the Wends were tenacious people who defended themselves at all costs. Once converted to Christianity they displayed a warm hearted faith and intense religious feeling, persevering and imparting their faith to their children regardless of cost or effort. The Wends were hardy, stocky and strong-boned people. Most have wavy brown hair. They have a great capacity to endure pain and hardship. They were not easily discouraged and their determination grew in the face of opposition. They loved trees, art and singing. A deep-feeling people, their loyalty was not lightly withdrawn once given. They were energetic and ambitious; a mystical people, they leaned readily towards spiritualism and prophesies. They raised large families and lived long lives...

In 1848 there were political uprisings throughout the German States. The Wends rejoiced when they saw the end of the feudal system. Their flag was shown for the first time at the pan-Slavic congress, which was held in 1848 in Prague. In Saxony, the Wends presented a petition to the Royal Saxon Assembly. These requests for recognition did not get a very favourable reaction and only a few were met. Their joy was short-lived when they found that the land they wished to till was expensive. Unemployment was wide spread. In 1849 there was an uprising in Dresden, the capital of Saxony, and Prussian troops were to be brought in.

Jan and Maria Mercin had good reasons to emigrate to Australia. The barge 'Helene' with a group of Sorbs finally left Hamburg on 19 August 1851. There was a strong bond within their culture and against the Germans. Together the travellers found comfort in singing their precious hymns when they needed to be reminded of God's sustaining grace. The barge 'Helene' arrived in Port Adelaide on Christmas Eve 1851 after being on board for some 16 weeks. Johann and Maria with their three surviving children (two died at sea) travelled to Rosenthal where there were other Sorbs and Wends living around Lyndoch in Barossa Valley. A year later they had moved to Portland with enthusiasm after the exploration party had returned. Portland was a desirable place for newly arrived immigrants of any nationality to settle, for the town economy was severely depressed. The paper 'Guardian' reported: "Come, good Germans, come and cultivate our lands and grind our cornu They were in fact expecting 300 German families, but were disappointed at the arrival of 11 wagons and families only. The Mercin family finally established themselves and built their home in Gnadenthal in the times of the gold rush in Victoria around Ballarat area. "Gnadenthal", meaning "The Valley of Grace" was the name given to their new little community in Australia. The early years at Gnadenthal were busy and most difficult for Johann and Maria's families and their neighbours. But this Sorb-Wendish community was close-knit. Most of the families had known each other before emigrating, some were even related. They were bound together by their cultural identity, which gradually disappeared, their longing for a better life and their old Lutheran faith. Jan and Maria Mercin had 13 children and of their seven surviving children, five married Sorbs. The Mirtschin family could look back over an incredible journey through life across continents, through joys and sorrows in the company of faithful friends and fellow-believers...

The words "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord" which appeared in the death notice for Johann in 1878, apply equally to the matriarch and patriarch of the Mirtschin family in Australia... (*1,pages 10-12)

...The origin of the Peucker family also reaches back to Silesia (Prussia), where Edward was born in the year 1791 in Kowary and died 1876 in Berlin. Name Peuker means 'baker' in English (in Slovenian 'Pekar') and is a Wendish name. When the first of the Peukers arrived in Australia, gold mining was in full swing in the Victorian Ballarat area. The Wendish group from South Australia travelled via Mount Gambier to Portland, then further to Tabor, Gnadental and Penhurst. The Victorian government welcomed the influx of these good-working 'Germans' and gave them financial assistance for land, for their churches and schools and even paid allowances for pastors and teachers. In 1871 the Wimmera was opened up for settlement and many immigrants took advantage of this Victorian Selection Act. The Peuker story in Australia has its cradle around Warrnambool and it spread throughout Western district of Victoria, Wimmera, to north eastern Victoria and the Riverina and, even further, to Perth and Qld.

Life wasn't all rosy for the New Australians. Apart from the long hours of toil, the primitive equipment and the lack of education, it was still better then back in Prussia. They reminded themselves again and again of the hardship they faced in the old country. They put their backs behind the plough, built churches and thanked God for their new lot in life...(*2, pages 10 -11)

"By the singleness of purpose, their hard work, and perhaps most of all the revealing of God's grace in their lives, this Sorbian/Wendish families had flourished. A little group of strangers in a very strange land." (*1,page 16)

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3:5
by Carsten Linke
Flag adopted 23rd March 1848, abolished 1935, readopted 17 May 1945

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• Introduction
• Description
• Flag Legislation
• Domowina Emblem
• Lower Lusatia Region (Niederlausitz, Brandenburg)
• Upper Lusatia Region (Oberlausitz, Saxony)
• Municipal Flags in the Sorb region:
• City of Forst / Baršç (Brandenburg)
• City of Guben / Gubin (Brandenburg)
• City of Hoyerswerda / Wojerecy (Saxony)

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See also:

• Brandenburg (Germany)
• Saxony (Sachsen, Germany)
• Germany

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Introduction

There is a tiny nation in Central Europe called Sorbs, which has no contemporary relation to the Balcanic Serbs (they are both Slavic nations, of course). Germans call this nation Sorbs (Sorben) or Wends (Wenden). With 150,000 souls, they are the smallest Slavic nation in existence. They live in the region of Germany called Lausitz (Luzice), on the rivers Neisse (Nysa) and Spree. Their region encloses the south-east of Brandenburg state and eastern Saxony. The most important cities are Cottbus, Lübben and Bautzen. They are the descendants of the Western Slavs who in 6th-10th centuries A.D. controlled what is today north-eastern Germany. I understand that their cultural life is quite active, they have their own press, schools and a political organization (Domovina).

Greg D., 29 August 1995 and
Thomas Binder, 4 August 1998

I did some report on the Sorbs in December 1993. I went to Bautzen (Budysin) and I interviewed people in the Domowina (the general organisation of Sorbs), the Sorb programme in the MDR Radio Station and the Serbski Institut. (...) So my information:

• The Sorbs did also suffer of the totalitarian regime of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). Budysin was the place of an infamous jail. Of course the GDR had a very politically correct discourse on the minorities, just like in former USSR.
• Back to democracy the Sorbs convened and refounded the Domowina as a true cultural gathering of the Sorbs.
• A man in the Domowina building showed me a 1946 map with Lusatia (the land of Sorbs) annexated to Czechoslovakia. It seemed some Americans had these ideas of unification of the Western Slavs (but not the Poles).

