Limes Sorabicus

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Limes sorabicus German map 19th century.

The Sorbian March , also Sorbian Mark or Sorbenmark refers to a boundary zone between the Frankish Empire and the east of it settled Sorbs , the latest by the middle of the 9th century by the Frankish Empire division or the Treaty of Verdun had been created and at the end 9th century had lost its importance again. It is only mentioned briefly in four places in the Fulda Annals . This area, which was apparently a border mark , was under the command of a prince ( dux Sorabici limitis ). Three office holders are known:

who appear in other sources as count ( comes ), margrave ( marchio ) and even as prince of the Thuringians ( dux Thuringorum ); Poppo certainly belonged to the family of the older or Franconian Babenbergers , and Ratolf probably too.

Division of the Franconian Empire by the Treaty of Verdun of August 10, 843. The settlement area of ​​the Western Slavs and Sorbs (yellow, above) borders on the Eastern Franconia of Ludwig the German (light brown).

The exact location and extent of the "sorbent marrow" is not mentioned in the sources and is therefore still very controversial in research. Particular importance is attached to Einhard's information , who wrote in his biography of Charlemagne , the Vita Caroli Magni , from around 830 , that he had already taken over the Saale as the border between Thuringians and Sorbs from his fathers ( ac Salam fluvium, qui Thuringos et Sorabos dividit ). As early as 805, Erfurt , located far to the west, was designated as a Franconian customs place for trade with the Slavs in the Diedenhofen capitular . Accordingly, some archaeologists and historians such as Hansjürgen Brachmann (1991) located this “Sorbenmark” west of the Saale. Both mentions, however, are much older than the first mention of the Limes Sorabicus and can therefore not be directly linked to this. In addition, an economic border need not have been identical to the politico-military border, especially since a central town comparable to Erfurt and the other trading centers is not known from the area east of the Gera .

The majority of researchers (including Rudolf Kötzschke , Hermann Aubin ), on the other hand, proceeded and assume that the Limes Sorabicus is situated on the right-hand side. Walter Schlesinger wrote about this in 1963: “It must have been the area east of the Saale, for example as far as the Elster and Pleiße , perhaps even advancing in places to the Mulde , a zone loosely attached to the Reich, which had a firm support in the Thuringian hinterland and maybe was protected by individual forward castles . "

In recent times, historical research has increasingly addressed the problem of the border. Matthias Hardt (2000) assumes that at the time of Charlemagne a river border of the empire based on ancient models was planned on the Elbe and Saale , which in the further course of the 9th century was expanded to include a border organization based on castles to the Limes Sorabicus which would also correspond to the development observed in the Limes Saxoniae . The question of whether the “Sorbenmark” covered both sides of the Saale or whether it only extended over a western or eastern river border district cannot be answered unequivocally. Most of the castle complexes claimed for the Limes Sorabicus in local literature were not founded until the High Middle Ages . It is possible that early medieval castles such as those mentioned in the Hersfeld tithe list between the lower Saale and Unstrut were built. B. the Seeburg am Süßen See , Schraplau Castle and Querfurt Castle and comparable castles on the middle Saale on the Johannisberg near Jena-Lobeda or the Old Gleisberg near Bürgel in a temporal and contextual context with the establishment of the Limes Sorabicus.

In general, it must be stated that borders in the early and high Middle Ages were almost always more or less broad belts and zones devoid of settlements and not sharp lines in the sense of today's borders. In the orlag area near Saalfeld / Saale , the Franconian sphere of influence has demonstrably extended far east beyond the Saale. For the middle Saale valley around Jena , too , it can be assumed that both sides of the river formed a uniform settlement and economic area with the Saale as an important traffic and connection axis, so that the eastern boundary of the Mark is more likely to be found in the extensive forests to the right of the Saale is. In the area adjoining the lower Saale to the north - the open landscapes from Naumburg , but at the latest from Weißenfels to the mouth of the Saale - there are no natural boundaries between the settlement chambers in the form of larger forest areas. At least at the end of the 8th and first half of the 9th century the Saale actually served the function of a border here. However, a gradual expansion of the East Franconian area of power and influence is likely before 928/929 to the Mulde and shortly before the Daleminzier settlement areas .

literature

  • Hansjürgen Brachmann : The Limes Sorabicus - History and Effect . In: Journal for Archeology 25. 1991, pp. 177-207.
  • Lothar Dralle : Limes Sorabicus. In: Lexikon des Mittelalters Volume 5. Hiera-Mittel - Lukanien 1991, Sp. 1992-1993.
  • Matthias Hardt : Lines and seams, zones and spaces on the eastern border of the empire in the early and high Middle Ages . In: Walter Pohl , Helmut Reimitz (ed.): Limit and difference in the early Middle Ages. Philosophical-historical class memoranda 287. Research on the history of the Middle Ages 1, Verlag der Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-7001-2896-7 , 39–56.
  • Matthias Hardt: Hesse, Elbe, Saale and the Frontiers of the Carolingian Empire . In: Walter Pohl, Ian N. Wood , Helmut Reimitz (Eds.): The Transformation of Frontiers. From Antiquity to the Carolingians . The Transformation of the Roman World 10. Leiden / Boston / Cologne 2001, ISBN 90-04-11115-8 , pp. 219-232.
  • Matthias Hardt:  Limes Sorabicus. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 18, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, ISBN 3-11-016950-9 , pp. 446-448.

Web links

Commons : Limes Sorabicus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hansjürgen Brachmann: The Limes Sorabicus - History and Effect. In: Journal for Archeology 25. 1991, pp. 177-207.
  2. ^ Matthias Hardt: Lines and seams, zones and spaces on the eastern border of the empire in the early and high Middle Ages . In: Walter Pohl, Helmut Reimitz (ed.): Limit and difference in the early Middle Ages. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-7001-2896-7 , pp. 39–56.