Everything about Wends totally explained
The term
Wends ( ) is used in
Germanic languages for
Slavs living near or within
Germanic (later German) settlement areas after the
migration period. Therefore, this term doesn't describe a homogeneous people, but is rather applied to various peoples, tribes or groups depending on where and when it's (or was) used.
Today, the term
Wends is used primarily in historical contexts, but may also refer to
Kashubs,
Sorbs or people of
Sorbian descent (for example
Texas Wends).
People termed Wend in the course of history
It is believed that Germanic peoples originally adopted the ethnonym from the ancient
Veneti and after the
migration period transferred it to their new easterly neighbours, the Slavs (see
Relation between Veneti and Slavs for further details).
For the medieval
Scandinavians, a Wend (
Vender) was a Slav originating from the southern shore of the
Baltic sea (
Vendland), the term was therefore used to refer to
Polabian Slavs like
Obotrites,
Rugian Slavs,
Veleti and
Pomeranian tribes.
For people living in medieval Northern
Holy Roman Empire and its precursors, especially for the
Saxons, a Wend (
Wende) was a Slav living west of the
Oder River area, an area entitled later as
Germania Slavica, settled by the
Polabian tribes mentioned above in the north and others, for example the
Sorbs and the
Milceni, in the south.
The Germans in the South used the term
Winde instead of
Wende and applied it, just as the Germans in the North, to Slavs they'd contact with, for example
Polabian people from
Bavaria Slavica or the
Slovenians (the names
Windic march and
Windisch Feistritz are still testimony to this historical denomination).
Following the 8th century, nearly all wendish land was organized in
marches by the
Frankish kings and their successors. By the 12th century, all wendish lands had become part of the Holy Roman Empire. In the course of the
Ostsiedlung, reaching its peak in the 12th to 14th centuries, this land was settled by Germans and in all meanings reorganized. The term
Wends now referred to Slavic-speaking minorities within the empire, whereas the Slavs east of the new border were not termed
Wends, but
Poles,
Czechs etc.
Due to the process of assimilation following German settlement, many Slavs mixed with the Germans and/or adopted their culture and language. Only some rural communities that didn't show strong admixture with Germans and continued to use
West Slavic tongues were still termed
Wends. With the gradual decline of the use of these local Slavic tongues, the term
Wends slowly disappeared, too.
Today, only two groups of
Wends still exist: the
Lusatian Sorbs in present-day eastern
Germany and the
Pomeranian Kashubs in present-day northern
Poland. Yet, today they're referred to as
Sorbs and
Kashubs rather than
Wends.
History of the Wends
Early sources
In the third book of his
Geographia,
Ptolemy mentions the
Ouenedai among other dwellers on the Baltic shore in the middle of the
2nd century CE. Some early scholars suggested the Ouenedai are synonymous with the Wends, however, based on linguistic facts, modern academic views now argue that the
Ouenedai were ethnolinguistically different from Slavs and hence can't be equated with Wends.
Rise (500-1000 AD)
As a part of the
Slavic migrations in the first millennium, splitting the just evolved Slav ethnicity into Southern, Eastern and Western groups, some
West Slavs moved into the areas between the Elbe and Oder Rivers from east to west and from south to north. There, they assimilated the remaining
Germanic population that hadn't left the area in the
Migration period. Their German neighbors adapted the term they'd been using for peoples east of the Elbe River before to the Slavs, calling them
Wends as they called the
Venedi before and probably the
Vandals also.
While the Wends were arriving in so-called
Germania Slavica as large homogeneous groups, they soon divided into a variety of small tribes, with large strips of woodland separating one tribal settlement area from another. Their tribal names were derived from local place names, sometimes adopting the Germanic tradition (for example
Heveller from
Havel,
Rujanes from
Rugians). Settlements were secured by round
burghs made of wood and clay, where either people could retreat in case of a raid from the neighboring tribe or used as military strongholds or outposts.
Some tribes unified to larger, duchy-like units. E.g., the
Obotrites evolved from the unification of the
Holstein and Western
Mecklenburg tribes led by mighty dukes known for their raids into German
Saxony. The
Pomeranians, the only
Wends east of the Oder River (in contrast, the
Poles south of the
Warthe River are not called
Wends), emerged from the tribes north of the Warthe River and around the mouth of the Oder River, and were led by a duke, too. The
Liutizians were an alliance of tribes living between Obotrites and Pomeranians. They didn't unify under a duke, but remained independent and had their leaders meet and decide in the temple of
Rethra.
The
Wends of Pomerania are named by
Saxo Grammaticus as having taken part in the
Battle of Bråvalla on the side of the
Danes.
