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Upper Lusatia Oberlausitz,Łużyce Górne,Hornja Łužica,Górna Łužyca,Horní Lužice | |
|---|---|
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 Flag  Coat of arms | |
.svg) Upper Lusatia as a part of theCrown of Bohemia within theHoly Roman Empire (1618) | |
| Countries |  Germany Poland |
| Capital | Bautzen |
| Largest town | Görlitz |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Highways |    |
Upper Lusatia (German:Oberlausitz[ˈoːbɐˌlaʊ̯zɪt͡s]ⓘ;Upper Sorbian:Hornja Łužica,pronounced[ˈhɔʁnʲaˈwuʒitsa]ⓘ;Lower Sorbian:Górna Łužyca;Polish:Łużyce Górne[1] orMilsko;Czech:Horní Lužice) is ahistorical region inGermany andPoland. Along withLower Lusatia to the north, it makes up the region ofLusatia, named after theSlavicLusici tribe. Both parts of Lusatia are home to the West Slavicminority group of theSorbs.
The major part of Upper Lusatia is part of the German federal state ofSaxony, roughly comprisingBautzen district andGörlitz district. The northwestern extremity, aroundRuhland andTettau, is incorporated into theOberspreewald-Lausitz district of the state ofBrandenburg. The eastern part of Upper Lusatia is in Poland, east of theNeisse (Nysa) river, inLower Silesian Voivodeship. A small strip of land in the north aroundŁęknica is incorporated intoLubusz Voivodeship, along with the Polish part ofLower Lusatia.
The historic capital of Upper Lusatia isBautzen/Budyšin, while the largest city in the region isGörlitz/Zgorzelec, halved between Germany and Poland since 1945. The nameLusatia superior was first recorded in a 1474 deed, derived from the adjacent Lower Lusatian lands in the north, which originally were just called theMarch of Lusatia. The Upper Lusatian territory was previously referred to asMilsko in contemporary chronicles, named after the local West SlavicMilceni tribe, later also calledLand Budissin.
Geomorphological Upper Lusatia is shaped by the uniform Lusatian granite massif, only the north and northeast, the plain of theUpper Lusatian Heath and Pond Landscape[2] is Pleistocene formed. TheUNESCO has declared this area aBiosphere Reserve in 1996, in particular for the protection ofotters. The middle part is hilly, while the south is characterized by theLusatian Mountains, the westernmost range of theSudetes.
The highest elevations of the German part of Upper Lusatia are in theZittau Mountains (Lusatian Ridge), part of theLusatian Mountains forming the border with the adjacentBohemian region in the south, which today belong to theCzech Republic. The highest peaks of the Zittau Mountains are theLausche at 792.6 m (2,600 ft)andHochwald at 749 m (2,457 ft). The adjacentLusatian Highlands comprise theLandeskrone (420 m),Löbauer Berg (448 m),Kottmar (583 m),Czorneboh (561 m),Bieleboh (499 m), andValtenberg (587 m). However, the highest point of historic Upper Lusatia is theTafelstein (Tabulový Kámen) in the Polish part, located at 1,123 m (3,684 ft) on the eastern slopes of theSmrk (Smrek) in theJizera Mountains, the bordertripoint of Upper Lusatia with the historical region ofLower Silesia to the east and Bohemia to the south.
All major rivers in the Upper Lusatia flow from south to north. In the west, thePulsnitz atKönigsbrück (the "Gate to Upper Lusatia" on theVia Regia trade route) formerly marked the border with theMeissen lands of theSaxon Electorate. TheSpree river has its source in theLusatian Highlands in the far south of the country and flows through Bautzen. TheLusatian Neisse has formed theGerman-Polish border since 1945. The river rises in the CzechJizera Mountains, enters Upper Lusatia nearZittau, flows through Görlitz/Zgorzelec and leaves the country atBad Muskau for Lower Lusatia. Most of the smaller rivers are called-wasser (water), often in combination with the name of a village which the stream flows through. The eastern border of Upper Lusatia with Lower Silesia is marked by the RiverKwisa, who flows pastLubań and continues north towards the Silesian lands into theBóbr river.
