Editing Northern March (section)

== Slavic background ==
[[File:Lutizenbund.PNG|thumb|Tribes in the Northern and Billung marches at the time of the [[Lutici]] uprising of 983]]
During the [[Migration Period]], many [[Germanic peoples]] began migrating towards the Roman frontier. In the northeast they were replaced primarily by [[Slavic peoples]] ([[Veleti]], later [[Lutici]]). The first Slavs were certainly in the Brandenburg area by 720, after the arrival of the [[Pannonian Avars|Avars]] in Europe. These Slavs had come via [[Great Moravia|Moravia]], where they had arrived in the mid-seventh century. The remnants of the Germanic [[Semnoni]] were absorbed into these Slavic groups.{{Citation needed|date=June 2007}} 

The group of people who settled at the [[Spree (river)|Spree]] river became known as [[Sprevani]]. They settled east of the line formed by the Havel and [[Nuthe]] rivers, in the current [[Barnim Plateau|Barnim]] and [[Teltow (region)|Teltow regions]]. They built their main fortification at the confluence of the Spree and the [[Dahme (river)|Dahme]] rivers at [[Köpenick]]. The [[Hevelli]] lived west of that line, in the current [[Havelland]] and [[Zauche]] regions. They were named ''Habelli'' for the ancient Germanic name of the river "Habula" ([[Havel]]). The name for themselves was the ''Stodoranie''. They built their main fortification at "Brenna" (modern [[Brandenburg (town)|Brandenburg]]). The Hevelli also built a large outpost at the current site of [[Spandau Citadel]] in [[Berlin]]. The Sprevani and Hevelli waged war against not only their German neighbors, but also their Slavic neighbours.<ref name="Borgolte2009">{{cite book|author=Michael Borgolte|title=Polen und Deutschland vor 1000 Jahren: Die Berliner Tagung über den "Akt von Gnesen"|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zaVHAAAAQBAJ|date=1 January 2009|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-05-004738-6}}</ref><ref name=mgh>{{cite web|url= https://www.mgh-bibliothek.de/dokumente/a/a126827.pdf |title= König Otto III. und die Slawen an Ostsee, Oder und Elbe um das Jahr 995 |publisher= Digitale Monumenta |author=JÜRGEN PETERSOHN |access-date =September 6, 2020}}</ref>