Herzogtum Lauenburg in the context of "Stormarn (district)"

The river Bille (German pronunciation: [ˈbɪlə] ) is a small, slow-flowing German river in Stormarn, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg, a right tributary of the Elbe. Its source is near Linau, north of the Hahnheide forest. It then flows south of Trittau, representing the border between Stormarn and Lauenburg, continues south of Reinbek and reaches the river Elbe near Billwerder. A lot of old estates and tasteful parks are laid out along its riverbank. Its total length is 65 km. Sections of the Bille which flow near or inside the Sachsenwald forest are protected by the Billetal nature reserve.

The Bille is one of three rivers which flow through the city of Hamburg, the other two being the Elbe and the Alster.

Friedrichsruh (German pronunciation: [fʁiːdʁɪçsˈʁuː] ) is a district in the municipality of Aumühle, Herzogtum Lauenburg district, Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany. Friedrichsruh manor is known as a residence of the princely House of Bismarck, mainly of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck from 1871 onwards.

The Sachsenwald (German pronunciation: [ˈzaksn̩valt] ) is a forest near Hamburg, Germany. The forest derives its name, which can be translated as 'Saxon woods' or 'Saxony forest', from being located in the former Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg, which itself is a part of the greater Lower Saxony region as defined by the former Duchy of Saxony. Today, the forest is an unincorporated area in the district of Herzogtum Lauenburg (Duchy of Lauenburg) in Schleswig-Holstein. It is also a member of the amt Hohe Elbgeest, in which it has non-voting representation. The Sachsenwald has an area of 68 square kilometres (26 sq mi) and is the largest contiguous forest area in Schleswig-Holstein.

Large parts of the forest belong to the House of Bismarck since 1871, who still have their headquarters at Friedrichsruh Castle on the edge of the Sachsenwald.

The Polabian language, also known as Drevanian–Polabian language, Drevanian language, and Lüneburg Wendish language, is a West Slavic language that was spoken by the Polabian Slavs (German: Wenden) in present-day northeastern Germany around the Elbe, from which comes the term Polabian. It was spoken approximately until the rise to power of Prussia in the mid-18th century – when it was superseded by Low German – in the areas of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, central Mittelmark part of Brandenburg and eastern Saxony-Anhalt (Wittenberg originally part of Bela Serbia), as well as in eastern parts of Wendland (Lower Saxony) and Schleswig-Holstein, Ostholstein and Lauenburg). Polabian was also relatively long (until the 16th century) spoken in and around the cities of Lübeck and Oldenburg. The very poorly attested Slavic dialects of Rügen seemed to have had more in common with Polabian than with Pomeranian varieties. In the south, it bordered on the Sorbian language area in Lusatia.

Polabian is characterized by the preservation of a number of archaic features, such as the presence of nasal vowels, a lack of metathesis of Proto-Slavic *TorT; the presence of an aorist and imperfect verb tenses, traces of the dual number, and some prosodic features, as well as by some innovations, including diphthongization of closed vowels, a shift of the vowels o to ö, ü and a to o; a softening of the consonants g, k in some positions to d', t', an occasional reduction of final vowels, and the formation of complex tenses, many which are associated with the influence of the German language. Polabian also has a large number of Middle Low German borrowings.