Teutonic Knights

Teutonic Knights, full name Teutonic Knights of St Mary's Hospital at Jerusalem, religious military order founded by German Crusaders in 1190-1191 in Acre, Palestine, and recognized by the pope in 1199. The order was restricted to German nobles but otherwise patterned after the Knights Templar and the Knights of St John of Jerusalem. Between 1229 and 1279 the order conquered the heathen Slavs of Prussia, where the knights then built many towns and fortresses (see Baltic Crusades). By 1329 the Teutonic Knights held, as a papal fief, the entire Baltic region from the Gulf of Finland through Pomerania (Pomorze) in Poland. In the southern part of this fief the order was abolished and its lands secularized as the duchy of Prussia in 1525. The northern part (Estonia and Latvia) was divided among Poland, Russia, and Sweden after 1558.

The order continued to exist in southern Germany until dissolved by Napoleon in 1809. Revived in Austria in 1834, the Teutonic order maintained its identity throughout the 19th century but was restricted to charitable work. It was first headed by a priest in 1918, and in 1929 religious discipline was completely restored. With the exception of the period of World War II, the Teutonic order has existed as a charitable and nursing order since 1929. Its headquarters is in Vienna, and it maintains houses in various parts of Austria, Italy, and Germany.