Everything about The Teutonic Order totally explained
The
Teutonic Order is a
German Roman Catholic religious order. Its members have commonly been known as the
Teutonic Knights, since it was a
crusading military order during the
Middle Ages and much of the modern era.
Formed at the end of the 12th century in
Acre,
Palestine, the medieval Order played an important role in
Outremer, controlling the port tolls of Acre. After Christian forces were defeated in the Middle East, the Order moved to
Transylvania in 1211 to help defend
Hungary against the
Cumans. They were expelled in 1225 after allegedly attempting to place themselves under Papal instead of Hungarian sovereignty.
Following the
Golden Bull of Rimini,
Grand Master Hermann von Salza and Duke
Konrad I of Masovia made a
joint invasion of
Prussia in 1230 to Christianise the Baltic
Old Prussians in the
Northern Crusades. The knights were then accused of cheating Polish rule and creating an independent
monastic state. The Order lost its main purpose in Europe, when the neighbouring country of Lithuania
accepted Christianity. Once established in Prussia, the Order became involved in campaigns against its Christian neighbours, the
Kingdom of Poland, the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the
Novgorod Republic (after assimilating the
Livonian Order). The Teutonic Knights had a strong urban economy, hired mercenaries from throughout Europe to augment their feudal levies, and became a naval power in the
Baltic Sea.
In 1410, a Polish-Lithuanian army decisively defeated the Order and broke its military power at the
Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg). The Order steadily declined until 1525 when Grand Master
Albert of Brandenburg resigned and converted to
Lutheranism to become
Duke of Prussia. The Grand Masters continued to preside over the Order's considerable holdings in Germany and elsewhere until 1809, when
Napoleon Bonaparte ordered its dissolution and the Order lost its last secular holdings. The Order continued to exist, headed by
Habsburgs through
World War I, and today operates primarily with
charitable aims in Central Europe.
The Knights wore white
surcoats with a black cross. A
cross pattée was sometimes used as their
coat of arms; this image was later used for military decoration and insignia by the
Kingdom of Prussia and
Germany as the
Iron Cross.
Names
The full name of the Order in
Latin is
Ordo domus Sanctæ Mariæ Theutonicorum Ierosolimitanorum, or "Order of the German House of St. Mary in Jerusalem". Its corresponding name in
German is
Orden der Brüder vom Deutschen Haus St. Mariens in Jerusalem. It is commonly known in German as the
Deutscher Orden, or "German Order".
The Teutonic Knights have been known as
Zakon Krzyżacki in
Polish and as
Kryžiuočių Ordinas in
Lithuanian, in
Latvian "Zobenbraļu ordenis" as well as various names in .
History
Foundation
In 1143
Pope Celestine II ordered the
Knights Hospitaller to take over management of a German Hospital in Jerusalem, which, according to the chronicler Jean d’Ypres, accommodated the countless German pilgrims and crusaders who could neither speak the local tongue (for example French) nor Latin (
patrie linguam ignorantibus atque Latinam). However, although formally an institution of the Hospitallers, the pope commanded that the prior and the brothers of the
domus Teutonicorum (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 Palestine.
After the loss of Jerusalem in 1187, some merchants from
Lübeck and
Bremen took up the idea and founded a field hospital for the duration of the
siege of Acre in 1190, which became the nucleus of the order;
Celestine III recognized it in 1192 by granting the monks
Augustinian Rule. Based on the model of the
Knights Templar it was, however, transformed into a military order in 1198 and the head of the order became known as the
Grand Master (
magister hospitalis). It received
Papal orders for crusades to take and hold
Jerusalem for
Latin Christianity and defend the
Holy Land against the
Muslim Saracens. During the rule of Grand Master
Hermann von Salza (1209-1239) the Order changed from being a
hospice brotherhood for pilgrims to primarily a
military order.
Originally based in
Acre, the Knights purchased
Montfort (Starkenberg), northeast of Acre, in 1220. This castle, which defended the route between Jerusalem and the
Mediterranean 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 also had a castle near
Tarsus in
Armenia Minor. The Order received donations of land in the
Holy Roman Empire (especially in present-day
Germany and
Italy),
Greece, and
Palestine.
