The name of the Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem[4] is inGerman:Orden der Brüder vom Deutschen Haus der Heiligen Maria in Jerusalem and inLatinOrdo domus Sanctae Mariae Theutonicorum Hierosolymitanorum. Thus the term "Teutonic" echoes the German origins of the order (Theutonicorum) in its Latin name.[5] German-speakers commonly refer to theDeutscher Orden (official short name, literally "German Order"), historically also asDeutscher Ritterorden ("German Order of Knights"),Deutschherrenorden ("Order of the German Lords"),Deutschritterorden ("Order of the German Knights"),Marienritter ("Knights ofMary"),Die Herren im weißen Mantel ("The lords in white capes"),etc..
The Teutonic Knights have been known asZakon Krzyżacki in Polish ("Order of the Cross") and asKryžiuočių Ordinas in Lithuanian,Vācu Ordenis in Latvian,Saksa Ordu or, simply,Ordu ("The Order") in Estonian.
Extent of the Teutonic Order in 1300Teutonic and Livonian Orders in 1422
The fraternity which preceded the formation of the Order was formed in the year 1191 inAcre by German merchants fromBremen andLübeck. After thecapture of Acre they took over a hospital in the city in order to take care of the sick and began to describe themselves as the Hospital of St. Mary of the German House in Jerusalem.[6]Pope Clement III approved it and the Order started to play an important role inOutremer (the general name for theCrusader states), controlling the port tolls of Acre. In 1211, during the second, much weakerCrusader kingdom in the Holy Land, but still long before itsfinal demise in 1291, the Order was invited to theBurzenland (southeasternTransylvania) to help defend the southeastern borders of theKingdom of Hungary against theCumans. The Order invited German planters to help build up settlements to provide support. As the Order pushed back the invaders, the settlements expanded. KingAndrew II of Hungary became concerned he was losing influence. So, in 1225, after Pope Honorius III's papal bull claiming his authority over the Order's territory in Transylvania and its tax exemption toward the king, Andrew expelled the Order.[7]
The Order's next assignment concernedKonrad I of Masovia, who was settling a frontier aroundPrussia, a region named for thePrussians who lived there. Konrad was unable to stop the Prussian raids and theDobrzyń knights he had gathered for this purpose were defeated, in 1228. So, in coordination with the Holy Roman Empire and Konrad, theGrand MasterHermann von Salza and his Teutonic Order arrived in the region, in 1230. Along with Konrad's forces, the Order pushed back the Prussians and began to push further to conquer and Christianize them.
Through theGolden Bull of Rimini andTreaty of Kruszwica, the Order asserted its claims to the territory that was now secure, theChełmno Land (also: Ziemia Chełmińska or Kulmerland). From this, the Order created the independentState of the Teutonic Order, to which conquered territory was continuously added. Through the incorporation of theLivonian Brothers of the Sword and further crusading, the added territory includedLivonia. Over time, certain kings and dukes of Poland would challenge the Order's land claims, specifically Chełmno Land and, later,Pomerelia (also Pomorze Gdańskie or Vistula Pomerania),Kuyavia, andDobrzyń Land.
Following theChristianization of Lithuania, the Order State was no longer crusading. It was instead recruiting planters from the Holy Roman Empire and a fighting force to augment feudal levies. There were also wars against theKingdom of Poland, theGrand Duchy of Lithuania, and theNovgorod Republic. Through its control of port cities and trade, specifically with theHanseatic League, the Order State built up its economic base. The Order State also built ships and had a naval presence in theBaltic Sea. In 1410, a Polish-Lithuanian army decisively defeated the Order State and broke its military power at theBattle of Grunwald. However, the Order State successfully defended its capital in the followingSiege of Marienburg (Malbork) and was saved from collapse.
In 1515,Holy Roman EmperorMaximilian I made a marriage alliance withSigismund I of Poland-Lithuania. Thereafter, the empire did not support the Order against Poland. In 1525, Grand MasterAlbert of Brandenburg resigned and converted toLutheranism, becomingDuke of Prussia as a vassal of Poland. Soon after, the Order lost Livonia and its holdings in the Protestant areas of Germany.[8] The Order did keep its considerable holdings in Catholic areas of Germany until 1809, whenNapoleon Bonaparte ordered its dissolution and the Order lost its last secular holdings.
However, the Order continued to exist as a charitable and ceremonial body. It was outlawed byNazi Germany in 1938, but re-established in 1945.[9] Today it operates primarily with charitable aims inCentral Europe.
The Knights wore whitesurcoats with a black cross. Across pattée was sometimes used as theircoat of arms; this emblem was later used for military decoration and insignia by theKingdom of Prussia and Germany as theIron Cross. The motto of the Order was: "Helfen, Wehren, Heilen" ("Help, Defend, Heal").[10]
Hermann von Salza, the fourth Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights (1209–1239)Reliquary made inElbing in 1388 for Teutonic komtur Thiele von Lorich, military trophy of Polish king Wladislaus in 1410.
In 1143,Pope Celestine II ordered theKnights Hospitaller to take over management of a German hospital inJerusalem, which, according to the chronicler Jean d'Ypres, accommodated the countless German pilgrims and crusaders who could neither speak the local language nor Latin (patriæ linguam ignorantibus atque Latinam).[11] Although formally an institution of the Hospitallers, the pope commanded that the prior and the brothers of thedomus Theutonicorum (house of the Germans) should always be Germans themselves, so a tradition of a German-led religious institution could develop during the 12th century in theKingdom of Jerusalem.[12]
After the loss of Jerusalem in 1187, some merchants fromLübeck andBremen took up the idea and founded a field hospital for the duration of theSiege of Acre in 1190, which became the nucleus of the order;Pope Celestine III recognized it in 1192 by granting the monksAugustinian Rule. However, based on the model of theKnights Templar, it was transformed into a military order in 1198 and the head of the order became known as theGrand Master (magister hospitalis). It received papal orders for crusades to take and hold Jerusalem for Christianity and defend the Holy Land against the MuslimSaracens. During the rule of Grand MasterHermann von Salza (1209–1239) the Order changed from being ahospice brotherhood for pilgrims to primarily a military order.
