Teutonic Order

• 1. Introduction

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  The Teutonic Order carried a motto of three German words: Helfen, Wehren, Heilen, meaning to help, to defend, and to heal. It is an odd promise for an institution that spent centuries at war. The order's members are commonly called the Teutonic Knights, and at their height they ruled a state of their own. Yet the order never entirely vanished, and it still confers limited honorary knighthoods today. How does a charity for travellers become the ruler of conquered land? Why did Hungary expel the knights, and why did Poland, Lithuania, and Novgorod fight them? And how did a medieval brotherhood become an image that nationalists in several countries could borrow for their own purposes?

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• 2. A Hospital for Strangers

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  In 1143, Pope Celestine II ordered the Knights Hospitaller to take over a German hospital in Jerusalem. The chronicler Jean d'Ypres explained its purpose. Countless German pilgrims and crusaders reached the city speaking neither the local language nor Latin. The pope added a condition: the prior and brothers of the house must always be Germans. That rule let a German-led religious institution take shape in the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the 12th century.

  The loss of Jerusalem in 1187 pushed the idea toward a new home. During the siege of Acre in 1190, merchants from Lübeck and Bremen founded a field hospital that became the nucleus of the order. In 1191 they took over a hospital in the city. In 1192, Pope Celestine III recognized the group and gave its monks the Augustinian Rule.

  In 1198, following the model of the Knights Templar, the brotherhood became a military order, and its head took the title Grand Master. Hermann von Salza held that office from 1209 to 1239. Under him, a hospice brotherhood for pilgrims turned into mainly a fighting order. It received papal calls for crusades to take and hold Jerusalem and to defend the Holy Land.

  Montfort Castle, northeast of Acre, was bought by the knights in 1220. It guarded the route between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean Sea, and in 1229 it became the seat of the Grand Masters. They returned to Acre after Montfort passed to Muslim control in 1271. Even with land donations across the Holy Roman Empire, the Teutonic Knights never matched the influence of the older Templars and Hospitallers in Outremer.

  Emperor Frederick II was a close friend of Hermann von Salza, and the friendship raised the Grand Master's standing. Frederick made him a Reichsfürst, a Prince of the Empire, so he could negotiate with senior princes as an equal. At Frederick's coronation as King of Jerusalem in 1225, Teutonic Knights escorted him in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Von Salza read the emperor's proclamation aloud in both French and German.

  In 1211, King Andrew II of Hungary accepted the services of the knights and granted them Burzenland in Transylvania. There they were exempt from fees and duties and could administer their own justice. Their job was to guard Hungary's southeastern border against the Cumans. Led by a brother called Theoderich or Dietrich, they built forts of wood and mud and settled German peasants among the Transylvanian Saxons. By 1220 they had built five castles, some of them in stone.

  Hungarian nobles and clergy, previously uninterested in the region, grew jealous and suspicious of this rapid expansion. In 1224, expecting trouble once Prince Béla inherited the throne, the knights petitioned Pope Honorius III to place them directly under the papacy. That proved a grave mistake. In 1225, an angered King Andrew expelled them, though the German commoners and peasants they had settled were allowed to stay. Lacking the knights' military experience, the Hungarians failed to build an adequate replacement defence, and the steppe warriors would soon threaten again.

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• 3. Conquest of Prussia

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  In 1226, Konrad I, Duke of Masovia in north-eastern Poland, appealed to the knights to defend his borders against the pagan Old Prussians. He offered them Chełmno Land as a base. His own Dobrzyń knights had been defeated in 1228. Hermann von Salza and his order arrived in the region in 1230.

  Von Salza saw Prussia as a good training ground for the wars against Muslims in Outremer, in an age of widespread crusading fervor. Emperor Frederick II issued the Golden Bull of Rimini, a special privilege for the conquest and possession of Prussia, with nominal papal sovereignty. In 1235 the knights absorbed the smaller Order of Dobrzyń, which Christian, the first Bishop of Prussia, had established earlier.

  The conquest of Prussia took more than fifty years and cost enormous bloodshed. Prussians who stayed unbaptised were subjugated, killed, or exiled. The Order's own chronicles claim the Prussians would "roast captured brethren alive in their armour, like chestnuts, before the shrine of a local god". Most Prussian natives were eventually killed or deported.

  The First Prussian Uprising broke out in 1242 and technically ended with the Treaty of Christburg in 1249, though skirmishes dragged on four more years. The treaty confirmed many privileges of the native nobles who had submitted. Only in 1254-1255 could the knights mount a major campaign against the Sambians. King Ottokar II of Bohemia joined the expedition, and the newly founded Königsberg Castle was named in his honor. The Sambians rose again in the Great Prussian Uprising of 1260-1274 but were the first to surrender, and by the end of the 13th century only 22,000 of them remained.

