page_title: Obotrites
section_title: Obotrite confederation
hierarchical_section_title: Obotrites / Obotrite confederation
caption_attribution_description: Heiliges Römisches Reich um 1000, Ausschnitt Billungische Mark
context_page_description: The Obotrites or Obodrites, also spelled Abodrites, were a confederation of medieval West Slavic tribes within the territory of modern Mecklenburg and Holstein in northern Germany. For decades, they were allies of Charlemagne in his wars against the Germanic Saxons and the Slavic Veleti. The Obotrites under Prince Thrasco defeated the Saxons in the Battle of Bornhöved. The still heathen Saxons were dispersed by the emperor, and the part of their former land in Holstein north of Elbe was awarded to the Obotrites in 804, as a reward for their victory. This however was soon reverted through an invasion of the Danes. The Obotrite regnal style was abolished in 1167, when Pribislav was restored to power by Duke Henry the Lion, as Prince of Mecklenburg, thereby founding the German House of Mecklenburg.
context_section_description: The Bavarian Geographer, an anonymous medieval document compiled in Regensburg in 830, contains a list of the tribes in Central Eastern Europe to the east of the Elbe. The list includes the Nortabtrezi (Obotrites) - with 53 civitates.
  Adam of Bremen referred to them as the Reregi because of their julve zlrade emporium Reric. In common with other Slavic groups, they were often described by Germanic sources as Wends.
  The main tribes of the Obotritic confederation were:
  the Obotrites proper (Wismar Bay to Lake Schwerin);
  the Wagrians (the eastern Holstein as part of Saxony);
  the Warnower (the upper Warnow and Mildenitz);
  the Polabians proper (between the Trave and the Elbe).
  Other tribes associated with the confederation include:
  the Linonen near Lenzen,
  the Travnjane near the Trave,
  the Drevani in the Hanoverian Wendland.
caption: Map of the Billunger Mark (c. 1000) showing different tribes of the Obotritic confederation
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