Wends

Wends is a historical exonym used by German-speaking peoples to describe several West Slavic populations that lived in Central Europe from the early Middle Ages onward. The term covered communities in what are now eastern Germany, northern Poland, and parts of the Czech Republic, and it does not correspond to a single self-designation used by the groups themselves.

Among the groups commonly associated with the Wends were the Veleti (also called Wilzi) and the Liutici/Lutici (including the Obotrites) of the Elbe and Baltic littoral, as well as the Sorbs (Lusatian Wends) in what is now eastern Germany. The Sorbs comprise two main subgroups, Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian, and they preserve a continuous West Slavic linguistic and cultural tradition in Lusatia. In Pomerania and nearby regions, Slavic communities were also described as Wends by their German rulers. Over the centuries, German eastward expansion (Ostsiedlung) and political changes led to the assimilation or displacement of many Wends, with various polities fading as control shifted to German, Polish, or Czech authorities.

Today the term Wends is primarily of historical interest. The living legacy of the Wends survives most notably in the Sorbian languages, which remain minority languages in Germany with official recognition and bilingual education in Lusatia, and in related cultural traditions and toponyms associated with Sorbian communities.