  Settlers from the Holy Roman Empire and from Masovia filled the gap left by plague and war. They included Germans, Flemish, Dutch, and Poles, the last of whom became the later Masurians. They founded towns on former Prussian settlements, including Thorn (Toruń), Kulm (Chełmno), Allenstein (Olsztyn), Elbing (Elbląg), and Memel (Klaipėda). The Order ruled all of it under charters from the Pope and the Emperor as a sovereign monastic state. Its Ordensburgen, or castles, gave it bases to crush uprisings and to strike at Lithuania and Poland, with which it was often at war in the 14th and 15th centuries.

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• 4. Northern Frontiers

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  At the Battle of Saule, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword suffered a devastating defeat, and in 1237 the Teutonic Knights absorbed what remained of them. The Livonian branch became known as the Livonian Order.

  In 1242, the knights met Prince Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod in the Battle of the Ice. They had pushed deep into Novgorodian land, hoping to exploit Novgorod's weakness after the Mongol and Swedish invasions. The Livonian Rhymed Chronicle says the Germans fled and the land reverted to the Russians. Its author adds a verdict: "It is a mistake to take a fair land and fail to occupy it properly."

  A year earlier, in 1241, a contingent of unknown size is traditionally believed to have fought at the Battle of Legnica during the first Mongol invasion of Poland. The combined Polish-German army was crushed by Mongol tactics, and few survived.

  The Battle of Durbe in 1260 was a disaster for the Order against the Samogitians, and it inspired rebellions across Prussia and Livonia. The war turned after the Knights won the Siege of Königsberg, which lasted from 1262 to 1265. The Curonians were subjugated in 1267 and the Semigallians in 1290. The Order crushed a major Estonian rebellion in 1343-1345, and in 1346 it bought the Duchy of Estonia from Denmark.

  After Acre fell in 1291, the knights set up headquarters in Venice to plan the recovery of Outremer. That plan was soon abandoned. They turned to the pagan Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which stayed non-Christian until the end of the 14th century. Knights from England and France travelled to Prussia to join the seasonal campaigns, called reyse. The Order won a great victory at the Battle of Strėva in 1348 and a decisive one at the Battle of Rudau in 1370.

  Warfare between the Order and the Lithuanians was particularly brutal. A Teutonic chronicler recorded that Lithuanians tied captured knights to their horses and burned both alive. Over 200 years, with varying hostility, the front line followed both banks of the Neman River. As many as twenty forts and castles stood between Seredžius and Jurbarkas alone. The conflict left its mark on the mentality of the age, visible in the lyrical works of the Austrian poet Peter Suchenwirt.

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• 5. The Price of Danzig

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  In the summer of 1308, Brandenburg's forces tried yet again to take the site of present-day Gdańsk, where a rebellion had erupted in their favor. Danish and Brandenburg forces had already failed there in 1301 and 1306. Duke Władysław I the Elbow-high of Poland wanted the region of Pomerelia, citing his inheritance from Przemysł II. He pressed the Order for help, and Grand Master Siegfried von Feuchtwangen drove Brandenburg out. The knights asked for payment, and Władysław refused.

  By November, forces under the Prussian Landmeister Heinrich von Plötzke had taken the site for the Order. Some sources say they massacred the inhabitants, though historians widely regard the extent of the violence as an unsolvable mystery. Estimates run from 60 rebellious leaders, reported by regional dignitaries and Knight chroniclers, to 10,000 civilians. The higher figure comes from a papal bull of dubious provenance, used in a legal process meant to punish the Order. The Order was eventually absolved.

  On the 13th of September 1309, the Treaty of Soldin sold the Order the castles of Gdańsk, Świecie, and Tczew and their hinterlands. The margraves of Brandenburg received 10,000 marks. Pomerelia now linked the monastic state to the borders of the Holy Roman Empire, so crusading reinforcements and supplies could travel through it to Prussia. It also blocked Poland's access to the Baltic Sea. Poland had mostly been an ally against the pagan Prussians and Lithuanians, but it now became a determined enemy.

  The persecution and abolition of the Knights Templar, which began in 1307, worried the Teutonic Knights. In 1309 they moved their headquarters from Venice to Marienburg (Malbork) on the Nogat 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 charge was found to have substance. The Treaty of Kalisz in 1343 finally ended open war with Poland. The knights gave up Kuyavia and Dobrzyń Land but kept Chełmno Land and Pomerelia with Gdańsk, then Germanized as Danzig.

