Paper short abstract:

In 2014, the social customs of the Lusatian Sorbs were included in the german inventory of ICH. The paper traces both discourses of uncertainty and gouvernance within the Sorbian community, as well as dynamics in dealing with the awarded heritage due to unexpected changes of societal conditions.

Paper long abstract:

In 2014, the social customs and festivals of the Lusatian Sorbs were one of the first forms of cultural expression to be included in Germany's Nationwide Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The application was steered and submitted by the Domowina, the umbrella organisation of Sorbian associations. Already in the application process, there was a discourse within the Sorbian community about the possible effects of an entry, which was strongly characterised by uncertainties regarding the marketing of Sorbian cultural heritage and the secularisation of Christian festivals. In terms of minority policy, the entry became unforeseeably relevant now in the context of structural changes in Lusatia due to the phase-out of lignite-fired power generation. Since 2019, regional development projects were financed with structural change funding under the title "valorisation of intangible cultural heritage in the German-Slavic context". As a result, a Sorbian non-profit limited company was founded, an existing network of regional museums and heritage centres was further developed and broad inventories of Sorbian cultural heritage were launched.

The presentation will show whether and how these unexpected changes of societal conditions influenced the handling of the awarded cultural heritage and how this affected existing governance structures in the Sorbian community. By means of the evaluation of a mainly questionnaire-based inventory of customs and festivals in a sub-region of Lusatia carried out in 2020/21, we will examine whether these dynamic developments have meanwhile also had an impact on the practice of customs and on the perception of uncertainties at the local level.