There was an epoch when up to a third of Germany's population were Slavs. These days, traces of their history can only be found in museums or – upon close scrutiny – in names on the map of the country. Subdued by Germans over 1,500 years ago, Slavic tribes were totally germanized, and the Lusatian Sorbs who inhabited Łužyca, or Lausitz, as the historical region within Saxony and Brandenburg is known in today's Germany, remained as the only exception from the rule. Currently the Lusatian Sorbs, whose number dropped from half a million to 60,000 over the centuries of German domination, are the world's smallest Slavic people.
Lusatian Sorbs made quite a few attempts to rebuild full-scale statehood in the course of their history, but eventually neither met with success. The identity of Slavonized Germans was slapped on them under Hitler, the results being serial closures of Lusatian schools, libraries, and museums along with a ban on Domowina, the Lusatian Sorbs' national organization many of whose activists ended up in Nazi jails. At that time, retaining the Lusatian identity grew into a major risk – the Lusatian Sorbs were given German names, supplied with documents of German nationals, and drafted into Wehrmacht. The relatively short Nazi reign left Łužyca with virtually no signs of the very existence of the Lusatian Sorbs and triggered their exodus to Poland and Czechoslovakia where they sought shelter from persecution just to face it upon the fascist occupation of the countries.
The triumphant Red Army marched into Łužyca in April, 1945… On April 19, 1945, the Soviet forces assisted by Poland's 2nd Army crossed the Lusatian Neisse River and took Łužyca's Bela Woda (Weißwasser). On April 20, Wehrmacht was thrown out of Niesky, Spremberg (Grodk), and Wojerecy, and on April 21 – out of Bautzen (Budyšin). Within days, the Red Army liberated several other towns and villages in Łužyca. The last days of World War II in the region were marked with ferocious fighting with Ferdinand Schörner's army group which was trying to muscle its way into Czechoslovakia. Retreating, it forcibly conscripted the majority of Łužyca's men in the Volkssturm, the Nazi militia which put up resistance to the Red Army in the last months of the war.
The war was still raging when a delegation of Lusatian Sorbs visited Marshal I.S. Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front staff to greet the Red Army as liberators. Pavel Nedo, a Lusatian Sorbs's leader freed from a Nazi jail by the Soviets, said the small people owed their national survival entirely to the Russian occupational administration in Łužyca. The Nazi plan to move the Lusatian Sorbs to Elsaß-Lothringen was derailed, and now the Slavic people were free to speak their own language, publish their national newspapers, etc. The Lusatian Sorbs' culture was about to enjoy a revival, but the group faced another threat: the looting perpetrated en masse by Polish soldiers. The Red Army's manpower being permanently employed in combat, the Soviets were occasionally unable to give the the population timely protection.
Domowina reopened on May 10, 1945, the next day after the Third Reich's capitulation, and in fact became the first democratic organization in post-war Germany. On May 12, 1945, the Łužyca People's Council which functioned in exile in Prague submitted to Stalin a memorandum asking for assistance in repatriation and suggesting that the Soviet Union patronize the Council which built its strategy on the strengthening of ties with Czechoslovakia. Another memorandum – a one calling for the institution of a united Łužyca administration and for the region's integration into Czechoslovakia – saw the light of day in June, 1945. Two more memorandums carrying the requests to detach Łužyca from Germany, to nationalize the enterprises of the region, and to authorize the deployment in it of Slavic countries' military bases followed shortly.
Czechoslovakia seemed supportive, but Łužyca's plans were not greenlighted due to wider geopolitical regards. Łužyca was a part of East Germany, that is, of the Soviet occupational zone, while allowing for Łužyca's independence or sweeping autonomy could leave it open to external influences. Since East Germany was the Soviet Union's ally, it was eventually decided that Łužyca would remain within it, though the Lusatian Sorbs were clearly upset about the arrangement out of concern that Germans would again put Slavic culture in the region under pressure upon the Red Army's withdrawal. The concern proved reasonable as indeed the restitution and the reanimation of the original culture in Łužyca were hampered by the East German administration.
West Germany backed by the US, France, and Great Britain was trying to shift the burden of reparations to be paid to the USSR to East Germany. The Soviet Union was routinely given obsolete industrial equipment while the allies grabbed the better parts of inventories. Delays induced by the US and British administrations de facto paralyzed the reparations process. As of August, 1946, the corresponding supplies to the USSR from the US, British, and French zones measured 20%, 4.5%, and 0% of the targets. Western administrations were fully aware that under the conditions the Soviet occupational zone would have to shoulder a bigger share of the material burden. As German Chancellor Willy Brandt wrote later, there was an impression that the Germans in the east somehow lost the war to a greater extent than the Germans in the west.
Given the difficult situation, the East German administration pushed for maximal unity within the country, putting obstacles in the way of Łužyca's renaissance while still accommodating its population's key demands like the opening of courses to train instructors for local schools. Facing the lack of understanding on issues relevant to the rehabilitation of Łužyca's statehood, the Lusatian Sorbs' activists increasingly opted for careers interwoven with the East German establishment. As a parallel process, the intense inflow of German refugees from Poland and Czechoslovakia, who settled down in Łužyca, diluted the region's Slavic population.
For Łužyca, Russia as the world's biggest Slavic country is a traditional inspiration. The Lusatian Sorbs asked Russia for protection in various epochs, asking the Tzars for support etc. World War II veterans recall that the residents of Łužyca gave them tours of the carefully preserved XIX century landmarks commemorating the advent of the Russian army which expelled Napoleon back to France.
The statehood of the Lusatian Sorbs never materialized. Stakes in the sophisticated game played out between the USSR and the West were running high, and Stalin had profound reasons to approach the Łužyca issue with caution, perhaps to the point of treating the Lusatian Sorbs as pawns in the political battle. Nevertheless, the heroism of Russian soldiers who liberated Łužyca from the Nazi and helped the Lusatian Sorbs' culture get back on feet is not forgotten in the region. Could this be the reason why Germany's neo-Nazi periodically paint their graffiti atop the labels which – in Łužyca – are written in the language of the Lusatian Sorbs?
Łužyca's prominent writer Yuri Brezan said: “We have no heroes to present to our children as examples, but we have a record of heroism at least as impressive as Europe's”. Landlocked in Germany, nowadays the small courageous people – the Lusatian Sorbs – continue to struggle over the preservation of their identity.