Jean-François Blanc, 15 November 1999

The modern name for the Wends is Sorbs (Vendes also included some other West Slav people, but these are now extinct/assimilated in Germany). The Sorbs live in Southeast Germany (Saxony mostly) nowadays. The Saxons came from [Lower] Saxony too — roughly the same area as is now Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony in Germany, if I understand it correctly — present day Saxony on the other hand, was not Saxon land in those days.

The king of Sweden had the title King of the Wends until 1973 (...) when our present king succeeded to the throne and thought this part of the title was out of fashion. Swedish kings had borne this title since some time in the middle ages. This had also led to the arms of the Wends (Gules a dragon Or) being used in official Swedish decorations. The origin for this part of the title of the Swedish king is to be found in the 1540's, when King Gustaf I took up this title; it was used by the Danish king, and King Gustaf took it as an answer to the fact that the Danish king styled himself Goters konge (king of the Gotlanders). Gotland had been Swedish in the Middle Ages, but conquered by Denmark. The Danish king took the title King of the Vendes in the second half of the 12th Century, when the Danes were crusading against the Wends and forced them to accept Danish supremacy. Although the Danish power on the north coast of present day Mecklenburg-Pomerania was taken over by German princes, the title was kept — I do not know if the Danish Queen is still styled Queen of the Wends, though.

It can be added that in the 16th century, when Gustaf I took this title, the Wends were mistaken for Vandals, which were said to have been beaten by the Goths at the Time of the great Migration, and the Goths (who were also considered to have given name to Götaland and Gotland) were supposed to have had the same origin as the Swedes... Source: Nationalencyklopedin, 1990's.

Elias Granqvist, 11 September 2000

Queen Margrethe discarded a number of her father's titles, when she succeeded in 1972. Her father, Frederik IX, was Konge til Danmark, de Venders og Goters, Hertug til Slesvig, Holsten, Stormarn, Ditmarsken, Lauenborg og Oldenborg [i.e. King of Denmark, of the Wends and Goths, Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn, Dithsmarchen, Lauenburg and Oldenburg]. Margrethe II is Danmarks Dronning [Queen of Denmark]. (...)

Ole Andersen, 11 September 2000

The Sorb people have their own culture, language, press, schools and a political organization (Domowina). In the year 1912, the organization Domowina (in Sorb 'native country') was established in Lusatia (Lausitz). The organization was an alliance of the Sorb minorities of Lower and Upper Lusatia. The Sorb group of the Wends (Wenden) lives in Lower Lusatia (Niederlausitz). They are Protestants. In the Upper Lusatia (Oberlausitz) the group of the Catholic Sorbs, the Sorben or Serben (not to be confused with the South Slavic Serbs). The Sorbs call their country Serbstwo or Serbska, 'country of the Sorbs'. The Domowina was forbidden from 1939 to 1945 and was established 1945 again.

The Sorbs people fly officially since 23th March 1848 the known flag, horizontally blue-red-white in proportion 3:5. In the year 1842, the flag was first hoisted in the village of Lohsa (near to Hoyerswerda, Oberlausitz District). This was also forbidden under the nationalsocialist regime. On 17th May 1945, the flag was hoisted officially. As soon as April 1945, at the end of World War Two, the Sorbs greeted the Polish and Soviet troops with the Sorb flag.

There is no current law on the Sorb flag. The sequence of the colors and their official use are established in the constitutions of Saxony and Brandenburg, whereby the use of the flag is officially allowed. In Saxony, the use of a Sorb coat-of-arms is also allowed. There is no coat-of-arms of the Sorbs however, only the Domowina uses an emblem, regarded as the unofficial emblem of the Sorb people.

Both Lower Lusatia and Upper Lusatia have flags.

Jens Pattke, 27 March 2001

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Description

According to Crampton 1990, "The Sorbs, a slavic community in what is now [1990] East Germany, also adopted a [horizontal] tricolour in 1848 of blue, red, white. There is no Sorb state as such but the flag is still in use." Illustration on page 134.

Roy Stilling, 30 August 1995

The flag of the Sorbs is mentioned in the Constitutions of the German states of Brandenburg and Saxony. Sources: Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt für das Land Brandenburg and Sächsisches Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt.

Pascal Vagnat, 19 December 1995

Some explain the meaning of the colours, "At the top is the sky, and towards the bottom it gets lighter and lighter".

Carsten Linke, 24 June 1996

The flag of the Sorbs was first mentioned in 1842. On 23 March 1848 the order blue (top), red, white (bottom) was established by representatives in Berlin of several Slavic peoples. The order was chosen for practical reasons to distinguish it from the flags of other Slavic nations. In 1912 the Bund Lausitzer Sorben, the Domowina, was established as umbrella-organisation of all Sorb associations. It was forbidden by the Nazis from 1937 till 1945. The flag of the Sorbs was already forbidden in 1935. When in the spring of 1945 the Russian and Polish troops entered Lausitz, the flag was flown again, at 17 May 1945 officially by the Domowina.

In the flag laws of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) the Sorb flag was not mentioned, but in decisions of the Councils of the Bezirke Cottbus and Dresden and the bilingual Bezirke of Lausitz, its use was regulated for special occasions and holidays.

After the collapse of the GDR the use of the Sorb flag is regulated by the constitutions of Brandenburg and Saxony. Note that the flag of the Sorbs was never the flag of an administrative territory, simply because such an entity never existed.

Sources: Günther 1998, page 40 and Günther 1999, page 27.

Mark Sensen, 16 October 1999

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Flag Legislation

[From the Brandenburg Constitution:]

Verfassung des Landes Brandenburg
(...)
4. Abschnitt: Rechte der Sorben [Wenden]
(...)
Artikel 26 (Rechte der Sorben [Wenden])
(...)
4) (...) Die sorbische Fahne hat die Farben Blau, Rot, Weiss. (...)

Unofficial translation:

Constitution of the State of Brandenburg
(...)
Section 4: Rights of the Sorbs [Wends]
(...)
Article 26: Rights of the Sorbs [Wends]
(...)
4) (...) The Sorb flag has the colours blue, red, white.

Source: Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt für das Land Brandenburg, Nr. 9 vom 7. Juni 1991. In the Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt für das Land Brandenburg, Nr. 18 vom 20. August 1992, article 25 says the same thing.

The Gesetz zur Ausgestaltung der Rechte der Sorben [Wenden] im Land Brandenburg vom 7. Juli 1994, (Law on the Specification of the Rights of the Sorbs [Wends] in the State of Brandenburg, of 7th July 1994) says also in its article 4, in German and Sorb:

4.- Sorbische (Wendische) Fahne
Die sorbische (wendische) Fahne hat die Farben Blau, Rot, Weiss. Sie kann im angestammten Siedlungsgebiet der Sorben (Wenden) gleichberechtigt mit staatlichen Symbolen verwendet werden.

