Elbe Germans

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The catchment area of ​​the Elbe

As Elbgermanen is called due archaeological finds Germanic strains whose settlements from the Elbmündung both sides of the flow until after Bohemia and Moravia , stretched which is in advance of the so-called mass migration apparently came to a migration from the northwest Elbe until the individual groups there against 200 AD on the Roman Danube Limes. The Elbe Germans include the Semnones , Hermundurs , Quads , Marcomanni and Longobards . Historically, with reservations, they are most likely to be equated with the Suebi tribes . According to earlier categorization, they belonged to the West Germans .

In contrast to the settlement areas of the North Sea , Oder-Vistula and Rhine-Weser Teutons (from which the Franks later emerged), there was a relatively uniform economic and social development in the Elbe Germanic settlement area. This can be seen above all in clear similarities in material and spiritual culture (ceramics, tools, weapons and jewelry forms, religious customs and the like). The reason for this were intensive contacts both among the Elbe Germanic tribes and with more distant Germanic tribal associations.

Younger Germanic tribes such as the Alemanni , Thuringi and the Bajuwaren , which were mostly formed from smaller Elbe Germanic groups, are often also counted among the Elbe Germans for linguistic reasons and archaeological evidence.

Archeological

Elbe Germanic finds from Berlin
Settlement area of ​​the Germanic tribes, 50 AD

For a long time it was taken for granted in research that a uniform material culture would allow reliable conclusions to be drawn about the existence of a corresponding group identity: it was assumed that archaeological finds could be clearly associated with certain “peoples”. In recent times this has been increasingly doubted, so that ultimately it is controversial whether the "Elbe Germans" can be addressed as a closed group due to their common material culture and whether the spread of material culture actually allows conclusions to be drawn about migratory movements. In any case, this material culture can be identified archaeologically through typical finds that distinguish it from that of the neighboring groups. The Jastorf culture is traditionally regarded as its predecessor culture up to the turn of the ages , even if this assumption is now also partly doubted.

In the older Roman Imperial Era (approx. 1st / 2nd century AD), the Elbe Germanic finds are characterized by special ceramic shapes, especially shiny, polished vessels such as situles and tureens that are decorated with meanders . The patterns were applied with scroll wheels. Around the time of the birth of Christ, there was a brief political unification of Elbe Germanic tribes under Marbod , which we know from Roman sources. In the younger imperial period, the archaeological picture shifted to bowl urns and simple fights , which are also known as " Swebian pots ". There are also special Elbe Germanic forms for fibulae and belt buckles. In addition, it is above all the forms of burial that distinguish the Elbe Germans from their neighbors. Urn burial predominates, and piles of corpses are rarely found next to it. There are only a few body graves . These urn graves are richly decorated with grave goods , in addition to traditional costumes, weapons were placed in the grave for men and jewelry for women. In contrast, these graves are rarely found in Rhine Weser Germanic and North Sea Germanic graves. In the neighboring groups to the east, however, fire pits and embankment graves are more numerous and can also be distinguished by other forms of grave goods. In addition, a separate burial of men (or warriors) and women (or non-warriors) in separate cemeteries or parts of the cemetery can be seen in the Elbe Germans, especially in the northern Elbe Germans.

In the later Roman Empire, grave goods became rarer, and weapons in particular were no longer placed in the grave as often. The different settlement areas of the Elbe Germans can be differentiated through differences in the finds and through empty areas. There is a northern group around the Elbe estuary and in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , a middle group in central Germany that extends as far as the Oder, and a southern group in Bohemia , an area that was Elbe Germanic throughout the Roman Empire. Finds in Moravia as far as the Slovakian-Lower Austrian border are also Elbe Germanic, but they also contain elements of the Przeworsk culture . Underneath, one believes to be able to recognize the marcomanni and quadrupeds archaeologically. There are "Elbe Germanic" finds in the older Roman imperial era also scattered in southwest Germany. It is assumed, however, that the groups there were gradually Romanized due to their proximity to the Upper German-Raetian Limes . Other archaeological groups of finds on the lower Main and on the Rhine, which could possibly be linked to the Thuringians , are evidently absorbed in the Rhine Weser Germanic culture.

