Lusatia, otherwise known as Sorbia, is a region in Central Europe, territorially split between Germany and Poland. Lusatia stretches from the Bóbr and Kwisa rivers in the east to the Pulsnitz and Black Elster rivers in the west, and is located within the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg and the Polish voivodeships of Lower Silesia and Lubusz. Major rivers of Lusatia are the Spree and the Lusatian Neisse, which defines the border between Germany and Poland. The Lusatian Mountains of the Western Sudetes separate Lusatia from Bohemia (Czech Republic) in the south. Lusatia is traditionally divided into Upper Lusatia, the hilly southern part, and Lower Lusatia, the flat northern part.

The areas east and west along the Spree in the German part of Lusatia are home to the Slavic Sorbs, one of Germany's four officially recognized indigenous ethnic minorities. The Upper Sorbs inhabit Saxon Upper Lusatia, and the Lower Sorbs Brandenburgian Lower Lusatia. Upper and Lower Sorbian are spoken in the German parts of Upper and Lower Lusatia respectively, and the signage there is mostly bilingual.

Tacitus states that this entire region was part of Germania and that in and before the second century was populated by Germanic tribes. From the seventh century Slavs began migrating into this region. Subsequently it has been ruled variously by Germany, Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary.

The Lusatian Lake District is Europe's largest artificial lake district. The village of Herrnhut () is the seat of the Moravian Church. Muskau Park in Bad Muskau () and Łęknica is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Tropical Islands Resort, a large water park housed in a former airship hangar that is the biggest free-standing hall in the world, is located in the north of Lusatia. The closest international airport to Lusatia is Dresden Airport in Klotzsche ().

The largest Lusatian city is Cottbus (), with nearly 100,000 inhabitants. Other notable towns are the former members of the Lusatian League: the German/Polish twin towns of Görlitz () and Zgorzelec, Bautzen (), Zittau (), Lubań, Kamenz (), and Löbau ()), as well as Żary, the German/Polish twin towns of Guben () and Gubin, Hoyerswerda (), Senftenberg (), Eisenhüttenstadt (), and Spremberg ().

Etymology

The name derives from the Sorbian word łužicy meaning "swamps" or "water-hole", Germanized as Lausitz. In early medieval sources, written in Latin, various forms were recorded, designating Slavic Lusatians and their region. Thus, Widukind's Chronicle (10th century) mentions Lusiki, while Thietmar's Chronicle (11th century) mentions Lusici or Lusizi, and also Luzici or Luidizi. In time, various forms, such as Lusatia, and other similar variations became common in Latin, and later entered into the English terminology.

Geography

Lusatia comprises two both scenically and historically different parts: a hilly southern "upper" section and a "lower" region, which belongs to the North European Plain. The border between Upper and Lower Lusatia is roughly marked by the course of the Black Elster river at Senftenberg and its eastern continuation toward the Silesian town of Przewóz on the Lusatian Neisse. Neighbouring regions were Silesia in the east, Bohemia in the south, the Margraviate of Meissen, and the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg in the west as well as the Margraviate of Brandenburg (Mittelmark) in the north.

upright=3|center|thumb|

Upper Lusatia

upright=0.8|thumb|A 20th century map of Lusatia with [[Sorbian languages|Sorbian and German names]]

Upper Lusatia (Oberlausitz, Łużyce Górne or Hornja Łužica) is today part of the German states of Saxony (most of its territory) and Brandenburg (Tettau, Lindenau, Bärhaus, Frauendorf, Burkersdorf, Kroppen, Heinersdorf, Ruhland, Arnsdorf, Jannowitz, Hermsdorf, Lipsa, Biehlen, Schwarzbach, Guteborn, Niemtsch, Peickwitz, Hohenbocka, Grünewald, Sella and Hosena); part east of the Neisse River around Lubań now belongs to the Polish Lower Silesian voivodeship. It consists of hilly countryside rising in the South to the Lusatian Highlands near the Czech border, and then even higher to form the Zittau Hills, the small northern part of the Lusatian Mountains (Lužické hory/Lausitzer Gebirge) in the Czech Republic.