The Order was founded in Acre, and the Knights purchasedMontfort Castle, northeast of Acre, in 1220. This castle, which defended the route between Jerusalem and theMediterranean Sea, was made the seat of the Grand Masters in 1229, although they returned to Acre after losing Montfort to Muslim control in 1271. The Order received donations of land in theHoly Roman Empire (especially in present-day Germany andItaly),Frankokratia, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
theLordship of Toron andLordship of Joscelin in Northern Israel and Southern Lebanon, both owned by the Teutonic Knights 1220–1229 but under Muslim rule during that period. The Knights retained Maron, a vassal of Toron, after 1229, and in 1261 acquired another Toron-Ahmud, another vassal lordship. They also leased (1256) and bought (1261) the stronghold ofAchziv (Casale Umberti, ArabicAz-Zīb) on the coast north ofNahariya.
the Lordship of theSchuf, an offshoot of theLordship of Sidon, 1256–1268; inland from modernSaida in Lebanon
In 1211,Andrew II of Hungary accepted the services of the Teutonic Knights and granted them the district ofBurzenland inTransylvania, where they would be exempt from fees and duties and could administer their own justice. Andrew had been involved in negotiations for the marriage of his daughter with the son of Hermann, Landgrave ofThuringia, whose vassals included the family of Hermann von Salza. Led by a brother called Theoderich or Dietrich, the Order defended the south-eastern borders of the Kingdom of Hungary against the neighbouringCumans. Many forts of wood and mud were built for defence. They settled new German peasants among the existingTransylvanian Saxon inhabitants. The Cumans had no fixed settlements for resistance, and soon theTeutons were expanding into their territory. By 1220, the Teutonics Knights had built five castles, some of them made of stone. Their rapid expansion made the Hungarian nobility and clergy, who were previously uninterested in those regions, jealous and suspicious. Some nobles claimed these lands, but the Order refused to share them, ignoring the demands of the local bishop.
After theFifth Crusade, King Andrew returned to Hungary and found his kingdom full of resentment because of the expenses and losses of the failed military campaign. When the nobles demanded that he cancel the concessions made to the Knights, he concluded that they had exceeded their task and that the agreement should be revised, but did not revert the concessions. However, Prince Béla, heir to the throne, was allied with the nobility. In 1224, the Teutonic Knights, seeing that they would have problems when the Prince inherited the Kingdom, petitionedPope Honorius III to be placed directly under the authority of thePapal See, rather than that of the King of Hungary. This was a grave mistake, as King Andrew, angered and alarmed at their growing power, responded in 1225 by expelling the Teutonic Knights, although he allowed the ethnically German commoners and peasants settled here by the Order to remain and these became part of the larger group of the Transylvanian Saxons. Lacking the military organization and experience of the Teutonic Knights, the Hungarians failed to replace them with adequate defence against the attacking Cumans. Soon, the steppe warriors would be a threat again.[13]
In 1226,Konrad I, Duke ofMasovia innorth-eastern Poland, appealed to the Knights to defend his borders and subdue the pagan BalticOld Prussians, allowing the Teutonic Knights use ofChełmno Land as a base for their campaign. This being a time of widespread crusading fervor throughout Western Europe, Hermann von Salza consideredPrussia a good training ground for his knights for the wars against theMuslims inOutremer.[14] With theGolden Bull of Rimini, Emperor Frederick II bestowed on the Order a special imperial privilege for the conquest and possession of Prussia, including Chełmno Land, with nominal papal sovereignty. In 1235 the Teutonic Knights assimilated the smallerOrder of Dobrzyń, which had been established earlier byChristian, the first Bishop of Prussia.
Theconquest of Prussia was accomplished with much bloodshed over more than fifty years, during which native Prussians who remained unbaptised were subjugated, killed, or exiled. Fighting between the Knights and the Prussians was ferocious; chronicles of the Order state the Prussians would "roast captured brethren alive in their armour, like chestnuts, before the shrine of a local god".[15] Their population was already in decline due to theOstsiedlung. German peasants, artisans, and merchant settlers were predominantly concentrated in the southern part of the Teutonic State and did not move into the lands ofNadruva,Skalva, and the southernCuronian mountains until the 18th century. Due to invasions by the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Prussians had become completely Germanized by the early to mid-18th century.[16]
The native nobility who submitted to the crusaders had many of their privileges confirmed by theTreaty of Christburg. After thePrussian uprisings of 1260–83, however, much of the Prussian nobility emigrated or were resettled, and many free Prussians lost their rights. The Prussian nobles who remained were more closely allied with the German landowners and were gradually assimilated.[17] Peasants in frontier regions, such asSamland, had more privileges than those in more populated lands, such asPomesania.[18] The crusading knights often acceptedbaptism as a form of submission by the natives.[19] Christianity along western lines slowly spread through Prussian culture. Bishops were reluctant to have pagan Prussian religious practices integrated into the new faith,[20] while the ruling knights found it easier to govern the natives when they were semi-pagan and lawless.[21] After fifty years of warfare and brutal conquest, the end result was that most of the Prussian natives were either killed or deported.[22] The conquest of theSambians during the Prussian Crusade was delayed by the First Prussian Uprising which broke out in 1242. The uprising technically ended in 1249 with the signing of the Treaty of Christburg, but skirmishes continued for four more years. Only in 1254–1255 were the knights able to mount a major campaign against the Sambians. King Ottokar II of Bohemia took part in the expedition and as a tribute the knights named the newly founded Königsberg Castle after him.[23] The Sambians rose up against the knights during the Great Prussian Uprising (1260–1274), but were the first to surrender. When other clans attempted to revive the uprising in 1276, Theodoric, vogt of Sambia, persuaded the Sambians not to join the insurrection; theNatangians andWarmians followed the Sambian example, and the uprising was crushed within a year.[24] In 1243, the Bishopric of Samlandia (Sambia) was established as the ecclesiastical administration of the region, as directed by the papal legateWilliam of Modena. By the end of the 13th century, there were only 22,000 Sambians.[25]
Map of the Teutonic state in 1260
The Order ruled Prussia undercharters issued by the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor as asovereignmonastic state, comparable to the arrangement of the Knights Hospitallers inRhodes and later inMalta.
