#ostsiedlung

[diemelusine]

Putna Monastery, Romania.

[mapsontheweb]

Ostsiedlung: The Germanic eastward expansion which lasted from 800-1400

[mapsontheweb]

Ostsiedlung — German colonization of the east

Ostsiedlung is the German word for the colonization of Europe beyond the boundaries of the already majority German areas.Between 1100 and 1350 eastern Europe was transformed by a wave of German immigration (the Ostsiedlung), which moved the eastern boundaries of the German-speaking world hundreds of miles beyond its former limit on the rivers Elbe and Saale. In some areas, such as Brandenburg, this new settlement came in the wake of conquest by German lords and knights, but in many other regions, such as Pomerania and Silesia, it was local Slav princes who encouraged German settlement. National antagonism was not important. The new settlers wanted land and the local rulers were happy to grant it and to profit, directly or indirectly, from the taxes, rents and tithes flowing from the new villages

[thelastsummoner]

Prussia 800-1400 AD

The Old Prussians withstood many attempts at conquest preceding the Teutonic Knights. In the 13th Century Konrad of Masovia tried for years to conquer Prussia and called in the Crusades. The pope brought in the Teutonic Knights who created the Teutonic Order State through crusades from 1230 onward. They set up the Ordensburg Marienburg (today called Malbork) as the centre of Prussia. The Order's conquest of pagan Old Prussia included the historic regions of Courland, Gotland, Livonia, Neumark, Pomerelia and Samogitia (in the modern countries of Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden). The military conquest paved the way for German colonization (Ostsiedlung) and the promulgation of laws modeled on German towns (e.g., Magdeburg and Lubeck).