Editing Wends (section)

==Term==
[[File:Germanische und slavische Volksstaemme zwischen Elbe und Weichsel.jpg|thumb|300px|right|''[[Sorbian March|Limes sorabicus]]'': the [[Sorbian settlement area]] bordering [[East Francia]] on a map of [[medieval Germany]] (''Germanische und slavische Volksstämme zwischen Elbe und Weichsel'', 1869)]]

According to one theory, [[Germanic peoples]] first applied this name to the [[Vistula Veneti|ancient Veneti]].
For the [[North Germanic peoples|medieval Scandinavians]], the term Wends (''Vender'') meant Slavs living near the southern shore of the [[Baltic Sea]] (''Vendland''), and the term was therefore used to refer to [[Polabian Slavs]] like the [[Obotrites]], [[Rani (Slavic tribe)|Rugian Slavs]], [[Veleti]]/[[Lutici]], and [[Pomeranians (Slavic tribe)|Pomeranian tribes]].

For people living in the medieval Northern [[Holy Roman Empire]] and its precursors, especially for the [[Saxons]], a Wend (''Wende'') was a Slav living in the area west of the River [[Oder]], an area later entitled ''[[Germania Slavica]]'', settled by the Polabian Slav tribes (mentioned above) in the north and by others, such as the [[Sorbs]] and the [[Milceni]], further south (see [[Sorbian March]]).

The Germans in the south used the term ''Winde'' instead of ''Wende'' and applied it, just as the Germans in the north, to Slavs they had contact with; e.g., the Polabians from ''[[Bavaria Slavica]]'' or the [[Slovenes]] (the names [[Windic March]], [[Slovenska Bistrica|Windisch Feistritz]], [[Windischgraz]], or Windisch Bleiberg near [[Ferlach]] still bear testimony to this historical denomination). The same term was sometimes applied to the neighboring region of [[Slavonia]], which appears as Windischland in some documents prior to the 18th century.

Following the 8th century, the [[Frankish kingdom|Frankish kings]] and their successors organised nearly all Wendish land into [[marches]]. This process later turned into the series of [[Crusades]]. By the 12th century, all Wendish lands had become part of the Holy Roman Empire. In the course of the [[Ostsiedlung]], which reached its peak in the 12th to 14th centuries, this land was settled by [[Germans]] and reorganised.

Due to the process of [[Germanisation|assimilation following German settlement]], many Slavs west of the Oder adopted the [[German culture]] and [[German language|language]]. Only some rural communities which did not have a strong admixture with Germans and continued to use [[West Slavic languages]] were still termed ''Wends''. With the gradual decline of the use of these local Slavic tongues, the term ''Wends'' slowly disappeared, too.

Some sources claim that in the 13th century there were actual historic people called Wends or [[Vends]] living as far as northern [[Latvia]] (east of the Baltic Sea) around the city of [[Cēsis|Wenden]]. [[Henry of Livonia]] (Henricus de Lettis) in his 13th-century Latin chronicle described a tribe called the ''Vindi''.

Today, only one group of ''Wends'' still exists: the [[Lusatia]]n [[Sorbs]] in present-day Eastern Germany, with international diaspora.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://texaswendish.org/museum/|title = Museum|date = 29 January 2015}}</ref>