To make up for losses from theplague and to replace the partially exterminated native population, the Order encouragedimmigration from the Holy Roman Empire (mostlyGermans,Flemish, andDutch) and from Masovia (Poles), the laterMasurians. These included nobles, burghers, and peasants, and the surviving Old Prussians were gradually assimilated throughGermanization. The settlers founded numerous towns and cities on former Prussian settlements. The Order itself built a number of castles (Ordensburgen) from which it could defeatuprisings of Old Prussians, as well as continue its attacks on the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, with which the Order was often at war during the 14th and 15th centuries. Major towns founded by the Order includedThorn (Toruń),Kulm (Chełmno),Allenstein (Olsztyn),Elbing (Elbląg),Memel (Klaipėda), andKönigsberg, founded in 1255 in honor of KingOtakar II of Bohemia on the site of a destroyed Prussian settlement.
Although theNorthern Crusades were aimed at paganBalts andFinns, rather than Orthodox Russians, several unsuccessful attempts were made to persuade Novgorod to convert to Catholicism after the capture ofTartu.[27] Livonian missionary and Crusade activity in Estonia caused conflicts withNovgorod, which had also attempted to subjugate, raid and convert the pagan Estonians.[28] Hoping to exploit Novgorod's weakness in the wake of the Mongol and Swedish invasions, the Teutonic Knights penetrated deep into Novgorodian territory;[28] however, in 1242, they were defeated in theBattle of the Ice at the hands of PrinceAlexander Nevsky. TheLivonian Rhymed Chronicle describes the events:[29]
There is a city in Russia called Novgorod, and when its king [Alexandre] heard what had happened he marched towards Pskov with many troops. He arrived there with a mighty force of many Russians to free the Pskovians and these latter heartily rejoiced. When he saw the Germans he did not hesitate long. They drove away the two Brothers, removed them from their governorship and routed their troops. The Germans fled and allowed the land to revert to the Russians. Thus it went for the Teutonic Knights, but if Pskov had been protected it would have benefited Christianity until the end of the world. It is a mistake to take a fair land and fail to occupy it properly. It is deplorable, for the result is sure to be disastrous. The king of Novgorod then returned home.[29]
— Livonian Rhymed Chronicle
Over the next decades the Order focused on the subjugation of theCuronians andSemigallians. In 1260 it suffered a disastrous defeat in theBattle of Durbe againstSamogitians, and this inspired rebellions throughout Prussia and Livonia. After the Knights won a crucial victory in theSiege of Königsberg from 1262 to 1265, the war had reached a turning point. The Curonians were finally subjugated in 1267 and the Semigallians in 1290.[26] The Order suppressed amajor Estonian rebellion in 1343–1345, and in 1346 purchased theDuchy of Estonia fromDenmark.
The Teutonic Knights began to direct their campaigns against paganLithuania (seeLithuanian mythology), due to the long existing conflicts in the region (including constant incursions into the Holy Roman Empire's territory by pagan raiding parties) and the lack of a proper area of operation for the Knights, after the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem atAcre in 1291 and their later expulsion from Hungary.[30] At first the knights moved their headquarters toVenice, from which they planned the recovery of Outremer;[31] this plan was, however, soon abandoned, and the Order later moved its headquarters to Marienburg, so it could better focus its efforts on the region of Prussia. Because "Lithuania Propria" remained non-Christian until the end of the 14th century, much later than the rest of eastern Europe, the conflicts were dragged out over a longer time, and many Knights from western European countries, such asEngland andFrance, journeyed to Prussia to participate in the seasonal campaigns (reyse) against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1348, the Order won a great victory over the Lithuanians in theBattle of Strėva, severely weakening them. In 1370 it won a decisive victory over Lithuania in theBattle of Rudau.
Warfare between the Order and the Lithuanians was particularly brutal. It was common practice for Lithuanians to torture captured enemies and civilians. It is recorded by a Teutonic chronicler that they had the habit of tying captured knights to their horses and having both of them burned alive, while sometimes a stake would be driven into their bodies or the knight would be flayed. Lithuanian pagan customs included ritualistic human sacrifice, the hanging of widows, and the burying of a warrior's horses and servants with him after his death.[32] The knights would also, on occasion, take captives from defeated Lithuanians, whose condition (as that of other war captives in the Middle Ages) was extensively researched by Jacques Heers.[33] The conflict had much influence in the political situation of the region and was the source of many rivalries between Lithuanians or Poles and Germans; the degree to which it impacted the mentalities of the time can be seen in the lyrical works of men such as the contemporaryAustrian poetPeter Suchenwirt.
