Is the Legacy of the Teutonic Order a Hatred between Germans and Poles?
Germany and Poland are often depicted as natural enemies, entirely averse to one another’s successes and gleeful in each other’s failures. What is the historical basis for this mutual antagonism?
Key Historical Background: The Peace of Bautzen
In a previous article, we explored the origins of the Teutonic Order and its mission to Christianize the pagans of Eastern Europe. However, the Order was not the first Christian force to embark on such a quest, as the Christian Duchy of Poland (a kingdom after 1025 AD) had taken upon the mantle of that task.
More importantly, with regard to the Christianization efforts, the Polish Duke Bolesław the Brave of the Piast Dynasty founded the Archdiocese of Gniezno in 1000 AD—a milestone that predates the Teutonic Order by nearly two centuries. Given his status as a duke at the time, the foundation of the archdiocese was only possible through the authorization of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III. The two rulers were well acquainted and often worked hand-in-hand in supporting missionaries in the East and expanding the reach of the new archdiocese that offered relief to the overstrained Archdiocese of Magdeburg.
The death of Otto III in 1002 AD, paired with the lack of an immediate royal successor, left the eastern marches of the empire in a state of uncertainty that Bolesław sought to capitalize on. At first he sided with the Margrave of Meissen, Ekkehard I, his good friend who had once been a key advisor of the late emperor and his late Byzantine mother, Theophanu. However, Ekkehard was murdered only a few months after Otto III’s death by Saxon agents belonging to opposing families.
The power vacuum left by Ekkehard’s death and the lack of a Roman-German King—much less an emperor—gave Bolesław a key decision to make: either stay still and await a successor hoping that the new king will be friendly, or seize the moment and force the new king to be friendly. Bolesław opted for the latter and took the lands of his late friend, Ekkehard. Now in control of the Margraviate of Meissen, Bolesław moved north and conquered Lusatia. His advance was relatively unrestricted and he even managed to loop around to the south and take the Duchy of Bohemia, which at that time had been simply a vassal state of the Holy Roman Empire (HRE).
Amidst Bolesław’s steady progress in the East, a new ruler emerged to counter his progress: Duke Henry IV of Bavaria. Himself a direct descendent of the first Liudolfing (i.e. Ottonian) king, Henry the Fowler, Henry IV was the most immediate successor to the childless Otto III and was swiftly elected as Roman-German King in June of 1002 AD. His position was particularly suited for the throne as his wife, Conigunde, hailed from the illustrious House of Luxembourg—thus combing the the most powerful Bavaria, Frankish, and Saxon houses. As king, his named changed to Henry II, in honor of his great-grandfather, and soon took up arms against Bolesław.
Henry II staged a formidable counterstrike to Bolesław, forcing him out of Bohemia and Meissen, eventually resulting in the Peace of Merseburg in 1013 AD, in which Bolesław received Lusatia with the condition of swearing fealty to the king, as well as the promise to support Henry II in his upcoming Italian campaign to gain the imperial crown. Sadly, Bolesław reneged on all promises, supported Henry II’s opposition, and resumed hostilities.
Despite resistance in both Germany and Italy caused by Bolesław’s resistance, Henry II succeeded in his mission and was crowned Emperor of the Romans the following year in 1014. Upon returning to the Roman-German Kingdom as emperor with a renewed army, Henry II fought Bolesław to a standstill. The stalemate brought about the Peace of Bautzen in 1018 AD, in which both agreed to return to the conditions of the Treaty of Merseburg five years prior. In addition, Bolesław married Oda, the daughter of his late friend, Ekkehard I, and also received Henry II’s promise of martial support in maintaining the city of Kiev that was under threat.
When the time came for Bolesław to call upon the imperial forces, Henry was true to his word and sent not only an elite force of German knights, but Hungarians as well, thus securing Bolesław’s victory in defending Kiev. Henry and Conegunde’s religious devotion provided them with the reputation as having been the most virtuous imperial couple to have ever occupied the imperial throne and both have been canonized as saints.
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After Henry’s death, Bolesław became the first Polish King, though the method of securing the crown is contested by Polish and German sources. The Poles say he had been promised the Polish throne by Emperor Otto III when he authorized the establishment of the Archdiocese of Gniezno. The Germans say that he seized the opportunity left by the power vacuum upon the death of Saint Henry II and named himself Polish King.
