This article is about the
famous German Teutonic Order of crusading knights that played
a major role in shaping the entire history of eastern Europe,
and paved the way for both the re-unification of Germany and
the Nazi conquest in Poland, marking a legacy of influence
for some 800 years. If an error has been made, please notify
us. I intend to give attention to both the Polish and German
geopolitical, moral, and cultural interpretations in this
article. Also included are some of my personal photographs
from my research trip to the Deutschordenskirche,
the monastery of the Teutonic Order in Vienna, Austria.
Background on the formation of the Teutonic Order and European
crusading legions:
As is well known, the early
Middle Ages were a period of religious fervor that pitted
the many religious sects against each other. Catholic Western
Europe fought the Orthodox Slavic and Greek east, Catholic
French exterminated the Gnostic Albigensians to their south,
Shi'ia and Sunni Muslims struggled in mutual jihad against
each other throughout the Middle East, and both Eastern and
Western Europe engaged in religious crusade against the Muslims
who were invading Spain, Sicly, and the Byzantine Levant.
European knights responded to the Papal crusades in Palestine
of the 11th-13th centuries with the formation of crusading
orders with strict training regimentation, hierarchical authority,
formidable military capacity, and charitable almsgiving foundations
for mendicant pilgrims who were persecuted by Muslims. Some
of these chivalrous orders enjoyed formal Papal sanction from
Rome, whilst others were sponsored by specific European monarchies
to further the proliferation of their own theological doctrines.
The most salient crusading orders formed during the joint
European invasions of the Fatimid and Ayyubid sultanates in
Palestine, Acre, and Jerusalem. The Knights Hospitallers (later
the Knights of St. John of Malta), the Knights Templar, and
the German Teutonic Order were the most prominent of many
chivalrous fraternities founded after the 11th century. Although
these orders often worked in close affiliation and alliance
with the major European powers at the time -- England, France,
and the Kingdom of Germany, -- many were often criticized
for a perceived perfidity and ulterior design at seizing political
power. The Knights Templar order was abolished by the puppet
popes of the French monarchy ostensibly because they because
far too influential. So too, the Teutonic Knights lost their
previous official sponsorship by the Kingdom of Hungary because
of their alleged contumacy. As is apparent, each crusading
order played a significant role in shaping the religious and
political history of Europe and the Middle East.
The EHL map of the different
religions of different European cultures. The crusades were
not only between Muslim and Christian, but were between Catholic
and Orthodox, Sunni and Shi'ia. After 1054, for example, both
the Orthodox patriarchs and the Catholic Pope mutually excommunicated
each other in the Great Schism. As a result, half of Europe
instantly no longer considered the other to be "Christian"
at all, but rather an enemy of Christ.
The most famous and powerful
ethnic German crusading order, the Teutonic Order
(deutscher Orden or "German Order"), was
formed in 1192 in the crusader state of Acre (modern northern
Israel) after it was seized from the Muslim sultanates by
French and British knights in the First Crusade. Sponsored
by overtures from the Pope and subsidy from the Kingdom of
Germany and the German Holy Roman Emperor (who ruled Germany,
Austria, Bohemia, the Low Countries, and most of Italy), this
chivalrous legion was called “Ordo Teutonicus” in Latin, meaning
"Order of the Teutons." “Teutones” was the early
Roman Latin name for a dominant Germanic tribe during the
Roman era. Its German adherents called it the German Order.
Led by an elected Grand Master (Hochmeister), the vast majority
of the German Order was ethnic German, but often (especially
later) included knights from other Catholic nations (particularly
Italy, Bohemia, and Hungary) or its conquests (northern Poland,
Latvia, northwestern Lithuania, Estonia, etc.).
The flag of the Teutonic Order.
Based on the original flag of Germany (the First Reich), the
later flag of Prussia as well as the Iron Cross were modeled
in part after the Teutonic Knights' flag as a result of romantic
Germanic nationalism.
The official standard of the Teutonic Order upon becoming
a Monastic State. Notice the Papal and monkish regalia adorning
the symbol of Germany.
