This article is about the
famous German Teutonic Order of knights that played a major
role in shaping the entire history of eastern Europe, and
paved the way for both the re-establishment of Germany and
the legacy of German conquest in Poland for 800 years. If
an error has been made, please notify us. I intended to give
attention to both the Polish and German geopolitical, moral,
and cultural perspectives in this article.
Background on 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 “Latin”
Western Europe fought the Orthodox Slavic east, Catholic French
exterminated the Gnostic Albigensians to the south, Shi'ia
and Sunni Muslims struggled in jihad against each other and
Europe, and both Eastern and Western Europe engaged in religious
crusade against the Muslims who were invading Europe from
Spain to the Byzantine east. European knights responded to
the Papal crusades with the formation of military crusading
orders with strict training regimentation, hierarchical authority,
almsgiving foundations to pilgrims who were persecuted by
Muslims, and a mandate of obedience to the Pope. The most
powerful nations in Catholic Europe during the Crusades were
England, France, and the Kingdom of Germany. Many knights
orders traveled to the Middle East to fight the Muslims and,
more often, to seize control of Crusader States in Palestine
for their own power, including the Knights Templar (mostly
French), the Order of the Dragon (mostly Hungarians), and
the Knights Hospitallers.
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.
The most famous and powerful
German crusading order, the Teutonic Order, was formed in
1192 in the crusader state of Acre (modern north Israel) when
it was seized from the Muslims by French and British knights.
Subservient to the German Holy Roman Emperor (who ruled Germany,
Austria, Bohemia, the Low Countries, and most of Italy) and
the Pope, this chivalric legion was called “Ordo Teutonicus”
in Latin, meaning “Order of the Germans”. “Teutones” was the
early Roman Latin name for a dominant Roman-era German nation.
More accurately, the order was called the German Order (deutscher
Orden). Led by an elected Grand Master (Hochmeister), the
vast majority of the German Order was ethnic German, but often
(especially later) included many knights from Germany's allies
(especially Hungary) or its conquests (Poland, Latvia, Memel,
Estonia, etc.).
The flag of the Teutonic Order.
The flag of Prussia as well as the Iron Cross were designed
as a result of Germanic nationalism from this early chivalric
heritage.
The German Order settles in Eastern Europe after Islamic
triumph:
Initial successes in Palestine
ended when the triumphant Muslim jihad against the Christian
armies forced general European withdrawal. Returning to Europe
in 1211, the German Order was given land and subsidy by the
Catholic Kingdom of Hungary (a close ally of Germany), stationed
primarily in Siebenbürgen (Transylvania, part of Romania after
Austria-Hungary's WWI defeat). Many newer nations in Europe
found themselves in desperate need of military support against
invading Muslim whose jihad put the Hungarian, Byzantine,
Spanish, and Portuguese empires on the brink of total collapse.
Sanctioned by the Pope, Hungary enjoyed German support against
the Turkish Muslims (Kumans) on their eastern marches (now
western Ukraine) and, until the Mongol conquest, Hungary retained
their empire in part thanks to the Germans. A dispute over
Papal control ultimately led to the formal expulsion of the
Teutonic knights from Hungarian domains.
The creation of a German theocratic state, the seizure of
Polish land, and the Christianization of the Prussians:
In 1226, the shattered Kingdom
of Poland implored the Germans to aid them in attaining regional
stability, defending them from Muslim invasion from the east,
and to pacify and Christianize the Balts and Prussians on
their northern frontiers. These pagans were Europe's last
Christianized cultures, and included the Lithuanians, Old
Prussians, Semigallians, and eastern Latvians. It must be
noted that the modern association of the Prussians, that of
ethnic Germans, is unrelated to the original Prussian inhabitants
who were native before the German conquered the region. They
were only granted a small territory in central Poland for
their operation that was intended to be for the benefit of
the broken Polish nation. Instead, the magnificently successful
Teutonic campaign ended with the complete annexation of the
northern half, all to Poland's detriment. The German empire
to which the Teutonic Order was nominally subservient, as
well as the Pope, organized the establishment of a theocratic
monastic state (a partial vassal of Germany's throne) stretching
from Brandenburg to Estonia typically called the Monastic
State of the Teutonic Knights. The German Order knights
thus ruled a territory populated by newly-baptized Balts and
Slavs under a strong ethnic German authority. The ethnic inequality
in this state would later spell its demise. The German legacy
of plundering and seizing Polish land for the next 200 years,
whilst they were only invited by Poland to aid them, has become
the first chapter in the bitter Germano-Polish conflict that
has lasted ever since (including, of course, World War II).
