Sassen (Gau)

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Old Prussian landscapes and tribes

Sassen was a region in East Prussia in what is now Poland . It already existed as a district of the Prussians before the conquest by the Teutonic Order .

Geographical location

Sassen was east of Pomesanien (border around the Drewenz river), south of Pogesanien , west of Galinden (border around the Omulef river ) and north of Polish Mazovia . Sassen was home to the Prussian tribe of the same name ( Sassen ).

Surname

As can be seen from the above text, the linguistic interpretation is controversial. So far, however, nobody has seen the analogy to the Schalau castle Sasavo near Ragnit , the last castle to be conquered by the order of knights, called Sassowia in Latin chronicles , Sassau in German . It was located approximately at the confluence of the Šešuvis and Jura rivers .

The Sassenpils is assumed to be a border wall from the time of the order; however, it was probably a former Prussian fortress that had been demolished, just like the Schalau Sasavopilis . A castle was built on a dry high-lying area. In this respect, the location of the castle is likely to have given the Gau its name.

  • Prussian "sausis" = dry

A Slavic derivation cannot be ruled out in this Gau neighboring Mazovia, which would also point to landscape conditions (cf. pl. "Sosna": pine, pine).

legend

This tribal area does not appear in the saga of how Widowuto divided the country among his sons.

history

  • Chronology of the conquest (exit from Thorn): 1260 Löbau, 1268 Neidenburg, 1272 Gilgenburg, 13th century Osterode, 1306 Soldau

literature

  • Grasilda Blažiene: Hydronymia Europaea. Special volume II: The Baltic place names in Samland. Wolfgang Schmid Ed. Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2000.
  • Georg Gerullis: The old Prussian place names. Berlin / Leipzig 1922, p. 152.
  • Mikkels Klussis: German-Prussian basic dictionary . Institut Européen des Minorités Ethniques Dispersées with the support of the German-Prussian Association Tolkemita, Vilnius 1999, p. 166.
  • Alexander Kurschat: Lithuanian-German Dictionary. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1968.
  • A. Vanagas: Lietuviu Pavardžiu Žodynas. Vilnius 1985.