Ostsiedlung

Ostsiedlung (German: Settlement in the East), also known as German eastward expansion, refers to the medieval eastward migration and settlement of Germans from modern day Western and Central Germany into regions like the Baltic and modern day Poland inhabited Baltic peoples and the Slavs

Even though first settlements led by Franks and Bavarii followed the defeat of the Avars in the early 9th century, and other campaigns by Holy Roman Emperors allowed migration, the beginning of a continuous Ostsiedlung is mainly dated to around the 12th century. In German scholarship, it refers especially to the reassertion of Saxon authority over Sorbian or Wendish areas, especially Brandenburg by Albert the Bear in the 1150s. The advent of the crusading Teutonic Order, which had been invited in the 1220s to support the conquest of pagans like Old Prussians, accelerated settlement along the Baltic coast.

The High Middle Ages saw a rapidly increasing population of Europe which could not be fed by "great clearances" of forests and marshes alone. During the Ostsiedlung, Germans settled east of the Elbe and Saale rivers, regions largely inhabited by Polabian Slavs. Likewise, in Styria and Carinthia, German communities took form in areas inhabited by Slovenians. The emigration of the inhabitants from the Valais valley in Switzerland to the areas that had been settled before by the Romans had to some extent the same preconditions as the colonisation of the East, for example, Romania.

In the middle of the 14th century, the settling progress slowed as a result of the Black Death; in addition, the most arable and promising regions were largely occupied. Local Slavic leaders in late Medieval Pomerania and Silesia continued inviting German settlers to their territories. As late as the 18th century, well after the Thirty Years War had reduced Germany's population by a third, some Germans followed invitations to settle as far away as the Volga River.

In the 19th century, recognition of this complex phenomenon coupled with the rise of nationalism in Germany led to the concepts of Pan-Germanism and Drang nach Osten, which in part gave rise to the concept of Lebensraum. During and after World War II, Germans were expelled east of the Oder-Neisse line, leaving the current German linguistic border smaller than that of the 10th century when expansion of German territories started. Population changes after the second World War largely reverted the Germanisation of Slavic or Baltic territory by , as it had taken place during Ostsiedlung. However, some of the areas that saw resettlement were not as far eastward and as such, they are a part of the current German state.

Background

Aside from the more obvious reasons for necessary resettlement, Ostsiedlung also grew out of political considerations. Early eastern borders were exposed to the pressures of neighbouring peoples, such as Danes (or Normans), various Slavic people (Obotrites, Wends, Sorbs, Bohemians, Moravians), and Hungarians, in the 9th and the 10th centuries. Such conditions led to the expansion of Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire, motivated by the wish to safeguard the empire's borders with marches. Also, under the rule of King Louis the German of East Francia and of Arnulf of Carinthia, the first waves of settlement were led by Franks and Bavarii, and reached the area of present-day Slovakia and what was then Pannonia (present-day Burgenland, Hungary, and Slovenia). The pioneers were accompanied by missionaries who brought with them Roman Catholicism and West European culture, albeit with varying influence.

The Ottonians and Salians commenced short military campaigns against their neighbors and established defensive marches under allied or trusted princes. These princes settled their new territories with settlers (usually Germans or Dutch) from the Holy Roman Empire, and granted them estates and privileges (such as the inheritable position of village elder). Settlement was usually organised by so-called lessors. The agricultural, legal, administrative, and technical methods of the immigrants, as well as their successful proselytising of the native inhabitants, led to a gradual transformation of the marches. At the same time, linguistically and culturally Slavic areas became germanised and the original princes of such territories became princes of the Empire.

Beside the marches which were adjacent to the Empire, German settlement occurred in areas farther away, such as the Carpathians, Transylvania, and along the Gulf of Riga. German cultural and linguistic influence lasted in some of these areas right up to the present day. The East colonisation was predominantly a peaceful process; the rulers of Hungary, Bohemia, Silesia, Pomerania, Mecklenburg, and Poland encouraged German settlement to promote the development of the less populated portions of the land, and promote the motivated populations who wished to till it. The Transylvanian Saxons and Baltic Germans were corporately combined and privileged. In Silesia the Germans, without receiving special privileges as a group, became integral parts of both state and society.