This legacy has also given the Teutonic Order the image of
being little more than thieves, murderers, and frauds. However,
the presence of Papal sanction and that of Germany – Europe's
most powerful empire at the time and the very center of Catholicism
(and thus Latin Christendom) – gave the Germans sufficient
justification in their eyes.
Expanding from their conquest
of the Baltic Prussians, the Teutonic Order marched eastward
to Christianize the powerful eastern Lithuanian and Latvian
pagan tribes in the 13th century. They succeeded in conquering
and absorbing most of the western Lithuanian clans into their
monastic state, but the eastern tribes remained pagan and
“untamed”. Most Latvians became intensely Germanized, and
would maintain links to German culture, religion, and German
orders for several centuries to follow. The founder of the
united pagan Lithuanian state in the east, Mindaugas, had
reverted from baptized Christendom to paganism, and thus became
a principal target of German Christian aggression. The Germans
succeeded in retaining western Lithuania; the pagan east became
the yoke of the Lithuanian kingdom, was Christianized by Poles,
and inherited the Polish throne to form the Polish-Lithuanian
personal union of the Jagiellos (Ya-gie-lo) in the 14th century.
Mindaugas, first king of Lithuania.
Western Lithuania was long ruled and Christianized by the
Germans, but in the east, a powerful Lithuanian 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).
Because of the perceived
German seizure of rightfully-Polish land, Poland and Lithuania
were constantly at war and crusade with their Teutonic occupants
despite all embracing the same Catholic faith. Several Germano-Polish
wars led to frequent territorial exchanges that had the result
of a strengthened Teutonic state as well as a more unified
and militarized (and thus stable) Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
A major capital of the German Order was Königsberg (King's
Fortress), today an exclave of Russia kept after World War
II as “Kaliningrad”, named after Stalin's closest minister.
Marienburg, the other Teutonic capital, is now part of Poland,
and the glorious fortress of the Germans still remains after
more than 500 years as Malbork Castle. At the height of German
rule, the Order ruled Pommern (Pommerania, western Poland
after WWII), Danzig, western Lithuania, Latvia, the Baltic
islands, and Estonia.
Malbork Castle at Marienburg,
the old Teutonic capital (from gdansk-life.com).
The German Monastic State's humiliating defeat in Russia:
Looking for a new target
for the German crusade, and still being frequently implored
by battered eastern empires for assistance, the German knights
marched northward to “enlighten” (Catholicize) the Orthodox
“heathens” of the Baltic. German crusaders had already in
the previous century aided Denmark, Germany's close ally,
to annex and Christianize the pagan Finns of Estonia and Latvia
in the 12th century. Germany exerted considerable influence
over much of northeastern Europe, including through crusading
vassals and the German-dominated Hanseatic League. The powerful
German Livonian Order of the Sword Brethren enjoyed powerful
dominance in Latvia loosely in the name of Germany before
being absorbed into the Teutonic Order. This close relationship
between Latvians and Germans that begun in the crusades has
shaped Latvian heritage and culture ever since. Although the
valiant yet disunified tribes of the Baltic were an easier
target for disciplined German knights, the Slavs of Russia
had already developed formidable empires. Slavic Novgorod
Russia's Orthodox Christian faith and important coastal geography
made it a crucial target for Germanic invasion. Rallying from
Estonia and Latvia, the Germans and Danes marched on northern
Russia in the winter. Novgorod and neighboring Slavic states
rallied collectively under Aleksandr Nevskiy and won a triumphant
victory against the German invaders in the 1242 “Battle of
the Ice” (or Battle of Lake Peipus in Estonia). This humiliating
defeat led to German withdrawal from the Russian part of the
northern Baltic. The Germans retained Estonia, Latvia, western
Lithuania, Prussia, and Pommerania. Still tightly bound to
Germany, Latvians, and Sweden, the Teutonic Order and Poles
remained in a constant state of tension, always on the brink
of war.
The EHL video of Aleksandr Nevskiy's
heroic defeat of the Germans (called Livonians in the film).