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• 6. Zenith and Collapse

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  Grand Master Winrich von Kniprode ruled from 1351 to 1382, and under him the Order reached the peak of its international prestige. It hosted numerous European crusaders and nobility. Back in 1337, Emperor Louis IV had allegedly granted it a privilege to conquer all of Lithuania and Russia. In 1398, an invasion force under Grand Master Konrad von Jungingen conquered Gotland. King Albert of Sweden had ceded the island as a pledge, on the understanding that the Order would drive out the pirating Victual Brothers.

  In 1386, Grand Duke Jogaila of Lithuania was baptised and married Queen Jadwiga of Poland. He took the name Władysław II Jagiełło and became King of Poland, creating a personal union of the two countries. The Order first played Jagiełło and his cousin Vytautas against each other. That strategy failed once Vytautas suspected the Order planned to annex parts of his territory. The baptism also began the official conversion of Lithuania, which ended the crusading rationale for the Order's state. In 1397, Prussian nobles in Chełmno Land formed the Lizard Union to oppose the Order's policy.

  In 1407, the Order reached its greatest extent. It held Prussia, Pomerelia, Samogitia, Courland, Livonia, Estonia, Gotland, Dagö, Ösel, and the Neumark, which Brandenburg had pawned to it in 1402.

  Three years later, at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, a Polish-Lithuanian army led by Jagiełło and Vytautas decisively defeated the Order. Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen fell, along with 50 of the Order's 60 higher dignitaries. The victors besieged Marienburg but could not take it, thanks to the resistance of Heinrich von Plauen. The First Peace of Thorn in 1411 let the Order keep essentially all its territories. Its reputation as invincible warriors was damaged beyond repair.

  Infighting then sapped the Order. High taxes to pay a substantial indemnity fell on cities that were denied the representation they requested. The reforming Grand Master Heinrich von Plauen was forced from power and replaced by Michael Küchmeister von Sternberg, who could not revive its fortunes. The Order renounced all claims to Samogitia in the 1422 Treaty of Melno. Austrian and Bavarian knights feuded with those from the Rhineland, who bickered with Low German-speaking Saxons. Hussites ravaged western Prussian lands, and the Order lost the Polish-Teutonic War of 1431-1435.

  In 1440, gentry and burghers of the Order's state founded the Prussian Confederation. In 1454 it rose up and asked King Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland to incorporate the region, which he agreed to in Kraków. That began the Thirteen Years' War. Marienburg Castle was handed to mercenaries in lieu of pay and eventually passed to Poland, so the Order moved its base to Königsberg. In the Second Peace of Thorn in 1466, the Order renounced Gdańsk and Chełmno Land and kept eastern Prussia only as a Polish fief. Every Grand Master now had to swear allegiance to the Polish king within six months of taking office.

  In 1525, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg converted to Lutheranism and secularized the remaining Prussian territories. He became Duke of Prussia as a personal vassal of his uncle, King Sigismund I the Old of Poland. The Order kept its holdings in the Holy Roman Empire and Livonia. Many imperial possessions were ruined in the German Peasants' War of 1524-1525 and then confiscated by Protestant princes. In 1561, the Livonian Master Gotthard Kettler secularized the southern Livonian possessions to create the Duchy of Courland, also a Polish vassal.

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• 7. Ranks and Brothers

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  Around 1350, the highest officer was the Hochmeister, or Grand Master, elected by the general chapter until 1525. He ranked as ruler of an ecclesiastical imperial state and was sovereign prince of Prussia until 1466. In practice he was only a first among equals. The general chapter gathered priests, knights, and half-brothers, but distance meant only deputations from bailiwicks and commanderies attended. It was meant to meet yearly, though meetings usually served only to elect a new Grand Master.

  Five high officers, the Großgebietige, served the whole order under the Grand Master. The Großkomtur was his deputy, the Treßler the treasurer, and the Spitler the head of hospital affairs. The Trapier handled clothing and armament, and the Marschall led military matters.

  The order was divided into three national chapters, each led by a Landmeister: Prussia, Livonia, and the Holy Roman Empire. The Livonian Landmeister succeeded the leaders of the former Livonian Brothers of the Sword. After 1309, the Prussian Landmeister was the Grand Master himself. The Deutschmeister led the German lands. At first these officers only substituted for the Grand Master, but they built power of their own. Within their territory, he could not decide against their will.

  The smallest unit was the Kommende, ruled by a Komtur. Noblemen lived there as knight-brothers or priest-brothers. Sariantbrothers were armed soldiers, and half-brothers worked in the economy and in healthcare.

