Geographic location of Lusatia.

Lusatia (German: Lausitz, Upper Sorbian: Łužica, Lower Sorbian: Łužyca, Polish: Łużyce, Czech: Lužice) is a historical region in Central Europe. It stretches from the Bóbr and Kwisa rivers in the east to the Elbe valley in the west, today located within the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg as well as in the Lower Silesian and Lubusz voivodeships of western Poland. After the conquest of Eastern Germany by the Soviet Army and the partition in 1945 the eastern part of Lusatia along the Lausitzer Neisse river was handed to Poland (see Oder-Neisse Line).

The name derives from the Sorbian word luzicy meaning "swamps" or "water-hole".

Geography[link]

Map of the Lusatias by J.B. Homann, about 1715.

Lusatia comprises two both scenically and historically different parts: a hilly southern "upper" section and a "lower" region, which belongs to the North European Plain. The border between Upper and Lower Lusatia is roughly marked by the course of the Schwarze Elster river at Senftenberg and its eastern continuation toward the Silesian town of Przewóz on the Lusatian Neisse. Neighbouring regions were Silesia in the east, Bohemia in the south, the Margraviate of Meissen and the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg in the west as well as the Margraviate of Brandenburg (Mittelmark) in the north.

Upper Lusatia[link]

Upper Lusatia (Oberlausitz or Hornja Łužica) is today part of the German state of Saxony, except for a small part east of the Neisse River around Lubań, which now belongs to the Polish Lower Silesian voivodeship. It consists of hilly countryside rising in the South to the Lusatian Highlands near the Czech border, and then even higher to form the Zittau Hills, the small northern part of the Lusatian Mountains (Lužické hory/Lausitzer Gebirge) in the Czech Republic.

Upper Lusatia is characterised by fertile soil and undulating hills as well as by historic towns and cities such as Bautzen, Görlitz, Zittau, Löbau, Kamenz, Lubań, Bischofswerda, Herrnhut, Hoyerswerda, and Bad Muskau. Many villages in the very south of Upper Lusatia contain a typical attraction of the region, the so-called Umgebindehäuser, half-timbered-houses representing a combination of Franconian and Slavic style. Among those villages are Niedercunnersdorf, Obercunnersdorf, Wehrsdorf, Jonsdorf, Sohland an der Spree with Taubenheim, Oppach, Varnsdorf or Ebersbach.

Lower Lusatia[link]

Most of the area belonging to the German state of Brandenburg today is called Lower Lusatia (Niederlausitz or Dolna Łužyca) and is characterised by forests and meadows. In the course of much of the 19th and the entire 20th century, it was shaped by the lignite industry and extensive open-pit mining. Important towns include Cottbus, Eisenhüttenstadt, Lübben, Lübbenau, Spremberg, Finsterwalde, Senftenberg (Zły Komorow), and Żary.

Between Upper and Lower Lusatia is a region called Grenzwall, meaning "border dyke". In the Middle Ages this area had dense forests, so it represented a major obstacle to civilian and military traffic. Some of the region's villages were damaged or destroyed by the open-pit lignite mining industry managed by Communist East Germany. Some, now exhausted, former open-pit mines are now being converted into artificial lakes, with much hope to attract vacationers, and the area is now being referred to as Lausitzer Seenland ('Lusatian Lakeland').

Recultivation and flooding of a former lignite mine north of Klinge, near Cottbus

Lusatian capitals[link]

As Lusatia is not and was never a single administrative unit, Upper and Lower Lusatia have different but in some aspects similar histories. The city of Cottbus is the largest in the region, it has however been a Brandenburg exclave since 1445. Historically, the administrative centres of Lower Lusatia were at Luckau and Lübben, while the historical capital of Upper Lusatia was Bautzen.

Sorbian-Lusatian people[link]

The bilingual part of Lusatia, where the Sorbs make more than 10% of the population)

More than 60,000^{[citation needed]} of the Sorbian Slavic minority continue to live in the region. Historically their ancestors are the Serbs^{[citation needed]} and possibly Milceni, that settled in the region between Elbe and Saale. Many still speak their language (though numbers are dwindling and Lower Sorbian especially is considered endangered), and road signs are usually bilingual. However, note that the number of all the inhabitants of this part of eastern Saxony is fast declining, 20% in the last 10 to 15 years. Sorbians try to protect their typical culture shown in traditional clothes and the style of village houses. The coal industry in the region, needing vast areas of land, destroyed dozens of Lusatian villages in the past and threatens some of them even now. The Sorbian language is taught in many primary and some secondary schools and at two universities (Leipzig and Prague). Project "Witaj" ("welcome!") is a project of eight preschools where Sorbian is currently the main language for a few hundred Lusatian children.

There is a daily newspaper in the Sorbian language (Serbske Nowiny); a Sorbian radio station (Serbski Rozhłós) uses local frequencies of two otherwise German speaking radio stations for several hours a day. There are very limited programs on television (once a month) in Sorbian on two regional television stations (RBB and MDR TV).