Overall, the conflict lasted over 200 years (although with varying degrees of active hostility during that time), its front line extending along both banks of theNeman River, with as many as twenty forts and castles betweenSeredžius andJurbarkas alone.
A dispute over the claims toPomerelia embroiled the Order in further conflict at the beginning of the 14th century. DukeWładysław I the Elbow-high of Poland wanted the region, citing inheritance fromPrzemysł II. He was opposed by somePomeranian nobles, but also aDanish prince, who supported the Margrave ofBrandenburg's claim that the region had been granted to Brandenburg as a fief by KingWenceslaus. Forces from Denmark and Brandenburg had tried and failed to take the site in 1301 and 1306 but, in the summer of 1308, Brandenburg's forces tried again, targeting the present-day site ofGdańsk, where a rebellion had erupted in their favor. Władysław pressed the Teutonic Order for help and the Teutonic Knights, led by Grand MasterSiegfried von Feuchtwangen, drove Brandenburg out. The Knights requested payment in exchange and Władysław refused.
By November, the Order forces under a Prussian LandmeisterHeinrich von Plötzke took the site for themselves. According to some sources, theymassacred the town's inhabitants, although the exact extent of the violence is unknown and widely recognized by historians to be an unsolvable mystery. The estimates range from 60 rebellious leaders, reported by dignitaries of the region and Knight chroniclers, to 10,000 civilians, a number cited in a papal bull (of dubious provenance) that was used in a legal process installed to punish the Order for the event; the legal dispute went on for a time, but the Order was eventually absolved of the charges. In theTreaty of Soldin, the Teutonic Order purchased the castles of Gdańsk,Świecie, andTczew and their hinterlands from the margraves for 10,000 marks on 13 September 1309.[34]
Control of Pomerelia allowed the Order to connect their monastic state with the borders of the Holy Roman Empire. Crusading reinforcements and supplies could travel from the Imperial territory ofHither Pomerania through Pomerelia to Prussia, while Poland's access to the Baltic Sea was blocked. While Poland had mostly been an ally of the knights against the pagan Prussians and Lithuanians, the capture of Pomerelia turned the kingdom into a determined enemy of the Order.[35]
The capture of Gdańsk marked a new phase in the history of the Teutonic Knights. The persecution and abolition of the powerful Knights Templar, which began in 1307, worried the Teutonic Knights, but control of Pomerelia allowed them to move their headquarters in 1309 from Venice toMarienburg (Malbork) on theNogat River, outside the reach of secular powers. The position of Prussian Landmeister was merged with that of the Grand Master. The Pope began investigating misconduct by the knights, but no charges were found to have substance. Along with the campaigns against the Lithuanians, the knights faced a vengeful Poland and legal threats from the Papacy.[36]
TheTreaty of Kalisz of 1343 ended the open war between the Teutonic Knights and Poland. The Knights relinquishedKuyavia andDobrzyń Land to Poland, but retainedChełmno Land and Pomerelia with Gdańsk (Germanized asDanzig).
In 1236, theKnights of Saint Thomas, an English order, adopted the rules of the Teutonic Order. A contingent of Teutonic Knights of indeterminate number is traditionally believed to have participated at theBattle of Legnica in 1241 during thefirst Mongol invasion of Poland. The combined Polish-German army was crushed by the Mongol army and their superior tactics, with few survivors.[37][38][39]
In 1337, EmperorLouis IV allegedly granted the Order the imperial privilege to conquer all Lithuania and Russia. During the reign of Grand MasterWinrich von Kniprode (1351–1382), the Order reached the peak of its international prestige and hosted numerous European crusaders and nobility.
KingAlbert of Sweden cededGotland to the Order as a pledge (similar to afiefdom), with the understanding that they would eliminate the piratingVictual Brothers from this strategic island base in theBaltic Sea. An invasion force under Grand MasterKonrad von Jungingen conquered the island in 1398 and drove the Victual Brothers out of Gotland and the Baltic Sea.
In 1386, Grand DukeJogaila of Lithuania wasbaptised into Christianity and married QueenJadwiga of Poland, taking the name Władysław II Jagiełło and becoming King of Poland. This created apersonal union between the two countries and a potentially formidable opponent for the Teutonic Knights. The Order initially managed to play Władysław II Jagiełło and his cousinVytautas against each other, but this strategy failed when Vytautas began to suspect that the Order was planning to annex parts of his territory.
The baptism of Jogaila began the official conversion of Lithuania to Christianity. Although the crusading rationale for the Order's state ended when Prussia and Lithuania had become officially Christian, the Order's feuds and wars with Lithuania and Poland continued. TheLizard Union was created in 1397 by Prussian nobles in Chełmno Land to oppose the Order's policy.
While Poland and Lithuania were growing in power, that of the Teutonic Knights dwindled through infighting. They were forced to impose high taxes to pay a substantial indemnity but did not give the cities sufficient requested representation in the administration of their state. The authoritarian and reforming Grand Master Heinrich von Plauen was forced from power and replaced byMichael Küchmeister von Sternberg, but the new Grand Master was unable to revive the Order's fortunes. After theGollub War the Knights lost some small border regions and renounced all claims toSamogitia in the 1422Treaty of Melno.Austrian andBavarian knights feuded with those from theRhineland, who likewise bickered withLow German-speakingSaxons, from whose ranks the Grand Master was usually chosen. The western Prussian lands of theVistula River Valley and the Brandenburg Neumark were ravaged by theHussites during theHussite Wars.[40] Some Teutonic Knights were sent to battle the invaders but were defeated by theBohemian infantry. The Knights also sustained a defeat in thePolish-Teutonic War (1431–1435).
