The Saterland Frisians (german: Saterfriesen, stq, Seelterfräisen) are one of the smallest language groups in Europe. They belong to the eastern branch of the

Frisian people The Frisians are a Germanic ethnic group native to the coastal regions of the Netherlands and northwestern Germany. They inhabit an area known as Frisia and are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen and, in Germany, E ...

and are thus a recognised minority within Germany. They live in the

Saterland Saterland (; Saterland Frisian: , ) is a municipality in the district of Cloppenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated between the cities of Leer, Cloppenburg, and Oldenburg. It is home to Saterland Frisians, who speak Frisian in addit ...

(Saterland Frisian: ''Seelterlound''), a community in the northern part of Cloppenburg district (

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

History

The Saterland Frisians came from

East Frisia East Frisia or East Friesland (german: Ostfriesland; ; stq, Aastfräislound) is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisia ...

, but around 1200 they left their old homeland after several major storm tides and settled the present-day Saterland. There they superimposed themselves on the indigenous, but thinly spread Westphalian-Saxons and assimilated them. The fact that they are clearly counted as Frisians is evinced by a document dated May 1400: together with the other East Frisian estates and rural communities, they signed an agreement with representatives of the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...

that they would no longer afford any more assistance to the

Victual Brothers , native_name_lang = , named_after = french: vitailleurs (provisioners, Hundred Years' War) , image = Vitalienbrueder, Wandmalerei in d, Kirche zu Bunge auf Gotland, gemalt ca. 1405.JPG , image_size = 250px ...

, a band of

pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

active in the North Sea. Also, in a document from that time, the Saterland Frisians were designated as belonging to the seven Frisian coastal lands. The Saterland Frisians are one of the few Frisians who are traditionally

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. During

the Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, they switched to

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

, but were re-Catholicized after the

Peace of Westphalia The Peace of Westphalia (german: Westfälischer Friede, ) is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and brought pea ...

because they belonged to the

diocese of Münster In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

. What is noteworthy about the Saterland Frisians today is that they have preserved the old Frisian language, the last Frisians in East Frisia to do so, Approximately 1,000-2,500 people speak a Frisian dialect interspersed with elements of Lower Saxon known as Saterland Frisian. Research by the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

put the number at 2,250 persons.''Alle zwei Woche stirbt eine Sprache: Drang zur sprachlichen Monokultur''
at deutschlandfunkkultur.de. Retrieved 1 January 2023.

References

Sources

* Annette Heese: ''Das Saterland - Ein Streifzug durch die Geschichte'' Gemeinde Saterland, Saterland 1988, * Hanne Klöver: ''Spurensuche im Saterland: Ein Lesebuch zur Geschichte einer Gemeinde friesischen Ursprungs im Oldenburger Land'', SKN Druck & Verlag GmbH & Co., Saterland 1998, * ''Saterfriesisches Volksleben: Texte u. Zeugnisse aus d. fries. Saterland mit hochdt.'' Übers. / Marron C. Fort d. Rhauderfehn: Ostendorp, 1985, * ''Saterfriesische Stimmen: Texte und Zeugnisse aus d. fries. Saterland mit hochdt.'' Übers. / Marron C. Fort d. Rhauderfehn: Ostendorp, 1990, {{ISBN, 3-921516-48-X German Frisians

History

See also

References

Sources