Either case speaks to his desire of independency of the HRE, especially considering that he began minting coins with his image during the campaign against the empire. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding his royal coronation, Bolesław died only months later in 1025 AD. According to Wipo of Burgundy, the royal chronicler of Emperor Conrad II, who lived through the events of the various treaties between Bolesław and the empire:
Bolesław , duke of the Poles, took for himself in injury to King Conrad the regal insignia and the royal name. Death swiftly killed his temerity.
The Point of Departure
This set the stage for a lasting and tense relationship between the HRE and the Polish Kingdom featuring a multiplicity of slights and grievances—both actual and percieved— committed by both sides. The introduction of the Teutonic Knights into the East inflamed those relations and can be viewed as a check on Polish power in the east by the HRE.
The event that perhaps best illustrates the generally accepted German-Polish mutual antipathy was the fierce Battle of Grunwald—also referred to as the First Battle of Tannenberg— that took place in 1410 AD. It was here that the Poles defeated the Teutonic Order on the battlefield, stunting the Order’s progress and establishing the Polish Kingdom as the Christian hegemon of the region. Although the Order would later lick its wounds and regroup, the stories of utter defeat at the hands of the Poles plagued the German conscience of the late 19th century, feeding the desire for a rematch.
The Second Peace of Thorn in 1466 forced the Order to become a protectorate of the Polish Kingdom and even made the Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order an advisor to the Polish King. The cessation in hostilities continued until the early 1520s when another war erupted between the Order and the Poles, but this time new aspect played a critical role—the Protestant Reformation. In 1525, Teutonic Grandmaster Albrecht von Brandenburg-Ansbach converted to Lutheranism and secularized the eastern-most holdings of the Teutonic State, thus forming the Duchy of Prussia and becoming Duke Albrecht I of Prussia.
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The formation of Prussia was at first welcomed by the Poles, considering the subservience of the Duchy. However, relations quickly turned sour, largely in part to the difference in Christian confession. The protestant Prussians regularly clashed with the Catholic Poles, though so did the Catholic Austrians, and Orthodox Russians.
The Teutonic Order gradually lost their territories in the east and retreated to the Catholic strongholds of the HRE, leaving their parishes in the hands of Catholic Lithuanians, Livonians, and Poles. Over the course of the 16th and 17th centuries, the Order remained mostly Catholic though some converted to Lutheranism.
Throughout 17th century, the knights adjusted their martial tactics from personal armies to entering into the service of the imperial forces as Professritter—military advisors and commanders. The Ottoman invasion and seige of Vienna in 1683 AD drew their attention as they rallied forces to relieve the city alongside the famous charge of the Polish Winged Hussars led by King Jan III Sobieski.
Despite the heroic actions of the Poles at Vienna, the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that had existed as a combination of the Kingdom of Poland and Duchy of Lithuania throughout the 17th century, was given to the Elector of Saxony, August II (August the Strong) in 1697 AD. His accession was guided by the Russians and Austrians who needed a Central European bulwark to counter the Swedish-Ottoman alliance of the ensuing Great Northern War (1700 - 1721 AD).
The Duchy of Prussia had meanwhile been unified with the Electorate of Brandenburg and was elevated as the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 AD, forming a dominant Baltic power. Thus, Poland had not only been stripped of a Polish leader for decades to come, but also lost their main vassal state. Despite their Lutheran confession, the Prussians continued the use of the Teutonic banner—the black cross—albeit without actual Teutonic Knights.
Pouring Salt in the Wounds
The overwhelming victory of the German Imperial army over the Russian Imperial army at the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914, during the First World War, was perceived by many Germans as righting the wrong wrought centuries prior at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410. This was despite the fact that the Teutonic Knights were not even involved in the 20th century battle, though their Grandmaster did fight for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The nearly religious fervor of nationalism throughout Europe at the turn of the 20th century mythicized the relationship of the Teutonic Order and the Poles—creating an image of mutual hate that has lasted to this day. However, those who carry this artifact of the past ought to reexamine the actual relationship of the two entities as uniquely intertwined.
It must be taken into consideration that the constant fluctuation of borders and Polish partitions brought Germans and Poles in much closer contact featuring countless intermarriages and numerous shared cities. The Prussian cities that are now part of Poland—a retraction to the lands retained by Duke Bolesław following the Peaceof Bautzen in 1018 AD—all carry German names as well as Polish ones.
