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Sorbs-Wends Cultures







This page is for International Regional & Ethnic listings, for those persons who are seeking information
that does not conform to strict Country borders, but instead, regional, ethnic and even religious bounderies.

All of the elaborative statements on this page are quoted in full, or in part from the web sites themselves.



Updated: Mon, Jan 15, 2009

SORBS-WENDS - German slavs were called "Sorbs" or "Wends". The Germans refer to the Sorbs as Wends. The Sorbs first settled in what is now Germay during the Middle Ages. They are noted as early as the 6th century in northern and eastern Germany along the Baltic coast from the Elbe to the Vistula and south to Bohemia. A large group of Wends settled in Texas in 1854, more came later. They wanted to escape "germanization" in Germany, but they went to an area of Texas where many German immigrants had settled, northeast of Austin. What did not happen in Germany, occured in Texas. They were absorbed by their German neighbors! They were able to found their own community, Sorbin, near Giddings. The German newspaper in Giddings at that time printed one section in Wendish for its readers. It was the only place in the world where a Slav language was printed in German characters, because the printers simply had no other alphabet.

  • German Speakers in Australia; the 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.

    ...and more to come.



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