The German Order settles in Eastern Europe after the Islamic
triumph:
Initially auspicious military
campaigns by European crusaders in Palestine ultimately ended
in disaster when the triumphant Muslim jihad against the Christian
armies forced a gradual European withdrawal. Saladin's Ayyubid
dynasty quickly conquered Jerusalem and most of the crusader
states after the Second Crusade. The Christian Europeans'
struggle in the region would endure for many decades after
the departure of the Teutonic Knights. Returning from Acre
to Europe in 1211, the German Order was given subsidy and
land among the large ethnic German settler colonies in Siebenbürgen
(Transylvania) by the Catholic Kingdom of Hungary (an ally
of Germany) with the purpose of assisting in a crusade against
non-Christian minorities and the Turkic Cumans and Pechenegs
on Hungary's eastern frontier. The Teutonic Order's settlement
in Hungary signaled the genesis of a formidable legion of
mercenaries who would soon garner the attention of other sovereigns
of Europe, especially in Poland. Concomitantly, a political
dispute arose when the Germans were found plotting to place
themselves under the vassalage of the Popacy rather than the
Hungarian monarchy, thus undermining Andras II of Hungary's
primacy. As a result, Hungary formally expelled the Teutonic
Order from all Hungarian domains in 1225.
The German crusade in Prussia, Latvia, and Estonia and the
creation of the Teutonic Order Monastic State:
When the Teutonic Knights
offered their mercenary services to European sovereigns in
the 13th century, some tribes and small populations either
still adhered to their ancient pagan religions or had not
yet accepted the Papally-sanctioned rendition of the Gospel.
Most of Europe was divided into powerful feudal kingdoms with
a compulsory Christian faith. The peripheral tribes of what
are now Latvia (including the Curonians, Livonians, Latvians,
Levs, and Semigallians), Estonia, Lithuania, and Finland still
lived outside of the suzerainty of Christian empires and adhered
to their traditional animist religions. In order to pervade
the Christian religion and expand their political power, many
neighboring polities viewed these territories as ideal for
a crusade.
When the Teutonic Knights
were expelled from Hungary, the ancient Kingdom of Poland
had been in the middle of a longstanding period of instability
and fragmentation. What is now the northern third of Poland
-- Prussia -- was a collection of stateless pagan tribes called
the Old Prussians. It must be acknowledged that the modern
association of the Prussians as being Germanic is irrelevant
to the original non-German inhabitants of the region they
conquered. In 1226 (only one year after their expulsion),
the Duke of Mazovia (modern Warsaw) Konrad I invited
the Teutonic Knights to settle in Poland for the
coming crusade against the Prussian pagans. It was intended
to be a cooperative effort that would ultimately benefit the
Christian religion and the duchy of Mazovia. Konrad I did
not foresee the Germans' perfidious seizure of power in the
whole region. Grandmaster Hermann von Salza
received official sponsorship from the Kingdom of Germany's
Emperor Friedrich II via the Bull of Rimini. As a result,
the monastic state that the Teutonic Order were forging was
nominally a subsidized vassal of Germany. After the crusade,
the ethnic Germans became an aristocratic elite over a majority-Baltic
(Old Prussian), Masurian, and Polish population. The Grandmaster
administered a nascent theocratic polity called the Teutonic
Order Monastic State under the vassalage of Germany
and the Pope, but one that was originally far smaller than
what it quickly expanded to be through conquest of its neighbors.
The economic inequity would later combine with inter-ethnic
conflict to cause massive uprisings from the local population
that would ultimately dismantle the Monastic State.
From its nascent realm in
now-Christian Prussia, the Teutonic Knights expanded the crusade
to the remaining pagan tribes of the Baltic coast. Throughout
the early 13th century, the joint alliance between Denmark,
Sweden, Germany, and other German crusading orders were engaged
in the Northern Crusade against the Latvian
and Estonian tribes under Valdemar the Great. The Livonian
Brothers of the Sword were the main German crusading order
in Estonia and Latvia, where they built modern Latvia's capital
of Riga. An ethnic German colonial minority (the Baltic
Germans) became the dominant aristocracy over the
native populations that would resume for the next 800 years,
much like in Prussia. In 1237 the Livonian Brothers of the
Sword were formally dissolved and merged into the Teutonic
Order under the authority of the Grandmaster. As a result,
the Monastic State now nominally included Latvia and Estonia.