4.- Serbska chorgoj
Serbska chorgoj ma modru, cerwejenu a be^lu barwu. Wona sme^jo se w starodawnem sedlen'skem rumje Serbow rownops^awnje ze statymi symbolami wuz^ywas'

Unofficial translation:

4.- Sorb (Wend) Flag
The Sorb (Wend) flag has the colours blue, red, white. In the traditional settlement areas of the Sorbs (Wends) it can be used alongside the state symbols, with equal rights.

The constitution of Saxony also mentions the possibility to use the Sorb flag in the Sorb territory. In April 1999, Saxony issued a law called Gesetz über die Rechte der Sorben im Freistaat Sachsen (Sächsisches Sorbengesetz) vom 31. März 1999, published in Sächsisches Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt, 30. April 1999, which says in its article 4, in German and Sorb:

4.- Sorbische Farben und Hymne
1) Farben und Wappen der Sorben können im sorbischen Siedlungsgebiet gleichberechtigt neben den Landesfarben und dem Landeswappen verwendet werden. Die sorbischen Farben sind Blau-Rot-Weiss.
2) Die sorbische Hymne kann im sorbischen Siedlungsgebiet gleichberechtigt verwendet werden.

4.- Serbske barby a hymna
1) Barby a wopon Serbow moz^a so w serbskim sydlenskim teritoriju runoprawne po'dla barbow kraja a wopona kraja wuz^iwac'. Serbske barby su mo'dra-c^erwjena-be^l/a.
2) Serbska hymna mo'z^e so w serbskim sydlenskim teritoriju runoprawna wuzîwac'."

Unofficial translation:

4.- Sorb colours and anthem
1) The colours and coat-of-arms of the Sorbs can be used in the Sorb area of settlement alongside with the state colours and coat-of-arms, with equal rights. The Sorb colours are blue-red-white.
2) The Sorb anthem can be used with equal rights in the Sorb area of settlement.

Pascal Vagnat, 13 November 1999, with translations by Stefan Schwoon, 27 March 2001

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Domowina Emblem

by Jens Pattke

On 8th October 1949 the Domowina, adopted a red emblem with a white limetree showing three large leaves, bordered with a blue fimbriation. The design was made by artist Ms. Hanka Krawcec. The emblem is regarded as the unofficial emblem of the Sorb people.

Jens Pattke, 27 March 2001

OF BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS Chapter 3 MARKGRAVES OF BRANDENBURG

OF BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS

Chapter 3

MARKGRAVES OF BRANDENBURG

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Meanwhile our first enigmatic set of Markgraves, or Deputy- Markgraves, at Brandenburg, are likewise faring ill. Whoever these valiant steel-gray gentlemen might be (which Dryasdust does not the least know, and only makes you more uncertain the more he pretends to tell), one thing is very evident, they had no peaceable possession of the place, nor for above a hundred years, a constant one on any terms. The Wends were highly disinclined to conversion and obedience: once and again, and still again, they burst up; got temporary hold of Brandenburg, hoping to keep it; and did frightful heterodoxies there. So that to our distressed imagination those poor "Markgraves of Witekind descent," our first set in Brandenburg, become altogether shadowy, intermittent, enigmatic, painfully actual as they once were. Take one instance, omitting others; which happily proves to be the finish of that first shadowy line, and introduces us to a new set very slightly more substantial.

 END OF THE FIRST SHADOWY LINE.

In the year 1023, near a century after Henry the Fowler`s feat, the Wends bursting up in never-imagined fury, get hold of Brandenburg again,--for the third and, one would fain hope, the last time. The reason was, words spoken by the then Markgraf of Brandenburg, Dietrich or Theodoric, last of the Witekind Markgraves; who hearing that a Cousin of his (Markgraf or Deputy- Markgraf like himself) was about wedding his daughter to "Mistevoi King of the Wends," said too earnestly: "Don`t! Will you give your daughter to a dog?" Word "dog" was used, says my authority. [See Michaelis Chur und Furstlichen Hauser, i. 257-259: Pauli, Allgemeine Preussische Staats- Geschichte (Halle, 1760-1769), i. l-182 (the "standard work" on Prussian History; in eight watery quartos, intolerable to human nature): Kloss, Vuterlandische Gemalde (Berlin, 1833), i. 59-108 (a Bookseller`s compilation, with some curious Excerpts):--under which lie modern Sagittarius, ancient Adam of Bremen, Ditmarus Merseburgensis, Witichindus Corbeiensis, Arnoldus Lubecensis, &c. &c. to all lengths and breadths.] Which threw King Mistevoi into a paroxysm, and raised the Wends. Their butchery of the German population in poor Brandenburg, especially of the Priests; their burning of the Cathedral, and of Church and State generally, may be conceived. The HARLUNGSBERG,--in our time MARIENBERG, pleasant Hill near Brandenburg, with its gardens, vines, and whitened cottages:--on the top of this Harlungsherg the Wends "set up their god Triglaph;" a three-headed Monster of which I have seen prints, beyond measure ugly. Something like three whale`s-cubs combined by boiling, or a triple porpoise dead- drunk (for the dull eyes are inexpressible, as well as the amorphous shape): ugliest and stupidest of all false gods. This these victorious Wends set up on the Harlungsberg, Year 1023; and worshipped after their sort, benighted mortals,--with joy, for a time. The Cathedral was in ashes, Priests all slain or fled, shadowy Markgraves the like; Church and State lay in ashes; and Triglaph, like a Triple Porpoise under the influence of laudanum, stood (I know not whether on his head or on his tail) aloft on the Harlungsberg, as the Supreme of this Universe, for the time being.

 SECOND SHADOWY LINE.

Whereupon the DITMARSCH-STADE Markgrafs (as some designate them) had to interfere, these shadowy Deputies of the Witekind breed having vanished in that manner. The Ditmarschers recovered the place; and with some fighting, did in the main at least keep Triglaph and the Wends out of it in time coming. The Wends were fiercely troublesome, and fought much; but I think they never actually got hold of Brandenburg again. They were beginning to get notions of conversion: well preached to and well beaten upon, you cannot hold out forever. Even Mistevoi at one time professed tendencies to Christianity; perhaps partly for his Bride`s sake,-- the dog, we may call him, in a milder sense! But he relapsed dreadfully, after that insult; and his son worse. On the other hand, Mistevoi`s grandson was so zealous he went about with the Missionary Preachers, and interpreted their German into Wendish: "Oh, my poor Wends, will you hear, then, will you understand? This solid Earth is but a shadow: Heaven forever or else Hell forever, that is the reality!" SUCH "difference between right and wrong" no Wend had heard of before: quite tremendously "important if true!"--And doubtless it impressed many. There are heavy Ditmarsch strokes for the unimpressible. By degrees all got converted, though many were killed first; and, one way or other, the Wends are preparing to efface themselves as a distinct people.

