History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 279

region.The presence and impact of some German merchants, craftsmen and slaves
was negligible. Neither there were any real attempts to convert Slavs to Christianity.
In the tenth century, when the German medieval state reached its politcal peak, the
Germans made significant advance into Polabian territory.This was a result of
deliberate policies of the Saxon dynasty. As easterners and Saxons they had paid
much more attention to the eastern affairs.During that period, German administration,
civil and ecclasiastic, was established east of the Elbe and Saale rivers, practicaly for
a first time. Still, the German colonisation in the region was on an insignificant
scale.In Western Sorbian lands between Saale and Mulde, some Germans settled
mainly in towns but they formed a fraction of the population. The Slavic revolt of 983
stoped German penetration in the north, among the Veleti and Obodrites, nor in the
Sorbian lands had German colonisation made any significant progress.
The process of germanisation of the region did not really began until the middle of the
twelfth century. It took a different form and different pace depending on the area,
tribaland social group involved.
There were two elements involved in the
germanization of newly acquired territories: colonisation by German settlers and
germanization of the local Slavs.Let us discuss colonization first.

COLONIZATION

In the 12th century an emigration movement to the East, to Germany, Hungary, Poland. Was
very common. This movement was called "Urge to the East", in German "Drang nach Osten".
The port of Bremen is of Flemish origin. We had many Flemish villages in Saxony.

The scale of Germanic colonisation of Polabian lands presents a real difficulty.Any
estimation of population movements in Middle Ages is highly speculative.This leaves a
large margin for interpretation of scarce data.Estimations, of that type, are also quite
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