Polabians (tribe)
The Polabs were a part of the West Slavic tribe Association of Abodrites. They spoke the language polabische.
- 3.1 Examples of place names
Settlement area
The settlement area of Polabs lay in the borders of today's states of Lower Saxony, Saxony -Anhalt, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg- Vorpommern and Schleswig -Holstein. It stretched between the Trave and the Elbe as well as south of the Elbe along the Jeetzel.
Today, the area roughly corresponds to today's counties Duchy of Lauenburg, Lüchow -Dannenberg, Northwest Mecklenburg and the former district of Ludwigsburg, lust, as well as parts of the Altmark Salzwedel district and the district Prignitz. The main castle of Polabs was first in Hammer, later in Ratzeburg.
The Lower Saxony Wendland was the settlement area of the Dravänopolaben east of Lüneburg. The name Wendland is derived from the name of contact for the Slavic population. Here held the polabische language the longest.
History
Middle Ages
Probably the first western Slavic settlers arrived around 700 in the hitherto sparsely populated region. 1142 was Duke Henry the Lion of the Gau Polabí and the newly created county area on polabischem Ratzeburg as a fief to his henchman Heinrich von bathing Wide; whose descendants ruled until 1199 as Count of Ratzeburg. The eastern parts of the polabischen settlement area remained under the rule of abodritischen and Mecklenburg princes.
Early Modern Times
The Polabs are detectable until the 18th century, most recently in Hanoverian Wendland. There they assimilated the Lower Saxony, which led to the extinction of polabischen language.
Relics
To date, there are relics of Lower Saxony Polabs. These include a variety of geographical names as Wustrow, Drawehn or Lüchow the many round villages in the region.