Ruthlessness, romantic idealism and other similar characteristics are attributed to the Deutschritter Orden, the Teutonic Knights. Yet the story of this order is less colorful than that of similar orders such as the Templars. Most of them claimed –not always quite correctly- that their origins dated back to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who had issued the Rule of the Templars to two knights, Hugo of Payens and Godfrey of St. Omer; rules closely modeled on St. Bernard’s own order, in a spirit of profound Christian devotion and strict asceticism. At the time of the second crusade, St. Bernard himself called for recruits for the Templars, and in a tract issued for this purpose he wrote:
The warriors are gentler than lambs and fiercer than lions, wedding the mildness of the monk to the valor of the knight, so that it is difficult to decide which to call them: men who adorn the Temple of Solomon with weapons instead of gems, with shields instead of crowns of gold, with saddles and bridles instead of candelabra; eager for victory not for fame; for battle not for pomp; who abhor useless speech, unnecessary action, unmeasured laughter, gossip and chatter, as they despise all vain things; who, in spite of their being many, live in one house according to one rule, with one soul and one heart.
St. Bernard’s foundation did not put an end to the hero of the ‘age of chivalry’ and his courtly pursuits, but countered the ‘restless, vacillating secular knight errant, who flew from adventure to adventure, or sacrificed himself in the service of his lady-love, leading his own individual life and entirely destructive to the firm fabric of the state’ with a closed, rigidly disciplined corporation, dedicated, as in the case of the Templars, to the service of Christ, their spiritual head. They were monks, actively serving a common purpose with the staNew Tement and the sword, men who subordinated themselves to a common master. In modern terminology: they were activists of the word and the sword, recognized by the uniformity of their dress, the mantle with the cross, and style of life.
But as with all human institutions, the original idealism could not be sustained indefinitely. By the end of the twelfth century, spiritual knighthood seemed almost extinct. The institutions of the Knights of the Templars, whose members were mainly French, and the Knights of St. John, composed largely of English and Italian members, seemed on the wane, perhaps even on the point of disintegration. Yet precisely at this point in time, in 1190, a new order made its appearance, one, which was to be called the Teutonic Order. The initiative for it, however, did not come from the clergy, nor for that matter from German knights, but from German burghers, merchants from Bremen and Lubeck, the old cities of the Hanseatic League.
Disease had badly affected the army of crusaders camping on Mount Turon outside the city of Acre. Merchants from the two German cities showed compassion for the helpless fellow countrymen. They removed the sails from their boats, and from them made large tents which they provided with beds and hospital equipment. Above all, they supplied the finance with which to maintain them. In these hospital beds, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, sick German knights were cared for by the merchants. Their leader, a German merchant by the name of Siebrand, obtained from King Guy, then King of Jerusalem, a grant of a plot of land and a street in Acre, once the city had been conquered. Here the new foundation was to find a more permanent home. When Siebrand and the merchants returned to Germany, they put the administration of the foundation into the hands of the chaplain, Conrad, and the chamberlain, Burkhard, who had arrived at Acre in October 1190 with Frederick of Swabia, a son of Frederick Barbarossa. Burkhard and Conrad administered the foundation according to the rules of the Order of St. John. Once Acre had been taken, the grant of land made to their predecessors was appropriated. On this land they built a church and a hospital, as well as dormitories for the members. They then applied for recognition as a spiritual corporation of the Brothers of the Hospital of St. Mary of the German Nation. This recognition was duly granted by Pope Celestine III in 1196, and confirmed by Pope Innocent in 1199. The latter, however, insisted, that the corporation become a knightly order which would take it knightly rules from the Templars, while its hospital rules were to come from the Order of St. John.
This new order of German knights never distinguished itself in the Holy Land; it fought no famous battles there, nor did it enjoy that abundant wealth which had been the cause of the corruption and decay of the older orders. It was, and remained, a purely Germanic movement, one of the most significant features of which, particularity in the context of its long-term development in the colonization of the German east, was its close association with the German burghers. As a founder of cities and town, and as a protector of and participator in the trading ventures of northeastern Europe, it established its reputation. But once the interests of the cities and traders on one hand, and of the Teutonic Knights on the other began to diverge, the order decline. Throughout its duration the Teutonic Order consisted of three main branches. Firstly there was the German branch, concentrated primarily in southern and southwestern Germany, including Alsace, with possessions also in Burgundy. Secondly, there was the branch in Livonia and thirdly, the Prussian branch with its centre at the Marienburg. After the residence of the Grand Master was transferred to this castle, it became the centre of the order as a whole.
