History of the Germans Podcast

Season 7 The Teutonic Knights: Ep. 128 – A Chivalric Order

Ep. 129 – Hermann von Salza – Diplomat and Grand Master of the Teutonic Order

Ep. 130 – The Conquest of Prussia (Part I) – from Konrad of Masovia’s offer to the first Prussian revolts

Ep. 131 – The Conquest of Prussia (Part II) – The second, third and n-th Prussian uprising

Ep. 132 – The Battle on the Ice – Alexander Nevsky, Sergei Eisenstein and what really happened

Ep. 133 – The Order of the Order – The organisational structure of the Teutonic Knights

Ep. 134 – Tannenberg / Grunwald / Žalgiris – A battle of many names

Ep. 135 – After Tannenberg – The rule of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia weakened

Ep. 136 – 13 Years of War – The Prussian League shifts allegiance

Ep. 137 – The Conversion – Albrecht, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order becomes a protestant duke

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Overview

Hello and welcome to a new season of the History of the Germans, the Teutonic Knights or to give them their full title, the knights of the hospital of St. Mary of the House of the Germans in Jerusalem. Even though the state they had created in Prussia has been wiped off the map with all its cultural markers, the Teutonic Knights are not forgotten. Less shrouded in nonsense than the Templars, less devoted to social causes than the Knights of St. John they still loom large not just in German history but even more so in Polish and Russian history. Both of these nations have placed victories over the Teutonic Knights at key junctions of their national narrative.

Transcript links and Episode Websites

Episode 128 – A Chivalric Order

In the year of His incarnation 1190 at a time when the city of Acre was besieged by Christians and was recovered from the hands of the infidels by favor of divine grace, there were in the army of the Christians certain devoted men from the cities of Bremen and Lübeck, who, as men of mercy who looked with eyes of compassion upon the diverse and intolerable shortages and discomforts of the sick staying in the said army, founded a hospital in a tent of theirs made from the sail of a certain ship, which in German is called a “cog“

This is how peter von Duisburg describes the beginnings of the Teutonic Knights. How they get from such humble beginnings to one of the three most important chivalric orders is the subject of this podcast series.

Episode 129 – Hermann von Salza

“.. the far-sighted planning of Grand Master Brother Hermann von Salza had so strengthened the Teutonic Order that it had many members and such power, riches and honour that word of its fame and good reputation had spread the length and breadth of the empire.”

So describes the chronicler Nicolaus von Jeroschin the role of the fourth and arguably most influential of the grand Masters of the Teutonic Knights. His role in promoting and expanding the order is hard to exaggerate. Without his skill and energy, the Teutonic Knights would have ended up like the Order of the Knights of St. Thomas. Have you have never heard of the Knights of St. Thomas, a English chivalric military order founded as a field hospital during the siege of the city of Acre in 1191? Well, that is the difference one man can make, at least very occasionally.

Episode 130 – The Conquest of Prussia (Part I)

Last week we heard about Konrad of Masovia’s offer of the Kulmer Land to the Teutonic knight. This week we will talk about what they did once they had accepted the offer. The first knights arrived in 1226 but it would take almost 6o years before their new principality of Prussia was fully established.

The Prussians, despite initially being lightly armed and disunited were no pushover. Rarely successful in open battle they disappeared into the dense forest or swampy marches before they could be routed. Again and again they rose up, reclaiming their freedom and again and again did the Teutonic Knights and the German and Polish crusaders pushed them back into submission.

Do not worry, this will not be an endless litany of battles and raids, but we will look at the relative military strength, the political structure they established and as you would expect, the economic underpinnings of the effort. Lets dive in..

Episode 131 – The Conquest of Prussia (Part II)

his week we look at what happened after the peace of Christburg in 1249 had attempted to rein in the Teutonic Knights and force them to grant the indigenous Prussians equal rights to the settlers arriving from the German Lands.

None of these constraints stopped the order from expanding further North from its forward position at Balga during the 1250s. King Ottokar II of Bohemia came on crusade and helped them to establish Konigsberg (modern day Kaliningrad) whilst the Natangians were brutally suppressed.