Emperor Frederick II elevated his close friend Hermann von Salza to the status of
Reichsfürst, or "Prince of the Empire", enabling the Grand Master to negotiate with other senior princes as an equal. During Frederick's coronation as
King of Jerusalem in 1225, Teutonic Knights served as his escort in the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre; von Salza read the emperor's proclamation in both
French and
German. However, the Teutonic Knights were never as influential in
Outremer as the older
Templars and
Hospitallers.
In 1211,
Andrew II of
Hungary accepted their services and granted them the district of
Burzenland in
Transylvania. Andrew had been involved in negotiations for the marriage of his daughter with the son of Hermann, Landgrave of
Thuringia, whose vassals included the family of Hermann von Salza. Led by a brother called Theoderich, the Order defended Hungary against the neighbouring
Cumans and settled new German colonists to among those who were known as the
Transylvanian Saxons, living there before. In 1224 the Knights petitioned
Pope Honorius III to be placed directly under the authority of the
Papal See, rather than that of the King of Hungary. Angered and alarmed at their growing power, Andrew responded by expelling them in 1225, although he allowed the new colonists to remain.
Prussia
In 1226
Konrad I, Duke of
Masovia in west-central
Poland, appealed to the Knights to defend his borders and subdue the pagan Baltic
Prussians, allowing the Teutonic Knights use of
Chełmno Land (Culmerland) as a base for their campaign. This being a time of widespread crusading fervor throughout Western Europe, Hermann von Salza considered
Prussia a good training ground for his knights for the wars against the
Muslims in Outremer. With the
Golden 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 smaller
Order of Dobrzyń, which had been established earlier by Konrad.
The
conquest of Prussia was accomplished with much bloodshed over more than 50 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".
The native nobility which submitted to the crusaders had many of their privileges affirmed in the
Treaty of Christburg. After the
Prussian uprisings of 1260-83, however, much of the Prussian nobility emigrated or were resettled, and many free Prussians lost their rights. The Prussian nobility which remained were more closely allied with the German landowners and gradually assimilated. Peasants in frontier regions, such as
Samland, had more privileges than those in more populated lands, such as
Pomesania. The crusading knights often accepted
baptism as a form of submission by the natives. Christianity along western lines slowly spread through Prussian culture. Bishops were reluctant to have Prussian religious practices integrated into the new faith, while the ruling knights found it easier to govern the natives when they were semi-pagan and lawless.
The Order ruled Prussia under
charters issued by the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor as a
sovereign monastic state, comparable to the arrangement of the
Knights Hospitallers in
Rhodes and later in
Malta.
To make up for losses from the
plague and to replace the partially exterminated native population, the Order encouraged the
immigration of
colonists from the
Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (mostly
Germans,
Flemish, and
Dutch) and from Masovia (
Poles), the later
Masurians). The colonists included nobles, burghers, and peasants, and the surviving Old Prussians were gradually assimilated through
Germanization. The settlers founded numerous towns and cities on former Prussian settlements. The Order itself built a number of castles (
Ordensburgen) from which it could defeat
uprisings 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 included
Königsberg, founded in 1255 in honor of King
Otakar II of
Bohemia on the site of a destroyed Prussian settlement,
Allenstein (Olsztyn),
Elbing (Elbląg), and
Memel (Klaipėda).
In 1236 the
Knights of St Thomas, an
English order, adopted the rules of the Teutonic Order. The
Livonian Brothers of the Sword were absorbed by the Teutonic Knights in 1237; the Livonian branch subsequently became known as the
Livonian Order. The Teutonic Order's nominal territorial rule extended over
Prussia,
Livonia,
Semigalia, and
Estonia. Its next aim was to convert
Orthodox Russia to
Roman Catholicism, but after the knights suffered a disastrous defeat in the
Battle on Lake Peipus (1242) at the hands of Prince
Alexander Nevsky of
Novgorod, this plan had to be abandoned. A detachment of Teutonic Knights allegedly participated in the 1241
Battle of Legnica against the
Mongols.
