The Romantic and Nationalist Legacy
The Teutonic Order became, in the nineteenth century, an object of intense literary and political attention in both the German and the Polish national traditions, and the Order’s reputation in modern times has been shaped, more than by anything else, by the contending romantic and nationalist narratives of the two traditions. The German Romantics of the early nineteenth century treated the Order as a noble Christian frontier, a forerunner of the German national mission in the east, and a symbol of the German imperial tradition. The Polish Romantic writers of the same period treated the Order as a colonial aggressor, a brutal suppressor of the Polish and Lithuanian national traditions, and a symbol of the German oppression of the Slavic peoples. The two narratives have, dominated the reception of the Order’s history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the Order has been claimed by both traditions, condemned by both traditions, and rewritten by both traditions.
The German Romantic Reception
The German Romantic reception of the Teutonic Order was, at root, a product of the German national awakening of the early nineteenth century. The Romantics of the Jena circle, the Heidelberg circle, and the Swabian school were interested, in this period, in the construction of a usable German past, and the medieval empire of the Hohenstaufen and the medieval German settlement of the Baltic were an attractive source of national symbolism. The Order, as a German-speaking institution in a non-German region, and as a crusading order under the protection of the imperial house, was, the Romantics, a natural symbol of the German imperial tradition.
The German Romantic treatment of the Order was, in its earliest phase, a treatment of the Order as a noble Christian frontier. The Order was, in the Romantic view, an institution that had brought the benefits of Latin Christian civilisation to a pagan region, that had defended the Latin rite against the Orthodox, and that had been, in consequence, a principal agent of European civilisation in the north-east. The Order’s military vocation was, in this view, a legitimate defence of Christendom against the infidel, and the Order’s territorial state was, in this view, a model of the German Christian monarchy.
The German Romantic treatment of the Order was, in the course of the nineteenth century, increasingly politicised. The Order was, in the propaganda of the revolutions of 1848, a symbol of the German national unity that the revolution was intended to achieve, and the Order’s medieval empire was, in this propaganda, the model of the future German national state. The Order was, in the propaganda of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, a symbol of the German military tradition that the new German Empire was intended to continue, and the Order’s medieval castles were, in this propaganda, the model of the new German imperial architecture. The Order was, in the propaganda of the Wilhelmine period, a symbol of the German imperial mission in the east, and the Order’s Prussian crusade was, in this propaganda, the model of the German colonial expansion in modern times.
The German Romantic treatment of the Order was, in the Nazi period, brought to a kind of culmination. The Nazi appropriation of the Order’s heritage was an extreme form of the German national-mission rhetoric of the previous century, and the Order was, in the Nazi propaganda, a symbol of the German racial and imperial mission in the east. The Order’s crusading vocation was, in the Nazi view, a model of the German defence of Europe against the Slavic and the Asiatic, and the Order’s medieval empire was, in the Nazi view, the model of the future German empire in the conquered east.
The Polish Romantic Tradition
The Polish Romantic tradition treated the Order, from the first, as a colonial aggressor and a symbol of the German oppression of the Slavic peoples. The Order’s Prussian crusade was, in the Polish view, an unprovoked aggression against a Christian population, and the Order’s territorial state was, in the Polish view, a colonial regime imposed on the Polish and the Prussian populations by force. The Order’s defeat at Grunwald in 1410 was, in the Polish national mythology, the principal event of the medieval period, and the defeat was, in the Polish national calendar, the object of a major annual commemoration.
The Polish Romantic treatment of the Order was, in its earliest phase, a treatment of the Order as a brutal suppressor of the Polish national tradition. The Order’s destruction of the Polish-speaking towns of the Prussian territories, the Order’s suppression of the Prussian Confederation of 1440, and the Order’s continuing military operations against the Christian rulers of Poland-Lithuania were, in the Polish view, the principal evidence of the Order’s character. The Order was, in the Polish Romantic view, an institution that had attempted, in the Middle Ages, the Germanisation of the Slavic populations, and the Order’s defeat at Grunwald was, in this view, the principal event of the Polish national resistance.
The Polish Romantic treatment of the Order was, in the course of the nineteenth century, increasingly literary. The Order was, in the Polish historical novel of the period — in the works of Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, in the works of Henryk Rzewuski, and in the works of the great Polish Romantic poets — a principal object of literary treatment, and the Order was, in this literature, a symbol of the German oppression that the Polish national tradition was, in modern times, intended to overcome. The Order’s defeat at Grunwald was, in this literature, the central event of the Polish national past, and the Order’s defeat was, in this literature, the model of the Polish national future.