History[link]

According to the earliest records, the area was settled by culturally Celtic tribes. Later, around 100 BC, the Germanic tribe of the Semnones settled into that area. The name of the region may be derived from that of the Ligians. From around 600 onwards, West Slavic tribes known as the Milceni and Lusici settled permanently in the region.

In the 10th century the region came under the influence of the Kingdom of Germany, starting with the 928 eastern campaigns of King Henry the Fowler. Until 963 the Lusatian tribes were subdued by the Saxon margrave Gero and upon his death two years later, the March of Lusatia was established on the territory of today's Lower Lusatia and remained with the Holy Roman Empire, while the adjacent Northern March again got lost in the Slavic uprising of 983. The later Upper Lusatian region of the Milceni lands up to the Silesian border at the Kwisa river at first was part of the Margraviate of Meissen under Margrave Eckard I.

At the same time the Kingdom of Poland raised claims to the Lusatian lands and upon the death of Emperor Otto III in 1002, Margrave Gero II lost Lusatia to the Polish Duke Boleslaw I, who took the region in his conquests. After the 1018 Peace of Bautzen, Lusatia became part of his territory, however Germans and Poles continued struggling for administration of the region. It was regained in a 1031 campaign by Emperor Conrad II in favour of the Saxon German rulers of the Meissen House of Wettin and the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg, who purchased the March of (Lower) Lusatia in 1303.

In 1367 the Brandenburg elector Otto V of Wittelsbach finally sold Lower Lusatia to Emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg, also King of Bohemia.

Bohemian rule[link]

As Margrave Egbert II of Meissen supported anti-king Rudolf of Rheinfelden during the Investiture Controversy, King Henry IV of Germany in 1076 awarded the Milceni lands of Upper Lusatia as a fief to the Bohemian duke Vladislaus. After Emperor Frederick Barbarossa had elevated Duke Vladislaus II to the rank of a King of Bohemia in 1158, the Upper Lusatian lands around Bautzen evolved to a Bohemian crown land. Around 1200 large numbers of German settlers came to Lusatia in the course of the Ostsiedlung, settling in the forested areas yet not settled by the Slavs. The Bohemian rule in Upper Lusatia was secured with the extinction of the rivaling Brandenburg House of Ascania in 1320 and the rise of the Luxembourg dynasty, Kings of Bohemia since 1310.

In 1346 six Upper Lusatian cities formed the Lusatian League against the constant attacks conducted by robber barons. The association supported King Sigismund in the Hussite Wars leading to armed attacks and devastations. The cities were represented in the (Upper) Lusatian Landtag assembly, where they met with the fierce opposition of the noble state countries.

Following the Lutheran Reformation, the larger part of Lusatia became Protestant except for the area between Bautzen, Kamenz and Hoyerswerda. The Lusatias remained under Bohemian rule, from 1526 onwards under the rule of the House of Habsburg, until the Thirty Years' War.

Saxon rule[link]

According to the 1635 Peace of Prague most of Lusatia became a province of the Electorate of Saxony, except for the region around Cottbus possessed by Brandenburg. After the Saxon elector Augustus the Strong was elected King of Poland in 1697, Lusatia became strategically important as the electors-kings sought to create a land connection between their Saxon homelands and the Polish territories.

Herrnhut, between Löbau and Zittau, founded in 1722 by religious refugees from Moravia on the estate of Count von Zinzendorf became the starting point of the organized Protestant missionary movement in 1732 and missionaries went out from the Moravian Church in Herrnhut to all corners of the world to share the Gospel.

The newly established Kingdom of Saxony however sided with Napoleon, therefore at the 1815 Congress of Vienna, Lusatia was divided, with Lower Lusatia and the northeastern part of Upper Lusatia around Hoyerswerda, Rothenburg, Görlitz and Lauban awarded to Prussia. Only the southwestern part of Upper Lusatia that included Löbau, Kamenz, Bautzen and Zittau remained part of Saxony.

Prussian and German rule[link]

The Lusatians in Prussia demanded that their land become a distinct administrative unit, but Lower Lusatia was incorporated into the Province of Brandenburg, while the Upper Lusatian territories were attached to the Province of Silesia instead.

The 19th and early 20th centuries witnessed an era of cultural revival for Slavic Lusatians. The modern languages of Upper and Lower Lusatian (or Sorbian) emerged, national literature flourished, and many national organizations like Maćica Serbska and Domowina were founded.

This era came to an end during the Nazi regime in Germany, when all Sorbian organizations were abolished and forbidden, the newspapers and magazines closed, and any use of the Sorbian languages was prohibited. During World War II, some Sorbian activists were arrested, executed, exiled or sent as political prisoners to concentration camps. From 1942 to 1944 the underground Lusatian National Committee was formed and was active in Nazi-occupied Warsaw.