Against Lithuania
The Teutonic Knights began to direct their campaigns against pagan Lithuania (see
Lithuanian mythology), especially after the fall of the
Kingdom of Jerusalem at
Acre in 1291. The knights moved their headquarters to
Venice, from which they planned the recovery of
Outremer. Because "
Lithuania Propria" remained non-Christian until the end of the 14th century, much later than the rest of eastern Europe, many knights from western European countries, such as England and
France, journeyed to Prussia to participate in the seasonal campaigns (
reyse) against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Some of them campaigned against pagans to obtain remission for their sins, while others fought to gain military experience.
Warfare between the Order and the Lithuanians was especially brutal. Non-Christians were seen as lacking rights possessed by Christians. Because enslavement of non-Christians was seen as acceptable at the time and the subdued native Prussians demanded land or payment, the Knights often used captured pagan Lithuanians for forced labor. The contemporary
Austrian poet Peter Suchenwirt described treatment he witnessed of pagans by the Knights:
"Women and children were taken captive; What a jolly medley could be seen: Many a woman could be seen, Two children tied to her body, One behind and one in front; On a horse without spurs Barefoot had they ridden here; The heathens were made to suffer: Many were captured and in every case, Were their hands tied together They were led off, all tied up — Just like hunting dogs".
Against Poland
A dispute over the succession of the Duchy of
Pomerelia embroiled the Order in further conflict in the beginning of the 14th century. The Margraves of
Brandenburg had claims to the duchy which they acted upon after the death of King
Wenceslaus of Poland in 1306. Duke
Władysław I the Elbow-high of Poland claimed the duchy as well basing on inheritance from
Przemysław II, but was opposed by some
Pomeranian nobles. They requested help from Brandenburg, which subsequently occupied all of Pomerelia except for the citadel of
Danzig (Gdańsk) in 1308. Because Władysław was unable to come to the defense of Danzig, the Teutonic Knights, then led by Hochmeister
Siegfried von Feuchtwangen, were hired to expel the Brandenburgers.
The Order, under Prussian Landmeister
Heinrich von Plötzke, evicted the Brandenburgers from Danzig in September 1308. Von Plötzke presented Władysław with a bill for 10,000
marks of silver for the Order's help, but the Polish duke was only willing to offer 300 marks. After this refusal, the Teutonic Knights occupied the entirety of Danzig, increasing discontent in the city. The following month the knights suppressed an uprising with a highly disputed amount of bloodshed, especially of the German merchants in the city. In the
Treaty of Soldin, the Teutonic Order purchased Brandenburg's claims to the castles of Danzig,
Schwetz (Świecie), and
Dirschau (Tczew) and their hinterlands from the margraves for 10,000 marks on
13 September 1309.
The capture of Danzig 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 to
Marienburg (Malbork) on the
Nogat River, outside of 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 the Order was defended by able jurists. Along with the campaigns against the Lithuanians, the knights faced a vengeful Poland and legal threats from the Papacy.
The
Treaty of Kalisz of 1343 ended open war between the Teutonic Knights and Poland. The Knights relinquished
Kuyavia and
Dobrzyń Land to Poland, but retained
Culmerland and Pomerelia with Danzig.
Height of power
In 1337 Emperor
Louis IV allegedly granted the Order the imperial privilege to conquer all Lithuania and Russia. During the reign of Grand Master
Winrich von Kniprode (1351-1382), the Order reached the peak of its international prestige and hosted numerous European crusaders and nobility.
King
Albert of
Sweden ceded
Gotland to the Order as a
pledge (similar to a
fiefdom), with the understanding that they'd eliminate the pirating
Victual Brothers from this strategic island base in the
Baltic Sea. An invasion force under Grand Master
Konrad von Jungingen conquered the island in 1398 and drove the Victual Brothers out of Gotland and the Baltic Sea.
