Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy described a people called Veneti living along the Baltic coast during the first century of the Common Era. Germanic tribes later adopted this ancient name to describe Slavic groups moving into Germania Slavica between the Elbe and Oder rivers.
In 983 many Wend tribes joined a massive rebellion against Holy Roman Empire Christian missions and administrative institutions in pagan territories. This successful uprising delayed Germanization processes for approximately two hundred years across the region.
Today only one group of Wends remains: the Lusatian Sorbs living in present-day Eastern Germany with international diaspora communities. They maintain traditional languages and cultural practices exercised through Domowina organizations dedicated to self-determination.
In 1854 Wends departed Lusatia aboard the Ben Nevis ship seeking greater liberty to settle central Texas primarily around Serbin. They expanded into Warda Giddings Austin Houston Fedor Swiss Alp Port Arthur Mannheim Copperas Cove Vernon Walburg The Grove Bishop and Rio Grande Valley over subsequent decades.
Harry van der Hulst notes that Polabian language persisted in Lower Saxony and Brandenburg until around the seventeenth century. Britannica Online Encyclopedia confirms Lekhitic languages disappeared as an ethnic minority except for the Sorbs.