Historical development of a few marches and regions

In northern Germany the Ostsiedlung led to conflicts between the pagan Saxons and Charlemagne as he secured the borders of his empire. The Obotrites, who entered into various coalitions and after 800 fought against the Empire, stood in Charlemagne's way at that time; the Saxons could trust the support of the Borussen (Old Prussians) and the Danes. In 804, it was decided that the zones to the west of the Elbe river became parts of the Carolingian Empire. For the time being, the land to the east of the Elbe river stayed outside the boundaries of the later Holy Roman Empire (see Limes Saxoniae).

Harald Bluetooth, who at that time was a seignory of Otto I, took shelter from his son by the Baltic Sea near to the Oder river in the zone, which, as from 1050, has been called Pomerania. The dioceses of Brandenburg and Havelburg were destroyed in the rebellion of Slavic peoples in 983.

Nordalbingen

The Nordalbingen March, occupying the territory between Hedeby and the Danish fortress of Dannevirke in the north and the Eider River in the south, was part of the Empire during the reign of Charlemagne. The border was later fixed at the Eider River.

March of the Billungs and the Brandenburg March

The March of the Billungs and the North March were still not parts of the Empire under the Salians and the Ottonians.

At the time of Albert I, Margrave of Brandenburg (Albrecht "the Bear" von Ballenstedt), the North March stretched from the territory of the Askanier (Ascanians, see also Anhalt) to the Markgrafschaft Brandenburg and therefore became part of the Empire. In 1147, Heinrich the Lion conquered the March of the Billungs, the later Mecklenburg as a seignory and in 1164 Pomerania, that lay further to the east of the Baltic Sea. In 1181, Mecklenburg and Pomerania officially became parts of the Roman-German Empire.

Other parts of Poland, which were adjacent to Silesia, remained for the time, strong enough to repell any further eastward expansion of the Empire.

Saxony

In the later duchy of Saxony, several Markgrafschaften (Lausitz, Meißen, Thuringian Markgrafschaft, Zeitz) were established at first.

Silesia

As of 1138, after the death of Bolesław III Wrymouth, Silesia became part of the Polish feudal fragmentation as Polish duchies competed for leadership. The Silesian province in 1202 was divided into two duchies. Since the beginning of the 13th century, the reinforced Polish-Silesian Piast dynasty kept German settlers in the land, who in decades had founded more than 100 new towns and over 1200 villages under German law, particularly under Magdeburg law (the real numbers may be lower since German historians usually count also existing towns which simply received a new set of privileges). Many churches and hospitals came into being. For the most part, the original Slavic settlements also suited the German settlements legally, socially and linguistically. Most immigrants came from the Middle-Frankish language area (from the environment of Mainz), from Hesse and from Thuringia. Accordingly, the dialect of the Low Silesian people changed into another form, in which the Middle-Frankish, Hessian, Thuringian and Slavic features are united.

The population grew at least fivefold. The German settlement was initiated substantially by the Polish Duke Henry the I of Silesia and his wife Hedwig of Andechs (1201-1238). This settlement also attempted to merge the duchy of Oppeln as well as the regions Greater and Lesser Poland. However, he died in 1238 and because of the Mongolian invasions from 1241 in which his successor Henry II the Pious also lost, his plan failed.

From 1249, the duchy Silesia and from 1281 the duchy of Oppeln declined temporarily into more than a dozen smaller Piast duchies that were rivalled with each other. The Bohemian and later also Poland, that has been united since 1306, attempted to go into this vacuum of power. From 1289 to 1292, the earldom of Glatz was already brought under control of the Bohemian.

Eventually, the Piast dynasty took shelter under the duchies of Silesia and of Oppeln individually or in groups as vassals of the fiefdom of the Bohemian kings. In 1353, the Bohemians won the duchy of Herzogtum Schweidnitz-Jauer through the third marriage of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, with the heiress Anna. With the Treaty of Visegrád (1333), in comparison to Trencin (1335) as well as in the Treaty of Namslau, 1348), the Polish kings had to recognize the Bohemian power and the affiliation with the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. The most important detail in those treaties is the agreement of Trencin, that was confirmed in 1339.

On that account, king Casimir III of Poland stopped claiming Silesia. In 1348, Emperor Charles IV integrated Bohemia into the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. In the period following, Lower Silesia became part of the majority German speaking area with Polish minority, while Upper Silesia, comparably to the settlement of the Sorbs, remained majority Polish area with German minority.

