The reign of Pribislav-Henry, Wendish duke of Brandenburg, over the Hevelli tribe, probably supported by the Ascanians, had started after the murder of the previous prior Hevelli prince Meinfried in 1127.

Around 1129, having no sons of his own, Pribislav-Henry had given the area between Brandenburg and Lehnin to his son-in-law, who is the oldest son of Albert the Bear.

Emperor Lothair III had approved the gift and made Albert margrave of the Northern March in 1134.

After three years of campaigning, diplomatic measures have proven more successful, and by an arrangement made with Pribislav, Albert, after a short war of succession, secures this district when the duke dies childless in 1150.

Albert has colonized the region with German settlers.

The crusade has caused great loss of life among the Wends, and they will consequently offer little opposition to German colonization of the Elbe-Oder region in the following centuries.

(The Wends themselves are enserfed and will be gradually assimilated by the Germans, with the exception of a minority in the traditional region of Lusatia, in present-day eastern Germany, who are today known as Sorbs.)