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Ostsiedlung

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This article covers the medieval eastward migrations of Germans. For a general view, see History of German settlement in Eastern Europe

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Ostsiedlung (Template:Lang-de), also known as German eastward expansion, refers to the medieval eastward migration and settlement of Germans from modern day Western and Central Germany into less-populated regions like the Baltic and modern day Poland. Areas of present day Poland and Eastern Germany had been the place of trek by the different migrating Germanic tribes, in the Migration Period who continued their journey partly due to incursions by the Huns, and since had been permanently settled by the Slavs .[1]. The affected area roughly stretched from Slovenia to Estonia. In part, Ostsiedlung followed the territorial expansion of the Holy Roman Empire and the Teutonic Order against local people.

Preceding and along with German settlement, late medieval Central and Eastern Europe societies underwent deep cultural changes in demography, religion, law and administration, agriculture, settlement numbers and structures. Thus, Ostsiedlung is part of a process termed East colonisation'or Late medieval rural development, though these terms are also used synonymously.

Background

Central Europe before the onset of Ostsiedlung

Main articles: History of Europe, Germanic tribes, and Slavs

After the migration period, Central Europe had undergone several changes. The Roman Empire lost its dominating position. The Franks had created an empire that, besides former Roman Gallia, united the former West Germanic tribes and adopted Christian faith. East Francia, aimed to be the successor of Catholic Western Roman Empire and developed into the Holy Roman Empire. In Scandinavia, the former North Germanic tribes entered the Viking Age affecting all Europe by trade and raids. Former East Germanic tribes had in parts entered and merged into Rome, their culture ceded to exist, instead the nations from Slavs established first organised states in Eastern and Central Europe.

Eastern Marches of the Frankish, later Holy Roman Empire

The Slavs living in reach of the Frankish (later Holy Roman) Empire were termed Wends, who formed political entities from various small tribes, dwelling as far West as to a line from the Eastern Alps and Bohemia to the Saale and Elbe Rivers. As the Frankish Empire expanded, various Wends were conquered or used by the Franks like the Obodrites, who aided the Franks in defeating the West Germanic Saxons. The conquered Wendish areas were organized by the Franks in marches (Template:Lang-de, meaning border or border lands), that were administered by an entrusted noble collecting the tribute and enforced by some military units. Also, the establishing of marches went along with missionary efforts.

Marches set up by Charlemagne in the later Ostsiedlung territory included, from North to South:

In most cases, the tribes of the marches resisted the conquests. Frankish kings initiated numerous, yet not always successful military campaignes to subjugate the inhabitants of their newly conquered territories. These nobles settled their new territories with settlers 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.

Later kings and emperors like Otto the Great restructured and expanded the marches, creating (from North to south)

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 Roman Catholics.

Even though first settlements led by Franks and Bavarii followed the conquest of Sorbians and other Wends in the early 10th century, and other campaigns by Holy Roman Emperors allowed migration, the beginning of a continuous Ostsiedlung is mainly dated to around the 12th century[citation needed].

Slavic uprising of 983

Main article: Wends

In 983, the Polabian Slavs in the March of the Billungs and the Northern March stretching from the Elbe River to the Baltic shore succeeded in a rebellion against political rule and Christian mission of the Empire. Inspite of their new won independance, the Obodrite, Rani, Liutizian and Hevelli tribes were soon faced with internal struggles and warfare as well as raids from the newly constituted and expanding Piast (early Polish)[citation needed] state from the East, Denmark from the North and the Empire from the West, eager to reestablish her marches.

Mecklenburg, Pomerania and Brandenburg join the Empire

Weakened by ongoing internal conflicts and constant warfare, the independant Wendish territories finally lost the capability of effective military resistance. From 1119 to 1123, Pomerania invaded and subdued the northeastern parts of the Liutizian lands. In 1124 and 1128, the Pomeranian duke Wartislaw I, at that time a vassal of Poland, invited bishop Otto von Bamberg to Christianize the Pomeranians and Lutizians of his duchy. In 1147, as an action of the Northern Crusade, the Wendish Crusade was mounted in the Duchy of Saxony to retake the marches lost in 983. The crusaders also headed for Pomeranian Demmin and Stettin, despite these areas had already been missionaried successfully.

After the Wendish crusade, Albert the Bear was able to establish the Brandenburg march on about the former Northern march territory, that since 983 had been controlled by Hevelli and Liutizian tribes, and expand it. The Havelberg bishopric was set up again to mission the Wends.

