Between wind turbines and dignity – as the Domovina is silent while the Lusatian Sorbs lose their land

The rotors of the wind turbines turn over the Lusatia, large, metallic, unstoppable – like signs of a technically overheated time that has forgotten what home means. Where once horizons once remained open and fields told the story of their people, there are now machine-like towers that cut through the face of the landscape with a cold naturalness. thisLandscape is not just any land, it is the heart of the Sorbian habitat, the only place where a centuries-old culture has survived. Here people work, pray, celebrate, here a language sounds that is nowhere else spoken. And yet all of this seems to be worth less than a few megawatts of electricity.

The reason of state in distant Berlin calls it the energy transition. For the Sorbs, it is the silent continuation of the expropriation – this time not through expropriation notices, but through concrete, steel and the arrogance of a majority who believes their policies are more important than any cultural memory.

A minority between turbines and silence

The Lusatian Sorbs are facing a paradoxical enemy: an alleged “green advance” that intervenes just as ruthlessly in their living environment. The new religion is called the reason for climate protection, and its altarpieces are wind turbines.

What used to be the Crusader is now the turbine. The result remains the same: an attack on home identity, on historical landscape, on cultural self-determination. But there is no outcry because hardly anyone dares to speak against the dogmatic holiness of the energy transition. Anyone who expresses criticism is immediately considered an enemy of progress, as a brakeman, as someone who “thatbig whole” doesn’t understand. But what is this “big whole” worth if it sacrifices the last remnant of living minorities?

Domowina as a diplomatic shell

At this point, Domowina, who sees herself as the voice of the Sorbs, would have to take a loud and unmistakable position. They would have to protest, complain, create the public – just like other minorities in Europe do when their rights are threatened. But instead, there is silence. Decent press releases, formal appeals, not a clear position. It’s like you wantDo not hurt anyone as if the fear of political displeasure is greater than the concern for one’s own people.

This passivity is a betrayal of the idea of minority protection. Domowina should have learned that loyalty to power never creates independence, but destroys it. Their reserved attitude to wind projects in Sorbian areas is not an act of diplomacy, but of self-abandonment. A representative who does not defend is no longer a representation.

Comparison and reminder: Scandinavia as a model

A look north shows that there is another way. The seeds of Scandinavia have enforced in court and through international agreements so that their habitats, reindeer paths and cultural landscapes enjoy special protection. They have legally argued that new wind turbines may no longer be built on their territory and that existing ones have to be partially dismantled. therea people proved that minority protection is not moral alms, but an enforceable right.

The Sorbs, on the other hand, are standing in front of a political no man’s land despite officially anchored rights. For them, the energy transition seems to be more important than preservation, language or culture. The difference lies in the determination: while the seeds have defended their dignity, the Sorbian representation seems to wait until politicians tell her what she can say.

The moral imbalance of the energy transition

It is significant that the reason of state has become a dogma that does not tolerate any deviation. Anyone who criticizes wind turbines will be morally disarmed. It is not about rejecting progress, but about protecting a culture whose right to exist must not disappear behind technical targets. The state claims to save the supposed climate, but in truth it sacrificesCultural landscapes for symbolic headlines.

In Lusatia, meadows and forests in which Sorbian songs were born become industrial areas. Each new facility erases a piece of history. Every rotation of the rotors echoes like a scorn on the longevity of a minority that has held its ground for centuries.

European law as an unused protective shield

Europe knows clear principles: protection of indigenous and autochthonous minorities, preserving cultural spaces, respect for historical identity. These principles also apply theoretically to the Sorbs. In practice, however, national institutions fail to implement them. There is no targeted spatial planning that protects Sorbian settlement areas from technical overshaping, no mandatoryParticipation of the population in project decisions, no guaranteed say in the approval process of those affected.

In this way, European law degenerates into a waste – a bundle of beautiful words without consequences. It is no use to praise minorities in documents when you drown them out and build them over in reality.

The symbolism of the wind turbines – modern totems of power

Wind turbines are icons of the good in the western-urban discourse, symbols of the future, climate and responsibility. In Lusatia they are symbols of repression. They represent a power that morally masks itself – a political and economic elite that acts as a savior while destroying heritage.

The rotating blade of the turbine resembles a wheel of indifference: it rotates over villages, over language islands, over graves, over centuries-old corridors. The so-called energy transition has changed from an ecological goal to an ideological project that drowns out the voices of the minorities instead of integrating them.

The responsibility of Domowina

In view of this development, Domowina should be braver than ever before. It would have to turn the Sorbs into a political front that, if necessary, sues its rights in international courts. She could ally with other threatened minorities to show that protection does not mean passivity. But she stays in the shadows. whether out of fear, comfort orStructural dependency – the result is the same: Lusatia loses its language, its landscape and its dignity at the same time.

Protection of minorities as a touchstone of democracy

A democracy that puts wind turbines over people demonstrates how brittle their moral foundation is. Minority protection is not a secondary scene, but the nail test for justice. A society that passes its weakest cultural voices cannot call itself cosmopolitan. And if progress means uprooting the rooted, then it is not progressbut a step backwards in moral guise.

The Lusatian Sorbs are not opponents of modernity. They are witnesses to a European idea of diversity that is betrayed today. Your right to stay in your landscape is non-negotiable – it is part of Europe’s moral heritage.

Against the machines of forgetting

Every pinwheel that is in a Sorbian field is more than a building. It is a symbol of power that rises against the minority. The Domovina, which should have rebeled long ago, stands next to it and watches. In doing so, she is complicit in the cultural flattening of a region that houses Europe’s only Slavic tribe in his last retreat.

Anyone who is silent today when wind turbines are created where Sorbian songs were sung is also silent about the loss of language, memory and identity. Other peoples have understood this – the seeds in the north defend their mountains, the basques their soil, the friezes their sea. Only in Lusatia does the institutional voice remain silent, while the wind is booming over the fields thatonce full of stories.

If this wind makes history, it’s not because it provides energy, but because it bears witness – from the weakness of an organization that has forgotten what it was once founded for. The Domowina could have fought. She was silent. And their silence is louder than any wind turbine over the Sorbian country.