The central hillyGefilde (Pahórčina) landscape betweenKamenz andLöbau was especially well suited for agriculture and is still very profitable. In the 19th century, in the northern part of Upper Lusatia, in the east on both sides of the Neisse river and aroundHoyerswerda large quantities ofbrown coal were found. Especially the digging in open pits has destroyed large parts of the old cultural landscape. Currently the Nochten pit south ofWeißwasser and Turów nearBogatynia in the Polish part are still active. Many of the old coal mines have been restored since the 1970s, especially after 1990, when particular attention was paid to revitalize the landscape. The newly formed lakes are already named and advertised as theLusatian Lake District.
Today, Upper Lusatia is grouped into eight natural regions or landscapes:[2]
The hunters of theMiddle Stone Age (until about 8000 BC) only crossed through the area. Even the oldest agricultural cultures (4500 BC to 3300 BC) left behind only little evidence of settlement. In the earlyBronze Age (11th century BC to 9th century BC) people of the Lusatian culture entered the previously uninhabited region fromBohemia and theLusatian Neisse. Archeological evidence documents a path between the settlement areas aroundBautzen/Budyšin andZittau/Žitawa. A fortified hill from the 10th century BC, the Schafsberg nearLöbau/Lubij played a special role. Another significant settlement was on the cliff above the Spree river, where in the course of history Bautzens Ortenburg was built, dominant and administrative center of what would become Upper Lusatia.
Slavs settled in the region from the 7th century. In the area between today's cities ofKamenz/Kamjenc and Löbau the tribe of theMilceni was located. Their center was a fortified town at the site of today's Ortenburg in Bautzen. Another early Slavic settlement was situated in the valley of the Neisse river. The rural Sorbian population erected numerous hill forts, which were tribal centers as well as the residences of Slavic nobility.
The independent development of the West Slavic tribes was interrupted in the 10th century by the expansion of the German state ofEast Francia. With the raids of 921/922 and 928/929 KingHenry the Fowler initiated a period of military subjugation of thePolabian Slavs. In 932 the Milceni were forced to pay tribute. After Henry's death in 936 the Milceni once again became independent, but were subdued again in 939 by KingOtto I of Germany. As a result, the Milceni lands, despite persistent militant struggles, became part of the vastMarca Geronis under theSaxon margraveGero and after 965 of the newly establishedMargraviate of Meissen.
All the major wall ring castles in the border areas were strengthened and prepared as starting points for further conquests. In place of the Milceni castles, GermanBurgwards appeared (first mentioned 1006), such as the Ortenburg Castle in Bautzen, or the castles ofGöda/Hodźij andDoberschau/Dobruša. In the year 1002 the city of Bautzen was first mentioned by the chroniclerThietmar of Merseburg. Until the second half of the 10th century the fights continued, and in 990 the Milceni were finally subdued by MargraveEckard I of Meissen. The church of Upper Lusatia was assigned to theDiocese of Meissen in 968. In 1007, the diocese received the first donation in Milceni lands, the castlesOstrusna (probablyOstritz) andGodobi (Göda).
Soon, however, the German feudal rule was threatened by the ascendingKingdom of Poland and its western expansion. In 1002Bolesław I Chrobry conquered both Upper and Lower Lusatia and forced German kingHenry II to enfeoff him with theGau Milsca. After several volatile and bitter feuds both parties signed thePeace of Bautzen on 30 January 1018, which assigned the Milceni lands of Upper Lusatia and Lusatia proper (today Lower Lusatia) to Poland. After the victory of EmperorConrad II over the Polish kingMieszko II Lambert in 1031, Upper Lusatia again came under the rule of the Meissen margraves, confirmed by the 1033Treaty of Merseburg.
During theInvestiture Controversy in 1076, KingHenry IV of Germany granted Budissin Land to DukeVratislaus II of Bohemia as anImperial fief in turn for his support in theSaxon Rebellion. The son-in-law of Vratislaus, CountWiprecht of Groitzsch, ruled it independently from 1084 to 1108 residing at Ortenburg Castle. In 1091, a further donation to the church was made, when Henry IV transferred five other villages in theMilzenerland, four of them south of Göda. For 1144 it is documented that theZagost province, an area southeast of Görlitz aroundZawidów (Seidenberg), was a part of Budissin Land. Also in this region, the Diocese of Meissen was equipped with possessions. Upper Lusatia reached the Kwisa (Queis), the border to Silesia and its largest expansion to the east, already in the 12th century.