This STADE-AND-DITMARSCH family (of Anglish or Saxon breed, if that is an advantage) seem generally to have furnished the SALZWEDEL Office as well, of which Brandenburg was an offshoot, done by deputy, usually also of their kin. They lasted in Brandenburg rather more than a hundred years;--with little or no Book-History that is good to read; their History inarticulate rather, and stamped beneficently on the face of things. Otto is a common name among them. One of their sisters, too, Adelheid (Adelaide, NOBLENESS) had a strange adventure with "Ludwig the Springer:" romantic mythic man, famous in the German world, over whom my readers and I must not pause at this time.

In Salzwedel, in Ditmarsch, or wherever stationed, they had a toilsome fighting life: sore difficulties with their DITMARSCHERS too, with the plundering Danish populations; Markgraf after Markgraf getting killed in the business. "ERSCHLAGEN, slain fighting with the Heathen," say the old Books, and pass on to another. Of all which there is now silence forever. So many years men fought and planned and struggled there, all forgotten now except by the gods; and silently gave away their life, before those countries could become fencible and habitable! Nay, my friend, it is our lot too: and if we would win honor in this Universe, the rumor of Histories and Morning Newspapers,--which have to become wholly zero, one day, and fall dumb as stones, and which were not perhaps very wise even while speaking,--will help us little!--

 SUBSTANTIAL MARKGRAVES: GLIMPSE OF THE CONTEMPORARY KAISERS.

The Ditmarsch-Stade kindred, much slain in battle with the Heathen, and otherwise beaten upon, died out, about the year 1l30 (earlier perhaps, perhaps later, for all is shadowy still); and were succeeded in the Salzwedel part of their function by a kindred called "of Ascanien and Ballenstadt;" the ASCANIER or ANALT Markgraves; whose History, and that of Brandenburg, becomes henceforth articulate to us; a History not doubtful or shadowy any longer; but ascertainable, if reckoned worth ascertaining. Who succeeded in Ditmarsch, let us by no means inquire. The Empire itself was in some disorder at this time, more abstruse of aspect than usual; and these Northern Markgrafs, already become important people, and deep in general politics, had their own share in the confusion that was going.

It was about this same time that a second line of Kaisers had died out: the FRANKISH or SALIC line, who had succeeded to the SAXON, of Henry the Fowler`s blood. For the Empire too, though elective, had always a tendency to become hereditary, and go in lines: if the last Kaiser left a son not unfit, who so likely as the son? But he needed to be fit, otherwise it would not answer,--otherwise it might be worse for him! There were great labors in the Empire too, as well as on the Sclavic frontier of it: brave men fighting against anarchy (actually set in pitched fight against it, and not always strong enough),--toiling sore, according to their faculty, to pull the innumerable crooked things straight. Some agreed well with the Pope,--as Henry II., who founded Bamberg Bishopric, and much else of the like; [Kohler, pp. 102-104. See, for instance, Description de la Table d`Aute1 en or fin, donnee a la Cathedrale de Bale, par l`Empereur Henri II. en 1019 (Porentruy, 1838).] "a sore saint for the crown," as was said of David I., his Scotch congener, by a descendant. Others disagreed very much indeed;--Henry IV.`s scene at Canossa, with Pope Hildebrand and the pious Countess (year 1077, Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire waiting, three days, in the snow, to kiss the foot of excommunicative Hildebrand), has impressed itself on all memories! Poor Henry rallied out of that abasement, and dealt a stroke or two on Hildebrand; but fell still lower before long, his very Son going against him; and came almost to actual want of bread, had not the Bishop of Liege been good to him. Nay, after death, he lay four years waiting vainly even for burial,--but indeed cared little about that.

Certainly this Son of his, Kaiser Henry V., does not shine in filial piety: but probably the poor lad himself was hard bested. He also came to die, A.D. 1125, still little over forty, and was the last of the Frankish Kaisers. He "left the REICHS-INSIGNIEN [Crown, Sceptre and Coronation gear] to his Widow and young Friedrich of Hohenstauffen," a sister`s son of his,--hoping the said Friedrich might, partly by that help, follow as Kaiser. Which Friedrich could not do; being wheedled, both the Widow and he, out of their insignia, under false pretences, and otherwise left in the lurch. Not Friedrich, but one Lothar, a stirring man who had grown potent in the Saxon countries, was elected Kaiser. In the end, after waiting till Lothar was done, Friedrich`s race did succeed, and with brilliancy,--Kaiser Barbarossa being that same Friedrich`s son. In regard to which dim complicacies, take this Excerpt from the imbroglio of Manuscripts, before they go into the fire:--

"By no means to be forgotten that the Widow we here speak of, Kaiser Henry V.`s Widow, who brought no heir to Henry V., was our English Henry Beauclerc`s daughter,--granddaughter therefore of William Conqueror,--the same who, having (in 1127, the second year of her widowhood) married Godefroi Count of Anjou, produced our Henry II. and our Plantagenets; and thereby, through her victorious Controversies with King Stephen (that noble peer whose breeches stood him so cheap), became very celebrated as `the Empress Maud,` in our old History-Books. Mathildis, Dowager of Kaiser Henry V., to whom he gave his Reichs-Insignia at dying: she is the `Empress Maud` of English Books; and relates herself in this manner to the Hohenstauffen Dynasty, and intricate German vicissitudes. Be thankful for any hook whatever on which to hang half an acre of thrums in fixed position, out of your way; the smallest flint-spark, in a world all black and unrememberable, will be welcome."--

And so we return to Brandenburg and the "ASCANIEN and BALLENSTADT" series of Markgraves.