In 1164, after Saxon duke Henry the Lion finally defeated rebelling Obodrite and Pomeranian dukes in the Battle of Verchen, the Pomeranian duchies of Demmin and Stettin became Saxon fiefs, also the Obodrite territory, which became known as Mecklenburg after its main burgh. After Henry the Lion lost an internal struggle with Emperor Barbarossa, Mecklenburg and Pomerania became part of the Holy Roman Empire in 1181.

Teutonic Order defeates the Balts

Main article: Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights

Starting with the Northern Crusades, the newly constituted Teutonic Order succeeded in missionaring - by almost extinguishing - the Baltic Prussians and setting up a state in this region. Similarily, the other Baltic areas up to Estonia were conquered later.

Ostsiedlung

Though settlement has to a lower degree occured in the Frankish marches already, massive settlement did not start until the 12th century (e.g. East Holstein, West Mecklenburg, Central and Southeastern marches), and in the early 13th century (e.g. Pomerania, Rügen), following the reassertion of Saxon authority over Wendish areas, (Holstein area by Holstein Count Adolf II, Brandenburg by Albert the Bear, Mecklenburg and Pomerania by Henry the Lion) in the 1150s. The advent of the crusading Teutonic Order[2], 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 Slovenes.

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.

Rural development

Middle Ages' West European agriculture saw some advances that were carried eastward in the course of the Ostsiedlung. Most notably, West Europeans had advanced in crop rotation, agricultural devices such as the mouldboard plough, and land amelioration techniques such as drainage and dike or levee construction. These techniques, along with the sheer masses of settlers, eventually changed the geography of the settled territories.

Wendish tribes preferred settling in pockets, usually centered around a river, that were surrounded by vast unsettled woodlands and swamps separating one tribe from another. In the Ostsiedlung process, swamps were drained and most of the forests were cleared for agricultural uses. (Centuries later, Prussia would drain most of the remaining swamps and settle them with colonists in a process much alike the medieval Ostsiedlung; Prussia also would initiate some reforesting as Ostsiedlung clearances led to a later lack of wood.)

Areas already used for agriculture by the Wends were to be more densely populated with settlers and new agricultural devices and techniques were applied.

West Europeans also introduced the Hufenverfassung system to zone and classify land. Farmland was divided in Hufen, much alike English hides, with one Hufe (25 to 40 ha depending on the region) plentyfully providing one farm. This led to new types of villages, one having the farm buildings to both sides of a long, sole main road with their Hufen behind, although Wendish village types were adopted and adjusted, too.

Another new introduction was the new systems of taxation. While the Wendish tithe was a fixed tax depending on village size, the German tithe depended on the actual crop, leading to higher taxes retrieved from settlers then from the Wends, even though settlers were at least in part freed of taxes in the first years the settlement was established. This was one major reason for the massive invitation of settlers by local rulers.

Urban development

Main article: German town law

In the Wendish areas, town-like settlements had already derieved previous to Ostsiedlung, as craftsmen and merchants formed suburbia of fortified strongholds or the Wendish-Scandinavian merchands' settlements of the Baltic coast.

The establishing of high numbers of new towns as well as the transforming Wendish burghs with suburbia into Ostsiedlung towns took place right from the beginning of the Ostsiedlung process. Local rulers granted land and privileges to assert high densities of towns in their realms, thought to accelerate economic growth and prosperity and to function as strongholds.

The privileges granted to the towns were copied, sometimes introducing minor changes, from the town law charters of Lübeck (Baltic shore), Magdeburg (central areas, Poland) and Nuremberg. Nearly all towns of the old Ostsiedlung area date back to this era (11th to 13th centuries) and have their anniversary held according to the year the town law was granted.

Soon after town law was granted and the town area was settled, many towns turned out to care for their own interests much more than for those of the local ruler, and gained partial or full economic and military independance. Many of them joined the Hanseatic League.

The settlers

Although the vast majority of the settlers are considered to be "German", this term must be taken in its medieval meaning, as today great numbers of the settlers would not be considered to be "German" anymore; most notably Austrians, Dutch and Vlaams. To a lesser extend, the settlers were of even another origin, e.g. Danes, Scots or local Wends.

The settlers migrated in lines following nearly straight West to East directions, therefore the Southeast had been settled by South Germans (Bavarians, Swabians), the Northeast had been settled by Vlaams, Dutch and Saxons, while in central regions Franks moved in also. As a result, the different German dialect groups expanded eastward along with their bearers, the "new" Eastern forms only slightly differing from their Western counterparts. At the same time this meant cultural extinction of local cultures replaced by the culture colonists.

