Official Reports on Sorbian Language and Cultural Conditions in Lower Lusatia 1933 – 1945 Cover Image
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Behördliche Berichte über die sorbischen Sprach- und Kulturverhältnisse in der Niederlausitz 1933 – 1945
Official Reports on Sorbian Language and Cultural Conditions in Lower Lusatia 1933 – 1945

Author(s): Edmund Pech, Peter Schurmann
Subject(s): History, Recent History (1900 till today), Fascism, Nazism and WW II
Published by: Domowina-Verlag GmbH / Ludowe nakładnistwo Domowina
Keywords: Third Reich; Weimar Republic; Lower Lusatia; church policy; church services; confirmation classes; Confessing Church; German Christians;school system of supporting skills;

Summary/Abstract: The Second World War led to a deterioration of policy towards the Sorbs. Up until 1939 it was mostly teachers and pastors in Upper Lusatia who were hit by forced transfers, but after 1939 the authorities turned their attention also to Lower Lusatia. The NS authorities made plans in 1940 for the relocation of a large number of teachers and pastors, whose mother tongue was Sorbian, because they stood in the way of a “final solution of the Wendish problem”. This was, however, not put into practice after the first military defeats on the Eastern Front. But it was impressed on those concerned that they had to practise “the utmost restraint in their use of the Wendish language.” As a result, reli­gious activities, in particular church services, were no longer allowed in Wendish. Furthermore, all forms of liturgy of the Word in Wendish, which were still performed in some parishes, were stopped. In addition, the Wendish teachers were no longer allowed to conduct bible classes, and no singing at funerals was allowed in their mother tongue. NS-government offices were required to ensure that only the German language was used in schools and churches of Lower Lusatia.

  • Issue Year: 2020
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 112-142
  • Page Count: 31
  • Language: German