History of Friedrich II

By Thomas Carlyle

ROYAL HERALDIC. THE FIRST OLD LINES OF THE  MECHLENBORG FAMILY
by Hilsen Roald K-M. Hansen

ROYAL HERALDIC. 
THE FIRST OLD LINES OF THE  MECHLENBORG FAMILY

1. 
Knut Lavard b.1091 d.7/1-1131 Hertug (Knes) of Slesvig (belongs on that time to Denmark) 1115-31. (Son of Erik Ejegod b.a.1056 king of Denmark 1095-1103, m.w. Bodil.  One of their forfather were Harald the good Blueteeth Gormssen, king of Denmark a.940-985, m.w.(1) Gyrid (2) a.965w. Gunnhild (3) Tove.  Their family was the "Skjoldungeætten" from Lejre in Denmark, and also they were in family with Harald Hairfair and Haakon Jarl in Norway.) M.a.1116 w. Ingeborg d.a.1137, (her parents were Matislaw I Harald b.a.1076, d.15/4-1132, bigfuerst of Novgorod/Kiev m.1095w. Christina Ingesdtr of Sweden d.18/1-1122- dtr of Inge the old, King of Sweden 1067-1110). 

2A.
Cathrine Knutsdtr (of Denmark), b.a. 1120 Copenhagen, m.1139w. Prislaw (Pribislaw) Heinrich Niklotsen of the Obotrits (Prince/Wends-1131) d.12/1178. (Son of Niklot Hildericson b.a.1125, d.8/1160. Fuerst of Weden. He also was married with Woizlawa- mention in a Internet homepage, but her parents is not known. In the book "Danmarks Historie " Bd.3, Pribislav is married with Kathrine Knutsdtr; dtr of Knut Lavard. Also in the book "Europeiske Adelsslekter" for the (nr.31) family Mechlenburg 1100-1400, Knut Lavard, Pribislaw and Niklot is set up as the first old lines for Mechlenburg)

3A. 
Henrich Burwin Prislawsen I Mechlenborg, b.a.1150 d.28/1-1227. Fuerst/ prince. M.(1) 1166w. Mechtilde Henrichdtr of Bayern/ Sachsen b.a.1150, d.1219), m.(2)a.1219w. Adelheid (her family is not known). (From this line (Henrich I Mechlenburg m.w. Mechtilde) following the later Mechlenburg Family Tree).

3B. 
Knut Prislawsen, d.1183

2B.
Kirsten Knutsdtr  b.1118 m.1132w. Magnus IV Sigurdssøn Blinde. b.1115. King of Norway 1130-35.

2C.
Margrethe Knutsdtr. b.a.1120, m.w. Stig Whiteleather (dtr: Kristina Whiteleather)

2D.
Valdemar I Knutssen (the big), king of Denmark b.14/1-1131, ruled 1157-82. M.(1)1150w. Tove (their son: Christopher), M.(2)1157w. Sophie Knutsdtr. (After this line by king Valdemar I m.w. Sophie follows a lot of the later Danish Regents).

4A.
Henrich Burwin II Henrichsen Mechlenburg, b.1172, d.5/12-1226. Regent. M.a.1200w. Christina Sverkersdtr of Sweden (dtr. of Sverker II Karlsson d.20/5-1208. King of Sweden 1196-1208, m.w. Bengte Ebbesdtr.)

HISTORY:
The region of Mechlenborg was occupied in the 6th century A.D. by the Wends. 

The tradetown "kaupang" Reric was probably a placed in the Mechlenburg-area, but was later rebuildet in the bottom of the Slesvigfjord (Slien) by Gudrød Veidekonge Halfdansen (in Fr. ann; Godfrid) b.a.780, d.810. In family with  the Swedish "Ynglingeætten" between one of his forfathers Ingjald Braut (Illråde) b.a.630 (made 12 wars m.w. Gauthild of Gøtland). King of South-Jylland in Danmark and South-Norway. M.(1)w. Alfhild Alfarinsdtr. M.(2)w. Åsa Haraldsdtr d.821. He own a fleet of 200 ship. His son Hårek (dan; Horik) Gudrødsen became king of Denmark 837-54.
After him was Hårek II, king of Denmark. An another son Eirik I Gudrødsen d.854, was king of South-Jylland. After him; Eirik II Eirikssen, king of Jylland and (South-) Vestfold in Norway. 

Traskio, d. o.809 in Reric. King of Obotriten, in peace/war with Gudrød. 

(A fleet of 200 ship from "Normannia" was fighting in Friesland in 810). Heming (a brotherson of Gudrød) ruled a time after Gudrød. 

Halfdan Gudrødsøn "the black" of Norway b.a.809 d.a.850, m.w. Ragnhild Sigurdsdtr (she was daugter of Tyrna Klak-Haraldsdtr and sister of Tyra Danmarksbod m.w. Gorm the old, d.936, king of Denmark). Their son was Harald Hairfair b.858, d.933 king of Norway.

First documentary evidence of the "Michelenburg" is in 995.

Mistivoj d.a.990. King of Obotriten/ the Wends i West-Mechlenburg. He is mention in a war i 983. His daugter Tove Mistivojsdtr was married with Harald Blueteeth "the good", king of Denmark 940-85. She raised a bautastone over her mother.

In 1018 Mistizlaw, Fuerst of Obotriten is mention and the burg Zuarin.

Later awarded as a march to the Dukes of Saxony, it was subdued (12 cent.) by Henry the Lion, 1129-95 [son of Henry the Proud a.1108, d.1139, Duke of Bavaria 1126-38, Duke of Saxony 1137-38, a member of the Guelph family, m.1127w. Gertrude Lothairdtr- dtr. of Lothair II, king of Germay and Holy Roman Emperor) Duke of Saxony (1142-80), Duke of Bavaria (1156-80), ruled the West-Mechlenburg and the Obotrits/ Wends and from a burg Zuarin, and buildt later the city Schwerin]. M.1168w. Mathilda Henrysdtr- (dtr of Henry II , king of England 1157-89, Henry II was a friend of Waldemar I of Denmark). Henry Lions later "Ritter" Gunzelin von Hagen was "Statthalter" on that time.  Later the Wendish prince Pribislaw Niklotsen became a vassal of the Holy Roman Empire. 
In German chronicles Pribislaw is mention for the year 1147, 1153 and 1157 in the region Brandenburg.
In 1161 the Slav suffered their decisive defeat under the Obotritenfuerst/ Wendenfuerst Niklot Hildericsen against the Saxon king Henry the Lion. 

In 1248 and 1256 fuerst Pribislaw of Parchim-Richenberg is mention.

In 1348 the princes were raised to ducal rank. 

In 1621 the duchy divided into Mechlenborg-Schwerin and Mechlenborg-Gustrow. 