The Servants of St. Mary of the German House, as the Teutonic Knights were called in their oldest set of rules, were to be dedicated men of our Lord Jesus Christ. They were exempted from secular justice, and were to preserve a state of chastity, renounce freedom of personal will and the possession of personal property. Only the order was to possess land and buildings, men and women, and to receive financial income. In acknowledgement of the fact that a hospital rather than knighthood represented the origin of the order, it was dedicated to maintaining hospitals in perpetuity. The sick and ailing accepted into the hospital had first to confess; then, throughout their stay, there were to be fed before the brothers of the order ate and the order was to provide doctors for them. The sick were to be served humbly and faithfully. To cover the not inconsiderable expenses of the hospital the Grand Master was allowed to send brothers far and wide to beg for alms.
The inner core of the order consisted of clergy and laymen. Both were dutifully to attend mass and other church services, and take Holy Communion seven times a year. The rules laid down that when a brother died, his best clothes, as well as his food and drink for 40 days, should be distributed to the poor. Of the lay brothers only the knights were to wear white mantles; apart from this there was to be no difference between them and the other lay brothers. The white mantle was to bear a black cross. Every man was to wear his hair closely cropped; the clergy a tonsure, and the lay brothers beards of moderate length. In contrast to knightly fashion the full beard became the characteristic feature of the brothers, earning them the nickname ‘the bearded ones’.
At mealtimes the priests were to bless the food; this was to be followed by the Lord’s Prayer and a Hail Mary, spoken by the lay members. On three days of the week meat was to form part of the meal; on three other days there was dairy produce and eggs. Friday was the fast day. However, for the weak and sick the meal could be improved according to need. At the meal two brothers were to share a bowl; only drink could be taken from individual cups.
Generally each house of the order consisted of a convent of 12 brothers – the number of Christ’s disciples. There were headed by a Komtur, a bailiff, who was to read the lesson. The brothers had to remain silent at table unless the Komtur granted and exception, usually when there were guests from outside. Bread left on the table uneaten was to given to the poor, in addition to one-tenth of all the bread baked in the house. All the brothers were to sleep in one room, clothed in a shirt, trousers, and stockings. A light was to burn in the room throughout the night.
A brother was to have neither his own seal nor a coat of arms. Nor was he to write, send or read letters without the permission of the Superior, who could demand that the content of a letter be read aloud. The brothers could exchange or give away wooden arms which they had made themselves, such as crossbows, spears and arrows. No chest or cupboards was to have a lock. Whatever was necessary for a brother in fulfilling his role as a warrior – such as horses, weapons and servants – he could have in his possession, but not actually own. His shield, saddle and bridle were to bear neither secular colors nor gold or silver. Horses and weapons presented to one brother had to be handed over to another upon instruction from the Superior, an instruction against which no objection could be raised. A brother was forbidden to participate in, or take nay interest in, the hunt. Where hunters could be useful the order could keep them, and the brothers accompany them for their protection, but all they were allowed to kill were wild animals, without the aid of dogs. Birds could be shot only as archery practice.
In their relations with one another, the rules decreed that if one brother had given offence to another he was to ask for forgiveness before the sun set. When decisions had to be taken, such appointments within the order or the sale or purchase of land, the brothers were to assemble and offer their advice, but it was up the Superior to decide which recommendation was best and should be followed. In journeys across the land they were to set a good example at all times. Wedding celebrations were to be avoided, likewise the company of secular knights and worldly games. Wherever this might give grounds for scandal, they were to avoid talking to women, especially young ones. They were not allowed to kiss women, not even their own mothers or sisters. No boy could be admitted to the order before reaching the age of 14; nor might any women be admitted to any ceremony since their presence would impair the virility of the order. The only employment suitable for women was to be the care of the sick and animals. They also had to occupy a house separate from that of the brothers.