It is often assumed that the arrival of Elbe Germanic groups in the run-up to the Roman borders from the second half of the 2nd century onwards led to great alarm, as the newcomers were hardly Romanized and tried to raid the Roman Empire. An archaeological assignment of individual finds to certain Germanic groups known by name from Roman written sources is still difficult and methodologically, as mentioned, problematic. Only where Elbe Germans have come into direct contact or conflict with the Romans and this has been well passed down by written sources, such equations can be made with reservations. This applies to a certain extent to the Alamanni , who repeatedly plundered the Limes in the 3rd century and occupied the Agri decumates after the Roman withdrawal , as well as to the Marcomanni, who came into conflict with the Romans in the late 2nd century on the Pannonian Danube Limes . Other tribes known by name from Roman sources cannot yet be clearly assigned to archaeological groups. However, it is archaeologically recognizable that those areas that were built from the 2nd / 3rd Century were abandoned by Elbe Germanic groups, for example in East-Central Germany and in Bohemia, from the 6th century onwards were settled by Slavs.

Elbe Germanic finds can also be found in Roman forts and legionary camps in Raetia and Noricum from the late 4th century , which is why it is assumed that the Romans recruited Elbe Germanic warriors there as auxiliary troops or foederati . As a result, Elbe Germanic groups faced each other on both sides of the Limes during this time, which the Bavarian archaeologist Erwin Keller described somewhat dramatically as a “fratricidal war on the border”.

Concept history

The term Elbgermanen was first used in 1868 by Paul Gustav Wislicenus in his doctoral thesis, but has only been used more frequently in science since the German prehistorian Walther Matthes took it up in 1931. The term was initially based on partly speculative derivations from ancient Roman sources. So you tried to BC when Julius Caesar mentioned Sueben and in the 1st century AD, when Tacitus , Pliny the Elder and Pomponius Mela mentioned Herminones ( Irmionen ) with the since the late second century and the late antiquity on the Danube limes of the Roman To bring rich emerging Germanic tribes in connection. Science later tried to gain better knowledge with the help of linguistic methods and to collect them in the folkish sense, including as one of the first linguists and NSDAP member Friedrich Maurer in 1942. It was not until the second half of the 20th century that there was an increase resorted to archeology , which opened up a third source of information. This resulted in new insights that have led to new interpretations and modified theories until recently. In 1963 the Czech archaeologist Bedřich Svoboda took up the term and postulated an Elbe-Germanic commonality between finds in Bohemia and Bavaria, which was later confirmed.

literature

Web links

Commons : Elbgermanen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Walter Pohl: Die Germanen  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 9783486567557@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / books.google.at  
  2. ^ Heinrich Beck: Germanic problems in today's view ; Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1999, ISBN 9783110164381
  3. ↑ For the discussion, see Heiko Steuer : Theories on the origin and development of the Alemanni: archaeological research approaches. In: Dieter Geuenich (Hrsg.): The Franks and the Alemanni up to the "Battle of Zülpich" (496/97). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1998, pp. 270-324.
  4. ^ Johannes Hoops, Heinrich Beck, Dieter Geuenich, Heiko Steuer: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde: Volume 7 ; Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1989, ISBN 9783110114454 (pp. 108–110)
  5. ^ Max Spindler, Andreas Kraus: Handbook of Bavarian History, Volume 2-3 , CH Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 9783406394522 (page 104)
  6. ↑ wislicenus.info: Paul Gustav Wislicenus
  7. ↑ Walther Matthes: The northern Elbgermanen in late Roman times. Investigations into their cultural legacy and their settlement area with special consideration of Brandenburg urn cemeteries , Kabitzsch-Verlag, Leipzig 1931
  8. ^ Johannes Hoops, Heinrich Beck, Dieter Geuenich, Heiko Steuer: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde: Volume 7 ; Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1989, ISBN 9783110114454
  9. ↑ Max Spindler, Andreas Kraus: Handbuch der Bayerischen Geschichte, Volume 2-3 , CH Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 9783406394522
  10. ↑ Thomas S. Burns: Barbarians within the gates of Rome: a study of Roman military policy and the barbarians, ca. 375-425 AD , Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1994, ISBN 9780253312884 (English)