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103-458: The Haugwitzs are an ancient aristocratic family from the Lusatia region. It spread to the area of Germany (Meissen), Silesia (where more than 12 lineages were created), then to Bohemia and Moravia. At the beginning of the 15th century, the important representatives of the family included Mikuláš Haugvic from Tuhaneč, the court Marshal of Queen Sophia , the wife of Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia . In 1346,

206-717: A 1031 campaign by Emperor Conrad II in favour of the Saxon German rulers of the Meissen House of Wettin and the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg , who purchased the March of (Lower) Lusatia in 1303. In 1367 the Brandenburg elector Otto V of Wittelsbach finally sold Lower Lusatia to King Karel of Bohemia , thereby becoming a Bohemian crown land . As Margrave Egbert II of Meissen supported anti-king Rudolf of Rheinfelden during

309-713: A Brüdergemeine that still exists today in Neuwied on the Rhine. Moravian historians identify the main achievements of this period as: Along with the Royal Danish Mission College , the Moravian missionaries were the first large-scale Protestant missionary movement . They sent out the first missionaries when there were only 300 inhabitants in Herrnhut. Within 30 years, the church sent hundreds of Christian missionaries to many parts of

412-625: A Lusatian Land within the Federal Republic of Germany failed after German reunification in 1990. The constitutions of Saxony and Brandenburg guarantee cultural rights, but not autonomy, to the Sorbs. More than 80,000 of the Sorbian Slavic minority continue to live in the region. Historically, their ancestors are West-Slavic-speaking tribes such as the Milceni , who settled in the region between

515-563: A Unity Province. (The links below connect to articles about the history of the church in specific provinces after 1732, where written.) In the Czech Republic and Honduras splits occurred within the churches after charismatic revivals ; non-charismatic minorities formed their own bodies, but both sides remained connected to the international church. The minority communities are listed as "mission provinces". Other areas with missions but that are not yet established as Provinces are: Tanzania

618-901: A band of 241 Christianized Lenape . In 1771, Moravians established a settlement at Nain, Labrador , which became a permanent settlement and the Moravian headquarters in Labrador. The mission stations expanded to Okak (1776), Hopedale (1782), Hebron at Kauerdluksoak Bay (1830–1959), serving also Napartok Bay and Saeglek Bay , Zoar (1864–1889), Ramah (1871–1908), Makkovik (1896), and Killiniq on Cape Chidley island (1905–1925). Two further stations were added after this period at Happy Valley near Goose Bay (1957) and North West River (1960). Colonies were founded in North Carolina, where Moravians led by Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg purchased 98,985 acres (40,058 ha) from John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville . This large tract of land

721-607: A congregation) usually meets twice a year and annually elects the Joint Board of Elders and Trustees that acts as an executive. In some provinces two or more congregations may be grouped into circuits, under the care of one minister. The Unity Synod meets every seven years and is attended by delegates from the different Unity Provinces and affiliated Provinces. The Unity Board is made up of one member from each Provincial Board, and acts as an executive committee between Unity Synods. It meets three times between Synods but much of its work

824-474: A decline in the population from over 3 million to some 800,000 people. By 1622, the entire education system was in the hands of Jesuits, and all Protestant schools were closed. The Brethren were forced to go underground, and eventually dispersed across Northern Europe as far as the Low Countries , where their bishop , John Amos Comenius , attempted to direct a resurgence. The largest remaining communities of

927-736: A hatowa krajina ) is the region richest in ponds in Germany, and together with the Lower Lusatian Pond Landscape forms the biggest pond landscape in Central Europe. According to the earliest records, the area was settled by culturally Celtic tribes. Later, around 100 BC, the Germanic Semnones settled in that area. The name of the region may be derived from that of the Ligians . From around 600 onwards, West Slavic tribes known as

1030-693: A hilly southern "upper" section and a "lower" region, which belongs to the North European Plain . The border between Upper and Lower Lusatia is roughly marked by the course of the Black Elster river at Senftenberg and its eastern continuation toward the Silesian town of Przewóz on the Lusatian Neisse. Neighbouring regions were Silesia in the east, Bohemia in the south, the Margraviate of Meissen , and

1133-562: A land connection between their Saxon homelands and the Polish territories. Two main routes connecting Warsaw and Dresden ran through the region in the 18th century and Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland often traveled the routes. Numerous Polish dignitaries also traveled through Lusatia on several occasions, and some Polish nobles owned estates in Lusatia. A distinct remnant of

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1236-551: A legacy of the Unity of the Brethren . In order to preserve the succession, three Bohemian Brethren were consecrated bishops by Bishop Stephen of Austria , a Waldensian bishop who had been ordained by a Roman Catholic bishop in 1434. These three consecrated bishops returned to Litice in Bohemia and then ordained other brothers, thereby preserving the historic episcopate. In Berlin, 1735,

1339-512: A mission in 1740 at the Mohican village of Shekomeko in present-day Dutchess County, New York . The converted Mohican people formed the first native Christian congregation in the present-day United States of America. Because of local hostility from New Yorkers to the Mohicans, the Moravian support of the Mohicans led to rumors of them being secret Jesuits , trying to ally the Mohicans with France in