Secular applicants could be admitted to the order, whether they were married or single, provided that they were considered worthy and would surrender their worldly possessions to the order. The Superior was to be the support of the weak and the persecutor of the disobedient. Hence he was to carry a rod and staff in his hands. It was within his power to grant dispensations from any rules of the order except those of chastity, poverty and obedience.
Whoever was accepted into the order as a brother had first to be instructed by another brother in the ceremonies that preceded his admission. On being introduced he had to kneel down in front of the entire chapter of brothers and beg to be admitted to the order for the sake of his soul. The Superior then asked whether he had any liabilities, or whether he were burdened with any guilt that might affect the order. If the applicant could reply in the negative, he would then solemnly vow to serve the sick, to protect the Holy Land any other land belonging to the order, and not to leave the order without permission. Thereupon he was accepted on probation. The order, in its turn, vowed to the applicant that it would supply him with water, bread, and old clothes. Applicants were expected to know the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer; if they did not then they were to be instructed by the priests during the first six months of their stay.
When a Grand Master died, his deputy convened all the Komturs of Germany, Prussia and Livonia, as well as Apulia. Their function was to elect 13 members who in turn would elect the new Grand Master. Among the qualifications for this office were to have been born in wedlock, never to have offended against the laws of chastity, nor committed theft.
Throughout its duration the Teutonic Order was never an aristocratic order, nor did it accept only people of knightly origin, or those who had been made knights by the Grand Master. As a rule the condition for joining was to be a freeman, yet that Grand Master whose personality determined to a large extent the early fortunes of the order, had probably risen to his high rank from that of a Ministeriale, a chancery official of unfree origin, at the court of Emperor Henry VI and his son Frederick II, the greatest of the Hohenstaufen emperors. The first Grand Masters of the order were burghers of the city of Bremen. But in 1216 Pope Honorius III insisted that the Grand Master of the order should be of knightly origin, or of honest birth to ensure that he could be made a knight. Thus the illegitimate sons of the princes, or for that matter even those of the Grand Master himself, were prevented from turning the office into a hereditary property.
Nevertheless, knightly ethics determined the institutions, attitudes and behavior of the order. Its highest representative was the Grand Master. Although obliged in all important matters to take counsel from experienced brothers and to take into consideration the decision of the chapter of the order, he was, during the order’s heyday, an extremely powerful man, and only during the final stages of its disintegration did the Grand Master’s rule degenerate into a joint government consisting of other officers of the order.
During the first decades of the order’s existence ecclesiastical brothers were few, monks from mendicant orders frequently attending to its spiritual affairs. This prevented powerful bishops from gaining influence within the order. But throughout its history there is discernible a policy of keeping the influence of the order’s clergy within narrow limits; after all, one of the explicit purposes of the order was to train skilled warriors, not comfortable and complacent monks. The clergy wore the white mantel with the black cross.
The lay members, warriors and workers came from all walks of life. They made their monastic vows, all received the same food and lodgings, all participated equally in the affairs of the chapter, and in principle possessed the same political rights, such as active and passive franchise. They also bore the cross on their mantle, though secular members, such as married men or those who had not taken the three vows, bore a cross the upper part of which was omitted and thus resembled the letter T. Among the lay members it was the knights who represented the aristocracy although, except for the white of their mantle, they were denied knightly decorations. Their role in warfare was that of a heavy cavalry, since they had more horses than the other warriors. It was the Grand Master’s right to promote brothers of the order, or those who wanted to join the knighthood, and hand them the knight’s sword. In spite of the fact that the order was a specifically Germanic institution, it did accept foreigners into its ranks, particularly Poles, as well as other Slavs.
In its early years there were few signs of the historic role which the order was destined to play. It led a relatively insignificant life on the periphery of medieval Europe’s political and military concerns. It is true that Emperor Henry VI, the son of Frederick Barbarossa, had turned his attention to the order while planning a crusade, but this development was cut short by his death. Its actual rise was closely linked to the rule and reign of his son Frederick II. Frederick was quick to recognize the potential of this relatively new and unknown order. Unlike other similar orders, this one, free form both feudal ties and the influence of temporal and spiritual lords, was still capable of being turned into an elite body for the Emperor’s purposes. Frederick envisaged it as a body unconditional loyal to the Emperor. On behalf of the order he had the Papacy grant charters for it; he recruited prominent members, and even went as far as persuading members of other orders to join it. In the Holy Land he relied upon it almost exclusively whenever he required for a certain task men in whom he could place his trust. To its knights he entrusted the administration of entire territories, such as Alsace. He accorded to the order the privilege that its Grand Master, when attending court, should be part of the royal household, and belong to the inner circle of the Emperor’s advisers. Two brethren of the order were to be in permanent attendance at the imperial court.
