It is not easy to get to hear the language you know. First of all there are just so few speaker of that language, especially as first language. In second place all Sorbs lived in East-Germany, not a very friendly country for tourism, even from other communist countries.Semi-Lobster said:Very interesting links, I'm surprised Pithorr has never heard of Sorbs is surprising, what with Poland and the Sorbs being so near each other. Whatever happened to pan-slavism?
I actually tried to reply to this twice already, both times the forum somehow killed my post, considered it a bad omen
. Short answer : there were more Slavs than Germans in 1066 in Brandenburg and Sachsen.
Longer answer:
If your question is actually not Sorbs but Slavs in general (as at least 'Brandenburg' would have mostly Weletian or 'unassigned slavic' population) and with Brandenburg and Sachsen you mean the current Bundeslandet with these names (as Saxony refers in the middle-ages to other lands; Brandenburg/Branibor was the slavic 'duchy' of Stodorans by 1066 so it was slavic per definition), then I think by 1066 you can say with all certainity that Slavs outnumbered the Germans as yet pretty much.
1. We don't know exactly how many slavs lived here by 1066 (or any other year). Polish historian Lowmianski estimated that all 'polabian' slavs numbered 320.000 souls by the year 1000. Considering the low urbanisation level among slavs and the actual need to 'expand' to support a growing population, I doubt there was much natural growth here till 1066 so the numbers (if correct) wouldn't be much different.
2. We can only guess about the number of 'Germans' that remained in these area's after the slavs moved in. Traditional history pretty much states that all Germans moved out toward the Roman Empire and such but can that be ever true? Otoh there are to my knowledge no German settlements that survived since the pre-slavic times (all cities in the region for example have either a Germanized slavic name or were founded in 10th century or later, during German colonization). Chronicles never refer to German settlements there neither, not until the German expansion, forming of marks etc. So prior to the start of the colonisation one could say - nada Germans in Polabia.
3. I'm not aware of good resources/estimation of the German colonization. While it is relatively easy to find WHERE German(ic) colonists settled, I never really saw good statistics on the HOW MANY part. I would guess (and that's also the case) that much of the later German population in the area was of (semi-) slavic stock anyway, people that simply became Germanized.
4. In other territories (like Poland and Balticum) Germanic colonization only becomes significant with the forming of new cities, especially of importance for trade (with Hanseatic centers). However, cities required a heavy surplus of (urban) population, which in the 10th and 11th centuries was scarce in Germany, while became less so in the Netherlands (esp. Flandres) a century later. But these groups formed cities also especially from the 12th century onward. There are not many new, important trading cities formed in former Slavic German lands. Lubeck was an important tradecenter and centre for colonization, but the town was of 'slavic' origins as well. Serious colonization of Brandenburg will start only with Albrecht the Bear in 1153. Sachsen lived with the slow, steady agricultural colonization earlier, but that was rather not developed that much yet by 1066.
So, by 1066 I would say - not enough Germans yet. Only agricultural groups moving in, by low suprlus of population, it would have never produced 300.000 German peasants in 60+ years able to colonize these rather unattractive lands (climate, not really fertile grounds like woods & marches, agressive slavic groups) and outnumber the slavs. Ergo - see short answer.