Upper Lusatia is characterized by fertile soil and undulating hills as well as by historic towns and cities such as Bautzen, Görlitz, Zittau, Löbau, Kamenz, Lubań, Bischofswerda, Herrnhut, Hoyerswerda, and Bad Muskau. Many villages in the very south of Upper Lusatia contain a typical attraction of the region, the so-called Umgebindehäuser, half-timbered-houses representing a combination of Franconian and Slavic style. Among those villages are Niedercunnersdorf, Obercunnersdorf, Wehrsdorf, Jonsdorf, Sohland an der Spree with Taubenheim, Oppach, Varnsdorf or Ebersbach.

Lower Lusatia

Most of the area belonging to the German state of Brandenburg today is called Lower Lusatia (Niederlausitz, Łużyce Dolne or Dolna Łužyca) and is characterized by forests and meadows. In the course of much of the 19th and the entire 20th century, it was shaped by the lignite industry and extensive open-pit mining. Important towns include Cottbus, Eisenhüttenstadt, Lübben, Lübbenau, Spremberg, Finsterwalde, Senftenberg (Zły Komorow), and Żary, which is now considered the capital of Polish Lusatia.

Between Upper and Lower Lusatia is a region called the Grenzwall, literally meaning "border dyke", although it is in fact a morainic ridge. In the Middle Ages this area had dense forests, so it represented a major obstacle to civilian and military traffic. Some of the region's villages were damaged or destroyed by the open-pit lignite mining industry during the DDR era. Some, now exhausted, former open-pit mines are now being converted into artificial lakes, with the hope of attracting holiday-makers, and the area is now being referred to as the Lusatian Lake District.

Lusatian capitals

As Lusatia is not, and never has been, a single administrative unit, Upper and Lower Lusatia have different, but in some respects similar, histories. The city of Cottbus is the largest in the region, and though it is recognized as the cultural capital of Lower Lusatia, it was a Brandenburg exclave since 1445. Historically, the administrative centres of Lower Lusatia were at Luckau and Lübben, while the historical capital of Upper Lusatia is Bautzen. Since 1945, when a small part of Lusatia east of the Oder–Neisse line was incorporated into Poland, Żary has been touted as the capital of Polish Lusatia.

Around 1200, large numbers of German settlers came to Lusatia in the course of the Ostsiedlung, settling in the forested areas yet not inhabited by the Slavs. For centuries, from as early as the Middle Ages, trade flourished, and several important trade routes ran through Lusatia, connecting German states in the west, Poland in the east and Bohemia in the south. In 1319, the region was divided between the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Duchy of Jawor, the southwesternmost duchy of fragmented Piast-ruled Poland, while northernmost parts also passed to the Margraviate of Brandenburg in the following years.

In 1367, the Brandenburg elector Otto V of Wittelsbach sold the old (lower) Lusatia to emperor Charles IV who was also the king Bohemia, thereby including the March of Lusatia into the Bohemian crown lands.

In 1346, six Lusatian cities formed the Lusatian League to resist the constant attacks conducted by robber barons. The association later supported king Sigismund in the Hussite Wars leading to armed attacks and devastation. The cities were represented in the Upper Lusatian Landtag assembly, where they met with the fierce rivalry of the nobles. In 1469, during the war ower the Bohemian crown, the region was captured by Matthias Corvinus, the King of Hungary who also became the King of Bohemia. In 1490, upon the reintegration of Bohemian Crown lands, it came under the rule of Jagiellonian kings of Bohemia.

By the end of the 15th century, terms Lower Lusatia and Upper Lusatia became common designations for northern and southern parts of the region. Both Lusatias, as lands of the Bohemian Crown, remained under Jagiellonian rule until 1526, when they were inherited by the House of Habsburg. Following the Lutheran reformation (1517), the greater part of Lusatia became Protestant except for the area between Bautzen, Kamenz and Hoyerswerda.

Saxon rule

thumb|The siege and capture of [[Bautzen by John George I, Elector of Saxony, in September 1620]]

According to the 1635 Peace of Prague, most of Lusatia became a province of the Electorate of Saxony, except for the region around Cottbus possessed by Brandenburg. After the Saxon elector Augustus the Strong was elected king of Poland in 1697, Lusatia became strategically important as the elector-kings sought to create a land connection between their Saxon homelands and the Polish territories. Two main routes connecting Warsaw and Dresden ran through the region in the 18th century and Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland often traveled the routes.

