THE TEUTONIC ORDER
The Teutonic Order (usually, hospitale sancte Marie
Theutonicorum Jerosolimitanum - the Hospital of St.
Mary of the Germans of Jerusalem or der orden des
Düschen huses - the order of the German houses, in the
sources) was one of the three major knightly or
military orders that originated and evolved during the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Templars and
Hospitallers are the other major orders.
The military orders were "true orders" of the Roman
church governed by regulations similar to those
governing monks, generally variants of the Benedictine
or Augustinian Rules. For most purposes, they were
technically answerable only to the pope. They did have
some feudal responsibilities to lay and other clerical
entities as dictated by circumstances of place and
time. Large numbers of knights became monks but often
were found in military fortifications rather than
monasteries. The members of most orders took vows of
poverty, chastity, and obedience.
Origins of the Teutonic Order
According to tradition, early in the twelfth century a
wealthy German couple built a hospital in Jerusalem at
their own expense to care for poor and sick pilgrims
who spoke German. The hospital and an accompanying
chapel were dedicated to the Virgin Mary. This story
is similar to the traditions of the origins of the
Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem founded by
Amalfitans. The German hospital apparently was
affiliated with the Hospital of St. John, at least,
in the observance of the rule of St. Augustine. After
Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem in 1187, there are no
more records of the German hospital there. There was
no indication that the German hospital ever had a
military mission.
During the siege of Acre during the Third Crusade
(probably 1190), Germans from Lübeck and Bremen
established a field hospital for German soldiers
reportedly using ships' sails as cover from the
elements. Duke Frederick of Swabia placed his chaplain
Conrad in charge of the hospital and soon transformed
the organization into a religious order responsible to
the local Latin bishop. Although some scholars
question its authenticity, Pope Clement III
(1187- -1191) apparently approved the Order on
February 6, 1191. The Order was taken under Pope
Celestine III's (1191--1198) protection on December
21, 1196, with the name of the "Hospital of St. Mary
of the Germans in Jerusalem." The name is possibly the
only connection with the earlier German hospital
although some argue a more direct relationship with
the earlier hospital.
A ceremony purportedly held on March 5, 1198, altered
the Order's raison d'etre. The patriarch of Jerusalem,
the king of Jerusalem, the head of the crusading army,
and the masters of the Templars and the Hospital of
St. John attended the celebration establishing the
Teutonic Knights as a military order. A bull by Pope
Innocent III (1198--1216) dated February 19, 1199,
confirmed the event and specified the Order would
care for the sick according to the rule of the
Hospitallers. It would conduct its other business by
following the Templar rule and would wear the Temple's
distinctive white cloak. Its black cross would
differentiate the Teutonic Order from the Temple.
Internal Structure
During the first twenty years of its existence, the
institutional structure of the Order developed and
stabilized. The Teutonic Order followed the lead of
the Templars and Hospitallers by creating a system of
provinces. Unlike monastic orders composed of
independent abbeys, the Teutonic Knights had a
hierarchical chain of command with commanderies
(house, Kommende) at the lowest level. Provinces or
bailiwicks (Ballei, Komturei) were parts of "countries"
that composed the Order as a whole. Its first
independent rule was adopted in 1264.
The officials governing the Teutonic Order at the
various levels were commander (Komtur, preceptor) at
the local level, province commander (Landkomtur),
national commander (Landmeister), and grand master
(Hochmeister, magister). The highest leadership
positions (including grand master, grand commander
[Grosskomtur], marshal [Ordensmarschall], draper or
quartermaster [Trapier], hospitaller [Spittler], and
treasurer [Tressler]) were elected by the general
chapter.
Membership of this mostly German-speaking order was
composed of various, distinct classes: knights,
priests, and other brothers (lay brothers, sisters,
and "familiars"). There was a large number of people
who supported the professed members of the Order,
ranging from auxiliary knights to slaves. The highest
ranking were secular knights, serving for free.
Turcopoles (Greek for "son of Turk") were originally
probably lightly-armed, half-breed cavalry whose name
applied to Turkish mercenaries employed in the
Byzantine army, later the term was adopted by the
military orders. There were attendants called squires
(knechte), and sergeants-at-arms. Footsoldiers were
usually coerced from the local peasantry. Sister-aids
(halpswesteren) were employed as domestics as were
halpbrüderen; they took religious vows. Married and
single lay domestics also were employed by the Order.
Artisans and laborers (e.g., gardeners, carpenters,
masons) worked for charity or wages. Many serfs and
slaves were owned by the Order.
Rapid Expansion
From the outset, the possessions and wealth of the
Teutonic Order grew astoundingly fast and its numbers
skyrocketed, especially under Grand Master Hermann von
Salza (c. 1210--1239). Von Salza was successful in
gaining many favors for the Order because he was a
confidante to both the German emperor Frederick II
(1211--1250) and the popes. His immediate successors
also did well. Between 1215 and 1300, one or more
commanderies were founded each year, usually through
gifts.
The Teutonic Order was invited into Greece (1209),
Hungary (1211), and Prussia (1226) by secular rulers
to perform military duties on their behalf. In the
Peloponnesus the Frankish Prince of Achaia provided
fiefs near Kalamata for the Teutonic Knights in return
for military service; there are traces of the Order's
continuous service there until 1500. The Hungarian
King Andrew II (1205--1235) expelled the Order in
1225 when it became strong and may have threatened his
rule. The conquest of Prussia began in 1230 (after the
Order's Grand Master was named prince of the Holy Roman
Empire) and lasted until 1283.
