Teutonic Knights
The
Teutonic Knights or
Teutonic Order is a
German Roman Catholic religious order formed at the end of the 12th century in
Acre in
Palestine. During the
Middle Ages they were a
crusading military order and wore white
surcoats with a black cross.
Their name in different languages includes:
*
Latin:
Ordo domus Sanctæ Mariæ Theutonicorum Ierosolimitanorum, "Order of the Teutonic House of Mary in Jerusalem";
Ordo Teutonicus, "German Order"
*, "German Order";
Deutschritterorden, "Order of German Knights"; or
Deutscher Ritterorden, "German Knightly Order", officially
Brüder vom Deutschen Haus St. Mariens in Jerusalem, "Brothers of the German House of St. Mary in Jerusalem"
*
Swissgerman, Tütsche Ordä, "German Order"
*, "Teutonic Order"
*, "German Order"
*, "German Knighthood"
*, "German Order"
*, "Order of Crusaders"
*, "Order of the Crossbearers"
*, "Teutonic Order"
*, "German Order""
The order played an important role in the
Middle East controlling the port tolls of
Acre and made a first attempt for an independent state. After Christian forces were defeated, the order moved to
Transylvania in 1211 to help defend against the
Cumans. They were expelled in 1225, when attempting to create an independent state.
Following the
Golden Bull of Rimini Grand Master Hermann von Salza and Duke
Konrad I of Masovia made a joint invasion of
Prussia in 1226 to Christianize the
Baltic Old Prussians. The knights were then accused of cheating Polish rule and creating an independent
monastic state. After basing itself in Prussia, the order became involved in many campaigns against its neighbours, the
Kingdom of Poland, the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the
Novgorod Republic. Contrary to their feudal levies the order had a strong urban economy, hired many mercenaries, 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 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 sometimes used a
cross pattée as their
coat of arms; this image was later used for military decoration and insignia by the
Kingdom of Prussia and
Germany (see
Iron Cross).
Foundation
The order was formed out of
knights and
priests in 1190 by merchants of
Bremen and
Lübeck for the establishment of a hospital for the care of
German pilgrims during the
Siege of Acre of the
Third Crusade. In 1198 the head of the order became known as the
Hochmeister or
Grand Master. They 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.
They were based at
Acre. Other fortresses of the order in the Middle East were
Montfort (
Starkenberg) northeast of Acre, which served to defend the route between Jerusalem and the
Mediterannean Sea, and 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 granted his close friend Hermann von Salza the additional title of
Reichsfürst, or "Prince of the Empire", enabling the Grand Master to negotiate with nobility 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; Salza read the emperor's proclamation in both
French and
German. However, the Teutonic Knights were never as influential in
Outremer as the older
Knights Templar 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, the 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 colonists known as the
Transylvanian Saxons among their wooden fortresses. In 1224 they petitioned
Pope Honorius III to be placed directly under the authority of the
Papal See, rather than of the King of Hungary. Angered and alarmed at their growing power, Andrew responded by expelling them in 1225, although he allowed the Transylvanian Saxons to remain.
In Prussia
|
Frederick II allows the order to invade Prussia, by P. Janssen |
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 Culmerland (
Chełmno Land) as a base for their campaign. Hermann von Salza felt Prussia would be 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 the order a special imperial privilege for the possession of Prussia, including Culmerland, with nominal Papal sovereignty. Soon the Teutonic Knights assimilated the smaller
Order of Dobrzyń, which had been established earlier by Konrad.
The conquest of Prussia was accomplished with great 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".
[Seward, Desmond. The Monks of War: The Military Religious Orders. Penguin Books. London, 1995. ISBN 0140195017 ] Christianized Prussians received the same rights as the newcomer settlers from the Empire. Conversion to Christianity was largely nominal and sometimes did not entail more than
baptism.
 |
Drawing of the Teutonic Knights' Castle Marienburg (Malbork) |
The order ruled Prussia under permits 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. Previous documents in 1224 had put the inhabitants of "Terra Prussia"' as
Reichsfreie, or under authority of only the emperor and the empire.
In order to make up for losses from
plague and to replace the partially exterminated native population, the order encouraged the
immigration of thousands of
colonists from the
Holy Roman Empire (mostly
Germans,
Flemish, and
Dutch) and from Masovia (
Masovians, 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 atop former Prussian settlements. They also built a number of castles (
Ordensburgen) from which the order could defeat uprisings of Old Prussians, as well as continue its attacks on the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, with whom 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 atop a destroyed Prussian settlement,
Allenstein,
Elbing, and
Memel.
When the
Livonian Order merged with the Teutonic Order in 1237, its nominal territorial rule extended over Prussia,
Livonia,
Semigalia, and
Estonia. Their 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, the idea had to be dropped.
Against Lithuania
The Teutonic Knights began to direct their campaigns against pagan Lithuania, 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.