The centre of the order’s missionary activity was always considered to be the Holy Land, but as the practicability of that venture began to recede more and more into the realm of pious hopes an intentions, the order began to envisage firm settlement combined with missionary activity in eastern central Europe. Around 1222 the order had attempted to gain a foothold in the Transylvanian Burzenland in Hungary, which King Andrew of Hungary had, somewhat reluctantly, presented to the order, and which the Pope had declared as a fief of the Papacy. The order did manage to build five castles in the region, but the resistance of the combined forces of the Hungarians and Germans who had settled there compelled it to give up any attempts to impose its own rule. Just at the time when the order’s failure in Hungary became apparent, Conrad of Masovia, Duke of Poland, found himself similarly unable to repulse the heathen Prussians. And so he turned to the Teutonic Knights for help, and provisionally gave a verbal undertaking that, in return for their services, he would reward them with the territories of Kulm along the river Vistula.
Besides the Teutonic Knights, another order was and had been active in the conversion of the heathens of the north-east, namely the Cistercian monks. Hermann von Salza was able to make allies of these also, and the two orders together represented the main pillars of missionary activity in the north-east. It is one of those subtle ironies of history that while Hermann von Salza was one close friend of Frederick II, the young Rudolph von Hapsburg was another. Hence, unwittingly, Frederick II stood at the cradle of two German states whose rivalry and antagonisms were to determine the fate of Germany as a whole.
The heathens who occupied the coastal plains of the Baltic Sea from the Vistula to the river Memel, had already been subjected to earlier, unsuccessful attempts at conversion. Divided into various tribes, frequently engaged in feuds one with another, they are believed to have descended from the Lithuanians. But their customs were in contrast to those of most of their Slav neighbors. They were renowned for their generous hospitality, their excessive drinking, their holy shrines, their barbaric custom that a widow should not survive her husband, and the practice of burning a deceased warrior together with his slaves, dogs and falcons. In other words their customs were not very far removed form those of the ancient Germans. But unlike them they showed, in spite of their feuds, little ambition for territorial expansion, being content to live where they had settled. They were fairly populous and lived in groups in villages and castles. The rivers flowing into the Baltic gave access to the interior, and on land the territory was traversed by traders making their way to Poland and even as far as Novgorod. The territory around Kulm and Lobau had become Polish but, like the entire region between the Vistula and the Memel, was not exclusively inhabited by Prussians but by numerous other tribes as well. Even before the Teutonic Knights began their venture, German colonists brought in by the bishops of the Kulm posed a threat to them from the west and south; furthermore, Christina Germans had settled along the Baltic coast under the protection of the bishops of Livonia. These traded mainly with the interior, protected by a knightly order founded by the Bishop of Riga and modeled on the order of the Templar, and were instrumental in spreading German rule, language and culture across Courland, Latvia and Estonia.
During that epoch the Teutonic Knights set about creating a new state of their own, thus taking the last step in the process of colonization. Within a matter of a few years the lands around Kulm and Lobau had been converted by the Germanic order, and by 1230 Conrad of Masovia had handed over the land to the order. Hermann von Salza, in order to have the new possessions also sanctioned by the church, and thus avoid their becoming a pawn in the struggle between Papacy and Empire, had the territory declared the property of St. Peter, a decision of fateful long-term consequences for the order. And, inevitably, the Teutonic Knights were considered for the order. And, inevitably, the Teutonic Knights were considered by many as unwelcome rivals. The bishops in the east resented the order’s direct access to the Pope as well as to the Emperor. The nobility, especially the Polish nobility which had summoned the order in the first place, was bound to consider the creation of a German state as a potential threat. The common interest of the religious cause stopped at the point where practical political conflicts of interest began to emerge.