Lesser Poland

Since the beginning of the 14/15th centuries, the Polish-Silesian Piast dynasty – (Ladislaus of Oppeln), reinforced German settlers on the land, who in decades founded more than 150 towns and villages under German town law, particularly under the law of the town Magdeburg (Magdeburg law). Ethnic Germans, along with German-speaking Ashkenazi Jews from the Rhineland, also formed a large part of the town population of Cracow.

Literature

• Prof. Kazimierz Tymieniecki - "Niemcy w Polsce", Poznań 1934
• Prof. Barbara Czopek-Kopciuch - "Adaptacje niemieckich nazw miejscowych w języku polskim", Kraków 1995, ISBN 83-85579-33-8
• Prof. Aleksandra Cieślikowa (Cieślik) - "Nazwy osobowe pochodzenia niemieckiego", Kraków 1997, ISBN 83-85579-63-X

Bohemia and Moravia

The decline of the Great Moravia

After the decline of the Great Moravia in 900, whose founder Rastislaw (also: Rastislav) wanted to submit the land to the Eastern Church with the help of the missionaries Kyrill and Methodius, who were summoned from Constantinople, Bohemian princes appeared in the Parliament, including the Přemyslidian Spitignew who came to Regensburg. They built a new following of the East Carolingian Empire that was however still highly controversial between the members of the Bohemian (Czech) aristocracy: in 929, the Premyslidian Boleslaw murdered his brother, the duke Wenceslas who was still in charge, because of his following and his Christianity supported by German missionaries. The German king Henry I, the Fowler, led his army to Prague the same year to repress the rebellion against the Empire. In 950, Duke Boleslaw realized the cruelty of the German fiefdom and organized a secession in the army, in the 955 battle on Lechfeld. In 973, the Prague diocese was founded under the aegis of Wolfgang, bishop of Regensburg. The first bishop of this diocese became the Saxon benedictine monk Thietmar. After that Bohemia was subordinated to the archbishopric of Mainz. In 983, Adalbert, a Slav who founded the benedictine monastery St. Margaret in Brewnow, became successor of Thietmar. In 997, Adalbert was killed by pagan Prussian people. Henry II, who was emperor from 1014 until 1024, dislodged the Polish duke (and later king) Bolesław Chrobry who had conquered large parts of Bohemia as well as Moravia and Silesia. Bohemia became dependent on Germany; the Bohemian dukes were obliged to visit the hostage drama and to take part in national wars.

A monk of the benedictine monastery Altaich of princely background, called Günter "the Blessed", became a recluse in the Bohemian Forest. The foundation of the benedictine monastery Raigern goes back to Günter. New de:Säumerwege trading paths connecting Bohemia and Bavaria through the virgin forest were built, with the de:Goldener Steig (Golden Path) as the most important trade path between Bohemia and Moravia. Along those paths, a number of new places emerged on both sides of the Bohemian forest. The city Prachatice (German: Prachatitz) owes its foundation and its time of prosperity in the 14th century to the Golden Path.

In 1030, Bretislaus united Bohemia and Moravia after those regions had come under control of Poland. Both lands were fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1038, duke Bretislaus conquered further parts of Poland and attempted to secede from the Empire that brought about preconditions with the German emperor Henry II.

In 1063, duke Vratislaus founded the de:Erzbistum Olmütz; in 1085 he was coronated by Henry IV in Mainz to be King of Bohemia.

In 1142, the monastery Strahov opposite the Hradčany, was founded by the monks of the Premonstratensian monastery de:Kloster Steinfeld near Kall, Germany. The "white monks" advanced to the position of the most important German mission foundations in Bohemia and Moravia. In 1117, duchess Richsa summoned benedictine monks from de:Zwiefalten (in Württemberg) to Kladrau.

See also

• Drang nach Osten
• German exonyms
• Germanisation of Poles during Partitions

References

• Charles Higounet (1911–1988) "Les allemands en Europe centrale et oriental au moyen age" [1]
  • German translation: "Die deutsche Ostsiedlung im Mittelalter" [2]
  • Japanese translation: "ドイツ植民と東欧世界の形成", 彩流社, by Naoki Miyajima