Link to the Wendish Society

Before German unification in 1871, the Kingdom of Prussia was the most powerful of the many independent German states. Old Prussia refers to former Prussian provinces that are now mostly in non-German countries.

Through the middle ages and even into relatively modern times, German-speaking areas consisted of many small states that were loosely orgnaised as the Holy Roman Empire. Villiages changed hands of ownership as different minor dynasties rose to power and died out. The Second German Empire did not begin until 1871 as a number of the states unified to form Germany.  The previous state based system has meant that there are no truely national achieves. German borders have also changed over the years, with expansion and subsequent contraction as a result of losing both 20th centuary world wars.  The growth of the Prussian state, from where the Schorback's (Sonntags and Janetzki's) originate, in the 18th and 19th centuries was a contributing part of the disunity that affected Germany. This and the other states (or provinces or dutchies), all had different laws, religions, kingdoms.  The take home from this, in finding the our ancestors, the view of modern Germany was very different to the 21st geography. 

Conflicts between Protestants and Catholics persisted throughout the the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, culminating in the Thirty Years’ War, which began in 1618. It was tipped off by the Bohemian Revolt of Protestants against Catholic Habsburg rule. The 30 years war resulted in the destruction of large amounts of historical documents. Contrary to populat believe, WWI and WWII had only a very minor effect on document destruction.

Emerging from the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48) , the Lutheran and Reformed (Calvinist) Churches were recognized by the Holy Roman Empire. The terms of the Peace of Westphalia permitted the ruler of each of the empire’s principalities to choose the faith for himself and his subjects: Lutheranism, Reformed, or Catholicism. On the Protestant side, some chose Lutheran, some Reformed, and some created united congregations. The Prussians who dominated power in the late 1800s and early 1900s were Lutherans, but Catholicism remained strong in the south and west of Germany as it does today.

Great Northern War (1700-1721)

A cartoon that neatly explains the Great Northern War and the likely origin of the Swedish DNA (and resulting blonde hair) among the Schorback's.

1697 Sweden passed it's Kingship to an ambitious 15 year old Charles XII . At the time Sweden was a strong military power consisting of modern-day Sweden, Finland and other sections of Russia, Latvia and Germany.  Sweden was being attacked by multiple forces including Tsar Peter the Great from Russia, Frederick IV of Denmark-Norway and Augustus II of Saxony-Poland-Lithuania. The Swedish forces ralied and defended their attacks. Charles proceded to invade Poland-Lithuania, currently under the governence of King Augustus II the Strong. Charles successfully pushed through the north, and into Krakow, Poland. The Swedish forces held firm, even against retaliation from Russian and Polish-Lithuanian forces. Defeated, Augustus signed a treaty and gave up his Kingship. As Sweden pushed deeped into Russia the

Battle of Narva in 1700 saw Swedish forces break Russian lines despite being horrbly outnumbered.

King Charles XII of Sweden, having broken Russia's major force continued to war for the next 6 years. Winning nearly every engagement.  In 1706, the Swedes forged North deep into Russia with the intent to take Moscow.  However, as they pushed even deeper, their forces because overextended.  This caused the supply lines, now with insufficient millitary protection to be overrun. Eventually they were pushed back, unable to keep winning agaist entrenched Russians and the Great Frost of 1709 the coldest winter in 500 years of European history and retreated. A stray bullet killed King Charles hastening the retreat. The Russian forces kept pushing them back, until the only territories they retained were of the Sweden Motherland and Finland. 

Ravenstein's Atlas des Deutschen Reichs from 1883. A detailed map during the 2nd Reich

France and the Holy Roman Empire were constant rivals throughout the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Baroque period. Despite this, the balance of power in western and central Europe was relatively unchanged until the turn of the nineteenth century when Napoleon Bonaparte’s First French Empire was able to conquer much of the lands of the Holy Roman Empire and subjugate them as client states. In 1806, Napoleon formed the Confederation of the Rhine, thus ending the thousand-year history of the Holy Roman Empire. This situation only lasted for about seven years, however, as Napoleon was driven out of Germany in 1813 by a coalition of European powers (including much of the former Holy Roman Empire) at the very deadly Battle of Leipzig.

Emerging from French control, 39 different German-speaking states created the German Confederation, with rivals Prussia and Austria its most dominant members.

Although briefly interrupted in 1848 and 1849 by the short-lived German Empire, it lasted until 1866 when Prussia and its allies defeated Austria and its allies in the Seven Weeks’ War

This is how Germany looked in 1860 Map  Prussia created the North German Confederation that the southern German states, namely Bavaria, Württemberg, Hesse-Darmstadt, and Baden, joined four years later after witnessing the Prussian leader Otto von Bismarck’s success in the Franco-Prussian war of late 1870

German border changes after world war I.

Northeast Germanic

Your genetic signature spreads across the eastern regions of Germany and out into Poland in the locations that were once settled by populations of Germanic origin. Your genetic signature embodies intertwined and often turbulent history between these two areas. 

Across eastern and northern Europe, including the area that encompasses northeastern Germany today, a Bronze Age group populated the lands. These people were a part of the Corded Ware Culture and were one of the first Indo-European groups to travel out across Central Europe. Today, the culture is defined by archaeologists by the intricate cord-like patterns that decorate the pottery they created. It is thought that both the Germanic and Slavic language families were disseminated across Europe by the Corded Ware culture, who spoke a language that is an ancestor to both of these tongues.

Your genetic signature is not confined to northeastern Germany, but also spreads out across the western regions of Poland. This is due to the interconnected history between the two regions, which dates back over many millennia from Indo-European migrations to 13th Century German colonisations. During medieval times, Poland covered a vast expanse of land with population groups scattered across the region. These groups included those of German origin who had settled further east across the polish territory. It was not until the 20th Century that German territories in Poland (then Prussia) were revoked.