Polish dignitaries traveled through Lusatia on several occasions, and some Polish nobles owned estates in Lusatia. A distinct remnant of the region's ties to Poland are the 18th-century mileposts decorated with the coat of arms of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth located in various towns in the region. Polish-Sorbian contacts increased in that period. With the Age of Enlightenment, the Sorbian national revival began and resistance to Germanization emerged.

thumb|Map of the Lusatias by [[Johann Homann|J.B. Homann, about 1715]]

Herrnhut, between Löbau and Zittau, founded in 1722 by religious refugees from Moravia on the estate of Count Nicolaus Zinzendorf became the starting point of the organized Protestant missionary movement in 1732 and missionaries went out from the Moravian Church in Herrnhut to all corners of the world to share the Gospel.

The newly established Kingdom of Saxony sided with Napoleon. Therefore, at the 1815 Congress of Vienna, Lusatia was divided, with Lower Lusatia and the northeastern part of Upper Lusatia around Hoyerswerda, Rothenburg, Görlitz, and Lauban awarded to Prussia. Only the southwestern part of Upper Lusatia, which included Löbau, Kamenz, Bautzen, and Zittau, remained part of Saxony.

Prussian rule

The Lusatians in Prussia demanded that their land become a distinct administrative unit, but Lower Lusatia was incorporated into the Province of Brandenburg, while the Upper Lusatian territories were attached to the Province of Silesia instead.

One of the main escape routes for insurgents of the unsuccessful Polish November Uprising from partitioned Poland to the Great Emigration led through Lübben and Luckau.

thumb|upright=0.7|First issue of the Bramborski Serbski Casnik Sorbian newspaper, 1848

The 19th and early 20th centuries witnessed an era of cultural revival for Sorbs. The modern languages of Upper and Lower Lusatian (or Sorbian) emerged, national literature flourished, and many national organizations such as Maćica Serbska and Domowina were founded. There were also notable Polish communities in Lusatia, such as Klettwitz (, ), inhabited in the 1930s by some 550 Poles.

During World War I, Germany operated two prisoner-of-war camps and a detention center for Russian, French, British, Belgian, Serbian, Romanian, Italian, Portuguese and Australian POWs in Cottbus (). After the war, until 1923, the former POW camp was used as a concentration camp for some 1,200 to 1,500 Polish activists, civilians and insurgents (including women with children) of the Silesian Uprisings of 1919–1921, who were often subjected to harassment, beatings and tortures.

In the interbellum, the German government carried out a massive campaign of changing of place names in Lusatia in order to erase traces of Slavic origin, and while most of the historic names were restored after World War II, some were retained.

This era came to an end during the Nazi regime in Germany, when all Sorbian organizations were abolished and forbidden, newspapers and magazines closed, and any use of the Sorbian languages was prohibited.

World War II

During World War II, some Sorbian activists were arrested, executed, exiled or sent as political prisoners to concentration camps. From 1942 to 1944 the underground Lusatian National Committee was formed and was active in German-occupied Warsaw.

During the war, the Germans established and operated several prisoner-of-war camps, including Oflag III-C, Oflag IV-D, Oflag 8, Stalag III-B, Stalag IV-A and Stalag VIII-A, with multiple forced labour subcamps in the region. Prisoners included Polish POWs and civilians, and French, Belgian, British, Australian, New Zealander, Canadian, South African, Dutch, Italian, Soviet, Serbian, Slovak and American POWs.

There were several Nazi prisons with multiple forced labour subcamps, including in Görlitz, Luckau, Zittau, and a prison solely for women in Cottbus, and multiple subcamps of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, the prisoners of which were mostly Jews, Poles and Russians, but also Frenchmen, Italians, Yugoslavs, Czechs, Belgians, etc.

thumb|Memorial to Soviet and Polish troops fallen in the [[Battle of Bautzen (1945)]]

During the war, the Poles postulated that after the defeat of Germany, the Sorbs should be allowed free national development either within the borders of Poland or Czechoslovakia, or as an independent Sorbian state in alliance with Poland.