Yet during its early years, around 1230 the brothers of the Teutonic Order showed little inclination to carry out their missionary activity by force of arms, since their initial numbers were rather small. Moreover, until 1230 the order’s economic position was very weak, and it was only after this time that its economic growth and consolidation began. In one report, the membership of the order in the days of Hermann von Salza is listed as being approximately 600, while by the late 1270’s the membership had increased to about 2,000. Consequently, it was not the brothers of the Teutonic Order themselves who conquered and settled the new land, but crusaders recruited by the brothers throughout the German Empire on the promise that whoever participated in the crusade against the heathen Prussians would be relieved of penance for past wrong-doings. The preaching of the crusade must have fallen on ready ears, for in 1231 the Master, Hermann Balke, sent by Hermann von Salza, together with seven brothers of the order, headed a crusading army and crossed the Vistula. As soon as they gained a foothold, German boats sailed up the Vistula with supplies and building materials, and the first castles of the Teutonic Order began to raise their powerful and arrogant silhouettes against the eastern skyline: Thorun, Kulm and Marienwerder, bases from which further territorial expansion could be undertaken, and the centre upon which the attacks of the natives were concentrated.
But the Prussians and other tribes in the region were at first totally unaware of the threat confronting them; they did not even obstruct the building of the castles. Undoubtedly in the majority vis-à-vis the invading Germans, politically they were too divided among themselves to rally together and eliminate the new threat. When they did take the first steps in this direction, they had to give way to a German minority fare more effectively organized in military terms. Relentlessly the Germans drove forward into the wilderness, secured the Vistula by building the fortress at Elbing, destroyed the heathen shrines, and subdued and converted the natives at the point of the sword. In 1237 the Sword Order of the Bishop of Riga combined with the Teutonic Order. Two years later Hermann von Salza, who had never set foot upon the new colonial territory himself, could die in the knowledge that the order controlled more than 150 kilometers of the Baltic coast from which it could expand inland. Less than two decades later, in 1255, Otakor the King of Bohemia joined the crusade in Prussia, and there in the Samland, in his honor, a new fortress was built by the name of Konigsberg, displaying on its arms a knight with a crowned helmet.
It would, however, be a serious error to equate the crusades in the Holy Land with those in northeastern Europe. In the former, the territories conquered were exploited; the majority of the crusaders returned home after a year or more service in the Holy Land. It was essentially a knightly venture. In Prussia, by comparison, the ties between knights and burghers were inseparable, and the newly founded settlements were established with a view to permanency.
As early as 1237 the Papacy had found it necessary to intervene against the order on behalf of the Prussians, but until 1241 the progress of the Teutonic Order continued relatively unimpeded. Then during the next 11 years, uncoordinated uprisings against the foreign invaders took place, though the Germans maintained the upper hand. By 1260 it seemed that the order’s hold on Prussia had been secured.
Yet that picture was deceptive. Hardly any of the order, lay or clergy, troubled to acquire any knowledge of the language of the natives. The priests arrogantly destroyed ancient shrines, imposing the symbols of the new religion by force rather than persuasion. A people of peasants and shepherds was forced to bear the heavy burdens placed on them by the order, build castles and carry out other services. Mutual suspicion was rife, so much so that no Prussian might offer a German a mug of mead unless he himself had taken a sip.
Moreover, what happened in Germany almost at the beginning of the Christian era, when Arminius the Cheruskan, educated and trained in Rome by the Romans, vanquished the Roman legions in the depths of the Teutoburg Forest, was very nearly repeated in 1261, when Prussian noblemen, educated in German convent schools, were ready to beat their masters with their own weapons. The imminent danger was recognized by one German knight, who invited the Prussian nobles to his castle and then burnt it down over their heads. But the flames of the Castle of Lenzenberg became the signal for a general uprising against the Germans lasting 10 dreadful years during which German rule in Prussia was almost at the point of disappearing. Only in 1271, under the Land Marshal of the order Konrad von Thierberg, did the tide turn again in favor of the Teutonic Knights. But another decade had to pass before German rule was once again established and consolidated.
