The Wendish Research Exchange - Pech, Edmund and Peter Schurmann: Official Reports on Sorbian Language and Cultural Conditions in Lower Lusatia 1933

Lětopis Abstract 2020 1: Pech, Edmund and Peter Schurmann: Official Reports on Sorbian Language and Cultural Conditions in Lower Lusatia 1933 – 1945.

The Second World War led to a deterioration of policy towards the Sorbs. Up until 1939 it was mostly teachers and pastors in Upper Lusatia who were hit by forced transfers, but after 1939 the authorities turned their attention also to Lower Lusatia. The Nazi authorities made plans in 1940 for the relocation of a large number of teachers and pastors, whose mother tongue was Sorbian, because they stood in the way of a “final solution of the Wendish problem”. This was, however, not put into practice after the first military defeats on the Eastern Front. But it was impressed on those concerned that they had to practice “the utmost restraint in their use of the Wendish language.” As a result, religious activities, in particular church services, were no longer allowed in Wendish. Furthermore, all forms of liturgy of the Word in Wendish, which were still performed in some parishes, were stopped. In addition, the Wendish teachers were no longer allowed to conduct bible classes, and no singing at funerals was allowed in their mother tongue. Nazi government offices were required to ensure that only the German language was used in schools and churches of Lower Lusatia.