The German Monastic State's
humiliating defeat in Russia:
Looking for a new target
for the German crusade, the Teutonic Order (like Germany and
the Pope) identified the Orthodox Christian Slavs of what
is now Russia as heterodox and just as non-Christian as the
Prussians and Latvians. At the time, "Russia" was
broken into Slavic principalities, most being completely dominated
by the Mongols after Batu Khan's conquest in the 13th century.
One large East Slavic Orthodox state, Novogorod, retained
its political independence with the agreement that it would
pay regular tribute and taxes to the administrators of the
Mongol Yoke. Its prince was the modern Russian Orthodox hero
Aleksandr Nevskiy. Since the Teutonic Order
had a military presence in neighboring Estonia, a crusade
against Novgorod seemed to be an auspicious and certain victory.
What resulted was a defeat
that humiliated the Germans and has functioned as a heroic
triumph in Russian culture ever since. It reaffirmed the old
military doctrine's mantra that an invasion of Russia equates
to military suicide. In 1242 at the “Battle of the Ice” (or
Battle of Lake Peipus in Estonia), Aleksandr Nevskiy led local
Slavic Christians against an invading army of German knights
with valiant success. Novgorod's independence and the East
Slavs' Orthodox faith were protected, and the Teutonic Knights
retreated to Estonia and Latvia.
Our EHL video of Aleksandr Nevskiy's
heroic defeat of the Germans (called Livonians in the film).
From the Soviet propaganda "Aleksandr Nevskiy".
The crusade against the
Lithuanians and their former Polish allies, or the height
of the Monastic State
The Monastic State now ruled
most of Estonia, western Lithuania, Latvia, and Prussia. It
had conquered and absorbed the western portions of modern
Lithuania and subdued its pagan Lithuanian tribes during and
after the Northern Crusade by 1300. As a result, the western
Lithuanians under the rule of the German crusaders became
Christianized by force. The eastern portion of Lithuania,
however, remained pagan. After the massive first Russian state
(Kiev Rus) was destroyed by the Mongol invasion, the Lithuanian
tribes expanded to dominate most of modern Lithuania, Belarus,
and Ukraine. After the Teutonic conquest of western Lithuania,
the remainder of the Lithuanians were pagan and united under
King Mindaugas of Lithuania, who vaccilated between baptism
to appease foreign sovereigns and the pagan religion of his
heritage and his subjects.
After the German Order had
subjugated and Christianized the western Lithuanians, an inevitable
political dispute ignited between Poland, Pommerania, and
the neighboring Teutonic realm of Prussia. What would follow
was, in the minds of Poles and Lithuanians ever since, an
expression of brutal perfidity, theft, betrayal, and conquest
by the Germans against the Poles whom originally invited the
Teutonic Order to Prussia. Many of the coastal cities, such
as Danzig, were disputed by Polish nobles and the German crusaders.
By 1310, war with their former Polish allies
strengthened the independence and dominance of the Monastic
State in Poland and Prussia with continued political and economic
support from Germany. The Teutonic Order conquered Danzig
and retained most of Prussia. The Teutonic Order now dominated
northern Poland, western Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
Mindaugas, first king of Lithuania.
Western Lithuania was long ruled and Christianized by the
Germans, but in the east, a powerful Lithuanian pagan state
emerged that soon inherited Poland to create Eastern Europe's
most powerful empire and with it, the Teutonic Order's demise
(from vilnius.4youhotels.com).
