VII a.  THE BELS IN BEELITZ (in East Germany).

 

On voit avec les yeux, on regarde avec l'esprit, mais on ne comprend

Qu’avec ce 3e œil intérieur qui perçoit au-delà des apparences.

 

Fra. Robert Adelsohn Bels. (°1946)

 

We see with the eyes, we look with the mind, but we understand

only with the inner third eye that perceives beyond appearances.

 

There's a town in East Germany called “Beelitz”, a highly plausible German variant of “Bels”, with a slightly Slavic (Polish) consonance due to its proximity to the Polish border. The German border town of Frankfurt (Oder) lies only 118 km to the east of Beelitz. The town, which dates back to the very early 11th century, counted 14,800 inhabitants in December 2023.

 

To assert that “Beelitz” might have a direct connection with the “Bels” may at first appear far-fetched, an inclination to see “Bels” everywhere. Yet what rescues the hypothesis is not conjecture, but a historical fact: this town lies within a region known as the “Land der Fläming”.

 

The name “Land der Fläming” literally means “Land of the Flemish”. It is a historic region located east of the Elbe and south of Berlin. It was settled by people from Flanders (in present-day Belgium) during the High Middle Ages. Their settlement is generally dated to around 1100, when the term “flamengs” is first attested in local sources.

 

The term “Flamand” (or “Vlamingen” in Flemish) designates Dutch-speaking Belgians “ des colons flamands ” from the region of Flanders. In French, “Flamand” refers more broadly to an ethnic group distributed across the north-west of France and Belgiums Flanders, whose cultural identity is rooted in the medieval County of Flanders. In German they are sometimes called the “Flamen”.

 

As mentioned before, the “Land der Fläming” is, beyond any doubt, “the land of the Flemish”. This fact greatly strengthens the plausibility of the postulate that “Beelitz” may indeed be etymologically linked to “Bels”, the toponym having been bestowed by Flemish settlers who once established themselves in the region.

 

If the town was named “Beelitz” in the early medieval period, it is reasonable to assume that among these settlers were individuals bearing the surname “Bels”. They would have possessed, by some privilege or customary right now lost to history, the authority to name, as was often the case, the place of their settlement after their patronymic. Over time, this original name would naturally have yielded the phonetic variants “Belz” and “Beelitz”, adapted to the evolving pronunciation patterns of the German language.

 

We've already come across some phonetic variants of the Bels. These anthroponymic and toponymic variants are attested in Belgium (Belles, Bellis, Bailes, Baels, Bayles), southern France (Les Bels, Les Bayles, Balès), notably in the Ariège and Hautes Corbières (Villardebelle, Baillesats, Ambels, Cazals des Bayles), as well as in Scotland (Bell, Balliol, Bayles) and England (Ball, Balls). In the British Isles, Flemish settlers were frequently designated collectively as “the Flemings”.

 

History books indicate that the name “Fläming”, in Germany, is derived from the medieval “Flemish” settlers. There are two regions near Beelitz, the “hohe Fläming” a little higher up, to the west, and the “niedere Fläming” to the east. The whole area is sparsely populated and has, even today, no major industries.

 

VII b. THE BELS IN BELSDORF - a & b - (in East Germany)

 

Our Dynast, Messire Willy Bels, from Leopoldsburg in Belgian Limburg, informed me of the existence of two small villages in eastern Germany, in Saxony-Anhalt, both bearing the name “Belsdorf”. This name means “the village of Bel” or “the village of the Bels family”.

 

This is a common way of forming place names, already observed many times in Flanders, southern France and northern Spain. A village could be named after its founder, its owner or a former lord of the estate.

 

The existence of two places named Belsdorf (a and b), located relatively close to each other, provides an interesting clue to the early presence of the name Bels, or a related form, in this region.

 

The letter “s” in “Belsdorf” may be an old possessive link, comparable to a German genitive form constructed without the preposition “von”. The name could therefore mean “the village of Bel” or “the village of the Bels family”, which ultimately amounts to the same thing.

 

These places are not entirely isolated examples scattered at random across Germany. They lie within a broader area of eastern Germany where several names can possibly be linked to Bels or Belz, particularly at Beelitz and in the two villages called Belsdorf.

