Polabian Slavs

Polabian Slavs, also known as Elbe Slavs^[a] and more broadly as Wends, is a collective term applied to a number of Lechitic (West Slavic) tribes who lived scattered along the Elbe river in what is today eastern Germany. The approximate territory stretched from the Baltic Sea in the north, the Saale^[1] and the Limes Saxoniae^[2] in the west, the Ore Mountains and the Western Sudetes in the south, and medieval Poland in the east.

The Polabian Slavs, largely conquered by Saxons and Danes from the 9th century onwards, were included and gradually assimilated within the Holy Roman Empire. The tribes became 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 22,000–30,000 inhabitants^[3] of the region. The government of Germany regards Upper and Lower Sorbian as official regional languages.

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