1442-594: A revolt with the unplanned Defenestrations of Prague . The Protestants were defeated in 1620 in the Battle of White Mountain near Prague, known as the first battle in the Thirty Years' War. As a consequence, the local Protestant noblemen were either executed or expelled from the country, while the Habsburgs placed Roman Catholic, and mostly German-speaking nobility in their place. The war, plague, and subsequent disruption led to

1545-619: A series of Hussite Wars , initially between various Roman Catholic rulers and the Hussites. Then there was a Hussite civil war, between the more compromising Utraquists and the radical Taborites . In 1434, an army of Utraquists and Roman Catholics defeated the Taborites at the Battle of Lipany . The Utraquists signed the Compacts of Basel on 5 July 1436. Within 50 years of Hus's death, a contingent of his followers had become independently organised as

1648-729: A special mixture of herbs and spices) are often associated with the Sorbs even though the cucumbers themselves were introduced by Dutch migrants, who started to pickle them for higher durability. Soon Sorbs adopted the pickling and might have changed the recipes slightly over time. The traditional Sorbian costumes are still to be worn in the Spreewald region even though mainly in the tourism industry. Recently, some women started to revive traditional clothes by using them as wedding dresses, even though this practise differs from original traditions. Percentage of Sorbs : Total number: 93,032 The percentage of Serbs (Sorbs) in Lusatia has decreased since

1751-579: Is Dresden Airport in Klotzsche ( Kłóčow ). The largest Lusatian city is Cottbus ( Chóśebuz ), with nearly 100,000 inhabitants. Other notable towns are the former members of the Lusatian League : the German/Polish twin towns of Görlitz ( Zhorjelc ) and Zgorzelec , Bautzen ( Budyšin ), Zittau ( Žitawa ), Lubań , Kamenz ( Kamjenc ), and Löbau ( Lubij )), as well as Żary ,

1854-546: Is Europe's largest artificial lake district. The village of Herrnhut ( Ochranow ) is the seat of the Moravian Church . Muskau Park in Bad Muskau ( Mužakow ) and Łęknica is a UNESCO World Heritage Site . The Tropical Islands Resort , a large water park housed in a former airship hangar that is the biggest free-standing hall in the world, is located in the north of Lusatia. The closest international airport to Lusatia

1957-600: Is a historical region in Central Europe , territorially split between Germany and modern-day Poland . Lusatia stretches from the Bóbr and Kwisa rivers in the east to the Pulsnitz and Black Elster rivers in the west, and is located within the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg as well as in the Polish voivodeships of Lower Silesia and Lubusz . Major rivers of Lusatia are

2060-405: Is called Lower Lusatia ( Niederlausitz, Łużyce Dolne or Dolna Łužyca ) and is characterized by forests and meadows. In the course of much of the 19th and the entire 20th century, it was shaped by the lignite industry and extensive open-pit mining. Important towns include Cottbus , Eisenhüttenstadt , Lübben , Lübbenau , Spremberg , Finsterwalde , Senftenberg (Zły Komorow), and Żary , which

2163-479: Is currently the main language for a few hundred Lusatian children. There is a daily newspaper in the Sorbian language ( Serbske Nowiny ); a Sorbian radio station (Serbski Rozhłós) uses local frequencies of two otherwise German-speaking radio stations for several hours a day. There are very limited programmes on television (once a month) in Sorbian on two regional television stations ( RBB and MDR TV). In 2020, despite

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2266-536: Is divided into seven provinces because of the size of country and the numbers of people in the church. The "Moravian Church in Tanzania" co-ordinates the work in the nation. The lists above, except for some details given under 'Other areas', can be found in The Moravian Almanac . Each province is governed by a synod , made up of representatives from each congregation plus ex officio members. The Synod elects

2369-550: Is done by correspondence and postal voting. The President of the Unity Board (who is elected by the Board for two years and not allowed to serve for more than two terms) works from his/her own Provincial office. The Unity Business Administrator is an officer appointed by the Unity Board to administer the day-to-day affairs of the Unity through the office of the Unity. Ordained ministry in

2472-521: Is now considered the capital of Polish Lusatia. Between Upper and Lower Lusatia is a region called the Grenzwall , literally meaning "border dyke", although it is in fact a morainic ridge. In the Middle Ages this area had dense forests, so it represented a major obstacle to civilian and military traffic. Some of the region's villages were damaged or destroyed by the open-pit lignite mining industry during

2575-741: Is the Lamb of God ( Agnus Dei ) with the flag of victory, surrounded by the Latin inscription " Vicit agnus noster, eum sequamur " ('Our Lamb has conquered; let us follow Him'). Apart from the Moravian Church, the more conservative Unity of the Brethren , based in Texas, as well as the Czechoslovak Hussite Church , based in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, are denominations in the same Hussite-Moravian theological tradition. The Hussite movement that