Map of the Teutonic state in 1466
In 1440, thePrussian Confederation was founded by gentry and burghers of the State of the Teutonic Order. In 1454, it rose up against the Order and asked Polish KingCasimir IV Jagiellon to incorporate the region into theKingdom of Poland, to which the King agreed and signed an act of incorporation inKraków.[41] Mayors, burghers and representatives from the region pledged allegiance to the Polish King during the incorporation in March 1454 inKraków.[42] This marked the beginning of theThirteen Years' War between the Teutonic Order and Poland. The main cities of the incorporated territory were authorized by Casimir IV to mint Polish coins.[43] Much of Prussia was devastated in the war, during the course of which the Order returned Neumark to Brandenburg in 1455 to raise funds for war. Because Marienburg Castle was handed over to mercenaries in lieu of their pay, and eventually passed to Poland, the Order moved its base toKönigsberg inSambia. In theSecond Peace of Thorn (1466), the defeated Order renounced any claims to the territories ofGdańsk/Eastern Pomerania andChełmno Land, which were reintegrated with Poland,[44] and the region of Elbląg and Malbork, and thePrince-Bishopric of Warmia, which were also recognized as part of Poland,[45] while retaining the eastern territories in historic Prussia, but as afief andprotectorate of Poland, also considered an integral part of "one and indivisible" Kingdom of Poland.[46] From now on, every Grand Master of the Teutonic Order was obliged to swear an oath of allegiance to the reigning Polish king within six months of taking office.[46] The Grand Master became a prince and counselor of the Polish king and the Kingdom of Poland.[47]
After thePolish–Teutonic War (1519–1521), the Order was completely ousted from Prussia when Grand MasterAlbert of Brandenburg converted toLutheranism in 1525. He secularized the Order's remaining Prussian territories and assumed from his uncleSigismund I the Old, King of Poland, the hereditary rights to theDuchy of Prussia as a personal vassal of the Polish Crown, thePrussian Homage. Ducal Prussia retained its currency, laws and faith. The aristocracy was not present in the Sejm.
Although it had lost control of all of its Prussian lands, the Teutonic Order retained its territories within theHoly Roman Empire andLivonia, although the Livonian branch retained considerable autonomy. Many of the Imperial possessions were ruined in theGerman Peasants' War from 1524 to 1525 and subsequently confiscated by Protestant territorial princes.[48] The Livonian territory was then partitioned by neighboring powers during theLivonian War; in 1561 the Livonian MasterGotthard Kettler secularized the southern Livonian possessions of the Order to create theDuchy of Courland, also a vassal of Poland.
After the loss of Prussia in 1525, the Teutonic Knights concentrated on their possessions in the Holy Roman Empire. Since they held no contiguous territory, they developed a three-tiered administrative system: holdings were combined intocommanderies that were administered by acommander (Komtur). Several commanderies were combined to form abailiwick headed by aLandkomtur. All of the Teutonic Knights' possessions were subordinate to the Grand Master, whose seat was in Bad Mergentheim.
The Order gradually lost control of these holdings until, by 1809, only the seat of the Grand Master at Mergentheim remained.
Following the abdication of Albert of Brandenburg,Walter von Cronberg becameDeutschmeister in 1527, and later Administrator of Prussia and Grand Master in 1530. EmperorCharles V combined the two positions in 1531, creating the titleHoch- und Deutschmeister, which also had the rank ofPrince of the Empire.[49] A new Grand Magistery was established in Mergentheim inWürttemberg, which was attacked during the German Peasants' War. The Order also helped Charles V against theSchmalkaldic League. After thePeace of Augsburg in 1555, membership in the Order was open to Protestants, although the majority of brothers remained Catholic.[50] The Teutonic Knights became tri-denominational, with Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed bailiwicks.
The Grand Masters, often members of the great German families (and, after 1761, members of theHouse of Habsburg-Lorraine), continued to preside over the Order's considerable holdings in Germany. Teutonic Knights from Germany, Austria, and Bohemia were used as battlefield commanders leading mercenaries for theHabsburg monarchy during theOttoman wars in Europe.
The military history of the Teutonic Knights was to end in 1805 by the Article XII of thePeace of Pressburg, which ordered the German territories of the Knights converted into a hereditary domain and gave the Austrian Emperor responsibility for placing a Habsburg prince on its throne. These terms had not been fulfilled by the time of theTreaty of Schönbrunn in 1809, and thereforeNapoleon Bonaparte ordered the Knights' remaining territory to be disbursed to his German allies, which was completed in 1810.
TheGeneralkapitel (general chapter) was the collection of all the priests, knights and half-brothers (German:Halbbrüder). Because of the logistical problems in assembling the members, who were spread over large distances, only deputations of thebailiwicks andcommandries gathered to form the General chapter. The General chapter was designed to meet annually, but the conventions were usually limited to the election of a new Grandmaster. The decisions of theGeneralkapitel had a binding effect on theGroßgebietigers of the order.
TheHochmeister (Grand Master) was the highest officer of the order. Until 1525, he was elected by theGeneralkapitel. He had the rank of the ruler of an ecclesiasticimperial state and was sovereign prince of Prussia until 1466. Despite this high formal position, in practice, he was only a kind offirst among equals.