The Poles and Lithuanians cripple the Teutonic Order, and
the Battle of Grünwald:
Poland, despite being one
of the longest-living nations in the world, spent most of
its early history in shambles. This weakness allowed the Teutonic
Order's ascendancy, but the creation of a stable Lithuanian
state that merged with the Polish throne in the 14th century
posed as a formidable rival. Consistent German aggression
– by now without any adherence to Vatican declarations – also
reaped the Germans of Papal mandate that the Catholic Poles
and Lithuanians more and more enjoyed. So too, the ancient
Kingdom of Germany had by now become fragmented, its firm
central authority now in many ways only ceremonial, thus leaving
the German warriors in the east without a protector. The small,
yet masterfully trained German fanatics found themselves surrounded
by what was becoming Eastern Europe's greatest empire.
In 1410, one of the most
glorious events in Polish history occurred at the Battle of
Grünwald/Tannenburg. A combined Polish-Lithuanian campaign
crushed the Germans led by Ulrich von Jungingen, leaving much
of the Germans' most seasoned men slain. Ultimately, the Monastic
State's army was severely tested, and what remained of Lithuania
(excluding the coastline) was lost to Lithuania/Poland. This
can be seen as the beginning of the end of the German theocracy
in the Slavic east. Most importantly, the supremacy of the
Polish-Lithuanian throne was undisputed in their realm, thus
ensuring the cohesion of the weakened Teutonic Order's greatest
enemy.
a famous painting of the Battle
of Grunwald (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
Another painting (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
The fact that the Monastic
State was populated by Slavs (related to Poles) and Balts
(related to Lithuanians) ruled by a conquering and hated German
fanatical army created an atmosphere of wide revolt. It was
not only a joint Polish-Lithuanian invasion that crippled
the Germans, but the desire of the Prussians (Monastic State
citizens) seeking total independence from Teutonic rule, ultimately
hoping for subordination to their Polish liberators. In the
1450s, Slavic and Baltic nobles, princes, lords, and militias
formed the so-called Prussian Confederation, and formally
declared Prussia (the yoke of the Monastic State) free from
German control. They sought nominal union under the Polish-Lithuanian
state, and the expulsion of the crusading authority. Coming
to their aid, the Poles and Lithuanians again bombarded the
Teutonic knights in the famous 13-Years' War (1454-1466).
Disorganization and such a wide array of rivals made a German
victory all but impossible despite being famous for their
military strength and discipline. The war ended with the Treaty
of Thorn in 1466, and the Monastic State was now no more than
a ceremonial illusion. The Germans retained the eastern march
of Prussia, the coastline of Lithuania, and most of Latvia
and Estonia. Worse, what remained of the Monastic State was
de facto subservient to the Polish throne. The German theocracy
that had effectively ruled all of the Baltic and dominated
Poland before was now in shambles.
The destruction of the Monastic State, and the Latvian-German
struggle against Slavic conquest:
Although the Teutonic Order
de jure still ruled a theocratic state (but under Polish dominion),
it was only completely abolished as a political realm when
Hochmeister Albrecht abandoned Catholicism and converted to
German Lutheranism in 1525. Poland thus now enjoyed formal
rule of Prussia, the far east of Pommern, and all of Lithuania.
All that survived of the German hegemony was the ultimate
successor state of the Livonian Order in Kurland (around the
ancient German city of Riga) that included modern-day Estonia
and Latvia. Latvia had been, and still remains, a heavily
Germanized culture for its geographic location with a long
history of Lutheran and German economic and cultural affiliation.
The Latvians had been incorporated into the German cultural
and military orbit since the first 12th century crusades done
by the Germans and the Danes in the Baltic. The local Latvian
culture was firmly subordinate to the wealthy German elite,
and remained as such for centuries after the Order's abolition.
Thus, the legacy of the obliterated Teutonic Order survived
through the Latvians.