In 1386 Grand Duke
Jogaila of Lithuania was
baptised into
Roman Catholic Christianity and married Queen
Jadwiga of Poland, taking the name Władysław II Jagiełło and becoming King of Poland. This created a
personal union between the two countries and a potentially formidable opponent for the Teutonic Knights. The Order initially managed to play Jagiello and his cousin
Vytautas 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 Jagiello 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. The
Lizard Union was created in 1397 by Polish nobles in Culmerland to oppose the Order's policy.
In 1407 the Teutonic Order had reached its greatest territorial extent and included the lands of
Prussia,
Pomerelia,
Samogitia,
Courland,
Livonia,
Estonia,
Gotland,
Dagö,
Ösel, and the
Neumark pawned by Brandenburg in 1402.
Decline
In 1410 at the
Battle of Grunwald (also known as the Battle of
Tannenberg), a combined Polish-Lithuanian army, led by Władysław II Jagiełło and Vytautas, decisively defeated the Order in the
Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War. Grand Master
Ulrich von Jungingen and most of the Order's higher dignitaries fell on the battlefield (50 out of 60). The Polish-Lithuanian army then besieged the capital of the Order,
Marienburg, but was unable to take it owing to the resistance of
Heinrich von Plauen. When the
First Peace of Thorn was signed in 1411, the Order managed to retain essentially all of its territories, although the Knights' reputation as invincible warriors was irreparably damaged.
While Poland and Lithuania were growing in power, that of the Teutonic Knights dwindled through infighting. They were forced to impose high taxes in order to pay a substantial indemnity but didn't 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 by
Michael Küchmeister von Sternberg, but the new Grand Master was unable to revive the Order's fortunes. After the
Gollub War the Knights lost some small border regions and renounced all claims to
Samogitia in the 1422
Treaty of Melno.
Austrian and
Bavarian knights feuded with those from the
Rhineland, who likewise bickered with
Low German-speaking
Saxons, from whose ranks the Grand Master was usually chosen. The western Prussian lands of the
Vistula River Valley and the Neumark were ravaged by the
Hussites during the
Hussite Wars. Some Teutonic Knights were sent to battle the invaders, but were defeated by the
Bohemian infantry. The Knights also sustained a defeat in the
Polish-Teutonic War (1431-1435).
In 1454 the
Prussian Confederation, consisting of the
gentry and burghers of western Prussia, rose up against the Order, beginning the
Thirteen Years' War. Much of Prussia was devastated in the war, during the course of which the Order returned Neumark to Brandenburg in 1455. In the
Second Peace of Thorn (1466), the defeated Order recognized the
Polish crown's rights over western Prussia (subsequently
Royal Prussia) while retaining eastern Prussia under nominal Polish overlordship. Because Marienburg Castle was handed over to mercenaries in lie of their pay, the Order moved its base to
Königsberg in
Sambia.
To the Order was completely ousted from Prussia when Grand Master
Albert of Brandenburg, after
another unsuccessful war with Poland, converted to
Lutheranism in 1525, secularized the Order's remaining Prussian territories, and assumed from King
Sigismund I the Old of Poland the hereditary rights to the
Duchy of Prussia as a vassal of the Polish Crown in the
Prussian Homage. The Protestant Duchy of Prussia was thus a fief of Catholic Poland.
Although it had lost control of all of its Prussian lands, the Teutonic Order retained its territories within the
Holy Roman Empire and
Livonia, although the Livonian branch retained considerable autonomy. Many of the Imperial possessions were ruined in the
Peasants' War from 1524-1525 and subsequently confiscated by Protestant territorial princes. The Livonian territory was then partitioned by neighboring powers during the
Livonian War; in 1561 the Livonian Master
Gotthard Kettler secularized the southern Livonian possessions of the Order to create the Duchy 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 into
commanderies which were administered by a
commander (
Komtur). Several commanderies were combined to form a
bailiwick headed by a
Landkomtur. All of the Teutonic Knights' possessions were subordinate to the Grand Master whose seat was in
Bad Mergentheim. Altogether there were twelve German bailiwicks:
Thuringia,
Alden Biesen (in present-day
Belgium),
Hesse,
Saxony,
Westphalia,
Franconia,
Koblenz,
Alsace-
Burgundy,
An der Etsch und im Gebirge (Tyrol),
Utrecht,
Lorraine, and
Austria. Outside of German areas were the bailiwicks of
Sicily,
Apulia,
Lombardy,
Bohemia, "
Romania" (Greece), and
Armenia-
Cyprus. The Order gradually lost control of these holdings until, by 1810, only the bailiwicks in Tyrol and Austria remained.
