Travelling exhibition “Wendish churches between Löbau and Lieberose”  in Guben

Wendish churches refer to Slavic natives in Saxony and Brandenburg. With the Reformation the Sorbian / Wends received the possibility to hold church services in their mother tongue. In the tows they got their own churches, often branch churches of German city churches. In some places they were called country churches since they served the surrounding villages. Mostly they were used only for preaching services. But communion ceremonies, baptisms and marriages took place in the main church. The first translations of Lutheran writings and chorales were produced for ecclesiastical use. Today many Lusatians are no longer aware of the Sorbian / Wendish roots of their homeland. The photographer Jürgen Matschie went to search for the former sites of the Wendish churches in the Lusatia. The traveling exhibition is part of a funding project of the cultural area Upper Lusatia-Lower Silesia within the exhibition “Five Centuries. The Sorbs and the Reformation” from 2017.