Since 1945[link]

After World War II according to the Potsdam Agreement, Lusatia was divided between Allied-occupied Germany (Soviet occupation zone) and the Republic of Poland along the Oder-Neisse line. Poland's communist government expelled all remaining Germans and Sorbs from the area east of the Neisse river during 1945 and 1946. The Lusatian National Committee in Prague claimed the right to self-government and separation from Germany and the creation of a Lusatian Free State or attachment to Czechoslovakia. The majority of the Sorbian intelligentsia was organized in the Domowina, though, and did not wish to split from Germany. Claims asserted by the Lusatian National movement were postulates of joining Lusatia to Poland or Czechoslovakia. Between 1945–1947 they postulated about ten memorials^[1] to the UN, USA, USSR, Great Britain, France, Poland and Czechoslovakia, however, it did not bring any results. On April 30, 1946, the Lusatian National Committee also postulated a petition to the Polish Government, signed by Paweł Cyż – the minister and an official Sorbian delegate in Poland. There was also a project of proclaiming a Lusatian Free State, whose Prime Minister was supposed to be a Polish archaeologist of Lusatian origin - Wojciech Kóčka.

There have been endeavours by Sorbs to create a Lusatian Free State in the past - particularly after World War II, when the Sorbian National Committee demanded the attachment of Lusatia to Czechoslovakia. The Domowina however opposed this idea and favoured a future inside Germany.

In 1945, the northeastern part of Upper Lusatia west of the Neisse rejoined Saxony and in 1952, when the state was divided into three administrative areas (Bezirke), the Upper Lusatian region became part of the Dresden administrative region. After the East German Revolution of 1989, the state of Saxony was reestablished in 1990. Lower Lusatia remained with Brandenburg, from 1952 until 1990 in the Bezirk of Cottbus.

In 1950, the Sorbs obtained language and cultural autonomy within the then East German state of Saxony. Lusatian schools and magazines were launched and the Domowina association was revived, although under increasing political control of the ruling Communist Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). At the same time, the large German-speaking majority of the Upper Lusatian population kept up a considerable degree of local, 'Upper Lusatian' patriotism of its own. An attempt to establish a Lusatian land within the Federal Republic of Germany failed after the German reunification in 1990. The constitutions of Saxony and Brandenburg guarantee cultural rights, but no autonomy to the Sorbs.

Demographics according to the 1900 census[link]

Share of Sorbs:

• Cottbus (Province of Brandenburg) 55.8%
• Hoyerswerda (Province of Silesia) 37.8%
• Bautzen (Kingdom of Saxony) 17.7%
• Rothenburg (Province of Silesia) 17.2%
• Kamenz (Kingdom of Saxony) 7.1%

Total number: 93,032

The number of Sorbs in Lusatia has decreased since the 1900 census due to intermarriage, cultural assimilation related to industrialization and urbanization, Nazi suppression and discrimination, and the settlement of expelled Germans after World War II, mainly from Lower Silesia and Northern Bohemia.

See also[link]

• Herrnhut Moravian Church and Zinzendorf
• League of six towns of Upper Lusatia
• Milceni
• Wends
• Obodrites

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lusatia

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Lusatia.

• Map of Ober and Nieder-Lausitz Lusatia c 1715. (details click bottom right)
• Map of Saxony and Lusatia in 1789
• Sorbian Cultural Information
• Sorbian umbrella organization "Domowina"
• Bautzen, an important Sorbian town
• Organization "Friends of Lusatia" in Czech Republic
• Polish organization Prolusatia
• daily newspaper in Sorbian

Rjana Łužica
Rědna Łužyca

Handwritten copy of the lyrics.
anthem of Lusatia
Lyrics	Handrij Zejler
Music	Korla Awgust Kocor, 1845

Rjana Łužica (Lower Sorbian: Rědna Łužyca)—“Beautiful Lusatia”) is the Sorbian national anthem. It was written by poet Handrij Zejler. The lyrics were firstly published on August 24, 1827, in the Leipzig magazine Serbska Nowina. Its music was composed in the beginning of 1845 by Korla Awgust Kocor (German: Karl August Katzer). The anthem was publicly performed for the first time on October 17, 1845, in Budyšin/Bautzen (Upper Sorbian Budyšin, Lower Sorbian: Budyšyn), German Bautzen, formerly Budissin).

Lyrics[link]

Handrij Zejler’s two additional verses have been excluded from the official version.

References[link]

This article incorporates information from the revision as of 12 September 2008 of the equivalent article on the Polish Wikipedia.

• English translation by Reinhard F. Hahn (http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/serbscina-info.php, http://lowlands-l.net/gallery/hahn_rjana-luzica.php)

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. It needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since July 2010. It may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Tagged since July 2010.

