My Wendish Heritage

(In the interest of full disclosure: If this posting were on Wikipedia it would be headed with the usual warning: “this article needs additional citations for verification”. It is not intended as a scholarly piece: just a bit of personal reflection.)

I seldom speak of my ethnic heritage. When I do, I usually get a blank stare. That is because I claim to be of Wendish heritage. “What in the world is that?” is the most common response. The Wends are an ethnic group primarily identified with living in the Lusatia region of Germany with principal emigrations to Texas and to Australia in the mid-nineteenth century. They are sometimes called Sorbs (not Serbs) and belong to the Slavic people, especially those living along the Germany-Czech border. Always a rather small minority their total population at any one time certainly never reached the half -million mark.

Most sources trace their origin back to 6^th Century. But my personal experience points back to the first century and behind that lies a story. I had finished doing some training for Teacher Effectiveness Training in Switzerland. One of the workshop participants was a brilliant PhD who invited me to spend some time with him at his home in Brugg. While there, he invited me to take a long walk to a very small neighboring village named Windish. Of course that piqued my interest. As we neared the small village we passed some ancient ruins. He told me that this was site of a first century Roman arena. He explained that a very small ethnic tribe there called the Wends had become Christian. The Roman Emperor ordered then to stop worshipping any god other than the emperor. They disobeyed. The emperor sent wild animals to the arena where the Christians were killed. “In fact,” my guide told me, “just recently they discovered some more human remains right next to where we are standing. All of this seems to confirm the   ancient story”

I stood in awe of my earliest ancestors who died for their Christian faith.

Several years after this event I was again in Europe. This time I was a guest of the US Army, leading workshops for Chaplains and religious leaders at the beautiful American forces-controlled site at Bergstesgarten. My co-leader was a wonderful charismatic Father from the Roman Catholic Church.

In my Sunday sermon I told the congregation of how generation after generation of Wends and others preserved that certain heritage down to our generation thus applauding the work of Christian educators

Immediately after my service my Catholic brother who had concurrently been conducting the Catholic services came running. “I just heard the story of the first century Wends,” he told me. “Would you believe!” he exclaimed, “that in the 12th Century, the order of which I am a member was established and was set up “to convert the Wends who by that time had become a sun worshipping non Christian self-identified ethnic group!”

And to complete the story: years later I was again leading a workshop for clergy, this time in Melbourne Australia. After the first session one of the participants came you to me, “Hey, Mel”, he said, “I just learned that you are a Wend. The congregation I serve in Adelaide was started by immigrant Wends in 1845!”

I have drawn several conclusions about my ethnic heritage: My ancestors were often at war and whenever they fought they lost. They were always considered an underclass minority. They took their religion very seriously. They valued family ties. They learned to work hard. They loved to drink beer. Not bad. I am proud to be among their number.

Language

 This little blog is in response to a surprising request from my Granddaughter Christina. She had decided to study the Czech language which took her to St. Charles University in Prague - which took her to studying a small ethic group which is some places are called “the Sorbs”, but which I had always called the Wends. I was among their tribe. Christina wondered how the transitioning was made in the USA from speaking Wendish to German to English.

I made only that last transition. In my early years we spoke German almost exclusively in my home. Most importantly we went to German language church services. We prayed in German. I remember the old gentleman who insisted that God spoke German and he quoted the Genesis passage where God is specifically quoted as speaking in German as God said, “Adam vo bist du?”

I recall that at one point my sisters and I made a conscious, much talked about decision to begin to speak more English. We decided to begin by calling our father by the title of “daddy” having decided that the traditional “papa” was too German and old fashioned.

By that time (in the early 30”s) the Wends who had moved to Texas in the 1850”s had already pretty well made the transition from Wendish to German. That was very understandable. The Wends were already a minority in their native Germany. When they emigrated to America they settled among Germans who were a minority among English speaking settlers. So the transition was made early, although I recall my Father telling me that a Wendish newspaper was still being published while I was a young boy.

World realties also made a difference. In World War I days it was considered by some to be unpatriotic to speak German so English was introduced. However, it wasn’t until World War II that the real push for “English only” became pronounced. I recall a couple incidents from around that time. The first is my father listening on short wave radio to Adolph Hitler with his rants about ethic cleansing and the superiority of the German race. Even though Dad was proud of his ethic background he was alarmed at the prejudice, hatred and arrogance of Adolph Hitler. As a demonstration of where our loyalties deeply lay we spoke more English.

But the transition was also met with resistance, especially in the church. I recall that the Lutheran church had suggested a hymn to be sung each Sunday asking for God’s blessing on our country and guidance for our service people. The song was in English and it was decided to sing it at the close of each Sunday services (which were still conducted in German). The proposal met with strong opposition from a small minority who demonstrated their position by very obviously walking out of the church each Sunday just as that English language hymn began to be sung.

The loyalty of the sons of that congregation to the USA was never doubted. I recall my father  (who was principal of the Lutheran parochial school) writing letter after letter to military officers who asked for his verification of both the loyalty and the proficiency in German of the GIs and sailors. Dad always vouched for that and many of them played significant roles as translators from German to English for our military forces.

In my early elementary school years 1933 to 1941 religion was taught in German. We all learned to read German alongside English. When my grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary I was selected to recite an eloquent dedicatory poem in German.

Meanwhile I never heard anyone speak Wendish unless we went to Serbin Texas where the Wends first settled and which maintained worship services in Wendish until very recently.

Now I have lost most of my German. I found that when I studied to speak Cantonese I would occasionally mix German with Cantonese. Now when I return to Germany it takes a few days to get reacquainted enough to converse in German. And I do not speak a single word of Wendish.