In 1156 EmperorFrederick Barbarossa signed an alliance with thePřemyslid dukeVladislaus II of Bohemia. He not only promised him theroyal crown but also the investiture with Ortenburg Castle and Land Budissin, which both became reality two years later. Therewith the firstBohemian period in the history of Upper Lusatia, with far-reaching consequences for the development of the country, began.
In the first century of Přemyslid rule all major towns of Upper Lusatia, and all major religious institutions of the country – apart from the older Bautzen – were established. The Meissen bishop Bruno II from 1213 to 1218 established thecollege ofSt. Peter in Bautzen, which was richly endowed by KingOttokar I of Bohemia and his successors; QueenKunigunde in 1234 donated theCistercian monastery ofSt. Marienthal, which was subjected to theDiocese of Prague in 1244, and Bishop Bernhard in 1248 founded the second Cistercian monastery of St. Marienstern inKuckau/Kukow.
The forest clearance from about the year 1100, mainly by Sorbian peasants, expanded the cultivated land. New places in the northern area aroundHoyerswerda/Wojerecy arose. The country's expansion intensified in the middle of the 12th century under theBohemian kings, which was almost carried out as a competition with the Meissen bishops. German peasants, who cleared the large forest areas and created many new villages, were brought into the country in the course of theOstsiedlung. Often Slavic (Sorbian) hamlets were also extended by German settlers. The new German farmers were legally better off than the old-established population. The majority of the Sorbians peasants wereserfs and had to performserjeanty. The new (mostly German) villages could manage their affairs also relatively autonomously. However, when Sorbian peasants were involved in theLandesausbau development of the country, they enjoyed the same rights as the German colonists.
Due to immigration from the west of theElbe River, over time a separate Upper Lusatian nobility emerged. This nobility controlled the land on behalf of the king or themargraves and in return received the country as afief. Unlike in neighbouringBohemia, the nobles held noallodial titles, as the conquered Milceni Land as a whole belonged to the king. In 1241 the boundary between the possessions of the Meissen bishops and the Bohemian Crown in Upper Lusatia were agreed by contract. For centuries, from as early as the Middle Ages, trade flourished, and several important trade routes ran through Lusatia, connecting German states in the west, Poland in the east and Bohemia in the south.[3]
Between the death of KingWenceslaus I of Bohemia in 1253 and 1262, theAscanian margraves ofBrandenburg attained Budissin Land. Neither the exact date of the acquisition nor the legal form of ownership – feud, marriage or pledge rule – can be established with certainty. With the establishment of aLandvogt as deputy of the Ascanian ruler they created the most important office in Upper Lusatia. In principle, the powers of theburggraves and judges from Bohemians time were united in one hand and even expanded. The Landvogt was the country's highest official, he decided in feudal matters, presided in the supreme court and was military commander-in-chief. The Landvogts remained in power until after theThirty Years' War, although the administrative practice changed frequently.
During the reign of the House of Ascania the division of Upper Lusatia into the countries of Bautzen (Budissin) and Görlitz by MargraveOtto IV of Brandenburg in 1268 was the most important event. Although the autonomy of Görlitz Land ended in 1329 (shortly revived under DukeJohn of Görlitz between 1377 and 1396), it permanently divided the Upper Lusatian nobility and the municipal administration. In Görlitz Land henceforth own meetings nobility took place, which also remained the case after the reunification of the two countries. The town of Görlitz, centre of the eastern phalf, rapidly gained importance and became economically the strongest city of Upper Lusatia.
After the extinction of the Ascanian dynasty in 1319, the rulers of the neighboring territories, including KingJohn of Bohemia from the mightyHouse of Luxembourg, claimed Upper Lusatia for themselves. The Bohemian king again received the western lands around Bautzen in 1319 from EmperorLouis the Bavarian. The eastern part with Görlitz,Zittau andLubań passed to theDuchy of Jawor, the southwesternmost duchy of fragmentedPiast-ruled Poland.[4] In 1329 DukeHenry I of Jawor had to cede Görlitz to the Bohemian king, but retained the remaining towns. In the same year John incorporated theterra et civitas goerlic into the Bohemian Crown, which tied Upper Lusatia closely and permanently with the Kingdom of Bohemia, without affecting Upper Lusatias internal order.