Lower (green) and Upper Lusatia (yellow), Johann Homann, early 18th century

Upper Lusatia (German: Oberlausitz, Upper Sorbian: Hornja Łužica, Lower Sorbian: Górna Łužyca, Czech: Horní Lužice, Polish: Górne Łużyce^[1] or Milsko) is a region in Germany and Poland. Along with Lower Lusatia to the north, it makes up the historical region of Lusatia, named after the Slavic tribe of the Lusici. Both Lusatias are home to the West Slavic people the Sorbs, as well as Germans and Silesians.

The majority of Upper Lusatia is in Saxony (roughly the districts of Bautzen (Budyšin) and Görlitz), the northern part is in Brandenburg (southern Oberspreewald-Lausitz district), and a small eastern part is in Poland (part of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship and Lubusz Voivodeship). The west of Upper Lusatia is a subregion, Western Lusatia.

The historical capital of Upper Lusatia is Bautzen. The largest city in the region is Görlitz/Zgorzelec, halved between Germany and Poland since 1945. The name Upper Lusatia was first recorded in the late 15th century. Originally the region was only called Lusatia, or later Land Budissin. The region was also referred to as Milsko in pre-15th century chronicles and modern Polish historiography.

Geography and nature[link]

Hilly landscape near Steinigtwolmsdorf, Upper Lusatia

Geomorphological Upper Lusatia is shaped by the uniform Lusatian granite massif, only the north and northeast, the plain Oberlausitzer Heide- und Teichlandschaft (Upper Lusatian Heath and Lakelands^[2]) is Pleistocene formed. The UNESCO has declared this area a Biosphere Reserve in 1996, in particular for the protection of otters. The middle part is hilly, while the south of the is characterized by the Lusatian Mountains, the westernmost range of the Sudetes.

Historic map of Upper Lusatia

The highest elevations of the German part of Upper Lusatia are in the Zittau Mountains, part of the Lusatian Mountains, which, however, are mostly in the neighbouring Bohemian region of the Czech Republic. The most important mountains of Upper Lusatia are: Lausche (793 m) Hochwald (749 m), Landeskrone (420 m), Löbauer Berg (448 m), Kottmar (583 m), Czorneboh (561 m), Bieleboh (499 m) and Valtenberg (587 m). The highest point of historic Upper Lusatia, 1123m, is about 500 meters to the east of the summit on the slopes of Smrk (German: Tafelfichte), the border triangle of Upper Lusatia, Silesia and Bohemia.

All major rivers in the Upper Lusatia flow from south to north. In the west, the Pulsnitz river at Königsbrück formerly formed the border with Saxony. The Spree river takes its source in the far south of the country and flows through Bautzen. The Lusatian Neisse (Polish: Nysa Luzycka) today forms the German-Polish border. The river arises from the Czech Jizera Mountains, enters Upper Lusatia near Zittau, flows through Görlitz/Zgorzelec and leaves the country in Bad Muskau to Lower Lusatia. Most of the smaller rivers are called Wasser (water), often in combination with a flown through village.

The eastern border of historical Upper Lusatia was marked by the Kwisa river, who flows past Lubań and continues north towards Silesia into the Bobr river. Especially the middle hills between Kamenz and Löbau, were well suited for agriculture and are still very profitable. Since 1945, the Polish part of Upper Lusatia between the rivers Kwisa in the east and Lusatian Neisse in the west is part of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. A small part around Łęknica, together with the Polish part of Lower Lusatia, is in Lubusz Voivodeship.

In the 19th century in the northern part of Upper Lusatia, in the east on both sides of the Neisse river and around Hoyerswerda large quantities of brown coal were found. Especially the digging in open pits has destroyed large parts of the old cultural landscape. Currently the Nochten pit south of Weißwasser (Běła Woda) and Turów^{[disambiguation needed ]} in the Polish part are still active. Many of the old coal mines have been restored since the 1970s, especially after 1990, when particular attention was paid to revitalize the landscape. The newly formed lakes are already named and advertised as the "Lusatian Lakeland".

Natural regions[link]

Today, Upper Lusatia is grouped into eight natural regions or landscapes:

• The Zittau Mountains (southeastern tip of Upper Lusatia)
• The East Lusatian Hill Country and River Neisse region (on the Neisse from Görlitz to Zittau, north of the Zittau Mountains)
• The Lusatian Highlands (southern Upper Lusatia to Czechia)
• The Northwest Lusatian Highlands (northwest from Bischofswerda to Kamenz)
• The Lausitzer Gefilde region (around Bautzen and Löbau north of the Highlands)
• The Upper Lusatian Heath and Lakelands (east of Kamenz to Niesky)
• The Ruhland-Königsbrück Heath in the northwest (northwest of Kamenz, west of Hoyerswerda)
• The Muskau Heath in the northeast (around Bad Muskau and Weisswasser, Poland, in the east)

^[2]

Inhabitants[link]

Bilingual sign in Bautzen

Today approximately 780,000 people live in Upper Lusatia, nearly 157,000 of them in the Polish part to the east of the Neisse river. A part of the country belongs to the settlement area of the Sorbs. Between Kamenz, Bautzen and Hoyerswerda, about 20,000 people speak Sorbian. But also the German population is not culturally homogeneous, the cultural borders can be quite well identified by the different dialect groups. While in the region around Bautzen a pretty good High German is spoken, in the south the Upper Lusatian dialect (Oberlausitzisch), an old Franconian dialect, is common. In the east Silesian is still partially spoken. The greatest density of population can be found in the German-Polish twin city of Görlitz-Zgorzelec. Currently 91,000 inhabitants, 33,000 in the Polish part, live here.