The order was divided into three national chapters,Prussia,Livonia and the territory of theHoly Roman Empire of the German Nation. The highest officer of each chapter was theLandmeister (country master). They were elected by the regional chapters. In the beginning, they were only substitutes of the Grandmaster but were able to create a power of their own so that, within their territory, the Grandmaster could not decide against their will. At the end of their rule over Prussia, the Grandmaster was onlyLandmeister of Prussia. There were three Landmeisters:
Because the properties of the order within the rule of theDeutschmeister did not form a contiguous territory, but were spread over the whole empire and parts of Europe, there was an additional regional structure, the bailiwick.Kammerballeien ("Chamber Bailiwicks") were governed by the Grandmaster himself. Some of these bailiwicks had the rank of imperial states:[53]
The smallest administrative unit of the order was theKommende. It was ruled by aKomtur, who had all administrative rights and controlled theVogteien (district of a reeve) andZehnthöfe (tithe collectors) within his rule. In the commandry, all kinds of brothers lived together in a monastic way. Noblemen served as Knight-brothers or Priest-brothers. Other people could serve as Sariantbrothers, who were armed soldiers, and as Half-brothers, who were working in the economy and healthcare.
TheKanzler (chancellor) of the Grandmaster and the Deutschmeister. The chancellor took care of the keys and seals and was also the recording clerk of the chapter.
TheMünzmeister (master of the mint) of Thorn. In 1226, the order received the right to produce its own coins – theMoneta Dominorum Prussiae – Schillingen. Customary laws for coinage did not come about until the Kulm laws of 1233 were written. And the first coins were not minted until late 1234 or early 1235.
ThePfundmeister (customs master) of Danzig. ThePfund was a local customs duty.
TheGeneralprokurator the representative of the order at theHoly See.
TheGroßschäffer, a trading representative with special authority.
TheCatholic order continued to exist in the various territories ruled by theAustrian Empire, out of Napoleon's reach. From 1804 the Order was headed by members of theHabsburg dynasty.
The collapse of the Habsburg monarchy and the Empire it governed in Austria, the Italian Tyrol, Bohemia and the Balkans brought a shattering crisis to the Order. While in the new Austrian Republic, the Order seemed to have some hope of survival, in the other former parts of the Habsburg territories, the tendency was to regard the Order as an honorary chivalric Order of theHouse of Habsburg. The consequence of this risked being the confiscation of the Order's property as belongings of the House of Habsburg. So as to make the distinction clearer, in 1923 the then High Master,Field Marshal Eugen of Austria-Teschen, Archduke of Austria, a member of the House of Habsburg and an active army commander before and during the First World War, had one of the Order's priests, Norbert Klein, at the time Bishop of Brno (Brünn) elected his Coadjutor and then abdicated, leaving the Bishop as High Master of the Order.
As a result of this move, by 1928 the now-independent former Habsburg territories all recognized the Order as aCatholicreligious order. The Order itself introduced a new Rule, approved by Pope Pius XI in 1929, according to which the government of the Order would in the future be in the hands of a priest of the Order, as would its constituent provinces, while the women religious of the Order would have women superiors. In 1936 the situation of the women religious was further clarified and the Congregation of the Sisters of the Order was given as their supreme moderator the High Master of the Order, the Sisters also having representation at the Order's general chapter.
This completed the transformation of what remained in the Catholic Church of the Teutonic knights into aCatholicreligious order now renamed simply theDeutscher Orden ("German Order").[54] However, further difficulties were in store.
The Fascist rule in Italy, which since the end of the First World War had absorbed the Southern Tyrol, was not a propitious setting, but following the end of hostilities, a now democratic Italy provided normalized conditions. In 1947, Austria legally abolished the measures taken against the Order and restored confiscated property. Despite being hampered by the Communist regimes in Yugoslavia and in Czechoslovakia, the Order was now broadly in a position to take up activities in accordance with elements of its tradition, including care for the sick, for the elderly, for children, including work in education, in parishes and in its own internal houses of study. In 1957 a residence was established in Rome for the Order's Procurator General to the Holy See, to serve also as a pilgrim hostel. Conditions in Czechoslovakia gradually improved and in the meanwhile, the forced exile of some members of the Order led to the Order's re-establishing itself with some modest, but historically significant, foundations in Germany. The Sisters, in particular, gained several footholds, including specialist schools and care of the poor and in 1953 the former house of Augustinian Canons, St. Nikola, in Passau became the Sisters' Motherhouse. Although the reconstruction represented by the reformed Rule of 1929 had set aside categories such as the knights, over time the spontaneous involvement of laypeople in the Order's apostolates has led to their revival in a modernized form, a development formalized byPope Paul VI in 1965.
With the official title of "Brethren of the German House of St Mary in Jerusalem", the Order today is unambiguously aCatholicreligious order, though sui generis. Various features of its life and activities recall those of monastic and mendicant orders. At its core are priests who make a solemn religious profession, along with lay brothers who make a perpetual simple profession. Also part of the Order are the Sisters, with internal self-government within their own structures but with representation in the Order's General Chapter. Their ultimate superior is the High Master of the Order. The approximately 100Catholic priests and 200nuns of the Order are divided into five provinces, namely, Austria-Italy,[55] Slovenia, Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia. While the priests predominantly provide spiritual guidance, the nuns primarily care for the ill and the aged. Many of the priests care for German-speaking communities outside of Germany and Austria, especially in Italy and Slovenia; in this sense, the Teutonic Order has returned to its 12th-century roots: the spiritual and physical care of Germans in foreign lands.[56]
There is an Institute of "Familiares", most of whom are laypeople, and who are attached by spiritual bonds to the Order but do not take vows. The "Familiares" are grouped especially into the bailiwicks of Germany, Austria, Southern Tyrol, Ad Tiberim (Rome), and the bailiwick of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as also in the independent commandry of Alden Biesen in Belgium, though others are dispersed throughout the world. Overall, there are in recent years some 700.