Sienkiewicz and the Teutonic Knights
The principal literary monument of the Polish Romantic tradition on the Teutonic Order is Henryk Sienkiewicz’s novel Krzyżacy (The Teutonic Knights), first published in 1900. Sienkiewicz was, by the time of the novel’s composition, the most popular Polish novelist of his generation, and the Nobel Prize that he received in 1905 was, in part, a recognition of the novel’s success. The novel is set in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, in the period leading up to the battle of Grunwald, and it is, in form, a historical romance in the manner of Sir Walter Scott.
The novel is, however, more than a historical romance. It is, in Sienkiewicz’s intention, a national epic, and the Order is, in the novel, the principal symbol of the German oppression that the Polish national tradition was, in modern times, intended to overcome. The Order’s grand master, Ulrich von Jungingen, is, in the novel, a ruthless and fanatical figure, determined to destroy the Polish-Lithuanian state and to impose the German rule on the Slavic populations. The Order’s brother-knights are, in the novel, an army of brutal and fanatical warriors, blind to the rights of the Polish and the Lithuanian peoples. The Order’s defeat at Grunwald is, in the novel, the central event of the narrative, and the defeat is, in the novel, a moment of national redemption, in which the Polish-Lithuanian forces, under the leadership of King Władysław II Jagiełło, inflict a crushing defeat on the German oppressors.
The novel was, in its own time, a substantial literary and political event. It was, in the Polish national tradition, the most popular historical novel of the early twentieth century, and it was, in the Polish national consciousness, a central element in the construction of the modern Polish national identity. The novel was, in the German national tradition, viewed with a mixture of resentment and contempt, and the German critics of the novel were, in the early twentieth century, numerous and vocal. The novel was, in the Soviet and the postwar Polish tradition, viewed with a more critical eye, and the novel’s national-mission rhetoric was, in this tradition, the subject of substantial criticism.
The National-Mission Rhetoric
The national-mission rhetoric of the nineteenth century, in both the German and the Polish traditions, was, a substantial factor in the politicisation of the Order’s history. The Order was, in the German national-mission rhetoric, a symbol of the German imperial mission in the east, and the Order was, in the Polish national-mission rhetoric, a symbol of the German oppression of the Slavic peoples. The two narratives were, mirror images of each other, and the two narratives were, mutually reinforcing.
The national-mission rhetoric of the nineteenth century was, in the twentieth century, brought to a kind of crisis by the Nazi appropriation of the Order’s heritage. The Nazi appropriation was an extreme form of the German national-mission rhetoric of the previous century, and the Nazi appropriation was, in the postwar period, a substantial embarrassment for the German national tradition. The postwar German historiography of the Order has, distanced itself from the national-mission rhetoric of the nineteenth century, and the postwar German historiography has, attempted to recover the Order’s medieval character as a religious and military institution.
The Polish national-mission rhetoric has, in the postwar period, retained much of its force. The Order’s defeat at Grunwald was, in the postwar Polish tradition, a central element of the national calendar, and the Order’s defeat was, in this tradition, an object of substantial literary and political attention. The Polish postwar historiography of the Order has, retained the national-mission rhetoric of the nineteenth century, and the Polish postwar historiography has, treated the Order as a symbol of the German oppression of the Slavic peoples.
Sources
- Biskup, Marian, and Gerard Labuda. Dzieje zakonu krzyżackiego w Prusach. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Morskie, 1986.
- Boockmann, Hartmut. Der Deutsche Orden: Zwölf Kapitel aus seiner Geschichte. Munich: Beck, 1981.
- Burleigh, Michael. The Third Reich: A New History. New York: Hill and Wang, 2000.
- Kuczyński, Stefan Maria. Wielka Wojna z Zakonem Krzyżackim w latach 1409–1411. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1980.
Related Reading
For the Battle of Grunwald, see the article on the Battle of Grunwald. For the Grunwald narrative in Polish literature, see the article on the Grunwald narrative. For the German Romantic reception, see the article on German Romanticism and the Order. For the modern historiography, see the article on modern historiography. For the Nazi appropriation, see the article on the Nazi appropriation. For the Order’s religious mission, see the cluster on the religious mission.