Hevelli

The Hevelli were a Slavic nation on the middle and Havel were among the Elbe and Baltic Slavs. The proper name of the tribe was Stodorjane. The modern German name " Hevelli " goes back to an ancient Slavic name form for about 845 ( Hehfeldi, Bavarian Geographer ) is often full to the 12th century in variants.

The original tribal name Habelli, derived from the Germanic Habula ( Havel ), so as well as this even stayed after the Slavic immigration in 7/8 Century, known to the West Germanic language area, which could mean that a Germanic rest of the population in the emergence of the Slavic tribe was involved. However, it is also possible, and perhaps even likely, that the newcomers have been occupied by a for a long time customary for the inhabitants of the region name.

The settlement area of Hevelli extended to the river and lake banks of the Havel arc of Spandau behind Rathenow. Main castle and seat of the ruler was since the 9th century Brandenburg. Obviously, reigned a dynasty: a princess Drahomíra married around 906 /07 Bohemian princes Vratislav I and was the mother of Saint Wenceslas; a Christian prince Tugumir gave 940 the German dominion over the Brandenburg. King Henry I had 928/29 already conquered once, with all the tribes submitted to the Oder River, an area that was obviously identical to the bishopric founded 948 Brandenburg. This expansion and the dynastic union of Drahomíra suggest a stronger political unity of Hevelli. It is possible that the dynasty was left of the Ottos in their dignity.

The economy with weak cereal and pronounced hunting was less developed than in other regions of the Elbe and Baltic Slavs ( " Contact " ), but falls in the 11th century a large number of small silver treasures whose owners are associated with a mounted upper class which was perhaps free ground possessed and apparently took part in the long-distance trade, lived in unfortified settlements and castles, and as castellans of the strongholds of the western and eastern boundary commanded Havel ( Rathenow, Potsdam, Spandau).

The central area around Brandenburg Havel knew in spätslawischer time only the castle of Brandenburg; presumably under the country was the prince himself, which is confirmed by the fact that the last ruler, Pribislaw -Heinrich, the Zauche that immediately south of the Havel lying land, the son of Albrecht the Bear made ​​for godfathers. He was, like his pagan subjects of apparently murdered predecessor, comes My Fried, Christian. He felt he succeeded force of inheritance, temporarily led the royal title and minted coins. His legal position is unclear to the kingdom; in any case he could Margrave of Nordmark, Albrecht, use the heir: the state of the Hevelli which came to an end in 1150, is the Slavic root of the now emerging Brandenburg.