A map from the historically-accurate
PC game Europa Universalis III that shows the massive size
of the German Monastic State. Notice that western Lithuania,
modern Estonia, Latvia, and northern Poland are all in GRAY
(the Monastic State). Note that at the time of this map (1453),
Poland and Lithuania were merged in a personal union. (CLICK
TO ENLARGE)
War with a united Poland-Lithuania
and the total dismantling of the German Monastic State due
to ethnic infighting
Through military valiance
and meticulous diplomatic prescience (and in the Poles' perspective
brutal hypocrisy and theft of land), the German crusaders
had transformed their wandering and expelled fraternity of
1225 into a massive theocratic state that dominated northern
Poland, Prussia, western Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia by
1400. It is the main force behind the Christianization (and
one could argue Europeanization) of the entire Baltic. As
a result, these German knights had an indelible influence
in shaping the cultural evolution of all Eastern Europe. It
enjoyed great diplomatic support from its relatives in Germany
and vaccilating support from other powers like Sweden, Bohemia,
Hungary, and Denmark. The Grandmasters built magnificent monasteries,
castles, and cathedrals throughout what is now Poland, and
built the two modern capitals of Latvia's Riga and Estonia's
Tallinn (Reval) into major trading constituents of the continental
Hanseatic League.
Malbork Castle at Marienburg,
the old Teutonic capital in what is now Poland (Danzig) (from
gdansk-life.com).
But by 1400, their political
and military fortunes began to atrophy. Independent Lithuania,
previously pagan, had been centralized and Christianized under
the rule of the beloved hero Vytautas and
Grand Duke Jogaila. Accepting baptism, Lithuania now sought
to repel its neighboring German hegemon and gain diplomatic
alliance with Christian Europe, in part to expel the Islamic
Tatars whose jihad against the Christians was a constant
threat to Lithuanian independence. Concomitantly, Poland was
undergoing internal political crisis. Because of disputes
between Polish nobles and looming fears of inheritance by
Western European powers like France, Poland married ethnically
Hungarian princess Jadwiga of Poland to Grand Duke Jogaila
of Lithuania. As a result, Poland and Lithuania merged
in a personal union that would endure in varying forms until
the 18th century. Vytautas remained in Lithuania proper as
Grand Duke, whilst Jogaila relocated to Poland as the new
sovereign.
Since both the Poles and
the Lithuanians had a great mutual antipathy for the German
crusaders who occupied their northern marches, Poland-Lithuania
became embroiled in the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War of
1409-11. Grandmaster Ulrich von Jungingen led his seasoned
Teutonic Knights against a joint Polish-Lithuanian army and
was humiliatingly defeated. The Battle of Grünwald
is one of the proudest and most important days in Polish and
Lithuanian history as commemorated in many monuments in Poland
today (see my photos below), and an embarrassing one for German
history. The Grandmaster was slain in battle against Vytautas
and Jogaila.
Although the Lithuanians
and Poles enjoyed a shared history for more than 300 years,
the two cultures have developed a bit of hatred for each other
since Poland invaded Lithuania under Pilsudski prior to World
War II to conquer Polish-majority Vilnius/Wilno. As a result,
both Poles and Lithuanians bitterly argue over who "won"
this battle. Poles insist it was Poland, whilst Lithuanians
argue that Poles were barely even there and the Lithuanians
did all of the work (referencing that the two commanders were
Vytautas and Jogaila, two ethnic Lithuanians).
The Peace of Thorn ended
the war and left the Teutonic Order in military shambles,
politically drained, and economically bankrupt. It also imbued
the Poles and Lithuanians with sufficient confidence for a
future campaign at total destruction of the Monastic State.
Nonetheless, their attempt at conquering the Teutonic capital
during the war failed miserably, and the German hegemon endured
for several more decades.
The end of the German
Monastic State came after 1454 during the 13-Years'
War. The Teutonic Knights had elevated an ethnic German aristocratic
minority above the native Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, and
Old Prussian Balts across their whole realm. The Baltic Germans
would dominate Latvia until the entire
race was expelled by Stalin after World War II some 700
years later. In Prussia, this inter-ethnic conflict and more
importantly overall economic inequity that pervaded all ethnic
groups led to a massive revolt of nobles who formed the "Prussian
Confederation." Allying with the Polish-Lithuanian Empire,
the nobles begged the Poles and Lithuanians to invade and
obliterate their German overlords in the Monastic State. The
13-Years' War ended in the effective dismantling of the Monastic
State altogether. In 1466, Prussia was split in two, one merging
with Poland and the other becoming a Polish puppet. The German
theocratic realm was no more.