Following the abdication of Albert of Brandenburg,
Walter von Cronberg became
Deutschmeister in 1527 and Grand Master in 1530. Emperor
Charles V combined the two positions in 1531, creating the title
Hoch- und Deutschmeister, which also had the rank of
Prince of the Empire. A new Grand Magistery was established in
Mergentheim in
Württemberg, which was attacked during the
Peasants' War. The Order also helped Charles V against the
Schmalkaldic League. After the
Peace of Augsburg in 1555, membership in the Order was open to Protestants, although the majority of brothers remained Catholic. The Teutonic Knights now were tri-denominational, and there were Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed bailiwicks.
The Grand Masters, often members of the great German families (and, after 1761, members of the House 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 the
Habsburg Monarchy during the
Ottoman wars in Europe. The military history of the Teutonic Knights ended in 1809, when
Napoleon Bonaparte ordered their dissolution and the Order lost its remaining secular holdings to Napoleon's vassals and allies.
Modern Teutonic Order
The Order continued to exist in
Austria, out of Napoleon's reach. It was only in 1834 that it was again officially called the
Deutscher Ritterorden ("German Knightly Order"), although most of its possessions were worldly by then. Beginning in 1804 it was headed by members of the
Habsburg dynasty until the 1923 resignation of the Grand Master,
Archduke Eugen of Austria.
In 1929 the Teutonic Knights were converted to a purely spiritual
Roman Catholic religious order and were renamed
Deutscher Orden ("German Order"). After Austria's
annexation by
Nazi Germany, the Teutonic Order was abolished throughout the
Großdeutsches Reich from 1938-1945, although the
Nazis used imagery of the medieval Teutonic Knights for
propaganda purposes. The Order survived in Italy, however, and was reconstituted in Germany and Austria in 1945.
By the end of the 1990s, the Order had developed into a
charitable organization and incorporated numerous
clinics. It sponsors excavation and tourism projects in
Israel and the
Palestinian territories. In 2000 the German chapter of the Teutonic Order declared insolvency, and its upper management was dismissed. A 2002-03 investigation by a special committee of the
Bavarian parliament was inconclusive.
The Order currently consists of approximately 1,000 members, including 100
Roman Catholic priests, 200
nuns, and 700 associates. While the priests are organized into six provinces (
Austria, the
Czech Republic,
Germany,
Italy,
Slovakia, and
Slovenia) and predominantly provide spiritual guidance, the nuns primarily care for the ill and the aged. Associates are active in Austria,
Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Italy. 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. The current General
Abbot of the Order, who also holds the title of Grand Master, is
Bruno Platter.
The current seat of the Grand Master is the
Deutschordenskirche in
Vienna. Near the
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 at their former castle in
Bad Mergentheim in
Germany, which was the seat of the Grand Master from 1525-1809.
Influence on German nationalism
German
nationalism often invoked the imagery of the Teutonic Knights, especially in the context of territorial conquest from eastern neighbours of Germany and conflict with nations of Slavic origins, who were considered by German nationalists to be of lower development and of inferior culture. The German historian
Heinrich von Treitschke used imagery of the Teutonic Knights to promote pro-German and anti-Polish rhetoric. Such imagery and symbols were adopted by many middle-class Germans who supported German
nationalism. During the
Weimar Republic, associations and organisations of this nature contributed to laying the groundwork for the formation of
Nazi Germany.
Emperor
William II of Germany posed for a photo in 1902 in the garb of a monk from the Teutonic Order, climbing up the stairs in the reconstructed
Marienburg Castle as a symbol of the German Empire's policy.
Timeline of events
» see also Polish-Teutonic War
Further Information
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