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West Slavs in the 9th and 10th centuries

Wends wedding 1931 in Spreewald

Personifications of Sclavinia (Wends), Germania, Gallia, and Roma, bringing offerings to Otto III; from a gospel book dated 990.

The Limes Saxoniae border between the Saxons and the Lechites Obotrites, established about 810 in present-day Schleswig-Holstein

Germaniae veteris typus (Old Germany.), Aestui, Venedi, Gythones and Ingaevones on the right upper corner of the map Edited by Willem and Joan Blaeu), 1645.

Wends (Old English: Winedas, Old Norse: Vindr, German: Wenden, Winden, Danish: Vendere, Swedish: Vender, Polish: Wendowie) is a historic name for West Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It does not refer to a homogeneous people, but to various peoples, tribes or groups depending on where and when it is used. Today, it is used either in historical contexts or as a catch-all term for Lusatian Sorbs, and their descendants, like the Texas Wends.

In the Middle Ages the term "Wends" often referred to Western Slavs living within the Holy Roman Empire, though not always. Mieszko I, the first historical legitimate ruler of Poland, also appeared as "Dagome, King of the Wends" (Old Norse: Vindakonungr) - which was an apparent misinterpretation as during those times emerging Polish state had no true control over Sorbian territories (which were gained for a short period of time by Bolesław I Chrobry after Mieszko's death). The name has also survived in Finnic languages (Finnish: Venäjä, Estonian: Vene, Karelian: Veneä) denoting Russia.^[1][2]

People termed "Wendes" in the course of history[link]

It is believed that Germanic peoples originally applied the ethnonym to the ancient Veneti, and that after the migration period they transferred it to their new easterly neighbours, the Slavs (see Relation between Veneti and Slavs for further details).

For the medieval Scandinavians, the term Wend (Vender) meant a Slav originating from the southern shore of the Baltic Sea (Vendland), the term was therefore used to refer to Polabian Slavs like Obotrites, Rugian Slavs, Veleti/Lutici and Pomeranian tribes.

For people living in medieval Northern Holy Roman Empire and its precursors, especially for the Saxons, a Wend (Wende) was a Slav living west of the Oder River area, an area later entitled Germania Slavica, settled by the Polabian tribes (mentioned above) in the north and by others, such as the Sorbs and the Milceni, in the middle.

The Germans in the south used the term Winde instead of Wende and applied it, just as the Germans in the north, to Slavs they had contact with, e.g. Polabian people from Bavaria Slavica or the Slovenes (the names Windic March and Windisch Feistritz still bear testimony to this historical denomination).

Following the 8th century, the Frankish kings and their successors organized nearly all Wendish land into marches. This process later turned into the series of crusades. By the 12th century, all Wendish lands had become part of the Holy Roman Empire. In the course of the Ostsiedlung, which reached its peak in the 12th to 14th centuries, this land was settled by Germans and reorganized.

Due to the process of assimilation following German settlement, many Slavs west of the Oder adopted the German culture and language. Only some rural communities that did not have a strong admixture with Germans and continued to use West Slavic languages were still termed Wends. With the gradual decline of the use of these local Slavic tongues, the term Wends slowly disappeared, too.

Some sources claim that in the 13th century there were actual historic people called Wends or Vends living as far as northern Latvia (east of the Baltic Sea) around the city of Wenden. Henry of Livonia (Henricus de Lettis) in his 13th-century Latin chronicle described a tribe called the Vindi.

Today, only one group of Wends still exists: the Lusatian Sorbs in present-day eastern Germany.

History of the Wends[link]

Early sources[link]

In the third book of his Geographia, Ptolemy mentions the Ouenedai among other dwellers on the Baltic shore in the middle of the 2nd century CE. Some early scholars identified the Ouenedai with the Wends,^[3] however, based on linguistic facts, modern academic views now argue that the Ouenedai were ethnolinguistically different from Slavs and hence cannot be equated with Wends.^[4]

Rise (500–1000 AD)[link]

In the first millennium, during the Slavic migrations which split the recently-formed Slav ethnicity into Southern, Eastern and Western groups, some West Slavs moved into the areas between the Elbe and Oder Rivers - moving from east to west and from south to north. There they assimilated the remaining Germanic population that had not left the area in the Migration period. Their German neighbors adapted the term they had been using for peoples east of the Elbe River before to the Slavs, calling them Wends as they called the Venedi before and probably the Vandals also.

