The Sorbs (also Lusatians or Lusatia Serbs) 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 Serbs or Serbs of Luzice.

Since ethnicity is not a legal category in Germany for German citizens, their number can only be guessed. Current estimates speak of 20,000 to 30,000 active speakers of Sorbian (almost all of them are bilingual) and about 60,000 people who subjectively consider themselves Sorbs.

Historically, the Sorbs are the last remainder of the once-mighty Polabian Slavic peoples living in most of what is now eastern Germany until the high Middle Ages. Most Slavs in the area were Germanised or driven away during the German Drang nach Osten of the 12th and 13th centuries. The Sorbs have been a much-persecuted group of western Slavs, especially in Nazi Germany, which viewed Slavs as a people designed to be slaves for the Aryan race. 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.

Contents

1 Toponyms 1.1 Examples: 2 Famous Sorbs 3 See also 4 External links

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) http://www.srpskidespot.org.yu/Tekstovi/IzvoriPolablje.htm )

Examples:

• Schrabits
• Zerbst Zerbst web page http://www.stadt-zerbst.de/
• Zoerbig Zoerbig web page http://www.vwg-zoerbig.de/ (near Leipzig)
• Schrenz Schrenz web page http://www.vwg-zoerbig.de/gemeinden/schrenz/ (near Zoerbig)

A lot of cities in the German Lausitz area have city signs with both the German and the Sorbian name.

Famous Sorbs

• Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz - (1646 - 1716), philosopher, scientist, mathematician, diplomat, librarian, and lawyer
• Ludwig Leichhardt, (1813-1848), explorer

See also

• Lusatian
• Sorbian languages
• Polabian Slavs
• Wends

External links

• Sorbian Cultural Information http://www.sorben.com/ski/ (also in English http://www.sorben.com/ski/site/docs/english/index.htm )
• Domowina http://home.t-online.de/home/320051871311/dom.html , Sorbian umbrella organization
• Sorbian internet portal http://www.sorben-wenden.de/
• Project Rastko Lusatia http://www.rastko.org.yu/rastko-lu/o/index.html - Electronic library of Sorbian-Serbian cultural ties
• Lower Sorbian Highschool http://www.nsg-cottbus.de (also in English http://www.nsg-cottbus.de/?lang=en )

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Sorbs is also the name of a commune in the Hérault département in France.

SORBS is additionally the Spam and Open Relay Blocking System