2678-704: The Unitas Fratrum 's three orders of episcopal ordination, The Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren and the Czechoslovak Hussite Church also continue the Hussite tradition in the Czech Republic and Slovakia today. They only account for 0.8% of the Czech population , which is 79.4% non-religious, and 10.4% Catholic. In 1722, a small group of the Bohemian Brethren, the "Hidden Seed", who had been living in northern Moravia , as an illegal underground remnant surviving in

2781-518: The Americas and Africa , that is reflected in their broad global distribution. Moravians continue many of the same practices established in the 18th century, including placing a high value on a personal conversion to Christ, called the New Birth , and piety , good works , evangelism , including the establishment of missions, Christian pacifism , ecumenism , and music . The Moravian Church's emblem

2884-650: The Biblical town in Judea . There, they ministered to the Algonquian-speaking Lenape . Bethlehem, Pennsylvania , is today the seventh-largest city in Pennsylvania, having developed as a major industrial city in the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1772, the first European-Native American settlement of what later became Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania , occurred when Reverend John Ettwein, a Moravian missionary, arrived there with

2987-663: The Dano-Norwegian Empire . While attending the coronation of Christian VI of Denmark-Norway in 1730, Zinzendorf was profoundly struck by two Inuit converts of Hans Egede 's mission in Greenland and also by an African from the West Indies . The first Moravian mission was established on the Caribbean island of St Thomas in 1732 by a potter named Johann Leonhard Dober and a carpenter named David Nitschmann , who later became

3090-564: The Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg in the west as well as the Margraviate of Brandenburg ( Mittelmark ) in the north. Upper Lusatia ( Oberlausitz , Łużyce Górne or Hornja Łužica ) is today part of the German state of Saxony, except for a small part east of the Neisse River around Lubań , which now belongs to the Polish Lower Silesian voivodeship. It consists of hilly countryside rising in

3193-702: The Holy Roman Empire , while the adjacent Northern March again got lost in the Slavic uprising of 983. The later Upper Lusatian region of the Milceni lands up to the Silesian border at the Kwisa river at first was part of the Margraviate of Meissen under Margrave Eckard I . At the same time the Polan duke of the later Kingdom of Poland raised claims to the Lusatian lands and upon

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3296-585: The Investiture Controversy , King Henry IV of Germany in 1076 awarded the Milceni lands of Upper Lusatia as a fief to the Bohemian duke Vratislav II . After Emperor Frederick Barbarossa had elevated Duke Vladislaus II to the rank of a King of Bohemia in 1158, the Upper Lusatian lands around Bautzen evolved into a Bohemian crown land . Around 1200, large numbers of German settlers came to Lusatia in

3399-989: The Lands of the Bohemian Crown , which included Bohemia , Moravia , Silesia , and previously the Hussite movement against several practices and doctrines of the Catholic Church . Its name is derived from exiles who fled from Moravia to Saxony in 1722 to escape the Counter-Reformation , establishing the Christian community of Herrnhut . Hence, it is also known in German as the [Herrnhuter] Brüdergemeine [ sic ] ("Unity of Brethren [of Herrnhut]"). The modern Unitas Fratrum has about one million members worldwide, continuing their tradition of missionary work , such as in

3502-439: The Margraviate of Brandenburg in the following years. From 1368, it was entirely part of the Bohemian Crown. In 1346 six Upper Lusatian cities formed the Lusatian League to resist the constant attacks conducted by robber barons . The association supported King Sigismund in the Hussite Wars leading to armed attacks and devastation. The cities were represented in the (Upper) Lusatian Landtag assembly, where they met with

3605-424: The Milceni and Lusici settled permanently in the region. In the 10th century, the region came under the influence of the Kingdom of Germany , starting with the 928 eastern campaigns of King Henry the Fowler . Until 963 the Lusatian tribes were subdued by the Saxon margrave Gero and upon his death two years later, the March of Lusatia was established on the territory of today's Lower Lusatia and remained with

3708-482: The Moravian Brethren ( Czech : Moravská církev or Moravští bratři ), formally the Unitas Fratrum ( Latin : "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in Christianity , dating back to the Bohemian Reformation of the 15th century and the Unity of the Brethren (Czech: Jednota bratrská ) founded in the Kingdom of Bohemia , sixty years before Martin Luther 's Reformation . The church's heritage can be traced to 1457 and

3811-408: The Moravian University and Seminary. The largest concentration of Moravians today is in Tanzania . The motto of the Moravian Church is: " In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; and in all things, love ". Some Moravian scholars point to a different formula as a guide to constructive debate about faith. This formula was first advanced by Luke of Prague (1460–1528), one of the bishops of

3914-409: The Protestant Reformation by a century, some historians claim the Moravian Church was the first Protestant church. The movement gained support from the Crown of Bohemia . However, Hus was summoned to attend the Council of Constance , which decided that he was a heretic. Hus was released to the secular authority, which sentenced him to be burned at the stake on 6 July 1415. From 1419 to 1437 were