By the end of the 20th century, then, this religious Order had developed into acharitable organization and established numerous clinics, as well as sponsoring excavation and tourism projects inIsrael. In 2000, the German chapter of the Teutonic Order declared bankruptcy, and its upper management was dismissed; an investigation by a special committee of theBavarian parliament in 2002 and 2003 to determine the cause was inconclusive.
The currentAbbot General of the Order, who also holds the title of High Master, is FatherFrank Bayard. The current seat of the High Master is theChurch of the German Order ("Deutschordenskirche") inVienna. Near theSt Stephen's Cathedral ("Stephansdom") in the Austrian capital is the Treasury of the Teutonic Order, which is open to the public, and the Order's central archive. Since 1996, there has also been a museum dedicated to the Teutonic Knights attheir former castle inBad Mergentheim in Germany, which was the seat of the High Master from 1525 to 1809.
A portion of the Order retains more of the character of the knights during the height of its power and prestige. DerBalije van Utrecht ("Bailiwick of Utrecht") of theRidderlijke Duitsche Orde ("Chivalric German [i.e., 'Teutonic'] Order") becameProtestant at theReformation, and it remained an aristocratic society. The relationship of the Bailiwick of Utrecht to the CatholicDeutscher Orden resembles that of the ProtestantBailiwick of Brandenburg to the CatholicOrder of Malta: each is an authentic part of its original order, though differing from and smaller than the Catholic branch.[57]
The Knights wore white surcoats with a black cross, granted byInnocent III in 1205. Across pattée was sometimes used.[year needed] The coat of arms representing the grandmaster (Hochmeisterwappen)[58] is shown with a goldencross fleury orcross potent superimposed on the black cross, with theimperial eagle as a central inescutcheon. The golden cross fleury overlaid on the black cross became widely used in the 15th century. A legendary account attributes its introduction toLouis IX of France, who is said to have granted the master of the order this cross as a variation of theJerusalem cross, with thefleur-de-lis symbol attached to each arm,in 1250. While this legendary account cannot be traced back further than the early modern period (Christoph Hartknoch, 1684), there is some evidence that the design does indeed date to the mid 13th century.[59]
The black cross pattée was later used for military decoration and insignia by theKingdom of Prussia and Germany as theIron Cross.
The motto of the Order is "Helfen, Wehren, Heilen" ("to help, to defend, to heal").[year needed][10]
14th-century brass stamp with the shield insignia.
In the 16th century, officers of the order would quarter their family arms with the order's arms.[60]
Example of theDeutschmeisterwappen on the gate of theBad Mergentheim residence
^α AGerman National People's Party poster from 1920 showing a Teutonic knight being attacked by Poles and socialists. The caption reads "Rescue the East".
TheState of the Teutonic Order (whose flag is shown here) greatly influenced the history of Prussia, which became the dominant German state and the source for most of the new war ensign's visual elements.
β A Nazi propaganda poster in the Belarussian language. It shows the image of a tank under the Nazi flag.
1935–1938 war ensign
1938–1945 war ensign
The German historianHeinrich von Treitschke used imagery of the Teutonic Knights, aGermanic myth, to promote pro-German andanti-Polish rhetoric. Many middle-class German nationalists adopted this imagery and its symbols. During theWeimar Republic, associations and organisations of this nature contributed to laying the groundwork for the formation of Nazi Germany.[61]
An organization predating theNazi Party itself,α as well asNazi-supported preceding[62] andNazi preceding[63] and during[β]World War II propaganda made use of the Teutonic Knights' imagery, with the common goal of instilling the importance ofLebensraum for the future of Germany and the German people.[64] According to medieval historianErik Christiansen, "Himmler's plan to mould theSS as a reincarnation of [The Teutonic Order] proved [...] the irresistible strength of bad history."[65] Though gradually taking hold ever since with one ofPrince Adalbert of Prussia's 1849 proposals, after a lull during the Weimar Republic, whereupon it reverted to a simple tricolor overlaid with anIron Cross (though itself also derivative), a version of Germany'sReichskriegsflagge (war ensign)[β] emerged more closely resembling The State of the Teutonic Order's cross's original shape with a circle-overlaidbalkenkreuz. Hitler based hisGerman Order on the Teutonic Order, while especially the Hochmeister's ceremonial regalia, also the Marian Cross of the Teutonic Order, theKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross and of the cross of the Knight of Justice of theOrder of St. John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg).[66]
After Hitler approved theGeneralplan Ost (GPO),Germanization campaigns were extolled as the modern adaptation of what it portrayed as "civilizing missions" of the Teutonic Order.[67]Yet, despite these references to the Teutonic Order's history in Nazi propaganda, the Order itself was abolished in 1938 and its members were persecuted by the German authorities. This occurred mostly due to Hitler's and Himmler's belief that, throughout history, Catholic military-religious orders had been tools of the Holy See and as such constituted a threat to the Nazi regime.[68]
The converse was true for Polishnationalism, for exampleThe Knights of the Cross byHenryk Sienkiewicz, which used the Teutonic Knights as symbolic shorthand for Germans in general, conflating the two into an easily recognisable image of the hostile. After theBattle of Grunwald, the Teutonic Order was portrayed as the medieval forerunners of Hitler's armies.[69][70]
In theSoviet Union, the image ofAlexander Nevsky became a national symbol of the struggle against German occupation during World War II, and many Soviet historians portrayed him as a Russian bastion against both German and papal aggression.[71] The government sought historical continuity by referring to the Soviet struggle as theGreat Patriotic War.[72] TheOrder of Alexander Nevsky was re-established in 1942 by the Soviet government during the war, which would be awarded to servicemen in the Soviet army.[72] The 1938 filmAlexander Nevsky bySergei Eisenstein, which depicts theBattle on the Ice, was re-released in 1941 following the German invasion.[73]Joseph Stalin used the film to mobilize feelings of Russian patriotism.[74]
^Riley-Smith, Jonathan Simon Christopher (1999).The Oxford History of the Crusades. Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0192853646.Teutonic knights are still to be found only in another interesting survival, Ridderlijke Duitse Orde Balije van Utrecht (The Bailiwick of Utrecht of the Teutonic Order). Like the Hospitaller Bailiwick of Brandenburg, this commandery turned itself into a noble Protestant confraternity at the time of the Reformation.