In the German part of Upper Lusatia, the population declines since almost 20 years. Young people leave the region because the unemployment in Eastern Saxony is particularly high. This and the low birth rate lead to severe aging of the population. In the absence of available jobs only little influx of foreigners is noticeable. The Polish part of Upper lusatia is, apart from Zgorzelec, Lubań and Bogatynia, only sparsely populated. The area belongs to the structurally weak regions of Poland. Only the coal-fired power plant Turów offers a larger scale of industrial jobs.

History[link]

The hunters of the Middle Stone Age (until about 8000 BC) only crossed through the area. Even the oldest agricultural cultures (4500 BC to 3300 BC) left behind only little evidence of settlement. In the early Bronze Age (11th century BC to 9th century BC) people of the Lusatian culture entered the previously uninhabited region from Bohemia and the Neisse (Łužiska Nysa). Archeological evidence documents a path between the settlement areas around Bautzen (Budyšin) and Zittau (Žitawa). A fortified hill from the 10th century BC, the Schafsberg near Löbau (Lubij), played a special role. Another significant settlement was on the cliff above the Spree river, where in the course of history Bautzens Ortenburg was built, dominant and administrative center of what would become Upper Lusatia.

Slavs settled in the region since 7th century. In the area between today's cities of Kamenz (Kamjenc) and Löbau the tribe of the Milceni was located. Their center was a fortified town at the site of today's Ortenburg in Bautzen. Another early Slavic settlement was situated in the valley of the Neisse river. The rural Sorbian population erected numerous hill forts, which were tribal centers as well as the residences of Slavic nobility.

Middle ages[link]

coat of arms of Upper Lusatia and Bautzen

The independent development of the Slavic tribes was interrupted in the 10th century by the expansion of the German state. With the raids of 921/922 and 928/929 Henry I initiated a period of military subjugation of the Sorbs. In 932 the Milceni were forced to pay tribute. After Henry's death in 936 the Milceni became independent, but were subdued again in 939 by king Otto I. As a result, the area of the Milceni, despite persistent militant struggles, became part of the Ostmark under Margrave Gero and after 965 of the Margraviate of Meissen. All the major wall ring castles in the border areas were strengthened and prepared as starting points for further conquests. In place of the Milceni castles German Burgwards appeared (first mentioned 1006), such as the Ortenburg in Bautzen, or the castles in Göda and Doberschau. In the year 1002 the city of Bautzen was first mentioned by Thietmar of Merseburg. Until the second half of the 10th century the fights continued, and in 990 the Milceni were finally subdued by Margrave Ekkehard I of Meissen (Mišno). The church of Upper Lusatia was assigned to the diocese of Meissen in 968. In 1007, the diocese received the first donation in Milceni land, the castles Ostrusna (probably Ostritz) and Godobi (Göda). In 1091, a further donation to the church was made. Emperor Henry IV transferred to the church five other villages in the Milsca area (Milzenerland), four of them south of Göda.

Soon the German feudal rule was threatened by the ascending Polish kingdom and its western expansion. In 1002 Bolesław I Chrobry conquered both Upper and Lower Lusatia and forced German king Henry II to enfeoff him with the Gau Milsca. After several volatile and bitter feuds both parties signed the peace of Bautzen on 30 January 1018, which assigned Milsca land (Upper Lusatia) and Lusatia land (Mark Lausitz, today Lower Lusatia) to Poland. After Konrad II's victory over Polish King Mieszko II in 1031 Upper Lusatia again came under the rule of the Meissen Margraves.

In 1076 Henry IV gave Budissin land to duke Vratislav II of Bohemia as a imperial fief. The son-in-law of Vratislav, count Wiprecht I of Groitzsch, ruled it independently from 1084 to 1108 from the Ortenburg. For 1144 it is documented that the province Zagost, the area southeast of Görlitz around Seidenberg, was a part of Budissin land. Also in this region diocese of Meissen was equipped with possession. Upper Lusatia reached the Queis, the border to Silesia, and its largest expansion to the east already in the 12th Century.

In 1156 German emperor Frederick I Barbarossa signed an alliance with Bohemian duke Vladislav II. He not only promised him the royal crown bur also the investiture with castle and country Budissin, which both became reality two years later. Therewith the first Bohemian period in the history of Upper Lusatia, with far-reaching consequences for the development of the country, began.