4017-476: The Quitzdorf Dam was created to provide enough process water for the Boxberg Power Station , the Spremberg Dam was primarily planned for flood protection in the lake district, but was also used for process water for power plants. The Bautzen Reservoir was also artificially created in order to be able to continuously supply the Boxberg Power Station with water. The ponds of the Upper Lusatian Heath and Pond Landscape Biosphere Reserve, which are also located in

4120-425: The Republic of Poland along the Oder–Neisse line . Poland's communist government expelled all remaining Germans and Sorbs from the area east of the Neisse river in 1945 and 1946 in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement. The Lusatian National Committee in Prague claimed the right to self-government and separation from Germany and the creation of a Lusatian Free State or attachment to Czechoslovakia . The majority of

4223-435: The Rhenish Missionary Society , was eventually transferred to the Moravian Church. The Moravians sought to unify the converts into "one people" living together with the same religious beliefs. Zeisberger, a significant Moravian missionary, implored the converts to remember that they were "one people not two." The modern Moravian Church, with about 750,000 members worldwide, continues to draw on traditions established during

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4326-402: The Saxon rulers and enjoyed great autonomy, especially in religious questions. The refugees established a new village called Herrnhut , about 2 miles (3 km) from Berthelsdorf. The town initially grew steadily, but major religious disagreements emerged and by 1727 the community was divided into factions. Count Zinzendorf worked to bring about unity in the town, and the Brotherly Agreement

4429-470: The Slavic Sorbs , one of Germany’s four officially recognized indigenous ethnic minorities . The Upper Sorbs inhabit Saxon Upper Lusatia, and the Lower Sorbs Brandenburgian Lower Lusatia. Upper and Lower Sorbian are spoken in the German parts of Upper and Lower Lusatia respectively, and the signage there is mostly bilingual. Throughout history, the region has been ruled variously by Poland , Bohemia , Germany and Hungary . The Lusatian Lake District

4532-415: The Spree and the Lusatian Neisse , which defines the border between Germany and Poland. The Lusatian Mountains of the Western Sudetes separate Lusatia from Bohemia ( Czech Republic ) in the south. Lusatia is traditionally divided into Upper Lusatia , the hilly southern part, and Lower Lusatia , the flat northern part. The areas east and west along the Spree in the German part of Lusatia are home to

4635-477: The forced removal of the Cherokees to Oklahoma, this mission was replaced in 1842 by New Springplace in Oaks, Oklahoma . Due to Civil War -related violence, New Springplace closed in 1862 and resumed during the 1870s. In 1898, the Moravian Church discontinued their missionary engagement with the Cherokees and New Springplace, now the Oaks Indian Mission, was transferred to the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church . The start of far-flung missionary work necessitated

4738-485: The "Bohemian Brethren" ( Čeští bratři ) or Unity of the Brethren ( Jednota bratrská ), which was founded in Kunvald , Bohemia, in 1457. A brother known as Gregory the Patriarch was very influential in forming the group, as well as the teachings of Peter Chelcicky . This group held to a strict obedience to the Sermon on the Mount , which included non-swearing of oaths, non-resistance, and not accumulating wealth. Because of this, they considered themselves separate from

4841-405: The 18th-century renewal. In many places it observes the convention of the lovefeast , originally started in 1727. It uses older and traditional music in worship. Brass music, congregational singing and choral music continue to be very important in Moravian congregations. In some older congregations, Moravians are buried in a traditional God's Acre , a graveyard with only flat gravestones, signifying

4944-666: The 1900 census due to intermarriage, germanization , cultural assimilation related to industrialization and urbanization, Nazi suppression and discrimination, ethnocide and the settlement of expelled Germans after World War II, mainly from Lower Silesia and northern Bohemia. The region is rich in architecture from various reigns, including Czech, Polish, German and Hungarian, whose styles range from Romanesque and Gothic through Renaissance and Baroque to modern architecture. There are two major Sorbian museums in Cottbus ( Serbski muzej Chóśebuz ) and Bautzen ( Serbski muzej Budyšin ). Moravian Church The Moravian Church , or

5047-450: The 1930s by some 550 Poles. 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 after World War II , some were retained. This era came to an end during the Nazi regime in Germany, when all Sorbian organizations were abolished and forbidden, newspapers and magazines closed, and any use of

5150-400: The Brethren were located in Leszno ( German : Lissa ) in Poland , which had historically strong ties with the Czechs, and small, isolated groups in Moravia . The latter are referred to as "the Hidden Seed", which John Amos Comenius had prayed would preserve the evangelical faith in the land of the fathers. In addition to the Renewed Unitas Fratrum or Moravian Church, which preserves

5253-510: The Catholic Habsburg rulers, to come to the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and establish a number of Roman Catholic educational institutions. One of these was the university in the Moravian capital of Olomouc . In 1582, they forced the closure of local Protestant schools. In 1617, Emperor Matthias had his fiercely Roman Catholic brother Ferdinand of Styria elected as King of Bohemia. In the year that followed, Protestant Bohemian noblemen, in fear of losing their religious freedom, instigated