 

The two Belsdorf villages lie west of the historic heartland of the Fläming region, rather than directly within its centre. However, the wider area formed by Magdeburg, the Börde and the Fläming experienced major population movements, especially during the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Many new villages were founded there as part of the medieval eastward settlement commonly known as the Ostsiedlung.

 

BELSDORF (a)

It is located about one kilometre north of Wefensleben, just south of the motorway connecting Braunschweig and Magdeburg, and approximately halfway between these two cities. The earliest known medieval reference to this village dates from 5 February 1274. In a charter drawn up on that date, Hildebrand von Bartensleben donated to Marienborn Monastery a meadow located near “Beelistorp”.

 

This document confirms that the village already existed in 1274. It was probably founded several decades earlier and may possibly date back to the twelfth century. The place name “Beelistorp” therefore suggests the early presence in this area of a person or family bearing a name such as Beelis, Belis or Bels. However, it must be clearly stated that no formal evidence has yet been found to establish such an onomastic connection.

 

To date, no trace has been discovered of a lordship that may have belonged to members of the Bels family. I can only hope that, this time, I shall not have to wait nearly fifty years before finding such traces, as was the case with the Bels family of the Pyrenean region.

 

Hildebrand von Bartensleben belonged to an old family of the Saxon knightly nobility, established in the area between Helmstedt, the Börde and the Altmark.

The donation of 1274 shows that Hildebrand held land rights in Belsdorf or its immediate surroundings, and that he belonged to the local nobility, whose members had the legal right to dispose of land. It also reveals the existence of ties between Hildebrand and Marienborn Monastery.

 

However, this charter does not prove that Hildebrand was lord of the whole village of Belsdorf, and still less that he founded it. He may simply have held the meadow as his own property or as a fief.

 

The documented origins of the von Bartensleben family are believed to date back to the beginning of the twelfth century. A Hermann von Bartensleben is mentioned as early as 1112 and is described as a knight in a document dating from 1188, using the Latin form: “Hermannus miles dictus de Bartensleve”.

 

A certain Herbertus de Bardesleve, bearing the title “dominus”, also appears as a witness in a charter of 1212. The family was therefore already firmly established in the region long before Hildebrand’s time.

 

During the thirteenth century, the von Bartensleben family gradually left its original residence and settled farther west, in the area of present-day Wolfsburg.

 

When Hildebrand made his donation in 1274, the name “Beelistorp” was therefore already in use. It is possible that the von Bartensleben family acquired this meadow from an earlier family connected with the name Beelis, Belis or Bels, but we currently have no evidence to support this possibility.

 

Hildebrand may even have lived several generations after our Dynasts who may have given their name to “Beelistorp”.

 

BELSDORF (b)

It now belongs to the municipality of Flechtingen and lies only about 16 kilometres north of Belsdorf (a). An old study on the settlement of the northern Nordthüringgau mentions a place called “Belstorp” in 1318. This name apparently referred to present-day Belsdorf.

 

The German authority on geographical names also mentions “Belstorf” as an earlier form or variant of Belsdorf, reflecting the evolution of the name from Beelistorp to Belstorf and finally Belsdorf. Source: DNB (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek).

 

We must now try to understand the reasons for these movements of people and goods. There were several. For various reasons, Flanders was always a highly coveted territory and was therefore repeatedly affected by armed conflicts. Because of its low-lying lands, it also suffered several catastrophic floods. Later, the Wars of Religion divided families and scattered people throughout Europe.

 

However, Flanders was also home to disciplined, conscientious and highly skilled craftsmen and merchants. Their abilities were greatly appreciated, especially on the other side of the English Channel. Many Flemings had already settled in England and southern Scotland long before the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

 

The Flemish soon realised that their own language alone would not take them very far beyond their borders. This practical necessity encouraged them to become multilingual. In addition to Flemish, many of them spoke French, English or German. Flemish belongs to the Dutch branch of the West Germanic languages and is closely related to both Dutch and German.

 

From an early period in European history, the Flemish distinguished themselves in numerous fields. They developed a particular expertise in wool processing and in the production of cloth, wall hangings and tapestries, crafts in which they became recognised masters throughout Europe.

