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The Teutonic Order is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society c. 1190 in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals.
- c. 1190 – present
- Overview
- Origin.
- Eastern Europe and Prussia.
- Decline and fall of the knights.
- The Austrian revival.
Teutonic Order, religious order that played a major role in eastern Europe in the late Middle Ages and that underwent various changes in organization and residence from its founding in 1189/90 to the present. Its major residences, marking its major states of development, were: (1) Acre, Palestine (modern ʿAkko, Israel), its original home beginning ...
In 1189–90, when crusading forces were besieging Acre, some German merchants from Bremen and Lübeck formed a fraternity to nurse the sick there. After the capture of Acre (1191), this fraternity took over a hospital in the town and began to describe itself as the Hospital of St. Mary of the German House in Jerusalem. Pope Clement III approved it, and it adopted a rule like that of the original Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (i.e., the Knights of Malta).
The death of the Hohenstaufen emperor Henry VI in 1197, when he was planning a great expedition to Palestine, caused an important change: a number of German crusaders who had arrived in Palestine decided to return home. In order to fill the gap, the German princes and bishops, together with King Amalric II of Jerusalem, in 1198 militarized the fraternity, making it a religious order of knights. The new order was put under a monastic and military rule like that of the Templars. It received privileges from Popes Celestine III and Innocent III and extensive grants of land, not only in the kingdom of Jerusalem but also in Germany and elsewhere. Innocent III in 1205 granted the Teutonic knights the use of the white habit with a black cross.
Meanwhile, under the leadership of the grand master Hermann von Salza (reigned 1210–39), the Teutonic knights had already begun transferring their main centre of activity from the Middle East to eastern Europe. The order’s first European enterprise started in Hungary in 1211, when King Andrew II invited a group of the Teutonic Knights to protect his Transylvanian borderland against the Cumans by colonizing it and by converting its people to Christianity. The order was then granted extensive rights of autonomy; but the knights’ demands became so excessive that they were expelled from Hungary in 1225. By that time, however, a new opportunity was opening: a Polish duke, Conrad of Mazovia, with lands on the lower reaches of the Vistula River, needed help against the pagan Prussians.
Hermann von Salza proceeded carefully, in order to avoid a repetition of what the order had experienced in Transylvania. He already enjoyed the confidence of the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II, whom he had served as a diplomat. So, when Conrad made his offer, Hermann in 1226 obtained from Frederick the so-called Golden Bull of Rimini as a legal basis for the settlement. By this charter, Frederick confirmed to Hermann and to the order not only the lands to be granted by Conrad but also those that the knights were to conquer from the Prussians. Later (1234), Hermann also secured privileges from Pope Gregory IX, which can be regarded as the second foundation charter of the order’s Prussian state: the papacy was ready to accept the order’s current and future conquests as the property of the Holy See and to grant them back to the order in perpetual tenure.
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In 1233, led by the Landmeister (provincial leader) Hermann Balk and using an army of volunteer laymen recruited mainly from central Germany, the Teutonic Knights began the conquest of Prussia. During the next 50 years, having advanced from the lower Vistula River to the lower Neman (Niemen, Nemunas) River and having exterminated most of the native Prussian population (especially during the major rebellion of 1261–83), the order firmly established its control over Prussia.
Although the order gave one-third of the conquered territory to the church and granted a large degree of autonomy to the newly developing towns in the area, it easily became the dominant power in Prussia. It worked to develop the region by building castles, by importing German peasants to settle in depopulated areas, by bestowing substantial estates on German and Polish nobles who became vassals of the order, and by monopolizing the lucrative Prussian grain trade, particularly after 1263, when the pope allowed the knights, who had previously been bound by a vow of poverty, to engage directly in trading activities.
The Teutonic Order’s rule in Prussia came to an end in 1525, when the grand master Albert, under Protestant influence, dissolved the order there and accepted its territory as a secular duchy for himself under Polish suzerainty. In 1526 a new grand master, Walter of Cronenberg (Kronenberg), fixed his residence at Mergentheim in Franconia (Württember...
By the end of the Napoleonic wars the Teutonic Order retained only small territories in the Austrian domains and the Tyrol. In 1834 the Austrian emperor reestablished the order in Vienna, as an ecclesiastical institution, reserving the dignity of grand master for an archduke of his house. New statutes in 1839–40 limited the knights to charitable and pastoral activities and limited the order’s sisters to nursing. In 1871 Pope Pius IX approved new rules for the priests of the order. When the Habsburg empire collapsed in 1918, the last imperial grand master, Archduke Maximilian, gave way to a priest as grand master for the first time. A new rule of Nov. 27, 1929, emphasized religious discipline.
Currently the headquarters of the order are in Vienna (Singerstrasse 7), where it maintains a church and an archives of the order. Branch houses also exist in Bavaria, Hesse, and the Italian Tyrol.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The State of the Teutonic Order (Latin: Civitas Ordinis Theutonici) was a theocratic state, located along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea in northern Europe. It was formed by the knights of the Teutonic Order during the early 13th century Northern Crusades in the region of Prussia.
Welcome to the website of the Teutonic Order. The Teutonic Order or in its full name the Order of the Teutonic Knights of St. Mary's hospital in Jerusalem looks back on a long and eventful history of more than 800 years. Initially established as hospital brotherhood near the seaport Acre in the Holy Land in the year 1190, during the third ...
Teutonic Order, or Teutonic Knights officially House of the Hospitallers of Saint Mary of the Teutons, Religious order important in eastern Europe in the late Middle Ages. Founded in 1189–90 to nurse the sick in Palestine during the Third Crusade, it was militarized in 1198 and given land in Jerusalem and Germany.
Jul 11, 2018 · The order was, above all, famous for its well-trained and well-armed knights, as well as their stout stone fortresses. Teutonic knights wore black crosses on a white background or with a white border. These crosses could appear on shields, white surcoats (from 1244 CE), helmets, and pennants.
Learn about the Teutonic Order, a German military order that played a key role in the medieval crusading movement and the political and cultural development of northeastern Europe. Explore its origins, achievements, challenges, and legacy in this comprehensive overview of its history, development, decline, and successors.