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5356-601: The Catholic setting of the Habsburg Empire for nearly 100 years, arrived at the Berthelsdorf estate of Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf in present-day Saxony in the eastern part of modern-day Germany . Out of a personal commitment to helping the poor and needy, von Zinzendorf, a nobleman who had been brought up in the traditions of Pietistic Lutheranism , agreed to a request from their leader, Christian David , an itinerant carpenter, that they be allowed to settle on his lands in Upper Lusatia in Saxony. The Margraviates of Upper and Lower Lusatia were governed in personal union by

5459-420: The Church is organised into Unity Provinces, Mission Provinces and Mission Areas and four regions of Africa, Caribbean and Latin America, Northern America, and Europe. The categorisation is based on the level of independence of the province. Unity Province implies a total level of independence, Mission Province implies a partial level of supervision from a Unity Province, and Mission Area implies full supervision by

5562-410: The DDR era. Some, now exhausted, former open-pit mines are now being converted into artificial lakes, with the hope of attracting holiday-makers, and the area is now being referred to as the Lusatian Lake District . As Lusatia is not, and never has been, a single administrative unit, Upper and Lower Lusatia have different, but in some respects similar, histories. The city of Cottbus is the largest in

5665-419: The Deacon may be consecrated as a Presbyter. Presbyters function in the local congregation in the same manner as deacons, but may also serve to mentor deacons and may be assigned to other leadership roles in a particular province. An acolyte is a layperson who has received approval to assist the pastor in a specific local congregation. The acolyte may assist in the serving of Holy Communion but may not consecrate

5768-420: The Elbe and the Saale. Many still speak their language (though numbers are dwindling and especially Lower Sorbian is considered endangered), and road signs are usually bilingual . However, the number of all the inhabitants of this part of eastern Saxony is declining rapidly – by 20% in the last 10 to 15 years. Sorbs make efforts to protect their traditional culture manifested in the traditional folk costumes and

5871-475: The German/Polish twin towns of Guben ( Gubin ) and Gubin , Hoyerswerda ( Wojerecy ), Senftenberg ( Zły Komorow ), Eisenhüttenstadt ( Pśibrjog ), and Spremberg ( Grodk ). The name derives from the Sorbian word łužicy meaning "swamps" or "water-hole", Germanized as Lausitz . Lusatia is the Latinized form which spread in the English and Romance languages area. Lusatia comprises two both scenically and historically different parts:

5974-453: The Germans and capturing the region. In Horka , on April 26, 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 (see German atrocities committed against Polish prisoners of war ). After World War II according to the Potsdam Agreement , Lusatia was divided between Allied-occupied Germany ( Soviet occupation zone ) and

6077-421: The Lake District area, were partly created in the Middle Ages, but also during the GDR period for agricultural reasons, as the moor-rich land was restructured and made usable. These very shallow waters are mostly used for fish farming. The ponds of the Muskau Arch are also located between the large opencast mining holes. They arose from faults in the terminal moraine of glaciers from the Ice Age, and partly through

6180-430: The Lusatian National Committee also submitted a petition to the Polish Government, signed by Paweł Cyż – the minister and an official Sorbian delegate in Poland. There was also a project to proclaim a Lusatian Free State, whose Prime Minister was intended to be the Polish archaeologist of Lusatian origin, Wojciech Kóčka . In 1945, the northeastern part of Upper Lusatia west of the Neisse rejoined Saxony and in 1952, when

6283-459: The Moravian Church emphasizes the pastoral role. A candidate for ministry who has been approved by their home province and has completed the prescribed course of study, usually a Master of Divinity degree in the US and Europe, may be ordained a Deacon upon acceptance of a call. Deacons may serve in a pastoral office and administer sacraments. A deacon is normally supervised by a presbyter who serves as mentor. After several years of satisfactory service,

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6386-407: The Provincial Board (aka Provincial Elders' Conference or PEC ) to be responsible for the work of the province and its international links between synods. Many, but not all, of the provinces are divided into districts. Each congregation belongs to a district and has spiritual and financial responsibilities for work in its own area as well as provincially. The Congregation Council (all the members of

6489-526: The Prussian line (to this day in Moravia) This article about a member of the German nobility is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This biographical article of a European noble is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Lusatia Lusatia ( German : Lausitz [ˈlaʊzɪts] ; Polish : Łużyce [wuˈʐɨt͡sɛ] ; Upper Sorbian : Łužica [ˈwuʒitsa] ; Lower Sorbian : Łužyca [ˈwuʒɨtsa] ; Czech : Lužice )

6592-424: The Sorbian intelligentsia was organized in the Domowina , though, and did not wish to split from Germany. Claims asserted by the Lusatian National movement were postulates of joining Lusatia to Poland or Czechoslovakia. Between 1945 and 1947 they produced about ten memorials to the United States, Soviet Union, Great Britain, France, Poland, and Czechoslovakia; however, this did not bring any results. On 30 April 1946,

6695-520: The Sorbian languages was prohibited. During World War II, some Sorbian activists were arrested, executed, exiled or sent as political prisoners to concentration camps . From 1942 to 1944 the underground Lusatian National Committee was formed and was active in German-occupied Warsaw . During the war, the Germans established and operated several prisoner-of-war camps , including Oflag III-C , Oflag IV-D , Oflag 8, Stalag III-B, Stalag IV-A and Stalag VIII-A , with multiple forced labour subcamps in

