Schleife (; , ) is a municipality of 3,000 in northern
Görlitz district, northeast
Saxony
Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. It is the seat of the ''
Verwaltungsgemeinschaft
Municipal associations (, , ) are statutory corporations or public bodies created by statute in the German federal states of Bavaria, Saxony, Thuringia, and Schleswig-Holstein. In Baden-Württemberg the term ''stipulated municipal association ...
Schleife'' (about 5,000 inhabitants).
The municipality is part of the recognized
Sorbian settlement area in Saxony.
Upper Sorbian has an official status next to German, all villages bear names in both languages.
Administration
During the 1990s, there were municipal reforms in Saxony to make the administration more effective and less expensive. In that time, Schleife was joined by the two villages of Mulkwitz and Rohne, and the ''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Schleife'', based on the parish of Schleife, was established.
The parish of Schleife consists of eight villages, except for Lieskau the ''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Schleife'' is formed by them:
Lieskau is a special case, it is located in the state of
Brandenburg
Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...
. Since 2003 it belongs to the town of
Spremberg.
Sorbian culture
Schleife lies within the Sorbian habitat and marks the centre of the
Schleifer dialect (''Schleifer Dialekt'') the small transitional dialect of the
Upper Sorbian and
Lower Sorbian languages. It is used in Schleife and the surrounding seven villages of the parish of Schleife (''Schleifer Kirchspiel''). Today it is only used by a small fraction of its inhabitants but there are efforts to reestablish it as a second mother tongue. The language is taught in one of the kindergartens (''
Witaj'' project) and in local school.
Old Slavic traditions and festivals are celebrated - by individuals and by groups and organizations like the ''Sorbisches Folkloreensemble Schleife''.
In the municipality, there is a museum of the Sorbs.
Notable Natives
*
Kito Lorenc: Sorbian-German writer, lyric poet and translator.
References
External links
Official website(German)
Website of the "Sorbisches Folkloreensemble Schleife"(German)
{{Authority control
Populated places in Görlitz (district)