The end of the Teutonic Knights'
power came in 1525, when the last Grandmaster Albert embraced
the new dominant religion among the Germans, Lutheranism,
and thus betrayed the central tenet of the Catholic Teutonic
Order. As a result, the Teutonic Order lost all temporal power
over the region, and Albert became a political (not religious)
leader of the Polish puppet of Prussia. Poland now dominated
all Prussia. With the Teutonic Order's former domains now
Lutheran, the Catholic crusaders who obstinently stayed declared
independence. The Livonian Brothers of the Sword (Baltic Germans)
ruled most of Latvia and southern Estonia until the Livonian
War only a few decades later, when Poland, Sweden, and Ivan
the Terrible's Russia fought the Livonian War. Russia was
humiliated, Sweden seized Estonia, and Poland now dominated
all of Lithuania, Latvia, Prussia, and Estonia.
a famous painting of the Battle
of Grunwald (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
Another painting (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
My photo of a proud monument of the Polish-(Lithuanian) defeat
of the Teutonic Knights in the city of Krakow, Poland (CLICK
TO ENLARGE)
Our incredibly popular EHL video showing
the Polish nationalist film from the Communist era about the
Polish-Lithuanian triumph over the Teutonic Knights. This
is the Battle of Grünwald.
Ethnic German Prussia
declares independence, dominates Poland, and reunifies Germany
as a Teutonic legacy:
In this section, the Teutonic
Order is not present since its temporal power had been destroyed.
However, its enduring legacy shaped the history of Eastern
Europe long after its demise. It paved the way for the ethnic
Germans of Prussia to forge a massive German Prussian kingdom,
dominate Poland, and reunite Germany as the Second Reich.
Their legacy in creating an inter-ethnic and political division
in Poland over Prussia significant during Hitler's invasion
of Poland and the seizure of Prussia from Germany after World
War II.
After the Teutonic state's
fall, Prussia was split between Poland and an ethnic German-dominated
Polish puppet. In 1657, the puppet vassal of Poland, Prussia,
was inherited by the German electorate in Brandenburg through
the tenuous mediation of Sweden and France, ostensibly to
check the power of Sweden (which was close to overrunning
Poland). As Poland during this "Deluge" was on the
brink of collapse and was looking for supporters against powerful
Sweden and Russia, Poland accepted the forfeiture of eastern
independent German Prussia to Brandenburg. Poland now no longer
ruled half of Prussia.
In 1701, the Holy Roman Empire
(Austria) acknowledged an upgrade of the electorate status
of German Brandenburg-Prussia to the status of a full kingdom,
as it wanted an ally against Spain and France in the War of
Spanish Succession. Brandenburg-Prussia was renamed the Kingdom
of Prussia, an ethnic German Lutheran state that through marriage,
diplomacy, purchase, land exchange, and the military brilliance
of its sovereigns quickly forged an empire in only a few decades
that quickly became one of the most powerful states in Europe.
Magnificent soldier-kings like Friedrich Wilhelm I and Friedrich
the Great repelled combined full-frontal assaults from the
massive armies of Europe's most powerful empires simultaneously.
Although it conquered little, its military prowess was arguably
unmatched, and the nation survived. The Kingdom of Prussia
rapidly ascended to become on par with the superpowers of
Russia and Habsburg Austria.
Poland, on the other hand,
tumbled into complete collapse. Inter-ethnic conflict over
political franchise had caused Poland-Lithuania to devolve
into a Commonwealth that eventually became so weak that it
was unable to wrest itself from the invasions of superior
centralized kingdoms that surrounded it. As Prussia ascended,
Poland-Lithuania collapsed. Russia, Austria, and Prussia all
agreed to three Partitions of Poland in 1772,
1793, and 1795 that caused Poland and Lithuania to cease to
exist. Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Belarus eventually
became Russian territory, and mighty Austria and Prussia split
the rest of Poland amongst themselves. Poland would not exist
with universally-accepted independence until 1918.