6798-480: The South to the Lusatian Highlands near the Czech border, and then even higher to form the Zittau Hills , the small northern part of the Lusatian Mountains ( Lužické hory / Lausitzer Gebirge ) in the Czech Republic. Upper Lusatia is characterized by fertile soil and undulating hills as well as by historic towns and cities such as Bautzen , Görlitz , Zittau , Löbau , Kamenz , Lubań , Bischofswerda , Herrnhut , Hoyerswerda , and Bad Muskau . Many villages in

6901-676: The Upper Lusatian territories were attached to the Province of Silesia instead. One of the main escape routes for insurgents of the unsuccessful Polish November Uprising from partitioned Poland to the Great Emigration led through Lübben and Luckau . The 19th and early 20th centuries witnessed an era of cultural revival for Sorbs. The modern languages of Upper and Lower Lusatian (or Sorbian) emerged, national literature flourished, and many national organizations such as Maćica Serbska and Domowina were founded. There were also notable Polish communities in Lusatia, such as Klettwitz (Upper Sorbian: Klěśišća , Polish: Kletwice ), inhabited in

7004-626: The ancient Unitas Fratrum. Luke taught that one must distinguish between things that are essential, ministerial or incidental to salvation. The essentials are God's work of creation, redemption and sanctification, as well as the response of the believer through faith, hope and love. Things ministerial are such items as the Bible, church, sacraments, doctrine and priesthood. These mediate the sacred and should thus be treated with respect, but they are not considered essential. Finally, incidentals include things such as vestments or names of services that may reasonably vary from place to place. For its global work,

7107-540: The brothers Otto, Sweydiger, and Kilian von Haugvic settled in Biskupice, Silesia, who founded the new dynastic Haugvic family from Biskupice, which continued to function independently and eventually became the most important Haugvic faction in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. This lasted from 1494 to 1668. As of now, four lines of the Haugwitz family are public: 1) Haugwitz from the Meissen line (to this day in Germany) 2) Haugwitz family from Malá Obíše (to this day in Austria, Canada, Denmark, Sweden) 3) Haugwitz family from

7210-410: The capital of Polish Lusatia. The Lusatian Lake District (German: Lausitzer Seenland , Lower Sorbian: Łužyska jazorina , Upper Sorbian: Łužiska jězorina ) is an artificially created lake area. By the end of the 2020s, Europe's largest artificial water landscape and Germany's fourth-largest lake area are to be created by flooding disused brown coal mines in the Lusatian brown coal mining area. Some of

7313-444: The centre of a major movement for Christian renewal and mission during the 18th century. The episcopal ordination of the Ancient Unitas Fratrum was transferred in 1735 to the Renewed Unitas Fratrum by the Unity's two surviving bishops, Daniel Ernst Jablonski and Christian Sitkovius. The carpenter David Nitschmann and, later, Count von Zinzendorf, were the first two bishops of the Renewed Unity. In 1756, Zinzendorf founded

7416-647: The course of the Ostsiedlung , settling in the forested areas yet not inhabited by the Slavs. 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. In 1319, the region was divided between the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Duchy of Jawor , the southwesternmost duchy of fragmented Piast -ruled Poland, while northernmost parts also passed to

7519-565: The death of Emperor Otto III in 1002, Margrave Gero II lost Lusatia to the Polish Duke Boleslaw I the Brave, who took the region in his conquests, acknowledged by Henry II first in the same year in Merseburg and later in the 1018 Peace of Bautzen , Lusatia became part of his territory; however, Germans and Poles continued to struggle over the administration of the region. It was regained in

7622-451: The elements. The highest order of ministry is that of a bishop. Bishops are elected by Provincial Synods usually through ecclesiastical ballot without nomination. In the Moravian Church, bishops do not have an administrative role but rather serve as spiritual leaders and pastors to the pastors. Bishops serve the worldwide Unity. The Moravian Church teaches that it has preserved apostolic succession . The Church claims apostolic succession as

7725-806: The equality of the dead before God and organized by sex, age and marital status rather than family. The Moravians continue their long tradition of missionary work, for example in the Caribbean, where the Jamaican Moravian Church has begun work in Cuba and in Africa where the Moravian Church in Tanzania has missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. This is reflected in their broad global distribution. The Moravians in Germany, whose central settlement remains at Herrnhut , are highly active in education and social work. The American Moravian Church sponsors

7828-581: The establishment of independently administered provinces. So, from about 1732, the history of the church becomes the history of its provinces. Eventually, the Moravian missions in Australia and Greenland were transferred to the local Presbyterian and Lutheran Churches, respectively. The first mission station in present-day South Africa was established by the Moravian Georg Schmidt at Genadendal in 1738. The mission at Wupperthal , established by