The Eastern Front reached Lusatia in early 1945, with Soviet and Polish troops defeating the Germans and capturing the region. In Horka, on April 26, 1945, the Germans carried out a massacre of a field hospital column of the 9th Polish Armored Division, killing some 300 POWs, mostly wounded soldiers and medical personnel (see German atrocities committed against Polish prisoners of war).

Since 1945

thumb|right|upright=0.8|The flag of the Lusatian National movement

After World War II according to the Potsdam Agreement, Lusatia was divided between Allied-occupied Germany (Soviet occupation zone) and the Republic of Poland along the Oder–Neisse line. Poland's communist government expelled all remaining Germans and Sorbs from the area east of the Neisse river in 1945 and 1946 in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement. The Lusatian National Committee in Prague claimed the right to self-government and separation from Germany and the creation of a Lusatian Free State or attachment to Czechoslovakia.

The majority of the Sorbian intelligentsia was organized in the Domowina, though, and did not wish to split from Germany. Claims asserted by the Lusatian National movement were postulates of joining Lusatia to Poland or Czechoslovakia. Between 1945 and 1947 they produced about ten memorials to the United States, Soviet Union, Great Britain, France, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. This did not bring any results.

In April 1946, the Lusatian National Committee submitted a petition to the Polish Government, signed by Paweł Cyż – the minister and an official Sorbian delegate in Poland. There was also a project to proclaim a Lusatian Free State, whose Prime Minister was intended to be the Polish archaeologist of Lusatian origin, Wojciech Kóčka.

In 1945, the northeastern part of Upper Lusatia west of the Neisse rejoined Saxony and in 1952, when the state was divided into three administrative areas (Bezirke), the Upper Lusatian region became part of the Dresden administrative region. After the East German Revolution of 1989, the state of Saxony was reestablished in 1990. Lower Lusatia remained with Brandenburg, from 1952 until 1990 in the Bezirk of Cottbus.

In 1950, the Sorbs obtained language and cultural autonomy within the then–East German state of Saxony. Lusatian schools and magazines were launched and the Domowina association was revived, although under increasing political control of the ruling Communist Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). At the same time, the large German-speaking majority of the Upper Lusatian population kept up a considerable degree of local, 'Upper Lusatian' patriotism of its own. An attempt to establish a Lusatian Land within the Federal Republic of Germany failed after German reunification in 1990. The constitutions of Saxony and Brandenburg guarantee cultural rights, but not autonomy, to the Sorbs.

Demographics

Sorbs

thumb|The bilingual part of Lusatia, where the Sorbs make more than 10% of the population

thumb|Bilingual station of [[Forst (Lausitz)]]

More than 80,000 of the Sorbian Slavic minority continue to live in the region. Historically, their ancestors are West-Slavic-speaking tribes such as the Milceni, who settled in the region between the Elbe and the Saale. Many still speak their language (though numbers are dwindling and especially Lower Sorbian is considered endangered), and road signs are usually bilingual. However, the number of all the inhabitants of this part of eastern Saxony is declining rapidly – by 20% in the last 10 to 15 years. Sorbs make efforts to protect their traditional culture manifested in the traditional folk costumes and the style of village houses.

The coal industry in the region, like the Schwarze Pumpe power station needing vast areas of land, destroyed dozens of Lusatian villages in the past and threatens some of them even now. The Sorbian language is taught at many primary and some secondary schools and at two universities, Leipzig and Prague. Project "Witaj" ("welcome!") is a project of eight preschools where Sorbian is currently the main language for a few hundred Lusatian children.

There is a daily newspaper in the Sorbian language (Serbske Nowiny); a Sorbian radio station (Serbski Rozhłós) uses local frequencies of two otherwise German-speaking radio stations for several hours a day. There are very limited programmes on television (once a month) in Sorbian on two regional television stations (RBB and MDR TV).

In 2020, despite the loss of the Sorbian language in most of Lusatia, there are some Sorbian traditions and habits that still live on to this day. In February, many people (mostly people from villages, regardless of German or Sorbian ancestry) will still engage in the Sorbian tradition of Zampern (a festive procession). Some Sorbian dishes like boiled potatoes with linseed oil and curd (German: Quark mit Leineöl) are still prevalent and, today, are eaten in other parts of Germany (like Berlin or western Saxony) too.

