Sorbs

Sorbs (Upper Sorbian: Serbja; Lower Sorbian: Serby; German: Sorben pronounced [ˈzɔʁbn̩] ^ⓘ; Czech: Lužičtí Srbové; Polish: Serbołużyczanie; also known as Lusatians, Lusatian Serbs and Wends) are an indigenous West Slavic ethnic group predominantly inhabiting the parts of Lusatia located in the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg. Sorbs traditionally speak the Sorbian languages (also known as "Wendish" and "Lusatian"), which are closely related to Czech and Lechitic languages. Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian are officially recognized minority languages in Germany.

In the Early Middle Ages, the Sorbs formed their own principality, which later shortly became part of the early West Slavic Samo's Empire and Great Moravia, as were ultimately conquered by the East Francia (Sorbian March) and Holy Roman Empire (Saxon Eastern March, Margravate of Meissen, March of Lusatia). From the High Middle Ages, they were ruled at various times by the closely related Poles and Czechs, as well as the more distant Germans and Hungarians. Due to a gradual and increasing assimilation between the 17^th and 20^th centuries, virtually all Sorbs also spoke German by the early 20^th century. In the newly created German nation state of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, policies were implemented in an effort to Germanize the Sorbs. These policies reached their climax under the Nazi regime, who denied the existence of the Sorbs as a distinct Slavic people by referring to them as "Sorbian-speaking Germans". The community is divided religiously between Roman Catholicism (the majority) and Lutheranism. The former Minister President of Saxony Stanislaw Tillich is of Sorbian origin.

The ethnonym "Sorbs" (Serbja, Serby) derives from the medieval ethnic groups called "Sorbs" (Surbi, Sorabi). The original ethnonym, Srbi, was retained by the Sorbs and Serbs in the Balkans. By the 6^th century, Slavs occupied the area west of the Oder formerly inhabited by Germanic peoples. The Sorbs are first mentioned in the 6^th or 7^th century. In their languages, the other Slavs call them the "Lusatian Serbs", and the Sorbs call the Serbs "the south Sorbs". The name "Lusatia" was originally applied only to Lower Lusatia. It is generally considered that their ethnonym *Sŕbъ (plur. *Sŕby) originates from Proto-Slavic with an appellative meaning of a "family kinship" and "alliance", however others argue a derivation from Iranian-Sarmatian.

The name of the Sorbs can be traced to the 6th century or earlier when Vibius Sequester recorded Cervetiis living on the other part of the river Elbe which divided them from the Suevi (Albis Germaniae Suevos a Cerveciis dividiit). According to Lubor Niederle, the Serbian district was located somewhere between Magdeburg and Lusatia, and was later mentioned by the Ottonians as Ciervisti, Zerbisti and Kirvisti. The information is in accordance with the Frankish 7^th-century Chronicle of Fredegar according to which the Surbi lived in the Saale-Elbe valley, having settled in the Thuringian part of Francia since the second half of the 6^th century or beginning of the 7^th century and were vassals of the Merovingian dynasty.

The Saale-Elbe line marked the approximate limit of Slavic westward migration. Under the leadership of dux (duke) Dervan ("Dervanus dux gente Surbiorum que ex genere Sclavinorum"), they joined the Slavic tribal union of Samo, after Samo's decisive victory against Frankish King Dagobert I in 631. Afterwards, these Slavic tribes continuously raided Thuringia. The fate of the tribes after Samo's death and dissolution of the union in 658 is undetermined, but it is considered that they subsequently returned to Frankish vassalage.

According to a 10^th-century source De Administrando Imperio, they lived "since the beginning" in the region called by them as Boiki which was a neighbor to Francia, and when two brothers succeeded their father, one of them migrated with half of the people to the Balkans during the rule of Heraclius in the first half of the 7^th century. According to some scholars, the unnamed 7^th-century Serbian ruler who led the White Serbs to the Balkans was most likely a son, brother or other relative of Dervan.

Sorbian tribes, Sorbi/Surbi, are noted in the mid-9^th-century work of the Bavarian Geographer. Having settled by the Elbe, Saale, Spree, and Neisse in the 6^th and early 7^th century, Sorbian tribes divided into two main groups, which have taken their names from the characteristics of the area where they had settled. The two groups were separated from each other by a wide and uninhabited forest range, one around Upper Spree and the rest between the Elbe and Saale. Some scholars consider that the contemporary Sorbs are descendants of the two largest Sorbian tribes, the Milceni (Upper) and Lusici ^[de] (Lower), and these tribes' respective dialects have developed into separate languages. However, others emphasize differences between these two dialects and that their respective territories correspond to two different Slavic archeological cultures of Leipzig group (Upper Sorbian language) and Tornow group ceramics (Lower Sorbian language), both a derivation of Prague(-Korchak) culture.

The Annales Regni Francorum state that in 806, Sorbian Duke Miliduch fought against the Franks and was killed. In 840, Sorbian Duke Czimislav was killed. From the 9^th century was organized Sorbian March by the East Francia and from the 10^th century the Saxon Eastern March (Margravate of Meissen) and March of Lusatia by the Holy Roman Empire. In 932, the German king Henry I conquered Lusatia and Milsko. Gero, Margrave of the Saxon Eastern March, reconquered Lusatia the following year and, in 939, murdered 30 Sorbian princes during a feast. As a result, there were many Sorbian uprisings against German rule. A reconstructed castle, at Raddusch in Lower Lusatia, is the sole physical remnant from this early period.