7931-456: The estate of Count Nicolaus Zinzendorf became the starting point of the organized Protestant missionary movement in 1732 and missionaries went out from the Moravian Church in Herrnhut to all corners of the world to share the Gospel. The newly established Kingdom of Saxony , however, sided with Napoleon ; therefore, at the 1815 Congress of Vienna , Lusatia was divided, with Lower Lusatia and

8034-474: The fierce opposition of the noble state countries . In 1469 the region passed to Hungary , and in 1490 it returned to the Bohemian Crown, then under the rule of Polish Prince Vladislaus II . Following the Lutheran Reformation, the greater part of Lusatia became Protestant except for the area between Bautzen, Kamenz and Hoyerswerda. The Lusatias remained under Bohemian rule – from 1526 onwards under

8137-566: The first bishop of the Renewed Unity in 1735. Matthaeus Stach and two others founded the first Moravian mission in Greenland in 1733 at Neu-Herrnhut on Baal's River , which became the nucleus of the modern capital Nuuk . Moravians also founded missions with the Mohicans , an Algonquian -speaking tribe in the colony of New York in the Thirteen Colonies . In one instance, they founded

8240-585: The horseshoe was filled with clays. Ice advances in the following cold periods eroded the higher parts of the terminal moraine. Due to oxidation and the associated loss of volume in the areas near the surface of the brown coal seams, furrows of 3 m to 5 m, a maximum of 20 m deep, 10 m to 30 m wide and up to several kilometers long were formed. Known as "Gieser" (from the Sorbian "jězor" for "lake"), they form long stretches of drainless ditches that are either filled with standing water or often peat-covered. After already centuries of extraction of clay and sand, brown coal

8343-399: The inland ice that was up to 500 m thick compressed the sand and brown coal layers in front of and below it over a length of more than 40 km to form a small-scale fold arch with a compression terminal moraine up to 180 m high and 700 m wide. The structure is currently preserved as a flat, undulating hill range and is almost unique in the world. The meltwater lake that subsequently emerged within

8446-408: The largest lakes are connected to each other as a chain of lakes by navigable canals. The new lakeland is largely created from remaining holes from former brown coal opencast mines. These are flooded and converted into lakes. Some of the resulting lakes have already reached their final water level, others will not be completely flooded for a few years. Other lakes are artificially dammed lakes. While

8549-569: The loss of the Sorbian language in most of Lusatia, there are some Sorbian traditions and habits that still live on to this day. In February, many people (mostly people from villages, regardless of German or Sorbian ancestry) will still engage in the Sorbian tradition of Zampern (a festive procession) . Some Sorbian dishes like boiled potatoes with linseed oil and curd (German: Quark mit Leineöl ) are still prevalent and, today, are eaten in other parts of Germany (like Berlin or western Saxony) too. Spreewälder Gurken (pickled cucumbers potted by using

8652-571: The majority Hussites that did not hold those teachings. They received episcopal ordination through the Waldensians in 1467. These were some of the earliest Protestants , rebelling against Rome some fifty years before Martin Luther . By the middle of the 16th century as many as 90 percent of the subjects of the Bohemian Crown were Protestant . The majority of the nobility was Protestant, and

8755-554: The mining of soil raw materials such as sand, clay and coal even before industrialization. In general, these ponds are not created intentionally by humans, but are filled with water due to a lack of drainage. The Muskau Morainic Arch is a terminal moraine formed during the Elster glaciation , which together with its immediate surroundings forms the " UNESCO Global Geopark Muskau Morainic Arch" (German: Muskauer Faltenbogen , Sorbian: Mužakowski Zahork , Polish: Łuk Mużakowa ). A glacier on

8858-517: The northeastern part of Upper Lusatia around Hoyerswerda , Rothenburg , Görlitz , and Lauban awarded to Prussia . Only the southwestern part of Upper Lusatia, which included Löbau , Kamenz , Bautzen , and Zittau , remained part of Saxony. The Lusatians in Prussia demanded that their land become a distinct administrative unit, but Lower Lusatia was incorporated into the Province of Brandenburg , while

8961-528: The ongoing French and Indian Wars . Although supporters defended their work, at the end of 1744, the colonial government based in Poughkeepsie, New York , expelled the Moravians from the Province of New York . In 1741, David Nitschmann and Count Zinzendorf led a small community to found a mission in the colony of Pennsylvania . The mission was established on Christmas Eve , and was named Bethlehem, after

9064-511: The prisoners of which were mostly Jews, Poles and Russians, but also Frenchmen, Italians, Yugoslavs, Czechs, Belgians, etc. 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 or Czechoslovakia , or as an independent Sorbian state in alliance with Poland. The Eastern Front reached Lusatia in early 1945, with Soviet and Polish troops defeating

9167-550: The region's ties to Poland are the 18th-century mileposts decorated with the coat of arms of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth located in various towns in the region. Polish-Sorbian contacts increased in that period. With the Age of Enlightenment , the Sorbian national revival began and resistance to Germanization emerged. Herrnhut , between Löbau and Zittau , founded in 1722 by religious refugees from Moravia on