FUERST/ PRINCE/ KINGS OF WENDEN AND OBOTRITEN:
GODFRID (GUDRØD) a. 780-d.810, rebuildt/moved kaupang Reric in Mechlenburg.
TRASKIO, d.809 Reric. King of Obotrit
MISTIVOJ, d.990 king of Obotrit/Wends. His dtr. Tove m.w.king Harald I (940-85) of Denmark
MISTISLAV, mention in 1018, Fuerst of Obotrit.
HILDERIC a.1090
NIKLOT HILDERICSON a.1125-d.8/1160, Fuerst of Obotrits/Wends
PRIBISLAV NIKLOTSEN, Wendish Prince m.(1)w.Cathrine Knutsdtr of Denmark/ (2)Voislava
HENRICH BORVIN PRISLAVSEN I MECHLENBURG b.a.1150, Fuerst/Prince
HENRICH BORVIN II MECHLENBURG b.1172 d.12-1226 m.w. Christina Sverkersdtr of Sweden

Archives:
1."Cronik Thietmar von Merseburg".
2."Danmarks Historie" Bd.2/3. Normannertiden. of Thorkild Ramskou. 1963.
3."Europeiske Adelsslekter"
4."Norsk Adel". Gustav Heber. Centraltrykkeriet. Oslo 1944.

A. The Mechlenburg Homepage on Internet: 
www.worldroots.com/brigitte/royal/mechlenburg/niklotdesc.htm
B. Also on Internet:
http://viking.no/

Updated: 27-3-2001

RESYME:

1- 2. MECHLENBORG, lines with HÅLØYGEÆTTEN and SKJOLDUNGEÆTTEN.
3. KAABYE-MECHLENBORG

1. The marriage between Pribislav Henrich Niklotsen d.12/1178 m.1139w. Cathrine Knutsdtr  b.a.1120, makes all the lines of Mechlenborg in family with Knut Lavard (The Danish Royal Family) and Skjoldungeætten from Leijre in Denmark. 
(Daughter of Knut Lavard; Kirsten Knutsdtr b.1118, was m.1132w. Magnus Sigurdssøn IV Blinde. King of Norway 1130-35. Magnus IV`s fifth forfather was Harald Hardråde, King of Norway 1045-66 and Hardråde`s fifth forfather was Harald Hårfagre b.858, Vestfold, d.933, who ruled Norway in 865-933. H. Hårfagre was married with Åsa Håkonsdtr Hlade- dtr of Håkon Jarl Grjotgardssøn b.a.815 Namdalen in Trøndelag, d.868, of Håløygeætten in North-Norway).

2. The marriage between Euphemia Eriksdtr b.1317, d.1370, m.10/4-1336w. Albert 2 Mechlenborg b.1329 d.18/2-1379, Duke (father to Albrecht III Mechlenborg b.1340, d.31/3-1412, king of Sweden 1364-89), makes Mechlenborg in family with The Norwegian Royal Family, Harald Hårfagre and Håløygeætten from Tr.heim/ Namdalen in Norway. Euphemia`s mother was Ingeborg Håkonsdtr b.1301 d.a.1360- dtr of Håkon V Magnussøn. King of Norway 1299-1319. Håkon V was in near family with Magnus IV Blinde. From this line Mechlenborg is directly in family with Harald Hårfagre.

3. The Norwegian Lines Kaabye- Mechelenborg of Møre and Loppa, depends on Johan Albert 2 Mechlenborg b.5/5-1590, d.23/4-1636. M.(1) 10/1608 w. Elisabeth Margrethe Kristoffersdtr. Mechlenborg b.11/7-1584, d.16/11-1616. He also was m.(2) w. Elisabeth Moritsdtr. b.24/3-1596, d.16/12-1625, and m.(3) w. Eleonore Kristiansdtr b.7/8-1600, d.17/7-1657. His daugter of the first marriage; Elisabeth Johansdtr. Mechlenborg b.a.1625 was m.w. Peder Pedersøn Stadell on Møre. He still lived i 1695, and their daughter Marie Pedersdtr. Mechlenborg Stadell was m.w. Hans Johansen Kaabye, d.before 1705, lived in 1689 on Tustern, Golmen in Edøy. Margrethe Marie Mentzdtr. Kaabye b.1730, (Her fathermother were Marie P. Mechlenborg Stadell) was m.30/6-1753 w. Urbanus Mogensen b.1721, d.22/4-1806. Schoolteacher and lensman on Loppa.
Johan Albert 2 Mechlenborg`s eigth formother was Euphemia (daughterdauhter of Håkon V Magnusson, king of Norway).

Bräuchte eine Übersetzung für "Wendenfürst" (bzw. "Wendenfürsten") ASAP danke. Kontext ist nicht besonders hilfreich, sollte aber klar sein, dass es hier um einen adligen Titel handelt:

Unter dem Wendenfürsten Selaomir wurde es Slamersekede genannt

Danke im Voraus,

-blue

Answer:	Wendenfürst
	by Alan, 2005-02-03, 18:52   217.43.154.70 In the time of Selaomir, Prince of the Wenden, it was called Sl..... But I'm not sure which is the right translation of Wenden - is it left as Wenden, or does one say Sorbs?

Answer:	Wends/sorbs
	by blue, 2005-02-03, 18:56   82.82.215.133 These are trees? He ws a Prince of Trees? -blue

Answer:	um, trees? no
	by lemmego (US), 2005-02-03, 19:07   68.142.9.177 "Wenden ist ein Sammelbegriff für verschiedene westslawische Stämme. [...] Deutscher Name für alle Slawen." How about Slavic prince?

Answer:	Wenden
	by lemmego (US), 2005-02-03, 19:11   68.142.9.177 English equivalent is the Wends, synonym Sorbs http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=wend Prince of the Wends / Prince of the Sorbs Wends in Texas: http://wendish.concordia.edu/html/about.htm

Answer:	Slavic prince
	by blue, 2005-02-03, 19:22   82.82.215.133 Slavic prince find ich akzeptabel. Falls ich von einer anderen Quelle etwas anderes hören sollte, melde ich mich wieder hier. Vielen Dank für die Hilfe. -blue

Answer:	on second thought
	by lemmego (US), 2005-02-03, 19:25   68.142.9.177 Slavic prince might be too general... I think I'd go with Prince of the Wends.

In December of 1854, an English sailing vessel, the Ben Nevis, docked in Galveston harbor loaded with some 500 immigrants from Lusatia, an area in Germany comprising parts of Saxony and Prussia. These immigrants were not the typical lot of Germans, Swedes, Czechs, and Poles who flocked to Texas in the 1850's seeking cheap land and economic opportunity. This group was different. The group brought a strange new language to the frontier state-the Wendish language. And even more striking, these Slavic pioneers who were to settle in Lee County made the journey from their homeland, not in search of prosperity, but rather in search of religious liberty and the right to speak their Wendish tongue.

