Sorbs

Sorbs

Sorbian flag, in Pan-Slavic colors, introduced in 1842
Traditional female costume of Lower Lusatia (Spreewald)
Total population
80,000[1][page needed] (est.) • 45,000–60,000 Upper Sorbs[citation needed] • 15,000–20,000 Lower Sorbs[citation needed]
Regions with significant populations
Germany	60,000 Sorbs in Germany (20,000 of which still speak Sorbian) (2007 Reuters estimate)[2]
Czech Republic	2,000[3]
Poland	fewer than 1,000[citation needed]
United States	1,245 (2000)[4]
Languages
Sorbian (Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian), Polish, German (Lusatian dialects)
Religion
Majority Roman Catholicism,[5] Protestantism[2]
Related ethnic groups
Other West Slavs (especially Czechs and Poles)

Sorbs (Upper Sorbian: Serbja, Lower Sorbian: Serby, German: Sorben pronounced [ˈzɔʁbn̩] ^ⓘ, Czech: Lužičtí Srbové, Polish: Serbołużyczanie; also known as Lusatians, Lusatian Serbs^[6] and Wends) are a West Slavic ethnic group predominantly inhabiting the parts of Lusatia located in the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg. Sorbs traditionally speak the Sorbian languages (also known as "Wendish" and "Lusatian"), which are closely related to Czech, Polish, Kashubian, Silesian, and Slovak. Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian are officially recognized minority languages in Germany.

In the Early Middle Ages, the Sorbs formed their own principality, which later shortly became part of the early West Slavic Samo's Empire and Great Moravia, as were ultimately conquered by the East Francia (Sorbian March) and Holy Roman Empire (Saxon Eastern March, Margravate of Meissen, March of Lusatia). From the High Middle Ages, they were ruled at various times by the closely related Poles and Czechs, as well as the more distant Germans and Hungarians. Due to a gradual and increasing assimilation between the 17th and 20th centuries, virtually all Sorbs also spoke German by the early 20th century. In the newly created German nation state of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, policies were implemented in an effort to Germanize the Sorbs. These policies reached their climax under the Nazi regime, who denied the existence of the Sorbs as a distinct Slavic people by referring to them as "Sorbian-speaking Germans". The community is divided religiously between Roman Catholicism (the majority) and Lutheranism. The former Minister President of Saxony Stanislaw Tillich is of Sorbian origin.