[Christiansen, Eric. The Northern Crusades. Penguin Books. London, 1997. ISBN 0140266534] Because medieval western Lithuania (most of modern Lithuania) 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 or
Reise) against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Some of these knights and nobles campaigned against pagans to obtain remission for their sins, while others fought to gain military experience.
Warfare between the Teutonic Knights and the pagan 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 Teutonic 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".[Sainty, Guy Stair. The Teutonic Order of Holy Mary in Jerusalem. Accessed June 6 2006.]
Against Poland
A dispute over the succession of the Duchy of
Pomerelia (Eastern Pomerania), embroiled the order in further conflict in the beginning of the 14th century. Opposed to King
Władysław I the Elbow-high of Poland, the
Pomeranian nobles requested help from the Margraves of
Brandenburg who thus occupied in 1308 all of Pomerelia except for the citadel of Danzig (
Gdańsk). Because Władysław was unable to come to the defense of Danzig, the Teutonic Knights were called upon to liberate the region from the control of Brandenburg. The knights, under Prussian Landmeister
Heinrich von Plötzke, evicted the Brandenburgers from Danzig in September 1308, but discontent grew in the city when the order did not quickly relinquish control to Poland. The following month the knights suppressed an uprising with great bloodshed, especially of the German merchants in the city. Heinrich von Plötzke presented Władysław with a bill for 10,000
marks of silver for the order's help, but the Polish king was only willing to offer 300 marks.
[Geschichte-Feuchtwangen.de. "Die Expansion des Ordens von Preußen nach Westen." Accessed 8 June 2006. ] On
13 September 1309 the order purchased from Brandenburg for 10,000 marks claims to the castles of Danzig, Schwetz (
Świecie), and Dirschau (
Tczew), and their hinterlands.
Control of Pomerelia allowed the knights to connect their monastic state with the borders of the
Holy Roman Empire. Crusading reinforcements and supplies were able to travel from the Imperial territory of
Western 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 dedicated enemy of the order.
[Urban, William. The Teutonic Knights: A Military History. Greenhill Books. London, 2003. ISBN 1853675350 ]The capture of Danzig marked a new phase in the history of the Teutonic Knights. The persecution and abolishment of the powerful
Knights Templar beginning 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 into misconduct by the knights, although the order was defended by able lawyers and jurists. Along with the campaigns against the Lithuanians, the knights faced 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.
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 foreign crusaders and nobility.
King
Albert of
Sweden conceded
Gotland to the order as a
pledge (similar to a
fiefdom), with the understanding that they would eliminate the pirating
Victual Brothers from their strategic island base. An invasion force under Grand Master
Konrad von Jungingen conquered the island in 1398, destroyed
Visby, 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, thus becoming
Władysław II, King of Poland. This initiated an alliance between the two countries and created a potentially formidable opponent for the Teutonic Knights. The order managed to play Jogaila and his cousin
Vytautas against each other, but this strategy failed as Vytautas began to suspect the order was planning to annex parts of his territory.
The baptism of Władysław II began the official conversion of Lithuania to Christianity. Although the crusading rationale for the order's state had ended as 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 within Culmerland to undermine the order's rule.
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 united 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 (
Malbork) castle, but was unable to take it owing to the resistance of
Heinrich von Plauen. When the
First Peace of Toruń was signed in 1411, the order managed to retain essentially all of its territories, although the knights' prestige was irreparably damaged.
While Poland and Lithuania were growing in power, the Teutonic Knights dwindled through infighting. The Teutonic Knights were forced to put in place high taxation to pay an indemnity equivalent to £850,000, but did not give the cities sufficient requested representation. The authoritarian and reforming Grand Master Heinrich von Plauen was forced from power and replaced with
Michael Küchmeister von Sternberg, although 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 of the
Rhineland, who likewise bickered with
Low German-speaking
Saxons who had customarily made the Grand Masters. The western Prussian lands of the Vistula River Valley were even ravaged by the
Hussites during the
Hussite Wars. Some Teutonic Knights were sent to battle the rebels, but were almost invariably defeated by the
Bohemian infantry.
[Stier, Hans-Erich, Ernst Kirsten, Wilhelm Wühr. Heinz Quirin, Werner Trillmilch, Gerhard Czybulka, Hermann Pinnow, and Hans Ebeling. Westermanns Atlas zur Weltgeschichte: Vorzeit / Altertum, Mittelalter, Neuzeit. Georg Westermann Verlag. Braunschweig, 1963 ]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 the Neumark to Brandenburg in 1455. In the
Second Peace of Toruń at war's end, 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 was lost to the order, their base was moved to Königsberg in
Sambia.
Eastern Prussia was also lost to the order when Grand Master
Albert of Prussia, 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
Ducal Prussia as a vassal of the Polish Crown in the
Prussian Homage. Ducal Prussia was both the first
Protestant state and a fief of Catholic Poland.
Although they had lost control of all of their 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.