The Wends were descended from a group of Slavic tribes that had developed a common language and, in the 10th Century, occupied much of central Europe. By the 19th Century, the Wends had been decimated by conquest and assimilation with other cultures until only a small area along the River Spree was inhabited by true Wends.

The Wendish migration to Texas was impelled, in part, by the Prussian insistence that the Wends (or Sorbs, as they called themselves) speak and use the German language, even to the extent of Germanizing their names. The oppression of the Wendish minority extended to working conditions, with Wends being denied the right to do the skilled labor for which they were trained. If they were hired at all, they received less pay than their German counterparts. Prussian agrarian reform laws of 1832 dispossessed the Wends of their real property so they were, in effect, vassals to their Prussian lords.

But most intolerable was the requirement that the Lutheran Wends join the Evangelical Reform churches in one state-regulated Protestant body. The Wends believed this action would dilute their pure Lutheran faith and, rather than accept this decree, they made plans to immigrate to the New World.

The Wends organized the journey under the leadership of their Pastor, The Reverend Jan Kilian. Rev. Kilian was a scholar and prolific writer who translated from German into Wendish many books, such as Luther's Large Catechism and the Augsburg Confession. He also wrote Wendish prayer books, sermons, and tracts, as well as hymns and poems. Years later, Rev. Kilian was known to preach the same sermon in Wendish, German, and English on a Sunday morning. Kilian, a graduate of Leipzig University, was a strong leader and a logical choice to be the Moses of this 19th Century Exodus.

On March 25, 1854, a new Lutheran congregation was organized at Dauban, to become the cornerstone of a large Wendish emigration. Rev. Kilian was called as Pastor. Most likely, the group chose Texas as its destination because of glowing reports returned by several families of Wends who had previously settled in Central Texas. Other smaller groups of Wends also departed during this period to find new homes in Australia.

Knowing that the odds favored many losing their lives on the journey, almost 600 Wends left their homes and loved ones in the first week of September, 1854, bound for Texas. The group traveled to Liverpool, England, where they boarded the three-masted Ben Nevis. They soon encountered their first tragedy as the dreaded cholera epidemic struck. Fifteen died before the ship reached Ireland. At Queenstown, Ireland, the ship was quarantined for three weeks and thoroughly fumigated. Twenty-three more succumbed to cholera during this time. At last, on October 22, 1854, the Wends again boarded the Ben Nevis bound for Galveston. Although the cholera had somewhat abated, another eighteen died at sea during the Atlantic crossing.

The decimated congregation arrived at Galveston in early December, only to be faced with another scourge, yellow fever. Many contracted the disease, but only one died before the Wends could flee inland to Houston. From Houston, the Wends journeyed further inland by oxcart in early January 1855. Two men had been sent ahead to find a place where they could settle. The epic migration to a new homeland ended on the banks of Rabbs Creek in what is today Lee County, near Giddings. Here, the Wends purchased a league of land for $1.00 per acre. The first winter was hard and food was scarce. Many Wends lived in dugouts and log cabins until proper homes could be built.

The newcomers set aside 95 acres of the land for the Lutheran church and school. About one mile northwest of the church property, the colonists began work on their town, which they named Serbin. This was to be the capital of their "Wendenland" in Texas, where they could continue forever their Wendish language and cultural traditions.

One of the first acts accomplished by Rev. Kilian was to apply for membership in the fledgling Missouri Synod Lutheran Church. St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Serbin became the first of many Missouri Synod churches in Texas, and it had the only Wendish school in America. The present St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Serbin was completed in 1871. It is a beautiful, yet simple, structure, the obvious product of pioneer craftsmanship. The unique interior includes a balcony extending around the interior with a pulpit nearly 20 feet above the lower floor. Originally, the men sat in the balcony, while the women and children occupied the floor level pews. St. Paul's is one of the oldest churches in America in continual use since its construction.

Many groups of Wendish colonists struck out for other parts of Texas in the latter 1800's. Wends formed sub-colonies in such places as Austin, Houston, Warda, Fedor, Swiss Alp, Giddings, Port Arthur, Mannheim, Copperas Cove, Vernon, Walburg, The Grove, Bishop, and the Rio Grande Valley. In each case, the Wends built a new church and affiliated with the Missouri Synod, thus helping spread Missouri Synod congregations throughout Texas. In the new congregations, the Wendish language and culture soon died out. Only in Serbin did it survive, where Wendish services continued to be held until 1921. Today, only a few elderly Wends still know the language. The great irony of the Wendish emigration was that in the effort to establish a pure Wendish colony where the language and culture could be preserved, these very things were lost due to the economic and social realities of the frontier.

Throughout Texas, particularly on the church rolls of Missouri Synod Lutheran Churches, can be found Wendish names from the passenger list of the Ben Nevis-names like Lehman, Moerbe, Schatte, Fritsche, Becker, Schubert, Dube, Teinert, Wukasch, Kiesling, Prellop, Kasper, Zoch, Miertschin, Urban, Wenke, Knippa, Noack, Groeschel, Wuensche, Melde, and many more. Strong emphasis on biblical religious faith and basic education is evident today in families descendant from the Wendish pioneers. Today, thousands of Texans and other Americans, many unaware of their background, can lay claim to the courageous and fascinating heritage of the Wends.

WENDEL

The Beginner's Guide to Interpreting Ethnic DNA Origins for Family History: How Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi & Europeans Are Related to Everyone Else
by Anne Hart - Reference - 2003 - 264 pages
Page 53 - ... One of Charlemagne's sons defeated the Wends and burned Bautzen in 806. ...
Wends to homes outside the walls on to restricted sections of the city. ...