In the first century of Bohemian rule all major towns of Upper Lusatia, and all major religious institutions of the country - apart from the older Bautzen - were established. Bishop Bruno II from 1213 to 1218 established the monastery St. Petri in Bautzen, which was richly endowed by king Přemysl Otakar I and his successors; Queen Kunigunda in 1234 donated the Cistercian monastery of St. Marienthal, which was subjected to the diocese of Prague in 1244, and Bernhard Kamenz in 1248 founded the second Cistercian monastery of St. Marienstern in Kamenz.

The forest clearance since about 1100, mainly by Sorbian peasants, expanded the cultivated land. New places in the area around Hoyerswerda arose. The country's expansion intensified in the middle of the 12th century under the Czech kings, which was almost carried out as a competition with the bishops of Meißen. German farmers, who cleared the large forest areas and created many new villages, were brought into the country. Often Sorbian hamlets where also extended by German settlers. The new German farmers were legally better off than the old-established population. The majority of the Sorbians peasants were serfs and had to perform drudgery. The new (mostly German) villages could manage their affairs also relatively autonomous. When Sorbian peasants were involved in the Landesausbau (development of the country), they enjoyed the same rights as the German colonists.

Due to immigration from the west of the Elbe river over time a separate Upper Lusatian nobility emerged. This nobility controlled the land on behalf of the king or the markgraves and in return received the country as a fief. The country itself belonged to the King.

In 1241 the boundary between the possessions of the bishopric of Meissen and the possessions of the crown of Bohemia in Upper Lusatia were agreed by contract.

Between 1253 (death of king Wenceslas I.) and 1262 the Ascaniar possessed the country of Budissin. Neither the exact date of the acquisition nor the legal form of ownership - feud, marriage or pledge rule - can be established with certainty. With the establishment of land vogts as deputy of the ruler the Ascanias created the most important office in Upper Lusatia. In principle, the powers of the burggraves and judges from Bohemians time were united in one hand and even expanded. The land vogt was the deputy of the ruler and the country's highest official, he decided in feudal matters, stood before the Supreme Court and was military commander in chief. The land vogts remained in power until after the Thirty Years' War, although the administrative practice changed frequently.

During the reign of the house of Ascania the division of Upper Lusatia into the countries of Bautzen (Budissin) and Görlitz by margrave Otto IV of Brandenburg in 1268 was the most important event. Although the autonomy of the duchy of Görlitz ended in 1329, (later shortly revived between 1377 to 1396), it permanently divided the noble country and the municipal administration. The land of Görlitz henceforth own meetings nobility took place, which also remained the case after the reunification of the two countries. Goerlitz the center of the eastern part of the country rapidly gained importance and became economically the strongest city of Upper Lusatia.

After the extinction of the Askanias of Brandenburg in 1319 the princes of the neighboring territories, including the Bohemian King John from the house of Luxembourg, claimed Upper Lusatia for themselves. The king of Bohemia received the land of Bautzen in 1319 from German emperor Louis IV, the country's eastern, the country of Görlitz, as a dowry fell to Silesian duke Henry I of Jauer (with the exception of the area around Lauban). In 1329 he ceded it to the Bohemian king. In the same year Johann incorporated "terra et civitas goerlic" in the Bohemian crown, which tied Upper Lusatia closely and permanently with the Kingdom of Bohemia, without affecting Upper Lusatias internal order.

Lusatian League[link]

a typical Upper Lusatian house in the region

In 1346 the five royal cities of Upper Lusatia (Bautzen, Görlitz, Löbau, Kamenz and Lauban) and the still Bohemian town of Zittau founded the Lusatian League (Sechstädtebund). The united forces of the cities should secure the public peace and override the noble robber barons. This was also in the sense of the sovereign, why emperor Charles IV supported the cities with numerous privileges. The six municipalities in the subsequent period were able to prevail successfully against the nobility. With their increased economic prosperity they gained political influence. They were able to purchase numerous villages in the following 200 years and a significant proportion of the country fell under the direct rule of the city councils. In addition, within the framework of the so-called Weichbild they enforced their jurisdiction over large parts of chivalry and their possessions.

As the Hussite revolution erupted in the beginning of the 15th century in Bohemia, Upper Lusatia took up an adverse stance over the Czech Reformation. In alliance with emperor Sigismund and Lower Lusatia the Lusatian League waged war against the armies of the Hussites. Kamenz, Reichenbach, Löbau, Zittau and Lauban were conquered by the Hussites and devastated. Only the two largest cities, Bautzen and Görlitz, could stand up to the sieges. The war eased the links of Upper Lusatia to the Bohemian crown, and because of the weakness of the kingdom the internal affairs of the margraviate were regulated largely without royal interference. During this time the Upper Lusatian Landtag (diet) developed into the main instrument of the estates freedom.