9270-456: The region, and though it is recognized as the cultural capital of Lower Lusatia, it was a Brandenburg exclave since 1445. Historically, the administrative centres of Lower Lusatia were at Luckau and Lübben , while the historical capital of Upper Lusatia is Bautzen . Since 1945, when a small part of Lusatia east of the Oder–Neisse line was incorporated into Poland , Żary has been touted as

9373-584: The region. Prisoners included Polish POWs and civilians, and French , Belgian, British, Australian, New Zealander, Canadian, South African, Dutch, Italian, Soviet, Serbian, Slovak and American POWs. There were also several Nazi prisons with multiple forced labour subcamps, including in Görlitz , Luckau , Zittau , and a prison solely for women in Cottbus , and multiple subcamps of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp ,

9476-601: The rule of the House of Habsburg – until the Thirty Years' War . According to the 1635 Peace of Prague , most of Lusatia became a province of the Electorate of Saxony , except for the region around Cottbus possessed by Brandenburg. After the Saxon elector Augustus the Strong was elected king of Poland in 1697, Lusatia became strategically important as the elector-kings sought to create

9579-615: The schools and printing-shops established by the Moravian Church were flourishing. Protestantism had a strong influence in the education of the population. Even in the middle of the 16th century there was not a single town without a Protestant school in the Bohemian Crown Lands . Many had more than one, mostly with two to six teachers each. In Jihlava , a principal Protestant centre in Moravia, there were five major schools: two German, one Czech, one for girls and one teaching in Latin, which

9682-561: The state was divided into three administrative areas ( Bezirke ), the Upper Lusatian region became part of the Dresden administrative region. After the East German Revolution of 1989 , the state of Saxony was reestablished in 1990. Lower Lusatia remained with Brandenburg , from 1952 until 1990 in the Bezirk of Cottbus . In 1950, the Sorbs obtained language and cultural autonomy within

9785-468: The style of village houses. The coal industry in the region (like the Schwarze Pumpe power station needing vast areas of land) destroyed dozens of Lusatian villages in the past and threatens some of them even now. The Sorbian language is taught at many primary and some secondary schools and at two universities (Leipzig and Prague). Project "Witaj" ("welcome!") is a project of eight preschools where Sorbian

9888-475: The then–East German state of Saxony. Lusatian schools and magazines were launched and the Domowina association was revived, although under increasing political control of the ruling Communist Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). At the same time, the large German-speaking majority of the Upper Lusatian population kept up a considerable degree of local, 'Upper Lusatian' patriotism of its own. An attempt to establish

9991-426: The very south of Upper Lusatia contain a typical attraction of the region, the so-called Umgebindehäuser , half-timbered-houses representing a combination of Franconian and Slavic style. Among those villages are Niedercunnersdorf , Obercunnersdorf , Wehrsdorf , Jonsdorf , Sohland an der Spree with Taubenheim, Oppach , Varnsdorf or Ebersbach . Most of the area belonging to the German state of Brandenburg today

10094-575: The world, including the Caribbean , North and South America , the Arctic , Africa , and the Far East . They were the first to send lay people as missionaries, the first Protestant denomination to minister to slaves, though some communities also owned slaves, and the first Protestant presence in many countries. Owing to Zinzendorf's personal contacts with their royalty, the first Moravian missions were directed to

10197-547: Was adopted by the community on 12 May 1727. This is considered the beginning of the renewal. On 13 August 1727, the community underwent a dramatic transformation when the inhabitants of Herrnhut "learned to love one another", following an experience that they attributed to a visitation of the Holy Spirit , similar to that recorded in the Bible on the day of Pentecost . Herrnhut grew rapidly following this transforming revival and became

10300-521: Was at the level of a high/grammar school , lecturing on Latin, Greek and Hebrew, Rhetorics, Dialectics, fundamentals of Philosophy and fine arts, as well as religion according to the Lutheran Augustana . With the University of Prague also firmly in hands of Protestants , the local Roman Catholic Church was unable to compete in the field of education. The Jesuits were invited, with the backing of

10403-468: Was mined in the area of the Muskau Arch in the 19th and 20th centuries, partly in pillar mining and partly in opencast mining. Due to the location of the mined seams, noticeably elongated lakes formed in the remaining holes north and east of Weißwasser after the end of mining. The Upper Lusatian Heath and Pond Landscape (German: Oberlausitzer Heide- und Teichlandschaft , Upper Sorbian: Hornjołužiska hola

10506-648: Was named die Wachau , or Wachovia , after one of Zinzendorf's ancestral estates on the Danube River in Lower Austria . Other early settlements included Bethabara (1753), Bethania (1759), and Salem, now referred to as Old Salem (1766) in Winston-Salem , North Carolina. In 1801, the Moravians established Springplace mission to the Cherokee Nation in what is now Murray County , Georgia . Coinciding with

10609-575: Was to become the Moravian Church was started by Jan Hus (English: John Huss ) in early 15th-century Bohemia , in what is today the Czech Republic . Hus objected to some of the practices and doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church . Specifically, he wanted the liturgy to be celebrated in Czech , married priests, and eliminating indulgences and the idea of Purgatory . Since these actions predate

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