Minorities in Germany

A Sorb story

The Turks may be more numerous and more prominent, but the Sorbs have been in Germany a lot longer

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Readers' comments



To all the commentators that think that serbia is the fatherland of sorbs its quite the opposite. The sorbs live in what is known as white serbia to serbs. As serbs moved from the east they first came to this region (along with brother croats that formed white croatia). Than between the 6 and 7th century AD they moved to the balkans. The people who remained in white serbia, are the sorbs, and speak the old slavic version of todays serbian/croatian.


There are many toponims in Central Europe with double naming, in Germanic and Slavic languages. Best known examples probably are cities of Wroclaw (Breslau in German) and Lvov (Lemberg in German). Before WW2 Slavic and Germanic populations were very dispersed across the region with deep pockets in each other areas. It stopped to be a fact after the Spring 1945 with almost all German speaking populace fleeing for the historical Germany from advancing Red Army.

On the other note, languages should be seen in the context of the evolution. Survival of the fittest is unplesant but undeniable fact in the linguistic environment as well. English, German, Russian, Spanish are more fit than Sorbian, Basque or Gaelic due to multiple historical reasons. The only true success story of real reviving of the dying language is Hebrew of Israel. Languages are always a significant part of any culture. Loss of language is almost always means the loss of some way to be a human especially if the language is a very distinct one. Alas, it would be disonest to feel optimistic in regards of Sorbian language in a long run.


That part of Germany is full of reminders of the long interaction between german and slav. Villages called "Marhen" or "marches" place names like "Kroaten Hau"


There are some approaches to support minority culture without direct subsidies. Take some Indian tribes in North America. They have special privileges to run casinos at their lands with relaxed taxation and it makes a lot of difference for the tribe members well-being (it is debatable though how good it is in a long run). Also, if deposits of some economically significant minerals are found in Sorb's land it would be beneficial to them. This is what happened to Hanti-Mansi district in Western Siberia - sizeable deposits of natural gas there are being exploited with positive reflection on Hanti-Mansi culture. Even Convention of Finno-Ugric People (Hanti-Mansi are of that group along with Hungarians, Finns and Estonians) was run in the capital of the district lately.

Reliance on government subsidies is very risky way of preserving language and culture. Power attitudes are getting shifted easily with new governances, in tougher times for economy inflation, unemployment and such would be definitely of much higher priority for government rather than saving the minority culture. Germany is about to start facing a very serious challenge which would definitely draw lots of resources for cultural projects, namely demographical shift of enormous proportion.


@enriquecostYour quote below:"Those who want to preserve sorbian culture should discover private association and private investment instead of living from the State."I agree, the central State should not be in the business of subsidizing "subcultures" especially in a homogeneous modern society like Germany's.I find it intriguing that the culture a 1400 years ethnic group, needs the assistance of a relatively young entity like the central State to survive.


The origin and reason of the euro 8 million subsidy comes from the USSR as Russians, the occupation power of the DDR (East Germany), took much into account the existence of an old slavic population and tried to preserve it from assimilation.

Today, after the fall of the USSR and taking into account the present economic recession, there is no need for an 8 million subvention to a bunch of people (not the common "sorb" citizen who doesn�t recieve a single euro) who has makes his living from the subsidies like in old Soviet times.



It is a pity that the article devotes so much space to a petty budget dispute instead of giving readers more insight into Sorb culture and history. The budget dispute is a rather boring and generic story of an interest group trying to hang onto oversized subsidies that were originally meant to be decreasing.


I agree, it may not mean that. And also it may mean. Anyways, it is no longer that important since 1400 years is pretty long time to loose any ties with whatever Sorbs' land of historical exodus may be.

Couriously enough though, Sorbian language is called Serbo-Lusatian in Russian and Sorbs themselves Lusatians. Slavic language spoken in former Yugoslavia called Serbo-Croatian. Also, when I was a kid I remember I was reading Czech fairy tales and one of those tales was about legendary Slavic leaders of Czech and Leh who migrated with its tribes to Central Europe from what has been called in that book Croatian Land.

The Sorbian language itself is said to be close to Polish and Czech, not Serbian.


I welcome the insight into the struggle of the Sorbs to preserve their identity in the middle of Germany. I do not find the article irrelevant and I thank lecorbeau for pointing out that positive examples of peaceful coexistence of different cultures in todays society are a sign of hope for the challenges that lie ahead for many societies in this century.

@ Grettir

Well, if they really call themselves Serbs, that does not at all mean, that their historic fatherland is Serbia - no more than the historic fatherland of the Roma would be Romania.


I respectfully disagree about the soi-disant irrelevance of this article. Ethnic tensions have catalyzed some of the most horrific and important events of our last and current centuries.Though I was already aware of the plight of Sorbs in Germany, I was not conversant in details.Kudos to the writer of this article.

Peter Pen

Very enlightening story ... I guess we are approaching the summer hole.

Cannot remember a more irrelevant story in this newspaper for a while.


I had no idea that there was a 1400 yeras old "Sorbian minority" in Germany. This is why I always like the Economist, interesting reading......


"Serbske Nowiny, the Upper Sorbian daily"

Sounds like "Serbian News" if to guess Slavic roots of the words. That may mean that Sorbs call themselves Serbs in Sorbian. And that can lead to speculate that Serbia may be considered as historic Fatherland for Sorbs, just like Danes of Shlezwig would think of Denmark.

On the other note, to preserve an island of Sorbian language in the ocean of German spoken around may require some extra-ordinary measures. French in Quebec is much less likely to be vanished than Sorbian in near future but Quebec government does in fact apply sometimes incredible proactive preventative actions. Somebody I know landed in Montreal few years back - she was very surprised to learn that Quebec government was going to pay her for visiting French language courses. She did so and now she speaks decent French and recollects those days with warmth and gratitude.

Having day cares and kindergartens where the main language of communication is Sorbian would be very helpful. German language will come to kids anyways through TV, magazines and Internet. But chances are in a long run to preserve spoken Sorbian will be harder and harder. It is sad but very natural.


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