While the Wends were arriving in so-called Germania Slavica as large homogeneous groups, they soon divided into a variety of small tribes, with large strips of woodland separating one tribal settlement area from another. Their tribal names were derived from local place names, sometimes adopting the Germanic tradition (e.g. Heveller from Havel, Rujanes from Rugians). Settlements were secured by round burghs made of wood and clay, where either people could retreat in case of a raid from the neighboring tribe or used as military strongholds or outposts.

Some tribes unified into larger, duchy-like units. For example, the Obotrites evolved from the unification of the Holstein and Western Mecklenburg tribes led by mighty dukes known for their raids into German Saxony. The Lutici were an alliance of tribes living between Obotrites and Pomeranians. They did not unify under a duke, but remained independent and had their leaders meet and decide in the temple of Rethra.

In 983, many Wend tribes participated in a great uprising against the Holy Roman Empire, which before had established Christian missions, German colonies and German administrative institutions (Marken such as Nordmark and Billungermark) in pagan Wendish territories. The uprising was successful and the Wends delayed Germanisation for about two centuries.

Decline (1000–1200 AD)[link]

Texas Wendish Heritage Museum in Lee County, Texas

After that victory, Wends were under increasing pressure from Germans, Danes and Poles. The Poles invaded Pomerania several times. The Danes often raided the Baltic shores (and, in turn, were often raided by the Wends). The Holy Roman Empire and its margraves tried to restore their marches.

In 1068/69, a German expedition took and destroyed Rethra, one of the major pagan Wend temples. The Wendish religious center shifted to Arkona thereafter. In 1124 and 1128, the Pomeranians and some Luticis were baptised. In 1147, the Wend crusade took place.

In 1168 during the Northern Crusades, Denmark mounted a crusade led by Bishop Absalon and King Valdemar the Great against the Wends of Rugia in order to convert them to Christianity. They captured and destroyed Arkona, the Wendish temple fortress, and tore down the statue of the Wendish god, Svantevit. With the capitulation of the Rugian Wends, the last independent pagan Wends were defeated by the surrounding Christian feudal powers.

From 12th to 14th century, German colonists were called into the Wend lands and settled there in large numbers, transforming the area from a Slavic to a Germanic culture. The settlers were called in by local dukes and monasteries to repopulate land devastated in the wars, to cultivate the large woodlands and heavy soils that have not been settled before, and to found cities as part of the "Ostsiedlung" (German eastward expansion).

The German population assimilated most of the Wends, making them disappear as an ethnic minority except for parts of the Sorbs. The Polabian language survived until the beginning of the 19th century in what is now the German state of Lower Saxony.^[5] Yet, many place names and some family names in eastern Germany still are of Wendish origin today. Also, the Dukes of Mecklenburg, of Rügen and of Pomerania had Wendish ancestors.

Between 1540 and 1973, the kings of Sweden were officially called king of the Swedes, the Geats and the Wends (in Latin translation king of Suiones, Goths and Vandals) (Sw. Svears, Götes och Wendes Konung). The current monarch, Carl XVI Gustaf would be able to use the same title,^{[citation needed]} but chose his royal title to be simply King of Sweden (Sveriges Konung), thereby changing an age-old tradition.

Since the Middle Age, the kings of Denmark and Denmark–Norway carried the titles King of the Wends and Goths. The use of both titles was discontinued in 1972.

Other uses[link]

Historically, the term "Wends" has also occurred in the following contexts:

1. Until the mid 19th-century German-speakers most commonly used the name Wenden to refer to Slovenes. With the diffusion of the term slowenisch for the Slovene language and Slowenen for Slovenes, the words windisch and Winde or Wende became derogatory in connotation. The same development could be seen in the case of the Hungarian Slovenes who used to be known under the name "Vends".
2. It was also used to denote the Slovaks in German texts before ca. 1400.
3. A Finnish historian, Matti Klinge, has speculated that the words "Wends" or "Vandals" used in Scandinavian sources occasionally meant all peoples of the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea from Pomerania to Finland, including some Finnic peoples. The existence of these supposed Finnic Wends is far from clear. In the 13th century there was indeed a people called Wends or Vends living as far as northern Latvia around the city of Wenden and it is not known if they were indeed Slavs as their name suggests. Some researchers suspect a relationship with Finnic-speaking Votians.

See also[link]

• List of Medieval Slavic tribes
• Limes Saxoniae
• Pomerania
• Kashubians
• King of the Wends
• Drevani
• Wendland
• Vistula Veneti
• Slavic piracy
• Wendish Crusade
• Lechites

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Sorbian Cultural Information
• Wends — Handbook of Texas
• Texas Wends
• The Painted Churches of Texas
• Australian Wends