This expansion came to a sudden halt when the Lithuanians under their king Mindaugas decided to hit back against the constant intrusions. In 1260 150 knights and all their men were routed by a Lithuanian army at Durbe which triggered the Second Prussian Uprising, a brutal war that lasted 13 years.

Episode 132 – The Battle on the Ice

The situation in Livonia was profoundly different to Prussia and posed a number of new challenges for the brothers. In Livonia there were the powerful bishops of Riga to contend with who had led the crusade there since its inception in the 1180s. The Hanse merchants who have settled in Riga, Reval and Dorpat are no pushovers. Like in Prussia, the Lithuanians are a formidable force able to inflict painful defeats on the brothers as are some of the Baltic peoples who didn’t enjoy conversion at swordpoint as much as the planners back in Bremen, Marburg and Acre had hoped. And let’s not forget some new neighbors, the Danes in Northern Estonia and the great republic of Novgorod.

In 1240 a great effort gets under way to forcibly convert the orthodox Rus’ian states, including Novgorod that are already under pressure from the Mongols. In their distress the boyars of Novgorod make the second son of the grand duke of Vladimir becomes their military leader, a man we know as Alexander Nevsky. On April 5, 1242 Alexander Nevsky and his men stand on the shore of Lake Peipus staring at a squadron of heavily armoured cavalry thundering across the ice towards them… Whilst the riders almost certainly weren’t accompanied by Prokofiev’s amazing soundtrack, they may have brought an organ, but that, like everything else about the Battle on the Ice is subject to intense debate, a debate we will examine in this episode.

Episode 133 – The Order of the Order

In the century that followed the last of the Prussian and Livonian uprisings the states of the Teutonic Order in the Baltic experienced a period of economic growth and internal and external stability that is almost unique in the chaotic 14^th century. Whilst Europe was in the grip of the Hundred-Years War, an incessant merry go round of internecine feuds, the Black Death, Papal Schisms and a deteriorating climate, this theocracy on the Northern Baltic shore became a beacon of prosperity and peace.

F or the episode website and transcript, click here

EPISODE 134 – Tannenberg

This week we look at the reasons the golden age of the Teutonic knights came to an abrupt end at the beginning of the 15^th century. It is a sequence of events that involve some remarkable Polish and Lithuanian princes, the Templars, and of course – The brothers of the house of St. Mary of the Germans in Jerusalem. Ah, and a very famous battle.

Episode 135 – After Tannenberg

The Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen and all his major officers were dead as well as hundreds of Knights brothers and thousands of secular knights, crusaders, squires and mercenaries. What was also lying there prostrate on the battlefield was the notion of the invincibility off the Teutonic Order. As the Polish and Lithuanian troops pursued what remained of the order’s forces, the Prussian cities and castles opened their gates to the winners.

A complete victory? Well as it happened it would take another nearly 60 years before Poland would regain control of Pomerelia and its capital Gdansk. And even that wasn’t the end of the Teutonic Knights. Despite the devastating defeat, the loss of its purpose, and the fundamentally changed political structure inside their state, the Teutonic order soldiered on, how they managed is what we will explore in this episode.

F or the episode website and transcript, click here

Episode 136 – 13 Years of War

The theocratic state of the Teutonic Knights had survived the devastating defeat at Tannenberg with most of its territory intact. But underneath the foundations of the edifice are crumbling. The economy is in tatters, the theological justification for their existence has disappeared and their power as a military force has failed to keep up with the changing times. The order needs a new business model for absence of a suitable term. How well or badly it did in this attempt is what we will be looking at in this episode.

Episode 137 – The Conversion

This week we will talk about the end of the rule of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia. Instead of a land ruled by a chivalric order answering to the pope, Prussia became a secular state, ruled by a protestant prince and run by a newly created class of land-owners, the famous Prussian Junkers whose impact on German history stretched well into the 20^th century.

But the conversion of the last Grand Master and his submission to the Polish crown wasn’t the end of the order. In fact the order still exists to this day, though on a fundamentally different form, which is another fascinating history we will explore in this episode.