Settlers were invited by local secular rulers, such as dukes, counts, margraves, princes and, only in a few cases due to the weakening central power, the king. Also, settlers were invited by religious institutions such as monasteries and bishops, who had become mighty land-owners in the course of Christian mission. Often, a local secular ruler would grant vast woodlands and wilderness and a few villages to an order like the Cistercian monks, who would erect an abbey, call in settlers and cultivate the land taken away from original inhabitants, often by force and destruction of local settlements.

The settlers were granted estates and privileges. Settlement was usually organised by a so-called Lokator (lessor), who was granted an outstanding position such as the inheritable position of the village elder (Schulte or Schulze). Towns were founded and granted German town law. 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 settlement areas as former linguistically and culturally Slavic areas became Germanised.

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 rulers of Hungary, Bohemia, Silesia, Pomerania, Mecklenburg, and Poland encouraged German settlement to promote the development of the less populated portions of the land[citation needed], and promote the motivated populations who wished to till it[citation needed]. The Transylvanian Saxons and Baltic Germans were corporately combined and privileged.

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[citation needed]. 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.

Treatment, involvement and traces of the Wendish population

Although in many areas Slavic population density was not very high compared to the Empire[citation needed] and had even further declined during the 10th to 12th centuries, some of the settled areas were still to a variing degree populated with Wends.

Where villages were build up after clearance of woodlands, development of swamps or resettlement of deserted former Wendish villages, they were either named with a Germanized form of the old Slavic name of the side or, if no suitable name was present, with a German name, usually ending with -dorf or -hagen. Often, the Lokator 's name or the region where the settlers originated was made part of the name, too.

In some cases, the new settlement was set up besides an existing Wendish settlement[citation needed]. The two villages were both named alike, using a Germanized form of the Slavic name and either indicating the Wendish settlement with a preposition like Klein- (meaning little) or Wendisch- (meaning Wendish), or the new settlement with Groß- (meaning great).

In other cases, small Wendish settlements were enlarged by the settlers, keeping their former name (in a Germanized version)[citation needed]. The Wends lived in one small portion of the village (Kiez) while the settlers lived in the other.

There are also documented cases, where the Wends were driven out in order to rebuild the village with settlers. In this case, the new village would nevertheless keep its former Slavic name[citation needed]. As an example, in the case of the village Böbelin in Mecklenburg it is documented, that driven-out Wendish inhabitants repeatedly invaded their former village hindering a resettlement.

Yet, discrimination of the Wends should not be mistaken for being part of a general concept of the Ostsiedlung. Local Wends were subject to a different taxation level and thus not as profitable as new settlers. Wends also participated in the development of the area aside with German settlers, while new settlers were not attracted due to their ethnicity, a concept unknown in the Middle Ages[citation needed]}, but due to their manpower and agricultural and technical know-how. Even though the majority of the settlers were Germans (Franks and Bavarians in the South, Saxons and Flames in the North), Wends and others also participated in the settlement.

Over time, most of the Wends were gradually Germanized. However, in isolated rural areas where Wends formed a substantial part of the population, they continued to use Slavic tongues and kept elements of local Wendish culture despite a strong German influx. Those were the Drawehnopolaben of the Lüneburger Heide, the Slovincians and Kashubs of Eastern Pomerania and the Sorbs of Lusatia, the Kashubs and Sorbs even until today.

Because often Germanized forms of the former Slavic sitenames were used to name newly established or expanded settlements, a lot (in many areas even the majority) of towns and villages in modern East Germany and the [Former eastern territories of Germany]] carry names with Slavic roots. Most obvious are names ending with -ow, -vitz or -witz and in many cases -in. In case of the Former eastern territories of Germany, these names were Polonized or replaced by new Polish or Russian names after 1945.

Because in Germany surnames came up only after Ostsiedlung was launched, and many surnames derive from the home village or home town of an ancestor, many German surnames are in fact Germanized Wendish placenames.

The graphic shows which areas were affected by Ostsiedlung so strongly that their language changed to German

Marches and regions affected by Ostsiedlung

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.

Saxon Eastern March

While the Franks had already established a Sorbian March east of the Saale river in the 9th century, king Otto I designated a much vaster area the Saxon Eastern March in 937, comprising roughly the territory between the Elbe, Oder and Peene rivers. Ruled by margrave Gero I, it is also referred to as Marca Geronis. Ater Gero's death in 965, the march was divided in smaller districts: Northern March, Lusatian March, Meißen March, and Zeitz March.