Thus, both sides of the WWI battlefield of Tannenberg featured descendants of the Teutonic Knights and Poles who fought at Grunwald five centuries prior. Nevertheless, many Poles refuse to acknowledge that shared history, and many Germans are furious about the territorial retractions that followed the world wars.
Hiding Behind Myths
The near death knell of the Teutonic Order was the Napoleonic invasion at the turn of the 19th century in which the Order’s commandries were captured by French forces and secularized. The knights themselves were imprisoned or exiled, and the buildings were auctioned. This forced a diaspora of landless knights who carried with them the reputation of fearsome warriors without a war to fight.
Towards the end of the 19th century that time, the Order was largely restricted to a handful of locations in Austria and Germany, where they built large castles in the style of Historicism. Their presence was readily acknowledged in the newly founded German Empire after 1871 AD and was not much appreciated by none other than the Prussians—there very state that had stolen their symbol!
The greatest opponent at the time was the formidable and militantly protestant Otto von Bismarck, a dyed in the wool Prussian and Chancellor of the German Empire from 1871 – 1890 AD. His intense mistrust and, at times, hatred of the Catholic Church led him to curb their activities and influence in the empire, which translated to a restricted of the Order’s activities as well.
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The interwar period between WWI and WWII saw the Teutonic Knights emerge a symbol of German nationalism and Slavic resistance, even though the Teutonic Knights themselves laid down their arms and became a strictly religious Order in 1929, refusing to support either the German Nation Front or the National Socialists who regularly attempted to channel the Order’s history is the east as a sort of perverted shared history.
The Teutonic Knights refused to partake in the charade and for that reason, the National Socialist (Nazi) regime demanded their dissolution in 1938, forcing them underground.
True to form, the Teutonic Order again regrouped following WWII and has continued to this day as a Catholic religious order that regularly inducts new members from both the priesthood and laity. They have largely remained out of the spotlight, as their flag and symbols were used by Prussia, the German Empire, and the Third Reich, thereby causing uninformed Germans—or anyone else for that matter—to assume the worst. In fact, waving imperial flags in Germany is viewed as a substitute for waving a Swastika.
What Remains to Said?
The legacy of the Teutonic Knights is like most legacies—complicated. Their role in souring relations between Germans and Poles is undeniable, but so too was the recurring exploitation of vacant imperial territories by Polish dukes and kings. At the end of the day, it is a battle of symbols and legends that has little to no importance in the modern-day except to rekindle faded glows of hatred by individuals who have no connection to the Order on either side of the confrontation.
To say that the hatred between Germans and Poles is fictional would be a tremendous lie, considering the devastation wrought by Germany upon their neighbor during WWII. However, to claim that the Teutonic Knights were the original catalyst of that hatred would also be a lie.
Thus, the unfortunate legacy of the Teutonic Order is not their incredible feat of assisting in Christianizing the Eastern European pagans alongside the Bohemians, Hungarians, and Poles. Instead it is their iconic black cross—a symbol whose simple appearance ignites perceived historical ethnic conflicts, Prussian militarism, and National Socialism all at once. The regular shifting of its meaning is a testament to the fickle nature of symbols—that if a thing remains only a symbol, it means nothing in the end.
Some sources to check out for more reading:
Egremont, Max. Forgotten Land - Journeys among the Ghosts of East Prussia. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.
Fendler, Rudolf. Geschichte der Deutschordenskommende Einsiedel bei Lautern. Quellen und Abhandlungen zur Mittelrheinischen Kirchengeschichte 55. Mainz: Selbstverlag der Gesellschaft für Mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte, 1986.
Militzer, Klaus. Die Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens. 2nd ed. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer GmbH, 2012.
Riley-Smith, Jonathon. The Crusades: A History. 2nd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.
Roy, James Charles. The Vanished Kingdom- Travels through the History of Prussia. Oxford: Westview Press, 1999.
Stachan, Hew. Der Erste Weltkrieg: Eine nue illustriete Geschichte. Translated by Helmut Ettinger. München: C. Bertelsmann Verlag, 2004.
Numerous inaccuracies. Most important one:
The Teutonic Knights literally argued for their “God-given” right to exterminate pagans and anyone who defends pagans (including Poles and Lithuanians) at the Council of Constance. Soooo … Catholic, ain’t it?
Only German source, eh? Very sound research, isn't it?