The idea of a single population origin for this region has been dismissed in the midst of anthropological, archaeological and genetic insights into the origins of the Germanic populations. Instead, your genetic signature has been influenced by numerous ancient and historic migrations from across the globe. In particular, ancient migrations from the eastern European Steppe and the Middle East, as well as ongoing migrations from within neighbouring European regions and beyond. The recolonisation of Europe was the first major migration into the Eastern Germanic region after the Ice Age came to an end. People moved out from areas that had a slightly milder climate during the Ice Age, known as “refugias”. The people that moved towards the areas that make up your genetic signature would likely have moved out from the Franco Caribbean Refugia in Southern France/Northern Spain. However genetic research also suggests a migration from a Near Eastern refugia may have contributed to the recolonisation of Europe  (Pala et al., 2012). 

A significant migratory event occurred some millennia later, around 6,000 years ago. This migration marked the move towards the Neolithic as people, ideas and cultures dispersed across Europe. The people migrated with new knowledge of agricultural techniques. The initial movements of farmers came from the Near East, with people travelling into Europe via Anatolia. This movement was once called the Neolithic Revolution, but in recent years it is understood as more of a gradual move towards farming. This is especially evident in Poland, where the genetics of farming populations and hunter-gatherer populations have been analysed. It was discovered that the existing hunter-gatherer populations in Poland lived alongside the agricultural populations who migrated from the Middle East. Although admixture between these populations occurred, DNA evidence suggests that co-existing as two separate groups were common between both cultures until the early Bronze Age (Fernandes et al., 2018). 

The Corded Ware culture spread out across the entirety of the location of your genetic signature during the Bronze Age. Moving from the east and spreading west, people belonging to the Corded Ware culture would have initially reached Poland before spreading further west into Germany, connecting these two regions thousands of years ago. The Corded Ware cultures origins are still somewhat a mystery, however, advances in genetic analyses are helping to put the pieces together.  Genetic and linguistic studies suggest that the Corded Ware culture descended from the mysterious Steppe group called the Yamnaya (Haak et al., 2015). The Yamnaya were an Indo-European culture that expanded rapidly into Europe from the Eurasian steppe. This migration radically changed the language, customs, and genetic makeup of the European continent. As the descendants of the Yamnaya (the Corded Ware) travelled out across Europe, they not only had an impact on the DNA of the existing populations they met there but also on the language of the Eastern Germanic region. It is thought that the Indo-European language spoken by the Corded Ware Culture is the root ancestral language to many European languages today (Haak et al., 2015).

Once the largest Kingdom in Europe, Poland had no natural boundaries that could have led to the restriction of movement to and from Germany. The only restrictions, therefore, would have been territorial, rather than physical, such as from mountain ranges or water bodies. Although the relationship between Germany and Poland has been evident for many millennia, the Middle Ages reflect a notable time for Germanic occupation in Poland. Populations of Germanic origin moved eastward and settled across Poland and beyond. Poland quickly became one of the most ethnically diverse locations in Europe at this time and integrated both genetically and culturally with the Germanic settlers. Germanic groups went on to settle further Polish locations due to unrest after the Mongol invasions. Such invasions put pressure on Germanic communities, forcing them eastward in search of labour. Some Germanic groups travelled eastward to populate vacant lands and settle peacefully. Others were invited by Polish Princes into polish towns. In some cases, the settlements were less peaceful, with the indigenous Polish populations being forcibly eradicated from their homeland  (Rady, 1999).

The first people to reach the regions of your genetic signature after the last Ice Age came to an end (around 11,500 years ago)  would have been very hardy nomads, meaning they moved from place to place regularly. They faced a cold and testing fight for survival as the Ice Age came to a close, with few resources and cold weather. They would have hunted animals that were common at the time, including red deer and boar. These animals provided a source of energy in the form of meat for these people, who also foraged for nuts, seeds, plants, berries, and even bark in times of food scarcity.

Moving into the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age, it has been shown through genetics that the Corded Ware populations influenced the genetic landscape of the Eastern Germanic region and that this group descended from the Yamnaya. The Yamnaya were nomadic animal herders and were amongst some of the earliest people in history to domesticate and ride horses, although they may not have been the first people to do so (de Barros Damgaard et al., 2018).

This name ‘Corded Ware’ was given to the descendants of the Yamnaya by archaeologists, due to the elaborate and intricate cord-like patterns found on much of their pottery (Bågenholm 1995). It is believed that these were some of the first Europeans to start consuming dairy in their diets (Itan et al. 2009). We know this from the chemical analysis of the shards of pottery that have been found (Roffet-Salque et al. 2016). It is likely that this is also where the gene that allows the majority of Europeans today to be able to digest lactose developed (Itan et al. 2009). It is thought that both the Germanic and Slavic language families were disseminated across Europe by the Corded Ware culture, who spoke a language that is an ancestor to both of these tongues (Renfrew 1989). The Corded Ware culture were an Indo-European group of people, who were not necessarily unified as one group, but were unified by their burial practices, pottery style, and stone axes. Across the area in which they were found (a broad swath of European territory which includes Germany, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe) there were many different sub-cultures, each with their own customs, ways of life, unique rituals, and distinctive archaeological records that help distinguish them today.

During the Middle Ages, the connections between Germany and Poland were at their peak. Some Germanic populations settled peacefully, but unrest was evident in many locations. Many Germanic people settled in Poland in search of work due to unrest in Germany from Mongol invasions. People moved westward and searched for labour based jobs in order to feed their families, whereas others were more forceful, pushing out indigenous Polish populations. As more Germanic groups settled across what we now call Poland, the language and culture of Polish populations were becoming increasingly Germanic, with German customs and language became more commonplace