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German eastern settlement in the middle ages

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I was not really satisfied with this:

So I made a new one, with my reference sadly only until the 14th century. There were
more settlement waves in the coming centuries, especially after the Turk wars and also
in the eastern part of East Prussia.

Short history:

Afte the great peoples migration time and the fall of the Roman Empire, most germanic
tribes left East Europe and migrated west- and southwards, creating the basis for many
coming european nations (Spain: Western Gothic Empire; France: Frankish Empire;
Italy: Eastern Gothic Empire and Langobards; England: Anglo-Saxons; Germany: several germanic tribes)

Not all Germanics left the areas, but were assimilated with the coming slavic tribes.
During the early middleage an age with a warm climate began and the Germans had a great
fertility rate. New agricultural technology enabled more food for the people and very often
the kings in the east (Poland, Hungary, Bohemia...) called for german settlers to get new tax payers
and western european laws and technology (Magdeburg and Lübeck law), or as defenders against
the invaders from Asia (Mongolstorm, Tartars, Huns, Turks etc.).

But the reason why they started to colonize the area between Saale and Oder river at all was,
that during the rulership of king Heinrich (10th century), slavic tribes invaded the kingdom and so the
Germans started to strike back and create "Marken" (borderland fortification areas). Beside the later
rather peaceful settlement (for example in Silesia), this were rather bloody battles. Also religion
and power reasons played a role of course.

The earlierst territory that was colonized by Germans, was Austria (German Eastern Mark/ borderland).
The german tribe of the Bavarians moved first along the Danube and Inn river, down to South Tyrol
and the area where now Vienna is and later on they moved into all the eastern alpine valleys.

The teutonic order had also a lot of battles with non-christians tribes, especially in Poland
and the baltic territories. They needed german settlers to secure supply, that´s how
Prussia was born (the german settlers also mixed with the baltic Pruzzen). That´s also a reason
why many baltic cities look rather german (Hansa architecture).

The german eastern settlement stopped when the plague haunted Europe. But smaller settlements
especially after the last Turk wars came up again along the Danube and in Siebenbürgen (Trannsylvania).

The history of the german culture in the east ended, when Stalin ordered in 1945 with permission of the western allied powers to deport or murder 15 million Germans from these territories. Only tiny minorities are left today.
_____________________

Wikipedia:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostsiedl…
Image size
4142x5546px 20.52 MB
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Gukpard's avatar
The sadness of not having a drop of german blood on my veins is immeasurable, only being smaller than the sadness of knowing that I love germany more than modern germans.

Sieg Kaiser!