Schleife (ˈʃlaɪfə), Uppersorbian Slepo, is a municipality of 3,000 in northern Görlitz

Görlitz (district)

Görlitz is a district in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is named after its capital city Görlitz. It borders the district of Bautzen, the state Brandenburg, Poland and the Czech Republic.- History :...

 district, northeast Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It is the seat of the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Schleife (about 5,000 inhabitants).

Administration

During 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:

German name	Sorbian name	municipality
Groß Düben Groß Düben Groß Düben is a municipality in the district Görlitz, Saxony, Germany....	Dźewin	Groß Düben
Halbendorf	Brězowka	Groß Düben
Lieskau	Lěsk
Mühlrose	Miłoraz	Trebendorf
Mulkwitz	Mułkecy	Schleife
Rohne	Rowne	Schleife
Schleife	Slepo	Schleife
Trebendorf Trebendorf Trebendorf, , is a municipality in the district Görlitz, Saxony, Germany....	Trjebin	Trebendorf

Lieskau is a special case, it is located in the state of Brandenburg

Brandenburg

Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...

. Since 2003 it belongs to the town of Spremberg

Spremberg

Spremberg is a village near to the city of Hoyerswerda in the Spree-Neiße district of Brandenburg, Germany. The village was first mentioned in 1956. The village alone has only 9,588 Inhabitants, the hole region has 21,361 Inhabitants-Geography:...

.

Sorbian culture

Schleife lies within the Sorbian habitat and marks the centre of the smallest dialect of Uppersorbian language, the Schleifer Dialekt. 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.

External links

• Official website (German)
• Website of the "Sorbisches Folkloreensemble Schleife" (German)