The Kessinians, also known as Kessini, Chizzini, ''Kcynianie'' and ''Chyżanie'', were a medieval West Slavic tribe in what is now northeastern Germany. They inhabited the territory between the Warnow and Recknitz rivers, today split between the districts of Rostock and Vorpommern-Rügen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Their capital and name-giving stronghold was a
gard
Gard () is a department in Southern France, located in the region of Occitanie. It had a population of 748,437 as of 2019;Kessin east of Rostock. Linguistically, they belonged to the Polabian Slavs.
Since the Slavic settlement of the region in the 8th and 9th centuries,Ole Harck, Christian Lübke, Zwischen Reric und Bornhöved: Die Beziehungen zwischen den Dänen und ihren slawischen Nachbarn vom 9. Bis ins 13. Jahrhundert: Beiträge einer internationalen Konferenz, Leipzig, 4.-6. Dezember 1997, Franz Steiner Verlag, 2001, p.13, the area was inhabited by the Veleti. The area became part of the Billung march of the Holy Roman Empire's Duchy of Saxony in 936. In the course of a successful uprising in 983, the Veleti made a transition to the Lutician federation, an alliance of several tribes based in Radgosc (Rethra).Joachim Herrmann, Die Slawen in Deutschland, Akademie-Verlag Berlin, 1985, p.261 The Kessinians emerged as the northernmost of four tribes constituting the core of the federation, with the other three being
Circipanes
Circipania (german: Circipanien, Zirzipanien) was a medieval territory in what is now northeastern Germany. The name derives from Latin ''circum'' (around) and ''Pane'' (the Peene River). The region was enclosed roughly by the upper Recknitz, Treb ...
, Redarians, and Tollensians.
In 1056/57, the alliance broke apart due to internal struggles between these four tribes. The western neighbors of the Kessinians, the Obodrites, took advantage of the resulting civil war and subdued the Kessinians along with the Circipanes.Joachim Herrmann, Die Slawen in Deutschland, Akademie-Verlag Berlin, 1985, pp.365-367 Integrated in the Obodrite state during the following decades, the Kessinians lost their self-determination. However, overlordship of the Obodrite nobility backed by Saxons and
Danes
Danes ( da, danskere, ) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural.
Danes generally regard t ...
was not always accepted, as shown by two expeditions of Saxon duke Lothar von Supplinburg, who subdued the Kessinan prince Dumar and his son in 1114, and another Kessinian prince, Sventipolk, in 1121.Joachim Herrmann, Die Slawen in Deutschland, Akademie-Verlag Berlin, 1985, pp.380 The Circipanes, former Lutician allies of the Kessinians, are reported to have actively participated in the 1114 expedition with 300 light cavalry.
Finally, the Kessinian remains were assimilated by German settlers during the medieval
Ostsiedlung
(, literally "East-settling") is the term for the Early Medieval and High Medieval migration-period when ethnic Germans moved into the territories in the eastern part of Francia, East Francia, and the Holy Roman Empire (that Germans had al ...
, who turned the successor of the Obodrites' state, the Duchy of Mecklenburg, into a German region during the 12th century.