	Nutritional Genomics - A Consumer's Guide to How Your Genes and Ancestry Respond to Food: Tailoring What You Eat to Your DNA by Anne Hart - Health & Fitness - 2003 - 372 pages Page 133 - ... have shown up in Yiddish when the Jews moved to more Eastern towns in Poland. One of Charlemagne's sons defeated the Wends and burned Bautzen in 806. ... [ More results from this book ]
	A History of the Vikings by Thomas D Kendrick - History - 2004 - 412 pages Page 179 - ... a third land that had learnt to fear her and that was the country of the Wends, ... the river Oder, reached the sea, these Wends had a town by name of ... [ More results from this book ]
	A History of Pagan Europe by Prudence Jones - History - 1995 - 262 pages Page 167 - ... or, as they were now called, the Wends. The Wends ejected the missionaries and their land-hungry followers in 1018 and 1066, and the Holy Roman Empire ... [ More results from this book ]
	The Oxford History of Medieval Europe edited by George Holmes - History - 2002 - 416 pages Page 86 - ... Franks to Bohemia, against the Wends, a Slavic people. The Wends were led by Samo, an enterprising Frankish merchant, who had so impressed the ... [ More results from this book ]
	Village Economies: The Design, Estimation, and Use of Villagewide Economic Models by J Edward Taylor, Irma Adelman - Social Science - 1996 - 276 pages Page - ... for some paradoxical outcomes of exogenous shocks as their Influence wends its way through rural economies, and they underline the importance of ...
	The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, C. 500-700 by Florin Curta - History - 2001 - 492 pages Page 60 - ... , therefore, Wends was a name for special military units of the Avar army. ... ' appear only in political contexts: the Wends, not the Slays, were ... [ More results from this book ]
	Crusading Peace by Tomaz Mastnak - History - 2002 - 417 pages Page 167 - northern heathens to attack the crusading army from the rear,'°3 Bernard also preached a crusade against the Slavic Wends in what today is eastern Germany. ... [ More results from this book ]
	Europe and Islam by Franco Cardini - History - 2001 - 238 pages Page 71 - ... the pagan group known as the Wends, who lived in Northern Europe. ... Wends yielded very little, but the crusaders in Spain (including sailors from ... [ More results from this book ]
	Tarot Spells by Janina Renee - Body, Mind & Spirit - 1990 - 294 pages Page 270 - ... a dancer, a naturalist. Two of Wends. Business partners. Three of Wands. A person involved in commerce; also a corporation. Five of Wends. ... [ More results from this book ]
	The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945 by Michael Berleigh, Michael Burleigh - History - 1991 - 402 pages Page 131 - ... Gradually the ‘Wends' in central and eastern Germany lost their linguistic and cultural identity. It was otherwise with the ‘Wends' in Upper and ... [ More results from this book
	Conflict and Continuity at Om Abbey by Brian Patrick McGuire - Religion - 1976 Page 49 - ... .141 During the campaign against the Wends in Pomerania in the beginning of the ... [ More results from this book ]
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	Bernard of Clairvaux: On the Spirituality of Relationship by John R Sommerfeldt - Religion - 2004 - 192 pages Page 82 - ... reflected in Bernard's letter to the crusaders about to attack the Wends. ... context of a crusade to the Holy Land, not one directed against the Wends. ... [ More results from this book ]
	Mohammed and Charlemagne by Henri Pirenne - History - 2001 - 304 pages Page 97 - ... in the country of the Wends at the head of a troop of merchant adven turers, in 623—624, ... These merchants went into the country of the Wends as the ... [ More results from this book ]
	Political Parties by Robert Michels - Political Science - 1999 - 379 pages Page 233 - ... The Wends, on the other hand, a Slav people like the Poles, owing to the nature of the historical epoch in which they were subdued and to the peculiar ... [ More results from this book ]
	Teutonic Mythology by Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm - Social Science - 2004 - 464 pages Page 523 - ... or Wends; but even in the earliest times there might circulate talk and tale of a primitive mythic race supposed to inhabit some uncertain region, ... [ More results from this book ]
	The Medieval Tradition of Thebes: History and Narrative in the Roman de Thebes, Boccaccio, Chaucer, of and Lydgate by Dominique Battles - History - 2004 - 272 pages Page 24 - ... mostly Saxons, began petitioning for papal approval for a campaign against the pagan Wends east of the Elbe.27 In April 1147, Pope Eugenius 11(1145-53) ... [ More results from this book ]
	Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia by Rebecca West - Travel - 1995 - 1181 pages Page 507 - You have the Wends in Germany, many of them, and some distinguished ones, ... “But if all the Wends are Slays,” said Gerda, “why do we not send them out of ...
	Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain by Joseph F O'Callaghan - History - 2004 - 322 pages Page 45 - the pope not only encouraged a crusade against the pagan Wends, ... the pope affirmed that the wars against the Muslims in Spain and the Wends were ... [ More results from this book ]
	Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne by Pierre Riche - History - 1978 - 336 pages Page 5 - ... the land of the Wends, he answered: “What do those little frogs matter to me? ... The relationship which some writers found between the names Wends and ... [ More results from this book ]
	Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne by Pierre Riche - History - 1978 - 336 pages Page 5 - ... the land of the Wends, he answered: “What do those little frogs matter to me? ... The relationship which some writers found between the names Wends and ... [ More results from this book ]

The Work of Memory: New Directions in the Study of German Society and Culture edited by Alon Confino, Peter Fritzsche - History - 2002 - 265 pages Page 158 - ... respondents told me that the suicide rate increased as a result of the Wends. ... There are data showing that the birth rate plummeted after the Wends. ... [ More results from this book ]

The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading by Jonathan Riley-Smith - History - 1986 Page 124 - in 1108 to present the German war against the Wends across the Elbe in crusading ... most inhuman gentiles (the Wends) who are near by.22 The enthusiasm led ... [ More results from this book ]

	Warriors of the Lord: The Military Orders of Christendom by Michael Walsh - Religion - 2003 - 208 pages Page 90 - ... At a meeting in Frankfurt am Main he declared that the German expedition against the pagan Wends was also a crusade, and worthy of the same kind of ... [ More results from this book ]
	The History of the English People, 1000-1154 by Henry - History - 2002 - 208 pages Page 124 - ... , see Wright, Cultivation of Saga, 206-12. i6 against the Wends: Henry is ... the Wends, the Slav peoples on the southern shores of the Baltic, and for ... [ More results from this book ]

The Emergence of Monasticism: From the Desert Fathers to the Early Middle Ages by Marilyn Dunn - 2003 - 280 pages Page 179 - ... had considered the conversion of the Wends — though he himself admitted that ... Jonas claims that while he had thought of converting the pagan Wends to ... [ More results from this book ]

	The Perfection of Solitude: Hermits and Monks in the Crusader States by Andrew Jotischky - Religion - 1995 - 198 pages Page 12 - ... Writing in 1147 on the occasion of the expedition against the pagan Wends, ... but the salvation of souls—both the souls of the Wends, by conversion, ... [ More results from this book ]
	A Knight at the Movies: Medieval History on Film by John Aberth - History - 2003 - 304 pages Page 76 - ... preached a crusade in 1147 against the pagan Wends in eastern Germany. ... the crusade against the Wends was carried out with ruthless severity. ... [ More results from this book ]