In addition to the Holy Land and these other "theaters
of war," the order's members could be found elsewhere
in the Mediterranean and western Europe: Armenia,
Cyprus, Sicily, Apulia, Lombardy, Spain, France,
Alsace, Austria, Bohemia, the Lowlands, Germany, and
Livonia. Only in the frontier areas (the Holy Land,
Armenia, Greece, Hungary, Prussia, Spain, and Livonia)
was military service required of members.
By 1221 the German Order was given the same privileges
as the Templars and Hospitallers by Pope Honorius III
(1216--1227). Both senior orders fought the autonomy
of the Teutonic Order until about 1240. The German
Order may not have quite equaled in wealth and
possessions the other two military orders which were
more than 80 years older, but it became the only other
order to rival them in international influence and
activity.
The Baltic
After the crusaders were defeated at Acre in 1291, the
Teutonic Order moved its headquarters to Venice, a
long-time ally. In 1309, the Order moved again, this
time to Marienburg in Prussia. Here the Order had
subdued the pagan inhabitants and established a
theocratic form of government.
The position of the knights in the Baltic region had
been strengthened in 1237 when a knightly order in
Livonia, the Brothers of the Sword (Schwertbr(der),
joined the Teutonic Order. The history of the German
knights in Prussia and Livonia is one of almost
perpetual revolts, uprisings, raids, conquests,
victories, and defeats. Many secular knights from
western Europe (e.g., Chaucer's knight in the
Canterbury Tales) would go to the Baltic to help the
Order in "crusading activities" for a season or more.
The Grand Master's prizes and feasting for especially
heroic knights became legendary and reminds one of
various aspects of King Arthur's knights of the Round
Table.
During the fourteenth century, dozens of towns and
about 2000 villages were created in Prussia by the
Order. The Order was successful in trade. For example,
as a Hanseatic League participant, it provided western
Europe with some of its cheapest grain.
The nations of Poland and Lithuania, perennial enemies
of the Order, became stronger and stronger in the late
fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. In 1410 at
Tannenberg, the Order was crushed in a battle against a
coalition led by these powers. The result was a
bankrupting of the Order and significant reduction in
its military and political capabilities. In 1467, the
whole of western Prussia was ceded to Poland and the
eastern part acknowledged the suzerainty of the king of
Poland.
1525 to 1797
Martin Luther's (1483-1546) Reformation affected the
Teutonic Order significantly. In 1525, Grand Master
Albrecht von Brandenburg converted to the Lutheran
faith. He then was enfoeffed by the Polish king as
Duke of Prussia. As a medieval, crusading entity, the
German Order essentially ended at this time.
In 1526, the Teutonic Order master of the German lands
became the "Administrator of the Grandmastery in
Prussia and Master in German and Romance Countries."
Mergentheim became the main seat of the Order.
There was a great deal of confusion in Germany in the
aftermath of the Reformation, its resulting wars, and
the political changes. The bailiwicks of Saxony, Messe,
and Th(ringia became Protestant until Napoleonic
times. The office of Landkomtur alternated among
Lutheran, Reformed, and Catholic leaders in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The bailiwick of
Utrecht was Calvinist until modern times. A new rule
was adopted in 1606 in an attempt to accommodate the
changes in the Order.
In European affairs, from time to time, the Order
still participated militarily. Some 1000 troops were
raised to help the Austrians against the Turks. After
1696, there was a regiment of the "Grand and German
Master." But the numbers and wealth of the Order
dwindled. Little other military activity is recorded.
The French Revolution and After
As the anticlerical French government expanded its
political control in the 1790's, the Order lost its
commanderies in Belgium and those west of the Rhine
(1797). Many east of the Rhine were lost in 1805. In
1809, Napoleon dissolved the Order in all countries
under his dominion, leaving only the properties in the
Austrian Empire.
Even in Austria, the Order had to exist secretly for a
number of years until 1839 when Austrian Emperor
Ferdinand I reconstituted the Order as the Order of the
Teutonic Knights (Deutscher Ritterorden). The mission
fulfilled by the Order was mainly the caring for wounded
soldiers.
In 1866, the "Honorable Knights of the Teutonic Order"
was founded. Knights were required to provide annual
contributions for hospitals. The Marianer des Deutschen
Ordens, for women, was created in 1871.
In 1914, some 1,500 sponsors from the Austrian nobility
supported the caregiving efforts of the Order. During
World War I, the Order took care of about 3,000 wounded
soldiers in their facilities.
In 1923, masters of the Order were allowed to come from
among the clerics rather than the "knighthood" for the
first time. Under National Socialist rule, the Order
was dissolved in Austria in 1938 and Czechoslovakia in
1939. The leaders of the Third Reich abused the history
of the Teutonic Order. After World War II, the Order
began anew in Germany. Its possessions in Austria were
returned. In Italy, the Order had changed little. A
great deal of support for the caretaking and missionary
Order has been found in Germany, Austria, Italy,
Belgium, and even in North and Central America. The
Order's headquarters, treasury, and archives are now
located in Vienna, Austria.
WHAT'S HERE:
A review of the history of the Teutonic Knights, a German military order founded during the Crusades.
This Megalania page has been visited
times since March XX, 1998.
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