Thereafter, following the
defeat of Napoleon, German Austria and Prussia competed over
the fate of the re-unified Germany until 1866, when Prussia
obliterated Central Europe's superpower (Austria) and then
the huge armies of France's Napoleon III that caused even
France to completely collapse. In 1871 in France's own royal
palace at Versailles, the Kingdom of Prussia under Otto von
Bismarck declared the German Empire re-established
as the Second Reich.
The role of the German Teutonic
Order in shaping the political and cultural evolution of Eastern
Europe is blatant, as is their indirect role in the reunification
of Germany. Were it not for the Teutonic Order's presence
in Prussia and Poland, the Kingdom of Prussia could not have
expanded to Brandenburg and Germany proper. So too, were it
not for the Teutonic Knights' gravitation of an ethnic German
minority aristocracy over the natives in the Baltic and Prussia,
Prussia would not have had an ethnically, culturally, or linguistically
Germanic character with which to reunify Germany.
A map from the accurate PC
game Europa Universalis III showing the Partitions of Poland
and the hegemony of the Germans of Prussia over Poland
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
The flag of independent Prussia
and the Second Reich was based upon the Teutonic flag due
to nationalistic romanticism, but also the Teutonic legacy
The German-Polish ethnic
and nationalist conflict over Prussia and Danzig:
As has been illustrated in
this essay, the Teutonic Order indirectly created a legacy
that allowed the establishment of an independent Prussia (and
later Germany) with an ethnically, culturally, and linguistically
German community in what the Poles considered their rightful
land. Most of the Prussian periphery was populated by Poles
and their related Masurians (see our
ethnic maps of Poland to see the huge Polish population
in Prussia). As a result, Prussia became the battleground
between the two independent nationalist and authoritarian
powers of Poland and Germany over the ethnic and cultural
characteristics of Prussia. Ironically, it was Hitler
who dissolved the official Teutonic Order in Austria
in 1938 when that country voluntarily joined the Third Reich
(see my photo of the plaque below).
After World War I, to punish
Germany, Prussia was mangled. Its far east went to independent
Lithuania, much of Silesia and Posen went to Poland, and the
far south went to Czechoslovakia. Danzig -- with its overwhelmingly
ethnic German population [1] -- became an independent League
of Nations territory. During World War II, the German nationalists
demanded Danzig to be returned to the Reich. Unlike Lithuania,
which forfeited its recent gains from Prussia in 1938, nationalist
Poland refused. In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland
ostensibly to take back what they believed was rightfully
theirs. To the Poles, this was merely the next phase of German
conquest in a Prussia that had a massive non-German Polish
population anyway.
According to Goodrick-Clarke
in his quick and superb The Occult Roots of Nazism,
nationalist circles in Germany and Austria, and later the
Schutzstaffel (SS), were largely romantically based on ancient
chivalrous crusading orders. Although no evidence links Heinrich
Himmler to the Teutonic Order, the parallel must have been
obvious.
It is apparent how this legacy
of Teutonic crusader rule indirectly played in partially causing
World War II by the invasion of Poland. After the war, the
entirety of Prussia -- despite being the genesis of Germany's
reunification -- was completely seized from Germany by the
Soviets and the Allies in the 1945 Potsdam Conference and
given to Poland where it remains today. The entirety of the
German race in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Russia was
expelled, totalingmore than 8,000,000 Germans
civilians removed from their homes (click here to
read my essay on this conflict).
This is a major issue of controversy between Germans and Poles
today, although Poland (correctly) insists that this was performed
by the Soviets and not the Poles. Millions of Poles were also
expelled by the Soviets, who annexed eastern Poland to the
Soviet Union and expelled all the Poles living there, giving
them Prussia "in return." Of course, Prussia is
equally as integral and significant to Polish heritage and
history as it is to German. Both perspectives notwithstanding,
it is undeniable that the Monastic State's influence lasted
long past its demise, roughly 800 years (1226 until 1945 and
today).
The Teutonic Order today (with my photos of their monastic
headquarters):
The German Order, like many
other crusading orders such as the Knights of St. John (Malta),
exists today as a charitable organization with chivalric ceremony.