The Livonian state (including
most of Estonia), being all that survived of German hegemony
in the Baltic, became an easy target for the rising empires
of Sweden-Finland, Russia, and Poland-Lithuania. In the 16th
century Livonian War, Estonia was ultimately annexed by Sweden,
and Latvia/Livonia was formally again annexed by Poland in
1561. The Monastic State and its successors had entirely disintegrated.
In the 18th century Northern War, Russia under Peter the Great
– by now arguably the most powerful nation on earth – annexed
Estonia, Latvia, much of Lithuania-Belarus, and would soon
seize what remained of Poland, Lithuania, and Finland. Nonetheless,
German merchants and local authorities remained dominant in
Latvia, Estonia, and coastal Lithuania (Memelburg/Klaipeda)
for hundreds of years to follow. Politically, however, the
Germanized Latvians would remain deeply under Slavic domination
until even the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. In Prussia,
although now ruled by the Slavic Poles, Germans would soon
return with a far more powerful Drang nach Osten.
The Germans return triumphant, and the post-World War losses
of German land:
In the 17th century, the
house of Brandenburg (in eastern Germany around Berlin) inherited
the authority of Prussia (then totally part of Poland). The
German state in Poland was reborn and independent, although
it was not connected to Germany by way of eastern Pommern
and Danzig. In the 17th century, the Prussian kingdom became
ensconced in a policy of an absolutist government and militarism,
with strict Lutheran structure and strong ultranationalism.
This ethos paved the way for the eventual triumph of the Germans
in Prussia over much of eastern Europe and, in many ways,
led to the ultimate rebirth of the ancient German empire.
Prussia was noted for being an intensely militant state similar
to modern Fascism, with mandatory military training for all
men as well as being among the first nations with compulsory
early education. From the 18th to the 19th centuries, this
nation of soldiers gradually expanded to annex nearly all
of Poland, Lithuania, and eastern Germany. The expansion of
this German state in Prussia – directly a legacy of the Teutonic
Order's past triumphs – eventually laid the foundations of
the reunified German nation. Prussia thus received its modern
association as a very German term, as it now became strictly
Germanized with a seemingly invincible German authority that
often put the awesome Russian, Austrian, and French empires
in hasty retreat despite consistently being attacked from
all sides.
The flag of German Prussia was
based upon the Teutonic flag due to nationalism
The Germans ruled all of
northern Poland and most of Lithuania as the Kingdom of Prussia
and, in 1871, collectively as the reborn German empire. After
World War I, the Lithuanian claims of Germany were lost to
the newly-independent Lithuania, and Poland was given the
corridor around Danzig. The fact that Danzig and much of what
became new Polish land in 1918 were vastly ethnic German can
be seen as a major cause of the German invasion of Poland
that was perceived by Germans in both countries as a war of
liberation. The legacy of the Teutonic Order was embraced
by German nationalists and Nazis as a symbol of superior German
military zeal and advancement bringing “civilization” to the
“backward” Slavic Poles. The Schutzstaffel (SS) was in part
based upon the ancient Germanic chivalric orders such as the
Teutonic knights. Obviously, the perspective of Poles is very
different for this land-stealing fanatical crusader army.
After World War II, Germany was forcibly cut in pieces, its
entire eastern frontier seized and given to Poland and Lithuania
(i.e. to the Soviet Union). The Germans were expelled en masse
from their homelands they had occupied for centuries, much
as the native Slavs and Balts were expelled by the first unprovoked
German conquest some 800 years before. Since the 1950s, northern
Poland and the southern Baltic, long having heavy German populations,
are now almost exclusively populated by natives Slavs and
Lithuanians. This history of ethnic tension has made its mark
on modern Polish, Lithuanian, and German thought that has
raged on for nearly a millennium and peaked with the seizure
of then-German land after both World Wars.
the SS are based upon the Teutonic
Order in romantic revival of German chivalry, this time the
knights honor of racial genocide
The Teutonic Order today:
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. Grandmasters are still
elected by a ceremonial council, and members include all Christian
(only) denominations, including Catholic and Lutheran/Protestant.
The deutscher Orden is an important aspect of Germanic heritage
and the importance of the Germans in shaping the history of
Eastern Europe for nearly 1000 years, for better or for worse.
________________________________________
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR:
James Mayfield is the owner
and Chairman of the European Heritage Library. I am working
for a doctorate in history, with a specific emphasis on Islamic
and European histories. I am well versed in all world cultures,
ethnicities, religions, languages, politics, and historical
evolution in relation to and against each other.
BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES
USED:
-see the relevant paragraph
for sources if needed
-if original owners of images are known, credit is given below
the image
Copyright 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.
