From approximately 500 AD Slavonic tribes poured into Mecklenburg.
The chief god was Radegast Zuarasici, whose sanctuary at Rethra was the centre of his worship for the whole of Mecklenburg.
Henry I of Germany (916–36) was the first to force the Slavonic territory again to pay tribute (c. 928); he also placed it under the jurisdiction of Saxon counts.
However, antagonism to the tribute to the empire and the Saxon dukes led to a heathen reaction.
[1] He was killed in 1066 during a Wendish revolt against Christianity, when he was sacrificed to Radegast, the god of hospitality.