With the abdication of Albert of Prussia,
Walter von Cronberg became the Deutschmeister in 1527 and the Grand Master in 1530. Emperor
Charles V combined the two positions in 1531, creating the title
Hoch- und Deutschmeister and granting the order's Grand Master the honor of being a
Prince of the Empire.
[Seward, Desmond. The Monks of War: The Military Religious Orders. Penguin Books. London, 1995. ISBN 0140195017 ] 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 and the organization became increasingly
Baroque.
The Grand Masters, often members of the great German families (and, after 1761, by 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 their remaining secular holdings to Napoleon's allies.
Contemporary Teutonic Order
The order continued to exist in
Austria, however, and became a private order for the Habsburgs. It was only in 1834 that the organization was again officially called the
Deutscher Ritterorden ("German Knightly Order"), although most of their possessions were worldly by then. Beginning in 1804 they were headed by hereditary members of the
Habsburg dynasty until the 1923 death of the Grand Master,
Archduke Eugen of Austria.
In 1929 the Teutonic Knights were converted to a purely spiritual
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 reinstituted in Germany and Austria in 1945.
In a short time during the end of the 1990s, the Teutonic Order developed into a
charitable organization and incorporated numerous
clinics. They sponsor excavation and tourism projects in
Israel and the
Palestinian territories. In 2000 the German chapter of the Teutonic Order declared for insolvency and its upper management was dismissed. A 2002-2003 investigatory panel by the
Landtag of Bavaria in 2002-2003 was inconclusive.
The order currently consists of approximately 1,000 members, including 100
priests, 200
nuns, and 700 associates. While the priests are organized into five provinces (
Austria, the
Czech Republic,
Germany,
Italy,
Slovakia, and
Slovenia) and predominantly provide spiritual guidance, the nuns primarily care for the ill and for 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 General
Abbot of the order, who also carries the title of
Hochmeister or Grand Master, is
Bruno Platter.
The current seat of the Grand Master is
Vienna. Near the
Stephansdom in the Austrian capital is the Central Archive of the Teutonic Order and a museum dedicated to the knights. Since 1996 there has also been a museum dedicated to the Teutonic Knights at their former castle in Bad Mergentheim in
Germany, as the town was the seat of the Grand Master from 1525-1809.
*The order and its relations with its neighbours (
Poland,
Masovia, and
Lithuania) are the main subject of
Nobel Prize-winning Polish author
Henryk Sienkiewicz's
historical novel The Teutonic Knights (), which describes the era of the Battle of Grunwald from the Polish point of view. A Polish film based on the novel was released in 1960.
*German
nationalism often invoked the imagery of Teutonic Knights, especially in the context of territorial conquest from eastern neighbours of Germany, and conflict with nations of Slavic origins, who were believed to be of lower development and lacking any culture. The German historian
Heinrich von Treitschke used imagery of the Teutonic Knights to promote racist and Polonophobic ideas. Such imagery and symbols were adopted by many among Germans from middle class who supported German
nationalism. During the
Weimar Republic, associations and organisations of such nature contributed to laying the groundwork for the formation of
Nazi Germany.
[Mówią wieki. "Biała leganda czernago krzyża". Accessed June 6 2006. ]*Emperor
Wilhelm 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
Malbork Castle as a symbol of German Empire's policy.
*During
World War II,
Nazi propaganda and
ideology made frequent use of the Teutonic Knights' imagery, as the Nazis saw the Knights' actions as a forerunner of the Nazi conquests for
Lebensraum.
Heinrich Himmler viewed the
Schutzstaffel as a 20th century incarnation of the medieval knights.
*The order also appears in
James A. Michener's historical novel
Poland, who wrote in the book that Poland should have conquered Prussia. After having been a guest in Poland, Michener wrote the novel, which is often wrongly assumed to depict actual history.
|
Field altar of the Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order. |
*
Architecture of the Teutonic Order*
Drang nach Osten*
Hochmeister*
Iron Cross*
Livonian Brothers of the Sword*
Military order*
Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights*
Order of Dobrzyń*
PrussiaImage:Teutonic order COA drawing.svgImage:Den tyske ordens skjold.jpgImage:Crux Ordis Teutonicorum.svgImage:Seal-grandmaster-teutonic order 1-640x640.jpg|Seal of the HochmeisterImage:Teutonic Order Coin B ubt.jpeg|Reconstructed coinImage:Teutonic Order Coin A ubt.jpeg|Reconstructed coin*
Gore, Terry.
Military Heritage, August 2005, Volume 7, No. 1, pp.28 to 33.
*
*
The order's homepage in Germany *
The order's homepage in Austria *
Chivalric Orders.org*
Territorial extent of the Teutonic Knights in Europe (map)
*
An Historical Overview of the Crusade to Livonia by William Urban
*
"The Early Years of the Teutonic Order" by William Urban
*
The Bailiwick of Utrecht of the Teutonic Order by Guy Stair Sainty
*
Castle in Bad Mergentheim *
History of the Priest of Teutonic Order
