In Saxony and Brandenburg lives the national minority of the Lusatian Sorbs, also known as 'Wends.' Germans sometimes approach this Slavic ethnic group with prejudice. The author investigates the origins of this phenomenon. To do so, he examines historical conversational lexicons, which were an important media genre in the 19th century. The texts contained within these works influenced the thinking of people in that era. An analysis of the Brockhaus and other reference works shows that the topic was sometimes fiercely debated. The lexical representations range from scientific analyses of the Slavic settlement of Central Europe to stereotypical images of individual segments of the population.