page_title: Polabian Slavs
section_title: Society
hierarchical_section_title: Polabian Slavs / Society
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Archäologisches Freilichtmuseum Groß Raden, rekonstruierte Hauptburg mit Zugangsbrücke
context_page_description: Polabian Slavs is a collective term applied to a number of Lechitic tribes who lived along the Elbe river in what is today Eastern Germany. The approximate territory stretched from the Baltic Sea in the north, the Saale and the Limes Saxoniae in the west, the Ore Mountains and the Western Sudetes in the south, and Poland in the east. They have also been known as Elbe Slavs or Wends. Their name derives from the Slavic po, meaning "by/next to/along", and the Slavic name for the Elbe.
  The Polabian Slavs started settling in the territory of modern Germany in the 6th century. They were largely conquered by Saxons and Danes since the 9th century and were subsequently included and gradually assimilated within the Holy Roman Empire. The tribes were gradually Germanized and assimilated in the following centuries; the Sorbs are the only descendants of the Polabian Slavs to have retained their identity and culture.
  The Polabian language is now extinct. However, the two Sorbian languages are spoken by approximately 60,000 inhabitants of the region and the languages are regarded by the government of Germany as official languages of the region.
caption: Reconstruction of Slavic gord in Groß Raden, Mecklenburg
exif: {}