The uprising marked a turning point in the attitude of the Teutonic Knights toward the natives. Whereas so far, in spite of their arrogance and occasional excesses, they had been prepared to deal with the individual tribes, conclude treaties and end feuds by elaborate peace agreements, they now demanded complete submission, granting mercy and pardon only in accordance with the degree of guilt. A larger part of the Prussian nobility was reduced to the status of serfs, men no longer free, while potentially dangerous communities were deported from their native villages and resettled in areas where their activities were considered less harmful. Feudal obligations were imposed upon the native population in their full severity. The system of centralized administration on the Saracen pattern, first introduced into Europe by Emperor Frederick II and adapted by the Teutonic Knights, was now put into operation in its entirety in Prussia. The duties of the natives were strictly and uniformly regulated throughout the colonial territory, and the Teutonic Order established itself as the sole proprietor of all the land. Only rights of possession were granted, ensuring that awareness of the supremacy of the order was forever present. Yet at the same time, in order to attract the immigration of more Germans from the Reich, the order pursued a positive policy in encouraging the growth of the towns. The charters of such cities as Lubeck and Magdeberg were repeated in the new German east. The very character of the order, with its integration of clergy and laymen, ensured that the rivalry between state and church, a rivalry which had been a prominent feature in the history of the relationship between Empire and Papacy, barely existed. In Prussia, the church represented an essential element in the system of the state; it was virtually an established church. This integration, combined with an increasing immigration of German farmers, traders, and burgers, led, towards the end of the 13th century, to the rapid Germinazation of Prussia. There were indeed few signs of the Prussians integrating with the Germans; rather one may speak of the absorption, by force or by other means. By the beginning of the 14th century the German language clearly dominated; Germans were forbidden to converse with their Prussian serfs in Prussian. Even for the converted Prussians no allowance was made for preaching in Prussian. The sermon was read in German and then translated by an interpreter for those who could not understand.
This policy of Germainization in its most rigorous form was implemented in Prussia alone, particularly in those regions which had previously revolted. In the Baltic regions of Courland, Livonia and Estonia, by comparison, a German upper class dominated over the native masses although the process of integration here was far less intense. Germans ruled over the land, but except in the towns and cities, which were largely their creation, they were unable to Germanize it.
The marriage of Prince Jagiello of Lithuania to the heiress of the crown of Poland in 1386, and his subsequent policy of forceful conversion to Christianity of all Lithuanians, deprived the Teutonic Order of its missionary raison d’eire. There were no longer any crusades to the east, but only secular wars. What had been feared for almost a century had come true at last: the union of Poland and Lithuania. As a result, Catholic powers now confronted the order exploiting the accumulated grievances of the population under its rule, and hardly disguising their ultimate aim of subjecting it to themselves. But to tackle the impending danger, to take, so to speak the bull by the horns, the Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen, in 1410, staked all on one card. He raised an army the size of which the order had never seen before. It numbered almost 50,000 men, one-third of whom were knights on horseback, and was supported by artillery, the weapon which in the final analysis rendered obsolete the basic function of knighthood. He confronted the Poles and Lithuanians on 15 July 1410, at the battle of Tannenberg, and sustained a resounding defeat at the hands of an enemy numerically twice his size. But the battle was lost more by the Order’s adherence to traditional tactics of heavy amour and slow horses than inferiority of numbers.
The possibility that King Sigmund of Hungary would invade Poland was sufficient threat to persuade King Vladislav of Poland to conclude the Peace of Thorun with the Teutonic Order in 1411. It now seemed that under Heinrich von Plauen the order was gain lord over most of the domains which it had held before 1410. But relations between the Poles remained hostile, nor was Heinrich von Plauen the type of man to go out of his way to change that. However, he founded the Landesrat, an assembly of estates in 1412. The need for such an assembly arose primarily from a stipulation of the Peace of Thorun which required the Teutonic Order to make a considerable money payment to the Poles. The order could not raise it from its own treasure, hence it had to be raised by taxation. The assembly was composed of representatives of the cities and the landed nobility which met for the purpose of granting taxes and giving advice in various matters affecting the territory of the order as a whole.
To counteract the order’s increasing political impotence, members of the cities and the landed nobility founded in 1440 at Marienwerder the Prussian League. This, in effect was to constitute an alternative government to that of the Teutonic Order. In less than 15 years the league rejected outright the government of the order, and attacked and set on fire its castles, among them the very first castle of the order, that of Kulm. They then offered their submission to the crown of Poland, for there was no-one in Germany who could have offered them protection. Here and there the Teutonic Knights endeavored to make a last stand, but on Whitsunday 1457, the Grand Master was expelled from the Marienburg by Bohemian mercenaries. He just managed to escape to Konigsberg where the magistrate of the city, suddenly overwhelmed by compassion, presented him with a barrel of beer.