Spreewälder Gurken (pickled cucumbers potted by using a special mixture of herbs and spices) are often associated with the Sorbs even though the cucumbers themselves were introduced by Dutch migrants, who started to pickle them for higher durability. Soon Sorbs adopted the pickling and might have changed the recipes slightly over time.

The traditional Sorbian costumes are still to be worn in the Spreewald region even though mainly in the tourism industry. Recently, some women started to revive traditional clothes by using them as wedding dresses, even though this practise differs from original traditions.

Demographics in 1900

Percentage of Sorbs:

  • Cottbus (Chóśebuz) (Province of Brandenburg) 55.8%
  • Hoyerswerda (Wojerecy) (Province of Silesia) 37.8%
  • Bautzen (Budyšin) (Kingdom of Saxony) 17.7%
  • Rothenburg, Oberlausitz (Rózbork) (Province of Silesia) 17.2%
  • Kamenz (Kamjenc) (Kingdom of Saxony) 7.1%

Total number: 93,032

The percentage of Sorbs in Lusatia has decreased since the 1900 census due to intermarriage, Germanization, cultural assimilation related to industrialization and urbanization, Nazi suppression and discrimination, ethnocide and the settlement of expelled Germans after World War II, mainly from Lower Silesia and northern Bohemia.

Largest cities

thumb|upright=0.9|[[Cottbus ()]]

thumb|upright=0.9|[[Görlitz ()]]

thumb|upright=0.9|[[Bautzen ()]]

thumb|upright=0.9|[[Żary]]

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! class="unsortable"| !! City (German or Polish) !! Sorbian !! Population (2023) !! class="unsortable" | Country !! Subregion

|-

| align="right" | 1. || Cottbus || Chóśebuz || align="right" | 100.010 || align="center" | || 25px|center Lower Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 2. || Görlitz || Zhorjelc || align="right" | 56.694 || align="center" | || 25px|center Upper Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 3. || Bautzen || Budyšin || align="right" | 38.039 || align="center" | || 25px|center Upper Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 4. || Żary || Žarow || align="right" | 35.198 || align="center" | || 25px|center Lower Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 5. || Hoyerswerda || Wojerecy || align="right" | 31.404 || align="center" | || 25px|center Upper Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 6. || Zgorzelec || Zhorjelc || align="right" | 29.313 || align="center" | || 25px|center Upper Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 7. || Zittau || Žitawa || align="right" | 24.710 || align="center" | || 25px|center Upper Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 8. || Eisenhüttenstadt || Pśibrjog || align="right" | 24.447 || align="center" | || 25px|center Lower Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 9. || Senftenberg || Zły Komorow || align="right" | 23.282 || align="center" | || 25px|center Lower Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 10. || Spremberg || Grodk || align="right" | 21.497 || align="center" | || 25px|center Lower Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 11. || Lubań || Lubań Šlešćina || align="right" | 19.756 || align="center" | || 25px|center Upper Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 12. || Forst || Baršć (Łužyca) || align="right" | 17.721 || align="center" | || 25px|center Lower Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 13. || Kamenz || Kamjenc || align="right" | 16.861 || align="center" | || 25px|center Upper Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 14. || Bogatynia || Bogatynja || align="right" | 16.245 || align="center" | || 25px|center Upper Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 15. || Guben || Gubin || align="right" | 16.210 || align="center" | || 25px|center Lower Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 16. || Gubin || Gubin || align="right" | 15.798 || align="center" | || 25px|center Lower Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 17. || Finsterwalde || Grabin || align="right" | 15.864 || align="center" | || 25px|center Lower Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 18. || Lübbenau/Spreewald || Lubnjow/Błota || align="right" | 15.774 || align="center" | || 25px|center Lower Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 19. || Weißwasser/O.L. || Běła Woda || align="right" | 14.992 || align="center" | || 25px|center Upper Lusatia

|-

| align="right" | 20. || Löbau || Lubij || align="right" | 14.389 || align="center" | || 25px|center Upper Lusatia

|}

Culture

Sights

The region is rich in architecture from various reigns, including Czech, Polish, German and Hungarian, whose styles range from Romanesque and Gothic through Renaissance and Baroque to modern architecture.