 

England exported much of its wool to Flanders, where it was processed and woven before being sent back across the Channel as finished cloth. Flemish craftsmen and merchants introduced innovations into many trades. Flanders became one of the great commercial, financial, economic and artistic centres of medieval Europe, comparable in importance, although different in character, to Florence in Italy.

 

Few people know that, before oil paint became widely used for the magnificent works of the great Flemish and Florentine masters, painters generally used tempera: pigments mixed with egg yolk or another binding substance. Tempera dries rapidly and can preserve its colours for thousands of years.

 

Oil painting was not actually invented by Jan van Eyck (c. 1390 -1441), as it had already existed before his time. However, this great Flemish painter considerably improved its technique, particularly through his skilful use of linseed oil, transparent glazes and drying methods. His achievements contributed greatly to the development and fame of Flemish painting, and Italian artists became increasingly interested in the techniques used by the northern masters.

 

I shall not go into too much detail about this new discovery concerning Beelitz, as I do not yet know all its implications. It will nevertheless be the subject of further research.

 

VII c. THE BELS in BELZIG (Bad)

 

Bad Belzig is located in Brandenburg, in the heart of the “Fläming” region, approximately 95 kilometres east of the two villages named Belsdorf. The town appears in a charter issued by Emperor Otto III in 997, under the Latin wording: “nomen vero burgwardii vulgo Belizi”.

 

The first entirely undisputed mention of Belzig appears to date from 1161, under the form “Beltiz”. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, there was a powerful family known as the “Counts of Belzig”. This was most probably a territorial name: they were “of Belzig” because they held that lordship, and not necessarily because their original family name was Bels. But who knows?

 

• Lord Siegfried of Belzig, recorded between 1170 and 1204, was described in 1201 as Count of Beltitz.
• Lord Baderich of Belzig, recorded between 1211 and 1251, was the last Count of Belzig and the last Burgrave of Brandenburg.

 

Siegfried was therefore the first member of this family to be explicitly described, in 1201, as Count of Beltitz (Belzig). His son Baderich died without a male heir sometime after 1251. The lordship then passed to the Dukes of Saxony.

 

The medieval spellings Beltz, Beltitz and Belzig are nevertheless particularly interesting. A person leaving the region might have been known by his original name, “Bels”, but names were generally adapted phonetically to the regions in which they were used.

 

Let us remember the Bels-Baels of Flanders and the Bels-Belles-Belis of Limburg. Over time, this is what caused the name to evolve into Belz, Beltz, Beels or Belziger. There is nothing new under the sun!

 

Belzig constitutes the oldest and most important lead in the entire “Fläming” region. Its name is attested as early as 997 in the form “Belizi”, and then with certainty in 1161 in the form “Beltiz”. A comital family subsequently adopted the territorial name “Belzig” and ruled the region until the middle of the thirteenth century.

 

The phonetic similarity between Bels, Belz, Beltz, Beltiz and Belzig is remarkable. However, it does not yet allow us to identify the Counts von Belzig as descendants of the Bels, nor to assert that the Bels were the Counts von Belzig.

 

We know that the Counts von Belzig formed a family of high nobility, active during the XIIth and XIIIth centuries between the Middle Elbe, the Lower Saale, the Fläming and Brandenburg. Historians generally refer to them as the Counts of “Jabilinze and Belzig”, or sometimes as the “Baderich” dynasty, because of the recurrence of this first name within the family. But no one knows where they came from.

 

We have records of a Lord Siegfried von Belzig, mentioned from 1170 to 1204. He was Count of Dornburg, then Count of Belzig and Burgrave of Brandenburg. He is said to have had a son named Baderich von Belzig, married to Bertradis von Hohnstein. The latter is mentioned from 1211 to 1251 as Count von Belzig and the last Burgrave of Brandenburg. No certain descendants of his are known.

 

In the Middle Ages, the Burggraf was a count appointed by the king or emperor to govern and defend a fortress. Burg means “fortified castle” and Graf means “count”. The Burggraf exercised military command over the castle and administered the territory dependent upon the fortress, performed certain judicial duties and represented the sovereign.

 

The Bels who settled in this large region of eastern Germany were, quite clearly, not of German origin. The name given to the region in which they settled, “Fläming”, leaves no doubt as to their distant origin.