In 1346 the five royal cities of Upper Lusatia and Zittau, which had fallen to Bohemia upon the death of Duke Henry of Jawor, founded theLusatian League. The united forces of the cities should secure the public peace and override localrobber barons. This was also in the sense of the sovereign, KingCharles IV, who supported the League with numerous privileges. The six municipalities in the subsequent period were able to prevail successfully against the nobility. With their increased economic prosperity they gained political influence. They were able to purchase numerous villages in the following 200 years and a significant proportion of the country fell under the direct rule of the city councils. In addition, within the so-calledWeichbild enlarged municipal area, they were able to enforce their jurisdiction over large parts of the local nobility and its possessions.
When theHussite revolution erupted in the beginning of the 15th century in Bohemia, the League took up an adverse stance over theCzech Reformation. In alliance with EmperorSigismund and Lower Lusatian nobles, the cities waged war against the insurgents. In turnKamenz,Reichenbach andLöbau, as well as Zittau and Lubań were conquered by the Hussites and devastated. Only the two largest cities, Bautzen and Görlitz, could stand up to the sieges. TheHussite Wars eased the links of Upper Lusatia to the Bohemian Crown, and because of the weakness of the kingdom the internal affairs of the margraviate were regulated largely without royal interference. During this time the Upper LusatianLandtag (diet) developed into the main instrument of the estates' autonomy.
In 1469 the Upper Lusatian estates even seceded from the Bohemian kingGeorge of Poděbrady, because of hisutraquist confession, which the Pope had condemned as heretical. Upper Lusatia rendered homage to his rival, theHungarian kingMatthias Corvinus, who had conqueredMoravia, Silesia and both Lusatias, but never ruled in Bohemia itself. Until the 1479Peace of Olomouc with KingVladislaus II, the Lusatian League took part in Matthias' war for the Bohemian Crown. Matthias tried to manage his country more efficient. In Silesia, he therefore installed the office of anOberlandeshauptmann (Upper State Governor), to whom both Lusatias were subjected. This was considered a threat to autonomy by the Upper Lusatian estates.
Upon the death of Matthias Corvinus in 1490, Upper Lusatia again became a constituentLand of the Bohemian Crown. The hated Landvogt of King Matthias, Georg von Stein, was immediately expelled from Bautzens Ortenburg. At the end of the 15th century the political system of the margraviate was largely stabilized. Deputy of the absent sovereign remained the Landogt, who traditionally descended from the nobility of the Bohemian crown lands. However, before 1620, only one Upper Lusatian noble was able to assume the office. In Bautzen and Görlitz moreover twoAmtshauptmänner existed. These three officials, with several secretaries, formed the entire royal administration.
The country's centre of power was theLandtag assembly of the estates. Ever since the 15th centuryprelates, nobles and cities could, without the consent of the king's, assemble and take decisions. Thus, theLandtag was, next to the king, the legislative body of Upper Lusatia. The power of the cities had the effect that there were only two voting estates:
The cities had extensive judicial powers over the subjects of many knights and over the nobles themselves. The supreme court was the court of the land and the cities, which was formed together by both estates. According to theprivilegium de non-appellando, a decision was final and couldn't be changed at the royal courts in Prague. The cities' supremacy remained a thorn in the side of the Upper Lusatian nobility.
Only a few years afterMartin Luther put upThe Ninety-Five Theses in SaxonWittenberg, hisReformative ideas spread all over Upper Lusatia. In Görlitz, Bautzen and Zittau, the firstProtestant sermons were preached in 1520 and 1521, although the nobility, the city councils and KingLouis II of Bohemia tried to prevent its spread. In Görlitz and Bautzen the municipal authorities however soon conceded the pressure of the population and officially adopted the Protestant Reformation in 1523 and 1524, though only in small cautious steps. In particular, the chapter of St. Peter in Bautzen resisted successfully and remainedCatholic. Overall, it took decades until theLutheran doctrine finally prevailed in most parishes, as in Upper Lusatia not the Bohemian sovereign introduced the Reformation but the local city councils and noble lords.
