Page "Wends" Paragraph 24

From 12th to 14th century, German colonists were called into the Wend lands and settled there in large numbers, transforming the area from a Slavic to a Germanic culture.

The settlers were called in by local dukes and monasteries to repopulate land devastated in the wars, to cultivate the large woodlands and heavy soils that have not been settled before, and to found cities as part of the " Ostsiedlung " ( German eastward expansion ).