La question sorabe dans l’Allemagne contemporaine

This article recalls how the laws define the status of the Sorbian population in Germany and examines how it works today. The author takes also account of the influence of the mentalities on the everyday practice. The status was mainly inspired from the idea developped in the GDR, but had to be adapted to the instutions of the Federal Republic. The support of the German state was maintained as an annual subvention, but a new distribution was shared between the Federation and the two Länder of Saxony and Brandenburg. We may note in the 20 past years a constant evolution in 3 fields : a) the sucessive constitutions of Saxony and Brandenburg were each time an improvement in the items concerning the Sorbs, b) a new institution, the Foundation For The Sorbian People, was given the function of collecting the subsidies and managing the budget, c) the Union of the Sorbian associations, the Domowina, which had been founded in 1912, decided to change its statutes and kept its position and its activities on a regional level. The Domowina’s practical role, although not official, leads it to negotiate in permanence in order to limit the progression of the lignite mine and prevent its destroying the villages. Therefore an opening debate among the Sorbian community : would it not be better to create a political organ able to present its own candidates in order to have effective representatives elected ? The status of cultural autonomy is a trump, but two problems impede a favourable evolution : on one side a certain German reluctance in everyday life, on the other side a certain Sorbian timidity in its dealings with the authorities that is inherited from bad experiences in the past