Some powers of resistance still remained in the Teutonic Order. As a countermove against the tendency of uniting the Grand Mastership with the Polish crown the order elected, in 1498, Duke Frederick of Saxony to the office. He was followed in 1511 by the first Grand Master to come from Brandenburg, Margrave Albrecht of Brandenburg-Ansbach. Under Albrecht, and as a result of the Reformation, the order became a secularized institution, and Prussia a secularized state. The black cross disappeared from the mantle and shield. What remained until 1945, was the University of Kongisberg, the Albertina, which Albrecht founded. The State of the Order of the Teutonic Knights was irretrievably at an end.
Still the picture of the order and its policy is colored not only by the impact of two world wars in our own century, but also by the Germanizing policy of the German Empire after 1871. According to that picture the Teutonic Knights were little less than the scourge of the peace-loving Slavs, precursors of that policy of extermination and annihilation practiced in our own age under the aegis of the runes and swastika. Yet most recent research produces a considerably more varied picture. Firstly, the Teutonic Order did not apply identical policies to all natives. There were considerable differences in its attitude towards, and treatment of, Prussians, Poles, Pomeranians, Courlanders and Lithuanians. Secondly, its attitude was also determined by that of the natives towards the order. Thirdly, its attitudes towards these groups were subject to several changes in the course of time. The Prussians were the most populous group the order had to deal with, and obviously the areas of conflict were many. Yet the aim of the order was not extermination but subjugation, the fixing of respective rights and duties by treaties. The first uprising against the order in 1242 was brought to an end seven years later by papal meditation and a treaty which listed mutual rights and duties down to the minutest detail, though it was only applicable to the free natives which represented a quarter to a third of the total population. Moreover, the order tried to gain support from the various factions among the Prussians by playing off one against the other, and it was successful in attracting large parts of the native aristocracy, whose scions were at that time educated in Germany – not always, as it has been seen, with the desired results. But native Prussian nobles could become German knights as early as the 13th century.
However, the question remains to what extent German settlement affected existing Prussian settlement. The inevitable answer is that, it was bound to affect the natives adversely. Castles and new towns could not be built without someone being deprived of his property, without some communities being displaced. But, nevertheless, figures show that the birthrate of the native population was rising, and that outside the main centers of the order property relations remained relatively untouched. It was among the peasantry settled on territory in close proximity to the order where interference was noticeable the peasants effectively being reduced to the status of the unfree. Individual village communities were combined to form larger, economically more efficient agricultural units. But this does not mean that the natives lost any substantial amount of land in terms of the size of their holdings. Their landholdings were smaller than those of German immigrants, but not insignificant. Since the German immigrants brought the laws and jurisdiction from the regions in Germany from which they originated, these laws and customs were bound to clash with those of the native Prussians. From the point of view of the Teutonic Order this proved an advantage, since it ensured its role as arbitrator as was the supreme authority of justice over the native Prussians.
All in all the image of the policy of the Teutonic Order as being one of extermination is a cliché no longer tenable, and requires considerable qualification and, for that reason, revision.
What, then, was the relationship between the Teutonic Order and the future Prussian state? Certainly, the Teutonic Order had no influence in the formation of the state of Brandenburg-Prussia. Yet like all frontier existence, that in Prussia imposed sobriety, duty, precision and clarity of purpose, for only these qualities could ensure survival. Indeed, to the lack of some of them may be attributed the downfall of the order. It was, and remained, a hard environment. Little wonder, therefore, that this territory failed to produce even the palest imitation of the Renaissance; little wonder, also, that it produced Immanuel Kant.
But the most important and enduring legacy of the state of the Teutonic Knights, apart form the name Prussia itself, was its economic system based on large-scale agricultural production. No region within Germany could equal it, and in the centuries to come it gave Prussia a strong economic base which allowed its nobility to exert profound political influence, first upon the kingdom itself and then upon Germany as a whole.