The Sorbs are recognised as a national autochthonous minority in Germany. Their area of settlement – Lusatia – ranges from Upper Lusatia in Saxony, via Central-, to Lower Lusatia in Brandenburg. For this reason they are generally called the Lusatian Sorbs /Łužiscy Serbja. Currently about 60,000 Sorbs are living in Lusatia.
There are two distinct written languages: Upper Sorbian in Upper Lusatia and Lower Sorbian in Lower Lusatia.
The Sorbs can look back at an interesting history of more than 1500 years. During the Migration Period in the fifth century, Slavic tribes came to Central Europe. They settled in the area of what is currently Germany. The area of settlement of the Sorbs ranged from Berlin in the north to the river Saale in the west. After the Sorbs lost their political independence in the 10th century, the area became continuously smaller because of natural assimilation, an intensive Germanisation policy and by increasing industrialisation (lignite mining).
Other reasons for the decline in the Sorbian-speaking population in the past two centuries are the ban on the use of the language – especially from 1933 until the end of the Second World War, and the migration of mainly young Sorbs from Lusatia.
60,000 (Pan/Euromosaic; includes speakers of Lower Sorbian and Upper Sorbian)
Lower Sorbian (7.000 Speaker)