There are two major Sorbian museums in Cottbus (Serbski muzej Chóśebuz) and Bautzen (Serbski muzej Budyšin).

In Poland, notable museums include the Muzeum Łużyckie ("Lusatian Museum") in Zgorzelec and the Muzeum Pogranicza Śląsko-Łużyckiego ("Museum of Silesian-Lusatian Borderland") in Żary.

Zgorzelec is home to one of Poland's largest war cemeteries.

The CargoLifter airship hangar that now houses the Tropical Islands Resort is the largest freebearing hall in the world.

The Saurierpark Kleinwelka is Germany's largest dinosaur park.

UNESCO world heritage sites

The Muskau Park in Bad Muskau (Mužakow) and Łęknica is a World Heritage Site and Historic Monument of Poland.

Herrnhut is also a UNESCO world heritage site since 2024.

The Spree Forest as well as the Upper Lusatian Heath and Pond Landscape are UNESCO biosphere reserves.

<gallery mode="packed">

File:Das neue Schloss im Fürst- Pückler-Park.IMG 9438WI.jpg|Schloss Muskau

File:Rakotzbrücke 2021 06.jpg|Rakotz Bridge

File:2023-08 Muskauer Park (24).jpg|Muskau Park

File:20-05-13-Tropical-Islands-0883 1-RalfR.jpg|CargoLifter airship hangar

File:Tropical Islands Draufsicht.JPG|Tropical Islands Resort

File:Im Spreewald 03.jpg|Spree Forest

File:D-SN-Boxberg - Kraftwerk Boxberg.jpg|Findlingspark Nochten (Nochten Glacial Erratic Park)

File:Slawenburg Raddusch (Raduš) 01.JPG|Raddusch Slavic Castle

File:Blick vom Götzen Stein im Zittauer Gebirge...2H1A9275WI.jpg|Olbersdorfer See

File:Zittauer Schmalspurbahn - panoramio.jpg|Zittau–Oybin/Jonsdorf railway

File:Kromlau Asiatische-Brücke Inselteich 20240520 123012.jpg|Kromlau Azalea and Rhododendron Park

File:Erlebnispark "Teichland" (Naturschutzgebiet bei Peitz).jpg|Teichland tower

File:Cottbus 07-2017 img03 Teichland.jpg|Grove of Slavic Gods

File:Lausitzer Seenland 2022.jpg|Lusatian Lake District

File:Kleiner Schwielochsee 03.JPG|Schwielochsee

File:Bautzen Kleinwelka - Saurierpark 01 ies.jpg|Saurierpark Kleinwelka

File:Oybin (21774610218).jpg|Oybin mountain cemetery

File:Blick auf den Berg Oybin in Zittauer Gebirge..2H1A9122WI.jpg|Oybin castle ruin

</gallery>

See also

  • Herrnhut Moravian Church and Nicolaus Zinzendorf
  • Lusatian League
  • Milceni
  • Wends
  • Obotrites

Notes

References

Sources

  • Brie, André: Lausitz – Landschaft mit neuem Gesicht. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2011. .
  • Micklitza, Kerstin and André: HB-Bildatlas Spreewald-Lausitz. 4. aktualisierte Aufl. HB Verlag, Ostfildern 2008. .
  • Micklitza, Kerstin and André: Lausitz – Unterwegs zwischen Spreewald und Zittauer Gebirge. 5. aktualisierte und erweiterte Aufl. Trescher Verlag, Berlin 2016. .
  • Jacob, Ulf: Zwischen Autobahn und Heide. Das Lausitzbild im Dritten Reich. Eine Studie zur Entstehung, Ideologie und Funktion symbolischer Sinnwelten. Hrsg. von der Internationalen Bauausstellung Fürst-Pückler-Land, Großräschen (Zeitmaschine Lausitz), Verlag der Kunst, Dresden in der Verlagsgruppe Husum, Husum 2004. .
  • Vietinghoff-Riesch, Arnold: Der Oberlausitzer Wald – seine Geschichte und seine Struktur bis 1945 [reprint]. Oberlausitzer Verlag, Spitzkunnersdorf 2004. .

Further reading