History of the Teutonic Order and Knights (1192-1525) | HoP #3

Last video we delved into the prehistory of Prussia in which the Deutschritter Orden, or Teutonic Order, colonized pre-Hohenzollern Prussia. Around 1192 this new order made its appearance in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. With their characteristic white mantles and horned helmets, the Knights of the Teutonic Order emerged as a powerful force in Medieval Europe, greatly influencing its course of history. Because interestingly enough the Teutonic Order never distinguished itself in the Holy Land. It remained a purely Germanic movement and would eventually shape the future of the German East. In this video we will look at the order’s background, its rituals and how it reached its zenith of power in Europe, only to eventually fall into decline.

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The Teutonic Order, established around 1192, was quite different from the Templar Knights and Knights of St. John, other contemporary Catholic Military Orders. The initiative for the order didn’t come from the clergy or even from German knights, but from German burghers: merchants from Bremen and Lübeck, old cities of the Hanseatic League. As crusading knights were passing their settlements outside the city of Acre in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, it is said disease befell them. The merchants now took it upon themselves to build hospitals and dormitories in order to care for their sick. Pope Celestine III eventually granted them recognition as being a spiritual corporation in 1196. Pope Innocent confirmed this, under one condition: the corporation should become knightly, taking after the Templars. Furthermore, it should model its hospital rules after those of the Order of St John. As such, a new order was born.

Whereas older orders such as the aforementioned two managed to accumulate much wealth, according to historian H.W. Koch the Teutonic Order didn’t. They hadn’t fought any famous battles in the Holy Land and thus hadn’t managed to accumulate much wealth. Paradoxically this meant that institutional corruption and decay didn’t affect the Teutonic Knights.

Throughout its history, the order consisted of three main branches. Firstly, the German branch which was concentrated in south-west Germany. Secondly, there was a branch in Livonia, a region on the shores of the Baltic sea, and thirdly there was a Prussian branch with its centre at Marienburg. Eventually, the Prussian branch would become the centre of the entire Order, with Marienburg as its headquarters.

Whereas initially, the order saw the Holy Land as its centre of missionary activity, early on in the 13th century the order began to focus itself more on eastern-central Europe. This change of their point of attention would greatly influence the history of the Order, and Europe as a whole.


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Photos, paintings and imagery: Public Domain, Wikicommons

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