'' of Raduš near
Vetschau (Wětošow) Up to the
late medieval times, the region was known just as
Lusatia (proper), gaining the
Lower designation in the 15th century, when the neighboring region to the south (
Land of Bautzen, previously the land of Slavic
Milceni) became known as the
Upper Lusatia. In
early medieval sources, Lusatia (proper) was initially mentioned as land of Slavic Lusatians, and later as a
march (frontier region). Thus in the second half of the 10th century,
Widukind's Chronicle mentions
Lusiki, while
Thietmar's Chronicle from the beginning of the 11th century mentions
Lusici or
Lusizi, and also
Luzici or
Luidizi. According to those sources, sometime during the early 960s, Slavic Lusatians were attacked by count
Gero I, commander of the
Saxon frontier regions, who forced them to subdue and pay tribute to German king and emperor
Otto I (936-973). In 983, the
Slavic revolt broke out in neighboring regions to the north, but German rule over Slavic Lusatians and their southern neigbors Milceni endured until 1002, when their regions were captured by the
Polish duke
Bolesław I the Brave, who took the town of
Bautzen () and all regions up to the river
Elbe, and also captured the city of
Meissen () with all territories up to
White Elster river. German count
Gero II, a frontier commander (
margrave) in the region, fell fighting Poles in 1015, and thus all lands of Slavic Lusatians and Milceni remained under Polish rule under the
Treaty of Bautzen (1018), and further until 1031-1031, when they were recaptured by Germans and reincorporated into marches: Lusatians to the
Saxon Ostmark, known from that time also as the
March of Lusatia, while Milceni were reattached to the
March of Meissen. In 1136,
Conrad the Great of the
House of Wettin, margrave of Meissen, also received the March of Lusatia. In the early 13th century, Lusatia (proper) was either entirely or partly, reintegrated with Poland under
Henry the Bearded. Later on, it was once again lost to the Wettin dynasty, who ruled it until in 1303 it was acquired by the
Ascanian margraves of
Brandenburg. For centuries, from as early as the Middle Ages, trade flourished, and several important trade routes ran through Lower Lusatia, connecting German states in the west, Poland in the east and Bohemia in the south. In 1319, the southern portion of Lower Lusatia with the towns of
Żary and
Komorów Zły (now , ) became part of the
Duchy of Jawor, the southwesternmost duchy of fragmented
Piast-ruled Poland. In the northern part, in 1319,
Gubin was unsuccessfully besieged by King
John of Bohemia, In 1324, the northern part passed to the
House of Wittelsbach. From 1364, entire Lower Lusatia was ruled by the Duchy of Jawor-Świdnica, and after the death of Duke
Bolko II the Small it passed to the
Kingdom of Bohemia (Czechia). , early 18th century map. In 1367 Elector
Otto V sold it to Emperor
Charles IV of Luxembourg who incorporated Lower Lusatia into the
Bohemian Crown. Charles' father King
John of Bohemia had already acquired the adjacent territory to the south around
Bautzen and
Görlitz, which became known as
Upper Lusatia. The former Lordship of
Cottbus was acquired by Brandenburg in 1455 and remained an
exclave within the Bohemian kingdom. Both
Lusatias formed separate Bohemian crown lands under the rule of the
Luxembourg,
Jagiellon and—from 1526—
Habsburg dynasties. In the course of the
Reformation the vast majority of the population turned
Protestant. The Bohemian era came to an end when Emperor
Ferdinand II of Habsburg ceded the Lusatias to Elector
John George I of Saxony under the 1635
Peace of Prague in return for his support in the
Thirty Years' War; thus the lands returned to the House of Wettin. One of the two main routes connecting
Warsaw and
Dresden ran through the region in the 18th century and Kings
Augustus II the Strong and
Augustus III of Poland often traveled the route. Numerous Polish dignitaries also traveled through Lower Lusatia on several occasions, and some
Polish nobles owned estates in Lusatia. A distinct remnant of the region's ties to Poland are the 18th-century
mileposts decorated with the
coat of arms of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth located in various towns in the region. Polish-Sorbian contacts increased in that period. With the
Age of Enlightenment, the Sorbian national revival began and resistance to Germanization emerged. As the
Kingdom of Saxony had sided with
Napoleon it had to cede Lower Lusatia to
Prussia in the 1815
Congress of Vienna, whereafter the territory became part of the
Province of Brandenburg and the
Province of Saxony. One of the main escape routes for insurgents of the unsuccessful Polish
November Uprising from partitioned Poland to the
Great Emigration led through
Lübben and
Luckau. In the interbellum, the Poles and Sorbs in Germany closely cooperated as part of the
Association of National Minorities in Germany, established at the initiative of the
Union of Poles in Germany in 1924. There were still notable Polish communities in Lower Lusatia, such as
Klettwitz (, ). During
World War II, the Germans established and operated the Stalag III-B,
Oflag III-C and Oflag 8 and
prisoner-of-war camps for Polish,
French, Belgian, Serbian, British, Australian, New Zealander, Soviet, American, Dutch and
Italian POWs with several
forced labour subcamps in the region, several Nazi prisons with multiple forced labour subcamps, including in
Luckau and a prison solely for women in
Cottbus, and several
subcamps of the
Gross-Rosen concentration camp, the prisoners of which included Jewish women and Polish, French, Soviet, Croatian and Czech men. During the war, the Poles postulated that after the defeat of Germany, the Sorbs should be allowed free national development either within the borders of Poland or
Czechoslovakia, or as an independent Sorbian state in alliance with Poland. With the implementation of the
Oder–Neisse line by the 1945
Potsdam Conference, the lands east of the
Neisse river became again part of Poland, and the remaining German population was
expelled by the Soviet-installed Communist authorities in accordance with the
Potsdam Agreement, whereas the western part became part of also Communist
East Germany. ==Coat of arms==