^"History of the German Order".Teutonic Order, Order of the Teutonic Knights of St. Mary's Hospital in Jerusalem. Archived fromthe original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved30 January 2011.The 15th and early 16th century brought hard times for the Order. Apart from the drastic power loss in the East as of 1466, the Hussite attacks imperiled the continued existence of the bailiwick of Bohemia. In Southern Europe, the Order had to give up important outposts – such as Apulia and Sicily. After the coup d'état of Albrecht von Brandenburg, the only remaining territory of the Order were the bailiwicks located within the empire.
^abDemel, Bernhard (1999). Vogel, Friedrich (ed.).Der Deutsche Orden Einst Und Jetzt: Aufsätze Zu Seiner Mehr Als 800 jahrigen Geschichte. Europäische Hochschulschriften: Geschichte und ihre Hilfswissenschaften. Vol. 848. Frankfurt-am-Main: Peter Lang. p. 80.ISBN978-3-631-34999-1.
^The German Hansa P. Dollinger, p. 34, 1999 Routledge[ISBN missing]
^Simas Sužiedėlis, ed. (1970–1978). "Semba". Encyclopedia Lituanica. Vol. V. Boston, Massachusetts: Juozas Kapočius. pp. 107–108.
^Urban, William L. (2000).The Prussian Crusade. Lithuanian Research and Studies Center (2. ed., rev. and enl ed.). Chicago, Ill: Lithuanian Research and Studies Center. pp. 344–345.ISBN978-0-929700-28-1.
^The offices ofHochmeister (grandmaster, head of the order) andDeutschmeister (Magister Germaniae) were united in 1525. The title ofMagister Germaniae had been introduced in 1219 as the head of the bailiwicks in the Holy Roman Empire, from 1381 also those in Italy, raised to the rank of a prince of the Holy Roman Empire in 1494, but merged with the office of grandmaster under Walter von Cronberg in 1525, from which time the head of the order had the title ofHoch- und Deutschmeister.Bernhard Peter (2011)Archived 23 September 2015 at theWayback Machine
^Helmut Nickel, "Über das Hochmeisterwappen des Deutschen Ordens im Heiligen Lande",Der Herold 4/1990, 97–108 (mgh-bibliothek.de). Marie-Luise Heckmann, "Überlegungen zu einem heraldischen Repertorium an Hand der Hochmeisterwappen des Deutschen Ordens" in: Matthias Thumser, Janusz Tandecki, Dieter Heckmann (eds.)Edition deutschsprachiger Quellen aus dem Ostseeraum (14.–16. Jahrhundert), Publikationen des Deutsch-Polnischen Gesprächskreises für Quellenedition. Publikacje Niemiecko-Polskiej Grupy Dyskusyjnej do Spraw Edycij Zrodel 1, 2001, 315–346 (online edition). "Die zeitgenössische Überlieferung verdeutlicht für dieses Wappen hingegen einen anderen Werdegang. Der Modelstein eines Schildmachers, der unter Hermann von Salza zwischen 1229 und 1266 auf der Starkenburg (Montfort) im Heiligen Land tätig war, und ein rekonstruiertes Deckengemälde in der Burgkapelle derselben Festung erlaubten der Forschung den Schluss, dass sich die Hochmeister schon im 13. Jahrhundert eines eigenen Wappens bedient hätten. Es zeigte ein auf das schwarze Ordenskreuz aufgelegtes goldenes Lilienkreuz mit dem bekannten Adlerschildchen. Die Wappensiegel des Elbinger Komturs von 1310 bzw. 1319, ein heute in Innsbruck aufbewahrter Vortrageschild des Hochmeisters Karl von Trier von etwa 1320 und das schlecht erhaltene Sekretsiegel desselben Hochmeisters von 1323 sind ebenfalls jeweils mit aufgelegtem goldenem Lilienkreuz ausgestattet."
^In this example (dated 1594), Hugo Dietrich von Hohenlandenberg,commander of the bailiwick of Swabia-Alsace-Burgundy, shows hisLandenberg family arms quartered with the order's black cross.
^Berg, Lisa (2010).Education in Nazi Germany. Oxford.ISBN978-1-84788-764-1. Retrieved15 June 2024.Finally, at Marienburg, the students were to learn about [...] the need for 'living space'. [...] A contemporary foreign reporter commented on this: 'The young men are told that they form a Nordic Crusading Order [...]'
^Fritz Bennecke, ed. (1940)."You and Your People (Volk)".Vom deutschen Volk und seinem Lebensraum, Handbuch für die Schulung in der HJ (in German). Munich: Franz Eher, 1937.
^Davies, Norman (2005).God's Playground. A History of Poland. The Origins to 1795. Vol. I (Revised ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 99.ISBN978-0-19-925339-5.
Barker, Ernest (1911)."Teutonic Order, The" . InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 676–679. This contains a detailed chronological history of the Order, and is itself based onHeinrich von TreitschkeDas deutsche Ordensland Preussens, inHistorische und politische Aufsätze, vol. II. (Leipzig, 1871), and on Johann LoserthGeschichte des späteren Mittelalters (Munich and Berlin, 1903).
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