In 983, many Wend tribes participated in a great uprising against the
Holy Roman Empire, which before had established Christian missions, German colonies and German administrative institutions (
Marken such as
Nordmark and
Billungermark) in pagan Wendish territories. The uprising was successful and the Wends delayed Germanisation for about two centuries.
Decline (1000-1200 AD)
After that victory, Wends were under increasing pressure from Germans, Danes and Poles. The Polish invaded Pomerania several times. The Danish often raided the Baltic shores (and, in turn, were often raided by the Wends). The Holy Roman Empire and its
margraves tried to restore their marches.
In 1068/69, a German expedition took and destroyed
Rethra, one of the major pagan Wend temples. The Wendish religious centre shifted to
Arkona thereafter. In
1124 and
1128, the Pomeranians and some
Liutizians were baptised. In
1147, the
Wend crusade took place.
In
1168 during the
Northern Crusades,
Denmark mounted a crusade lead by Bishop
Absalon and King
Valdemar the Great against the
Wends of Rugia in order to convert them to Christianity. They captured and destroyed
Arkona, the Wendish temple fortress, and tore down the statue of the Wendish god,
Svantevit. With the capitulation of the Rugian Wends, the last independent pagan Wendish were defeated by the surrounding Christian feudal powers.
From 12th to 14th century, German colonists were called in the Wend lands and settled there in large numbers, changing the area from Slav to German. The settlers were called in by local dukes and monasteries to repopulate land devastated in the wars, to cultivate the large woodlands and heavy soils that have not been settled before, and to found cities as part of the "
Ostsiedlung" (German eastward expansion).
The German population assimilated most of the Wends, making them disappear as an ethnic minority except for parts of the
Kashubs and
Sorbs. Yet, many place names and some family names in eastern Germany still are of Wendish origin today. Also, the Dukes of
Mecklenburg, of
Rügen and of
Pomerania had Wendish ancestors.
Between 1540 and 1973, the kings of
Sweden were officially called
king of the Swedes, the Geats and the Wends (in Latin translation king of Suiones, Goths and Vandals) (
Sw. Svears, Götes och Wendes Konung). The current monarch,
Carl XVI Gustaf would be able to use the same title, but chose his royal title to be simply King of Sweden (
Sveriges Konung), thereby changing an age-old tradition.
Since the Middle Age, the kings of
Denmark and
Denmark–Norway carried the titles
King of the Wends and Goths. The use of both titles was discontinued in 1972.
Other uses
The term Wends was also used in history in the following meanings:
- The Franks referred to most Slavs living between the Oder and Elbe rivers as either Wends or Sorbs, while in Slavic literature these people are called Polabian Slavs.
- Until mid 19th Century, it used to be the most common German name for Slovenians. With the diffusion of the term slowenisch for the Slovenian language and Slowenen for Slovenes, the words windisch and Winde or Wende became a derogatory one. The same development could be seen in the case of the Hungarian Slovenes which used to be known under the name "Vends".
- In general, a German name for West Slavic people formerly inhabiting territories of pre-World War II Pomerania and historical eastern Germany. The term Wends was used in connection to all Slavs west of Poland and north of Bohemia — Polabians, Pomeranians and Sorbs. It was also used to denote the Slovaks in German texts before ca. 1400.
- German and English name for Sorbs (White Serbs), a Slavic people who moved into Central Europe during the great migration, most likely in response to pressure by the westward movement of warlike peoples such as the Huns and Avars. Some of their descendants, also called Wends or Lusatian Sorbs (Łužyski Serby), still live in Lusatia today, where the Sorbian language is maintained in schools. Many Wends were driven out of the Kingdom of Prussia during the Revolutions of 1848. Many Lusatian Wends immigrated to countries that welcomed them as a source of cheap labor, including the United States and Australia. In the United States, the majority of Wends settled in Texas, where they became some of the earliest members of the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran church. A notable settlement of Wends in Texas is the town of Serbin, in Lee County, where a church, St. Paul's Lutheran Church, stands as a typical example of Wendish architecture. In St. Paul's, the pulpit is located in the balcony of the church.
- A Finnish historian, Matti Klinge, has speculated that the words Wends or Vandals used in Scandinavian sources occasionally meant all peoples of the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea from Pomerania to Finland, including some Finnic peoples. The existence of these supposed Finnic Wends is far from clear. In the 13th century there was indeed a people called Wends or Vends living as far as northern Latvia around the city of Wenden and it isn't known if they were indeed Slavs as their name suggests. Some researchers think they were related to Finnic-speaking Votians.
- Some sources speculate that, after the late 8th Century Slav migrations following on the earlier Germanic migrations, Wendish settlements in the Adriatic coastal area of confluence between Italian Romans, Germans, and Slavs gave rise to the name: Venezia / Venise / Venedig (Venice).
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