In 1469 the Upper Lusatian estates seceded from Bohemian King George of Poděbrady because of his utraquist confession, which the pope condemned as heretical. Upper Lusatia rendered homage to his antiking, Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, who ruled over Moravia, Silesia and both Lusatias, but could never conquer Bohemia itself. Until the Peace of Olmütz (1479) the Lusatian league took part in the war for the Bohemian crown. Matthias tried to manage his country more efficient. In Silesia, he therefore installed an Oberlandeshauptmann (Upper Governor), to whom both Lusatias were subjected. This was considered a threat to the autonomy of Upper Lusatia.

With the death of Matthias Corvinus Upper Lusatia in 1490 became again part of the Bohemian kingdom. The hated land vogt Georg von Stein was immediately expelled from Bautzens Ortenburg after the death of his lord.

At the of the 15th century the political system of the margraviate was largely stabilized. Deputy of the absent sovereign was the land vogt, who traditionally descended from the nobility of Bohemia. Before 1620, only one Upper Lusatian noble was land vogt. In Bautzen and Görlitz moreover two Amtshauptmänner existed. These three officers, with several secretaries, formed the entire royal administration.

Center of the country was the Landtag. Ever since the 15th century prelates, nobles and cities could, without the consent of the king's, assembe and take decisions. Thus, the Landtag was, next to the king, the legislative body of Upper Lusatia. The power of the cities had the effect that there were only two voting estates:

1. the estates of the country, consisting of the gents, the four monasteries of St. Marienstern, St. Marienthal, the Magdalene convent in Lauban, the cathedral foundation in Bautzen, and chivalry
2. the six cities of the Lusatian League

The cities had extensive judicial powers over the subjects of many knights and over the nobles themselves. The supreme court was the court of the land and the cities, which was formed together by both estates. A decision was final and couldn't be changed at the royal courts in Prague.

Protestant Reformation[link]

St. Petri church in Bautzen

Only a few years after Luther wrote the ninety-five theses his reformative ideas spread all over Upper Lusatia. In Görlitz, Bautzen and Zittau, the first Protestant sermons were preached in 1520 and 1521, although the nobility, the city counils and the king tried to prevent its spread. In Görlitz and Bautzen the municipal authorities however soon conceded the pressure of the population and officially adopted the Protestant reformation in 1523 and 1524, but only in small cautious steps. In particular, St. Petri in Bautzen resisted successfully and remained Catholic. Overall, it took decades until the Lutheran doctrine of was finally enforced in most parishes. This was because in Upper Lusatia not the sovereign introduced the Reformation but the councils of the cities and the noble lords.

Habsburg rule (1526–1635)[link]

When King Louis II of Bohemia was killed at the 1526 Battle of Mohács, his crown lands were inherited by his Habsburg brother-in-law Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria, husband of the late king's sister Anne of Bohemia and Hungary. He received the homage by the Upper Lusatian estates, but entrusted the rule to Bohemian Landvogt officials at Bautzen, who were not able to reach a settlement between the City League and the local nobility.

Ferdinand was dependent on support in the ongoing Ottoman camapigns into the Kingdom of Hungary and neither could afford to estrange the nobles nor to force back spreading Protestantism. In turn the estates, unlike the Bohemian utraquists, remained neutral in the Schmalkaldic War of 1546/47 and even arranged troops in support of Ferdinand's brother Emperor Charles V —against the fierce protest of reformer Johannes Bugenhagen. In contrast, the hesitant City League was not able to send forces to the decisive Battle of Mühlberg. Furious Ferdinand ordered their representatives to his court at Prague, where he revoked all the League's privileges, a measure that later could be rescinded in a long and arduous process of negotiations.

Ferdinand's successor Maximilian II officially implemented the Lutheran Confessio Augustana in 1564. Nevertheless the Upper Lusatian lands did not remain untouched by the rising conflicts in the course of the Counter-Reformation in the neighbouring lands of Bohemia and Moravia.

This section requires expansion.

1635–1815[link]

The Margraviate of Upper Lusatia was transferred by the Peace of Prague (1635) to the Electorate of Saxony until 1806, when the electorate was elevated to the Kingdom of Saxony.

Inner-Lusatian border at Königswartha

1815–1945[link]

This section requires expansion.

According to the Final Act of the 1815 Congress of Vienna, the northeastern part of Upper Lusatia passed from the Kingdom of Saxony to the Kingdom of Prussia. The new demarcation line ran from Ruhland in the northwest to the Bohemian border at Seidenberg (Zawidów) in the southeast. The Upper Lusatian territory north of it, i.e. the districts of Hoyerswerda, Rothenburg, Görlitz and Lauban (Lubań), was attached to the Prussian Silesia Province.

Though this area had never been affiliated with historic Silesia before, it is still referred to as "Silesian Upper Lusatia" (Schlesische Oberlausitz), e.g. by the local body of the Evangelical Church.

After World War II[link]

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it.