 

They were therefore Flemish subjects who came to settle there for unknown reasons. Were they all tradesmen practising occupations particular to Flanders, members of the Flemish patriciate who had emigrated, or were they knights? In the latter case, what reasons might explain their settlement more than 800 kilometres east of their lands of origin?

 

If they belonged to the feudal nobility, as was the case with the Bels of the Pyrenean region, were they those “Burggrafen” whose existence is mentioned in the texts? If so, where are the ruins of their castles?

 

Amid these hypothetical considerations, one fact stands out: these people did not belong to the common folk. Common people do not give their name to a village, a small town, a region or particular geographical locations, as was the case here. We find, moreover, an identical phenomenon among the Bels of southern France and northern Spain.

 

Simple Flemish peasants would never have left a sufficiently deep mark on the history of a region for their origin to be permanently remembered through the designation “the Flemings”.

VII d.  THE BELS IN BELZ (Ex-Poland, today Ukraine)

 

A recent discovery takes us further east than the well-known traces of the Bels in Beelitz. Remarkably, it again touches upon the Flemish origin of this lineage, rooted in the land that Jacques Brel immortalized in song as “Le Plat Pays qui est le mien.”

 

As is well established, medieval Flanders was among the most densely populated regions of Europe. Pressures of demography, compounded by feudal rivalries, recurring wars of religion, military expeditions, and broader social upheavals, pushed entire groups to seek opportunities elsewhere. This dynamic of displacement and resettlement explains why the Bels surface across a wide geography of Europe: first in eastern Flanders, then in Limburg, later in parts of Germany such as Ludwigslust and “Beelitz”, and now, astonishingly, in “Belz”, a settlement deep in what is today western Ukraine.

 

Belz itself is both a toponym and a patronymic. Located in the Lviv Oblast, it began as a Polish village before being annexed in 1030 by Prince Yaroslav “the Wise,” as recorded in the Povest’ vremennykh let. By 1170, “Belz” had become the capital of a principality under the Rurikid dynasty. The timing of its emergence is striking: both “Beelitz” in Germany and “Belz” in Poland appear in written sources around the early eleventh century. For “Belz”, we even have the precise year of annexation, 1030.

 

It is well known that the Rurikid and Piast princes actively encouraged immigration: foreign settlers, artisans, farmers, town-builders, and even knights were welcomed. Flemish migrations into Poland are documented in Poznań, Wrocław, and Gdańsk. In the twelfth century, the Hungarian kings, particularly Géza III (1141-1162), invited colonists from the West to secure Transylvania’s frontier. These settlers, recorded as Saxons, Walloons, Flemings (Flandrenses), and groups from Lorraine and the Mosel valley, were valued for their skills.

 

The Andreanum charter of 1224 issued by King Andrew II confirms their privileges, explicitly mentioning Flandrenses (Flemish people) among the hospites. Similar dynamics were at play in Galicia-Volhynia, where German merchants and Flemish colonists are documented from the twelfth century onward.

 

This phenomenon suggests that the spread of the Bels name eastward may follow a familiar modus operandi: a family name, whether of noble, patriarchal, knightly, or artisanal origin, became embedded in the toponymy of the new settlement. Such naming practices are well attested across medieval Europe.

 

The coincidence of “Belz” in today’s Ukraine with the surname-toponym Bels, found in Flanders, Occitanie, eastern Germany, and the Netherlands, is too striking to ignore. These patronymic forms belong among the oldest in the Low Countries. Evidence also shows that Flemings migrated south into France and northern Spain from the High Middle Ages onward, and even earlier, as further developments of this essay will demonstrate.

 

Some historians, however, prefer to interpret such toponyms as purely local in origin. In southern France, for instance, the Flemish-sounding “Les Bayles” is often explained as a derivation from baillies, the plural of “bailli”, denoting the royal or seigneurial officer entrusted with administering a district. This explanation fits neatly within the framework of medieval French administration.

 

Yet the evidence for an alternative reading remains striking. “Les Bayles” stands in immediate juxtaposition to another village named “Les Bels”. The pairing of these two names, side by side, and both recalling Flemish patronyms, constitutes a unique case in which the geography itself seems to preserve a memory of northern migration. That two such forms should coexist in such proximity strongly suggests that the explanation cannot be reduced to administrative terminology alone but may indeed bear witness to the settlement of Flemish families in the region.

