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East Elbia (German:Ostelbien) was an informal denotation for those parts of theGerman Reich until World War II that lay east of the riverElbe.
The region comprised thePrussian provinces ofBrandenburg, the eastern parts ofSaxony (Jerichower Land) and theKingdom of Saxony (Upper Lusatia),Pomerania,Silesia,East Prussia,West Prussia andPosen (from 1922Posen-West Prussia) as well as the free states ofMecklenburg-Schwerin andMecklenburg-Strelitz.Berlin andSchleswig-Holstein were not included, even if located East and North, respectively of the Elbe.
East Elbia was noted for its historicmanorialism andserfdom, as well as for politicalconservatism, combined with the predominantlyProtestant confession of the local population. During theGerman Empire (1871–1918), the "East ElbianJunker" formed the monarchy'sreactionary backbone. Later, inWeimar Republic (1918–1933), it became a politically charged term used especially by theleftist parties to denote the richcivil servants of the conservative,right-wingGerman National People's Party (DNVP) who fit thestereotype.
The former social structure of this region with relatively large commercial farms owned by landed gentry,Junkers, is a product of the medieval (1100-1300)eastward migration of Germanic settlers into the area of settlement of theWends and other Slavic groups changing the ethnic makeup ofGermania Slavica through assimilation, expulsion and immigration. Since most of former East Elbia is east of theOder–Neisse line the vast majority of its ethnic German population was subject to expulsion after World War II. In theGerman Democratic Republic, which controlled the remainder of East Elbia after 1949 aland reform was initiated tocollectivize agriculture and also with the explicit goal of eliminating the Junkers.[1] Attempts atrestitution for expropriated property after 1990 have only been partially successful[2] and have not led to a reestablishment of the old Junker social structure. The average size of agricultural estates formed fromAgricultural Production Cooperatives andPublicly Owned Estates is still much higher in the East than in the West of Germany where agriculture is still based mostly onsmall farms.[3][4] The term "East Elbia" has vanished from common use outside historical contexts and is usually glossed in texts aimed at a general audience.[5][6][7][8][9]
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