The march was settled by various West Slavic tribes, the most important being Polabian Slavs tribes in the north and Sorbian tribes in the south.

March of the Billungs and the Northern March

The March of the Billungs was constituted simultaneously with the Saxon Eastern March by king Otto I in 936. It covered the areas south of the Baltic Sea not included in the Eastern March and was put under the rule of Hermann Billung.

The area was inhabited by Obodrites in the West, Rani in the Northeast and Polabian Slavs tribes in the South east.

Due to the great Slavic uprising in 983, both the Billung March and the Northern March were lost for the Empire except for a small area in the West. No substantial Saxon settlement had taken place in the short existence of these marches.

Various efforts were made to reestablish Saxon rule in these territories, the most prominent being the Rethra raiding in 1068 and the Wendish crusade in 1147. Also, there were campaignes of Piast Poland and Denmark into the eastern and northern parts of the area, respectively. Also, local rulers campaigned against each other. Until the final defeat of the Slavs in the 12th century, no Ostsiedlung could take place.

The Northern March was in part reestablished as Brandenburg march during the next centuries.

In the 1164 Battle of Verchen the last Obotrite army was defeated by Saxon Henry the Lion. In 1168, the Rani were defeated by the Danes. Mecklenburg, Pomerania and Rügen from now on were under German and Danish overlordship, governed as fiefs by local dynasties of Slavic origin. These dukes called in lots of German gentry and settlers, adopted German law and Low German language. This is also called Second Ostsiedlung due to the break of some two centuries.

Mecklenburg, Rügen and Pomerania

After Henry the Lion's defeat, Mecklenburg and Pomerania were turned from Saxon fiefs into direct parts of the Holy Roman Empire by Kaiser Barbarossa, while the duchy of Rügen still was Danish. During the next half century, the Empire and Denmark struggled for overlordship in Mecklenburg, Rügen and Pomerania. Most fell to Denmark. Also, the local gentry raised troops to expand their territories. When Denmark lost in the battle of Bornhöved in 1227, all Pomeranian and Mecklenburg areas were again controlled by the Holy Roman Empire.

Despite ongoing border conflicts between the dukes of Pomerania, Mecklenburg, Rügen and Brandenburg, the numbers of German settlers increased rapidly. Existing and deserted villages and farms were settled up, and new villages were founded, especially by turning the vast woodlands into farmland. Large new German towns replaced the former Slavic castles' suburbia, or were founded in former wilderness.

Germans, especially Saxons and Flames, were attracted by low taxes, cheap or free land and privileges. The settlements were organised by locators, who were assigned by the dukes to plan and settle sites, and in turn, were privileged even more as the settlers they attracted.

The adoption of German law and culture and the large numbers of settlers as well as replacement or intermarriage of the former Slavic gentry resulted in a completely new organisation and administration of settlements and agriculture.

The local Slavic population only in part participated, other parts did not enjoy any benefits and were to settle in separate "Wendish villages", "Wendish streets" or "Wendish quarters".

Most of Mecklenburg and Vorpommern, the northern parts of Hinterpommern and the mainland section of the duchy of Rügen were settled by Germans first (12th and 13th century), the other regions of Rügen and Hinterpommern were settled about a century later. In some enclaves, especially in the East of Pomerania, there was only a minor influx of German settlers, so Slavic minorities like the Kashubs persisted.

Brandenburg March

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.

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 of Silesia, and from 1281 the duchy of Oppeln, declined temporarily into more than a dozen smaller Piast duchies that rivalled with each other. The Bohemians, 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 Bohemians.

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

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 diocese of Prague 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.

Ostsiedlung perception and former Ostsiedlung territories in modern times

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 World War II, in line with German expansion, millions[citation needed] of Poles were expelled to make room for German colonists, and plans were made by German state to expel up to 50 million Slavs to make room for German "living space" in Generalplan Ost.

With the Red Army's advance and Nazi Germany's defeat, the ethnic make-up of Eastern and East Central Europe was substantially changed, as nearly all Germans were expelled not only from all Soviet conquered German settlement areas across Eastern Europe, but also from former territories of the Reich east of the Oder-Neisse line, which became divided between Poland and the Russian Soviet Republic. The former German settlement areas were resettled by ethnic citizens of the respective succeeding state. However some areas settled and Germanised in the course of the Ostsiedlung still form the northeastern part of modern Germany.

See also

References

  1. ^ Wallbank and Schrier, Living World History, pp. 193
  2. ^ Sebastian Haffner, The Rise and Fall of Prussia, pp. 6–10.
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