When King Louis II was killed at the 1526Battle of Mohács, his crown lands including Upper Lusatia were inherited by hisHabsburg brother-in-law ArchdukeFerdinand I of Austria, husband of the late king's sisterAnne of Bohemia. During his only visit in 1537, he received thehomage by the estates; however the rule was entrusted to the BohemianHofmeister ZdislavBerka of Dubá as Landvogt in Bautzen, who was not able to reach a settlement between the League and the local nobility. King Ferdinand himself took contradictory decisions, that did not resolve the continuous struggle over the hegemony in the Upper Lusatian lands. The stance of the nobility was strengthened with the establishment of the Upper Lusatianstate countries ofMuskau, Seidenberg, Hoyerswerda, and Königsbrück.
King Ferdinand was dependent on support andtaxes in the ongoingOttoman–Habsburg wars and neither could afford to estrange the nobles nor to force back spreadingProtestantism. In turn the estates, unlike the Bohemianutraquists, remained neutral in theSchmalkaldic War of 1546/47 and even arranged troops in support of Ferdinand's brother EmperorCharles V —against the fierce protest of reformerJohannes Bugenhagen. In contrast, the hesitant Lusatian League was not able to prolong military support up to the decisiveBattle of Mühlberg. Furious King Ferdinand ordered the League's representatives to his Bohemian court atPrague, where he sentenced the cities to pay an enormous fine and seized their properties. Moreover, he revoked all the League's privileges, a measure that later could be rescinded in a long and arduous process of negotiations.
Ferdinand's successor EmperorMaximilian II officially implemented the LutheranConfessio Augustana in 1564. Nevertheless, the Upper Lusatian lands did not remain untouched by the rising conflicts in the course of theCounter-Reformation in the neighbouring lands of Bohemia and Moravia.
The Margraviate of Upper Lusatia was transferred by thePeace of Prague (1635) to theElectorate of Saxony. Two main routes connectingWarsaw andDresden ran through the region in the 18th century and KingsAugustus II the Strong andAugustus III of Poland often traveled the routes.[5] Numerous Polish dignitaries also traveled through Upper Lusatia on several occasions, and somePolish nobles owned estates in Lusatia.[6] A distinct remnant of the region's ties to Poland are the 18th-centurymileposts decorated with thecoat of arms of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth located in various towns in the region. Polish-Sorbian contacts increased in that period. With theAge of Enlightenment, the Sorbian national revival began and resistance to Germanization emerged.[7]
During theNapoleonic Wars, in 1813, Polish troops stayed in the region and two Polish military units were established inZittau, that is the 1st Horse Artillery Company of theJan Henryk Dąbrowski Division and 2nd Horse Artillery Company of theVIII Corps of PrinceJózef Poniatowski.[8]
According to the Final Act of the 1815Congress of Vienna, the northeastern part of Upper Lusatia passed from theKingdom of Saxony to theKingdom of Prussia. The new demarcation line ran fromRuhland in the northwest to the Bohemian border atSeidenberg (Zawidów) in the southeast. The Upper Lusatian territory north of it, i.e. the districts ofHoyerswerda,Rothenburg,Görlitz andLauban (Lubań), was attached to the PrussianProvince of Silesia.
Though this area had never been affiliated with historicSilesia before, it is still referred to as "Silesian Upper Lusatia" (Schlesische Oberlausitz), e.g. by the local body of theEvangelical Church.
In the 1840s,Polish Romantic poetRoman Zmorski [pl] issued the Polish newspaperStadło inBudissin and co-operated with the Sorbs.[9]
In the interbellum, the German government carried out a massive campaign of changing of place names in Lusatia in order to erase traces of Slavic origin, and while most of the historic names were restored afterWorld War II, some were retained.