 

And there is more. Speaking of juxtaposition and proximity, there is another small settlement with the same phonetic identity, a toponym synonymous with “Bels”, “Belles”, and “Baels”. This is Balès. We shall return to this toponym in Chapter VIII, where it will be examined in detail some 43 pages further on.

 

Traditional historiography, following established patterns, tends to insist on a Slavic etymology for Belz, usually deriving it from the Old Slavic Bewz, meaning “marshy ground.” This explanation is linguistically coherent and sits well within the local context.

 

And yet, the remarkable persistence of the Bels name, with its numerous variants, across widely separated parts of Europe invites, and indeed justifies, a parallel hypothesis. It is entirely plausible that Flemish settlers, moving eastward as they had to so many other frontiers, carried their family designation with them, inscribing it not only into the rolls of nobility and charters, but also embedding it permanently in the toponymy of the regions where they settled. In this way, Belz may stand not solely as a Slavic hydronym, but as a silent testimony to the diffusion of a Flemish lineage across the continent.

 

Why did so many leave Flanders? The answer lies in a combination of pressures and opportunities. By the High Middle Ages, Flanders had become one of the most densely populated regions of Europe. Land hunger, compounded by cycles of local warfare and recurring religious strife, created strong incentives for emigration. At the same time, the very skills that Flemings had perfected at home made them highly sought after abroad.

 

Master of Agriculture, they were especially renowned for draining marshes, raising sheep, and developing a flourishing wool industry. These techniques held immense value for rulers in regions as diverse as Poland, Hungary, and beyond, who were eager to attract Flemish settlers to improve their lands and economies.

 

Yet it would be misleading to imagine that every Flemish family who left their homeland did so out of need or compulsion. Some, such as the Bels, the Belle, and the Balliol, were not only skilled but also prosperous and politically significant. Their heirs can be traced accompanying military expeditions of nearly every kind: serving under the Merovingians, following the Counts of Flanders, Hainaut, and Boulogne, riding in the ranks of the Carolingians and Charlemagne’s campaigns against the Arabs and during the Reconquista, with supporting the Dukes of Normandy in their conquests, and marching eastward on the great Crusades.

 

For such families, emigration was rarely about exporting agricultural knowledge. Rather, their movements followed the paths of chivalry, dynastic politics, and economic opportunity. It is within this context that the Bels appear in the South of France, as well as in northern England and Scotland. Their story reflects not only the demographic realities of Flanders, but also the ambitions of a knightly lineage seeking honour, influence, and fortune on the shifting frontiers of medieval Europe.

 

The Bels of “Belz” also brought with them urban skills that contributed to the structuring of towns under the Magdeburg and Lübeck models of civic law. In later centuries, Belz itself followed this trajectory: it received Magdeburg law in 1377 (renewed in 1509) and rose to prominence as the capital of the Belz Voivodeship under Poland until 1772.

 

Thus, from a Flemish perspective, the story of Belz is not merely a Slavic or Rurikid tale. It forms part of the broader European saga of Flemish migration and settlement, a movement that imprinted the Bels name across the continent, from the Low Countries to the very edge of the Carpathians.

 

The Grand Larousse du XXe siècle, in its edition from 1928, writes : « BELZ, Ville de Pologne (palatinate de Lwow, district de Sokal, sur la Soloka, affluent du Bug. 4.150 habitants. De 1462 à 1793, Belz fut la capitale du palatinat de ce nom ». or «  “BELZ, a town in Poland (Lwów Palatinate, Sokal District, on the Soloka River, a tributary of the Bug). Population: 4,150. From 1462 to 1793, Belz was the capital of the palatinate bearing its name.”

 

Attention :

 

If the assertions and extrapolations put forward in the present Essay fall within a normative, experimental, I concede, line of reasoning, they nevertheless rest on established historical facts.

 

This approach, however, calls for methodological restraint and requires a cautious assessment of Belz in “Ex-Poland, today Ukraine.” Indeed, many historians draw no connection whatsoever between the Bels of Flanders and the Belz of “Belz” (sic), considering this toponym to be of an entirely different origin.

 

Given the current state of knowledge, and pending the production of decisive evidence, this sub-chapter VIIa should therefore be approached with due caution.