Sorbs
[[pl:Serbo%B3u%BFyczanie]]
Sorbian national flag
The Sorbs are a relatively small west Slavic people, living as a minority in the Region known as Lusatia in the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg (in former GDR territory). They belong to the same language group as the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and Kashubians, and are also known as Lusatian Sorbs or Serbs of Luzice. See also Wends.
Historically, the Sorbs are the last remainder of the Slavic peoples living in most of what is now eastern Germany until the high middle ages. Most Slavs in the area were Germanized or driven away during the German Ostsiedlung of the 12th and 13th centuries. The Sorbs have been a much-persecuted group of western Slavs, especially in Nazi Germany. In today's Germany they have certain minority rights, for example the right to send their children to Sorbian-language schools, the right to use Sorbian in dealings with local government, and the right to bilingual road signs. The fact that almost the whole Sorbian nation lives inside Germany and has German citizenship means that their loyalty to the German nation is not questioned by the German public as much as is (unfortunately) the case with some other minorities.
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz was Sorb by origin.
Toponyms
A number of toponyms in Eastern Germany have Slavic names, and some cities in south-eastern part of Germany even have name derived from "Sorbian", witnessing Sorbian ancestry of these territories. (See external link (in Serbian))
Examples:
- Schrabits
- Zerbst Zerbst web page
- Zoerbig Zoerbig web page (near Leipzig)
- Schrenz Schrenz web page (near Zoerbig)
A lot of cities in the german Lausitz area have city signs with both the german and the sorbian name.
External links
Sorbs is also the name of a commune in the Hérault département in France.