During World War II, the Germans operated theStalag IV-A,Stalag VIII-A andOflag IV-Dprisoner-of-war camps for Polish POWs and civilians, andFrench, Belgian, British, Australian, New Zealander, Canadian, South African,Italian, Serbian, Soviet, Slovak and American POWs with multipleforced labour subcamps in the region. There were also several Nazi prisons with multiple forced labour subcamps, including inGörlitz andZittau[10][11] and multiplesubcamps of theGross-Rosen concentration camp, the prisoners of which were mostly Jews, Poles and Russians, but also Frenchmen, Italians, Yugoslavs, Czechs, Belgians, etc.[12]
During the war, the Poles postulated that after the defeat of Germany, the Sorbs should be allowed free national development either within the borders of Poland orCzechoslovakia, or as an independent Sorbian state in alliance with Poland.[13]
TheEastern Front reached Lusatia in early 1945, with Soviet and Polish troops defeating the Germans and capturing the region. InHorka, on 26 April 1945, the Germans carried out a massacre of a field hospital column of the 9th Polish Armored Division, killing some 300 POWs, mostly wounded soldiers and medical personnel (seeGerman atrocities committed against Polish prisoners of war).[14]
After the end of World War II in 1945, the border betweenEast Germany and Poland was fixed at theOder–Neisse line. This new border split the historic region of Upper Lusatia between the two countries. From 1949, up to 7,000Greeks andMacedonians,refugees of the Greek Civil War, settled in Zgorzelec andLubań, however, many soon relocated to other places in Poland.[15]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(August 2010) |
| George of Poděbrady | 1458–1469 |
| Matthias Corvinus | 1469–1490 |
| Vladislaus II | 1490–1516 |
| Louis | 1516–1526 |
| Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor from 1558 | 1526–1562 |
| Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor from 1564 | 1562–1576 |
| Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor | 1576–1611 |
| Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor from 1512 | 1611–1617 |
| Frederick of the Palatinate (the "Winter King") | 1619/20 |
| Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor from 1619 | 1617–1635 |
| John George I | 1635–1656 |
| John George II | 1656–1680 |
| John George III | 1680–1691 |
| John George IV | 1691–1694 |
| Frederick Augustus I, "the Strong",King of Poland from 1697 | 1694–1733 |
| Frederick Augustus II, King of Poland | 1733–1763 |
| Frederick Christian | 1763 |
| Frederick Augustus III,King of Saxony from 1806, Duke of Warsaw from 1807 | 1763–1815 |
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Today[when?] approximately 780,000 people live in Upper Lusatia, nearly 157,000 of them in the Polish part to the east of the Neisse river. A part of the country belongs to the settlement area of the Sorbs. Between Kamenz, Bautzen and Hoyerswerda, about 20,000 people speakSorbian. However, the German population is not culturally homogeneous, and the cultural borders can be quite well identified by the different dialect groups. While in the region around Bautzen a good deal of High German is spoken, in the south the Upper Lusatian dialect of German (Oberlausitzisch), is common. In the east, Silesian is still spoken by some. The greatest density of population can be found in the German-Polish twin city of Görlitz/Zgorzelec. Currently[when?] 91,000 inhabitants, 33,000 in the Polish part, live there.
In the German part of Upper Lusatia, the population has been declining since the 1990s. Young people leave the region because the unemployment in Eastern Saxony is particularly high.[clarification needed][16] This and the low birth rate have led to severe aging of the population. In the absence of available jobs, minimal influx of foreigners is noticeable.[clarification needed] The Polish part of Upper Lusatia is, apart from Zgorzelec, Lubań and Bogatynia, only sparsely populated and the area belongs to an economically weak region of Poland: only the coal-fired power plant in Turów offers a larger number of industrial jobs.[clarification needed]
The region is rich in architecture from various reigns, including Czech, Polish, German and Hungarian, whose styles range fromGothic throughRenaissance andBaroque to modern architecture.
TheMuskau Park inBad Muskau (Mužakow) andŁęknica is aWorld Heritage Site andHistoric Monument of Poland.[17]
Poland's oldest tree, the over-1200-year-old Henrykówyew (Cis henrykowski) inHenryków Lubański, is located in Upper Lusatia.
Main museums dedicated to the history of the region include the Sorbian museum inBautzen (Serbski muzej Budyšin) andMuzeum Łużyckie ("Lusatian Museum") inZgorzelec.
Zgorzelec is home to one of Poland's largest war cemeteries.
One of the most successful sports teams isTurów Zgorzelec,2013–14 Polish Basketball Champions and former participant of theEuroLeague andEuroCup Basketball.
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