It has offices and constabularies all over the southern Germanic
world, especially Germany and Austria. Click here
to see their official website in Germany and here
for Austria (German only). It is only around the corner of
Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral), one of the oldest and
most magnificent works of architectural and religious art
in European history. Grandmasters are still elected by a ceremonial
council, and members theoretically include all Christian (only)
denominations, including Catholic and Lutheran/Protestant.
Today, the headquarters and monastery in Vienna as I saw for
myself are in a tiny church on a busy street that most would
not even notice. It has a small chapel arising out of what
looks like an apartment. Outside, a plaque says "Deutschordens
Haus" (House of the German Order). Another plaque (my
photo below) emphasizes that the Teutonic Order was dissolved
by Hitler when Austria joined Germany, and then post-war Austria
re-established it. Inside, next to a unique icon of the Virgin
Mary, a plaque describes the "Schicksaltag," a bizarrely
repeating date of the year when most horrific events in German
history seem to happen. The Teutonic Order as a Catholic monastic
order has very little love for the Austrian Adolf Hitler since
it was he who dissolved it along with Prussia as a territory
(as he believed that all Germany was synonymous with Prussia).
Inside, the monastery is inaccessible to all but the Teutonic
Knights who wear white robes with a black cross at the center.
The Grandmasters and leaders of the Order decorate their uniforms
with Iron Crosses.
My photo of the Church of
the Teutonic Order. Very austere (Click to enlarge)
My photo of a plaque outside
the Teutonic Order church. In short, it reads that in 1938
the National Socialists (Nazis) dissolved the German Order,
but in 1947 (when Austria was independent at the behest of
the Soviets), it was re-established. (Click to enlarge)
My photo of the plaque on
the entrace to the monastery (Click to enlarge)
My photo of the main altar area of the official church of
the Teutonic Knights. Notice the flag on the wall, one with
great resemblance to that of Prussia and pre-liberal Germany
(Click to enlarge)
My photo of the national emblems on the right wall of the
church (Click to enlarge)
My photo of the best view of the official church (Click
to enlarge)
My photo of the image of the St. Elizabeth of Hungary, Langravine
of Thüringen. CLICK TO ENLARGE. (thanks to
Cheryl Martin for the correction and information!)
________________________________________
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
James Mayfield is a historian
and the Chairman of the European Heritage Library. I have
a Cum Laude BA in History with a Minor in Germanic Studies
(language and history), am presently working for my Masters
in History, and plan to immediately progress to my PhD Doctorate.
I have a special academic interest in Europe's diverse ethnic
identities, languages, and cultures, and the political struggles
of native European and immigrant minority identities. See
my staff entry for more information.
BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES
USED:
-Personal photos and observations
of the Teutonic Order's monastery in Vienna and monuments
in Krakow and Warsaw, Poland.
-Photos and images that do
not have an EHL watermark are not our property. When no source
is included, we were unable to isolate the original owners.
If you find that your property has been used, feel free to
notify us.
-For its tracing of chivalrous
crusading orders as an impetus for Nazi romantic nationalism:
Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. The Occult Roots of Nazism:
Secret Aryan Cults and their Influence on Nazi Ideology.
London: I.B. Tauris and Co: 1992.
-Clark, Christopher. Iron
Kingdom: the Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947.
London: Penguin, 2006.
-Kort, Michael. A Brief
History of Russia. New York: Checkman Books, 2008.
-The official website of
the Teutonic Order today as a charitable monastic order (here
for Germany, here
for Austria)
-Paradox Interactive's historically-accurate
Europa Universalis III for screenshots.
[1] Lukowski, Jerzy, and
Hubert Zawadzki. A Concise History of Poland. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Page 224.
Copyright ongoing since 2008-,
European Heritage Library®. www.euroheritage.net.
All Rights Reserved. The European Heritage Library is a non-profit academic
organization owned by
Chairman James Mayfield.
No email addresses or personal information is redistributed. No articles
or content on this site may be redistributed without approval or a
full citation and credit to the EHL as the original source.
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