Upper Saxony

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Proposal to establish a state Upper Saxony by Hugo Preuss , 1919

As Upper Saxony refers to large parts of the former dominions of the Wettiner and their inhabitants in the area of today's eastern central Germany .

The term was created after the fall of Henry the Lion , as the title of the Duke about the old Duchy of Saxony to the sex of Askanier was awarded.

Settlement and Origin

The Saxon duchies around 1235: the Duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg , the Duchy of Westphalia , which went to the Archbishops of Cologne, and the new Ascanian Saxony-Lauenburg , increased by the original Ascanian area around Saxony-Wittenberg

While the name " Lower Saxony " came up for the northern areas of the original Duchy of Saxony that fell to the Ascanians , the Duchy of Saxony-Wittenberg was also called "Upper Saxony". The Lower Saxony and Upper Saxony Imperial Circles , which were formed in 1512 and stretched from the North Sea to the eastern border of the Holy Roman Empire , bear witness to the significance of these geographical terms at that time.

Saxonia Superior cum Lusatia et Misnia (Upper Saxony with Lausitz and Meißen) from the Atlas Maior (1645)

In 1356 the duchy of Saxony-Wittenberg was awarded the controversial electoral dignity . After the takeover of the Electorate of Saxony by the Wettin Margrave of Meissen and Landgrave of Thuringia Friedrich the Arguable and the loss of importance of the Lower Saxony Duchy of Saxony-Lauenburg , the state designation "Saxony" was only associated with Wettin states (see also Ernestiner ). Shortly after the revaluation of the Albertine areas to the Kingdom of Saxony and the abolition of the imperial districts , which had previously become meaningless , the area of ​​the former duchy of Saxony-Wittenberg , which had meanwhile been called " Kurkreis ", was lost to Prussia as a newly formed province of Saxony . If the similarities of the mentioned areas between the Harz and the Ore Mountains should be emphasized, the term "Upper Saxony" was also used in the 19th century.

Today, both the Central German residents of the Free State of Saxony , as well as outsiders and even the media colloquially refer to these residents as Saxons, although their ancestors were mainly Sorbs , Thuringians , Franks and Flemings .

From a linguistic point of view, the East Central German dialects - Meißen and Osterland - are part of the Thuringian-Upper Saxon dialect group . Upper Saxony are thus also the Saxon residents of the Vogtland , the Ore Mountains , Upper Lusatia and most of Thuringia .

Thuringia and Thuringian Mark as part of the Holy Roman Empire at the time of the Salians

The strongest settlement influence still recognizable today came in the form of the Thuringians from the west, who possibly displaced the Sorbs to the east. The area of ​​the Margraviate of Meißen , the origin and forerunner of today's Upper Saxony, was also known as the Thuringian Mark , i.e. the border region of the Thuringians. At that time, the city of Meissen was nicknamed the City of Hermundurs , i.e. city of the Thuringians. In the Vogtland and the Erzgebirge there was a relatively strong Main Franconian settlement influence in the course of the German East Settlement, in the Saale and Elstertal there was a weak Main Franconian settlement influence. The Vogtland , the Erzgebirge and the Southeast Thuringian ( Sorbian Franconian ) were therefore often assigned to the East Franconian in the past . Since the middle of the 20th century, influences of the Thuringian-Upper Saxon dialect have increasingly established themselves in the dialects and colloquial language in the south of Upper Saxony. A clearly noticeable Saxon settlement influence obviously does not exist, which is also evident in the separation of Middle German from Low German .

Attributes

The attributes "bright, heeflich and heemdiggsch" (bright, polite, insidious) are associated with the Upper Saxony. They take themselves on the shovel in a supposedly ironic way: "Me Saxons, I am bright, / the whole world knows, / and if I am not bright, / as hammer disguises us" (We Saxons, we are bright, that knows the whole world, and if we're not bright, we've pretended to be). The language is soft, but extremely throaty, which is clear from the following statement: "Gaiser Garl gonnde geene Gimmelgerner gaun, but Gäsegeilschn gonndr gatschn." (Emperor Karl couldn't chew caraway seeds, but he could slap cheeses). The Saxon also differentiates between hard “b” (p) and soft “b” (b) as well as between hard “d” (t) and soft “d” (d), and pronounces the “r” in a very throaty way.

Individual evidence

  1. The tribal duchy of Saxony comprised today's Westphalia , Lower Saxony , Holstein and the northern part of Saxony-Anhalt , where (Lower) Saxon dialects of Low German are common.
  2. ^ Wichmann von Meding: Lauenburg: on the history of the place, office, duchy. Verlag Peter Lang, 2008, p. 288 ; Sebastian Münster : Cosmographey: or description of all countries ... Basel 1578, p. 984.
  3. see e.g. B. Journal for the Austrian high schools. 14th year, Vienna 1863, p. 905.
  4. Archived copy ( memento of the original from November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Meissen, city of the Hermundures @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / skd-online-collection.skd.museum

literature

  • Dr. L. Hertel, Thüringer Sprachschatz, collection of dialect expressions from Thuringia with introduction, language map and language samples 1895

Web links