References[link]

Literature[link]

• Kito Lorenc: "Die wendische Schiffahrt (The Wendish Voyage)", Domowina-Verlag 2004, ISBN 3-7420-1988-0

Sources[link]

• Joachim Bahlcke (ed.): Geschichte der Oberlausitz. Herrschaft, Gesellschaft und Kultur vom Mittelalter bis zum Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts. 2. durchgesehene Auflage, Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2004, ISBN 978-3-935693-46-2.
• Karlheinz Blaschke: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Oberlausitz. Oettel, Görlitz 2000, ISBN 3-932693-59-0.
• Frank Nürnberger (ed.): Oberlausitz. Schöne Heimat. Oberlausitzer Verlag, Spitzkunnersdorf 2004, ISBN 3-933827-42-6.
• Tino Fröde: Privilegien und Statuten der Oberlausitzer Sechsstädte – Ein Streifzug durch die Organisation des städtischen Lebens in Zittau, Bautzen, Görlitz, Löbau, Kamenz und Lauban in der frühen Neuzeit. Spitzkunnersdorf : Oberlausitzer Verlag, 2008. ISBN 978-3-933827-88-3

Coordinates: 51°10′01″N 14°19′59″E / 51.167°N 14.333°E / 51.167; 14.333

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Coat of arms of Lower Lusatia, Hugo Gerhard Ströhl

Lower Lusatia (German: Niederlausitz, Lower Sorbian: Dolna Łužyca, Upper Sorbian: Delnja Łužica, Czech: Dolní Lužice, Polish: Łużyce Dolne) is a historical region stretching from the southeast of the Brandenburg state of Germany to the southwest of the Lubusz Voivodeship in Poland. Important towns beside the historic capital Lübben include Calau, Cottbus, Guben (Gubin), Luckau, Spremberg, Finsterwalde, Senftenberg and Żary. Lower Lusatia is a settlement area of the Sorbs whose endangered Lower Sorbian language, a West Slavic language is related to Upper Sorbian and Polish.

Geography[link]

The area within the North German plain is characterised by forests and meadows. Between Lower Lusatia and the southern Upper Lusatia is a hill region called Grenzwall, meaning "border dyke", the eastern continuation of the Fläming Heath. In the Middle Ages this area had dense forests, so it represented a major obstacle to civilian and military traffic. In the glacial valley south of it the Spree river branches out into the Spreewald wetlands.

In the course of much of the 19th and the entire 20th century, it was shaped by the lignite industry and extensive open-pit mining by which several of the region's villages were damaged or destroyed especially by order of East German authorities. While this process is still going on, some now exhausted former open-pit mines are being converted into artificial lakes, with much hope to attract vacationers, and the area is now being referred to as Lausitzer Seenland ("Lusatian Lakeland").

Recultivation and flooding of a former lignite mine north of Klinge, near Cottbus

History[link]

The area of Lower Lusatia roughly corresponds with the former March of Lusatia or Saxon Eastern March between the Saale and Bóbr rivers, which about 965 was severed from the vast Marca Geronis, conquered by the Saxon count Gero in the course of his campaigns against the Polabian Slavs from 939 on. Odo I became the first margrave, his successor Gero II from 1002 on had to face several attacks by Polish duke Bolesław I Chrobry, which did not end until the 1018 Treaty of Bautzen ceding large parts of eastern Lusatia to Poland. Emperor Conrad II reconquered the territories in 1031.

Lower (green) and Upper Lusatia (yellow), Johann Homann, early 18th century

In 1136 Conrad the Great from the mighty House of Wettin, margrave of Meissen since 1123, also received the March of Lusatia in 1136. It remained under the rule of the Wettin dynasty until in 1303 the Lusatian march was acquired by the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg. With Brandenburg the march was inherited by the House of Wittelsbach in 1320, Elector Otto V in 1367 finally sold it to Emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg who incorporated Lower Lusatia into the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. Charles father King John of Bohemia had already acquired the adjacent territory to the south around Bautzen and Görlitz, for which the terminus Upper Lusatia came into use. The former Lordship of Cottbus was acquired by Brandenburg in 1455 and remained an exclave in the Bohemian kingdom.

Both Lusatias formed separate Bohemian crown lands under the rule of the Luxembourg, Jagiellon and - from 1526 - Habsburg dynasties. In the course of the Reformation the vast majority of the population turned Protestant. The Bohemian era came to an end when Emperor Ferdinand II of Habsburg ceded the Lusatias to Elector John George I of Saxony by the 1635 Peace of Prague in return for his support in the Thirty Years' War, whereby the lands returned to the House of Wettin. As the Kingdom of Saxony had sided with Napoleon it had to cede Lower Lusatia to Prussia in the 1815 Congress of Vienna, whereafter the territory became part of the Province of Brandenburg. With the implementation of the Oder-Neisse line by the 1945 Potsdam Conference, the lands east of the Neisse river fell to Poland.

Nature reserves and parks[link]

• Spreewald
• Lausitzer Seenland
• Niederlausitzer Heidelandschaft Nature Park

Coordinates: 52°N 14°E / 52°N 14°E / 52; 14