  In 1226, the Order received the right to produce its own coins, the Moneta Dominorum Prussiae. Customary rules for coinage came only with the Kulm laws of 1233, and the first coins were not minted until late 1234 or early 1235. The master of the mint sat at Thorn. A customs master collected the local Pfund duty at Danzig, and a Generalprokurator represented the Order at the Holy See.

  After 1525, the Order held no contiguous territory, so it developed a three-tiered system. Commanderies led by a Komtur were combined into bailiwicks headed by a Landkomtur. All answered to the Grand Master, seated at Bad Mergentheim. There were twelve German bailiwicks, among them Thuringia, Hesse, Alden Biesen in present-day Belgium, Utrecht, and Austria. Others lay in Sicily, Apulia, Lombardy, Bohemia, Greece, and Armenia-Cyprus. In 1531 Emperor Charles V combined two offices into the title Hoch- und Deutschmeister. After the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, membership opened to Protestants, and the Order became tri-denominational with Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed bailiwicks. After 1761, the Grand Masters came from the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.

  The military history of the knights ended with Article XII of the Peace of Pressburg in 1805. It ordered the German territories converted into a hereditary domain, with a Habsburg prince on the throne. Those terms were still unfulfilled at the Treaty of Schönbrunn in 1809, so Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the remaining territory handed to his German allies. That was completed in 1810, leaving only the seat at Mergentheim in the Order's hands until the end.

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• 8. Survival and Symbols

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  From 1804, members of the Habsburg dynasty headed the Catholic order, which survived in Austrian lands beyond Napoleon's reach. The collapse of the Habsburg monarchy brought a crisis, because successor states tended to treat the Order as an honorary Habsburg chivalric body. That risked confiscation of its property. In 1923, High Master Field Marshal Eugen of Austria-Teschen had Norbert Klein, Bishop of Brno, elected his Coadjutor, then abdicated. By 1928 the independent former Habsburg territories recognized the Order as a Catholic religious order. In 1929, Pope Pius XI approved a new Rule putting priests in charge.

  Nazi Germany outlawed the Order in 1938 and persecuted its members. Hitler and Himmler believed Catholic military-religious orders had always served as tools of the Holy See and so threatened their regime. The Order was re-established in 1945, and in 1947 Austria cancelled the measures against it and restored its property. Communist regimes in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia hampered its work. In 1953, St. Nikola in Passau became the Sisters' Motherhouse, and in 1957 a residence in Rome opened for the Procurator General. In 1965, Pope Paul VI formalized the revival of lay involvement in a modernized form.

  Today the Order has approximately 100 Catholic priests and 200 nuns in five provinces: Austria-Italy, Slovenia, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Priests mostly give spiritual guidance, while nuns mainly care for the ill and aged. Some 700 lay Familiares are attached by spiritual bonds without vows. In 2000, the German chapter declared bankruptcy and its upper management was dismissed. A Bavarian parliamentary committee investigated in 2002 and 2003 and was inconclusive. Father Frank Bayard is the current High Master, with his seat at the Church of the German Order in Vienna. A museum has stood at the old castle in Bad Mergentheim since 1996.

  The Bailiwick of Utrecht, or Balije van Utrecht, became Protestant at the Reformation and stayed an aristocratic society. Its relationship to the Catholic order resembles that of the Protestant Bailiwick of Brandenburg to the Order of Malta. Honorary Knights of the Catholic order have included Konrad Adenauer and Otto von Habsburg.

  The white surcoat with a black cross was granted by Innocent III in 1205. A golden cross fleury laid over the black cross became widely used in the 15th century. A legend credits Louis IX of France with granting it in 1250, but the account cannot be traced back before Christoph Hartknoch in 1684. The black cross pattée later became the Iron Cross, used for military decoration by the Kingdom of Prussia and Germany.

  The German historian Heinrich von Treitschke used Teutonic Knight imagery to promote pro-German and anti-Polish rhetoric, and many middle-class nationalists adopted it. Nazi propaganda later used the same imagery to promote Lebensraum. Medieval historian Eric Christiansen wrote: "Himmler's plan to mould the SS as a reincarnation of The Teutonic Order proved … the irresistible strength of bad history." Polish nationalism ran the other way. Henryk Sienkiewicz's The Knights of the Cross made the knights shorthand for hostile Germans.

  In the Soviet Union, Alexander Nevsky became a national symbol of resistance to German occupation. Sergei Eisenstein's 1938 film Alexander Nevsky, which shows the Battle on the Ice, was re-released in 1941 after the German invasion. Joseph Stalin used it to mobilize Russian patriotism. In 1942, the Soviet government re-established the Order of Alexander Nevsky as an award for servicemen.

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