Teutonic is a masculine adjective from Latin Teutoni, referring to the Teutons, one germanic tribe which became well known from the fourth century onwards. Teutonic can be a synonym for Germanic, Gothic and German.
Teutonic is also a word that classifies something related to the Teutonic Order.
Teutonic Order
The Teutonic Order was a military order created in Palestine during the Crusades. Founded by German merchants in Acre (1190), as a hospitable community, in 1198 it became an order of cavalry. It acquired possessions in the Mediterranean area (Palestine, Syria, Greece, Sicily, Apulia and Spain, among others) and in France, but above all in Livonia, Prussia and Germany.
It was directed by a grand master for life appointed by the general chapter, assisted by five great ministers. The seat of the Grand Master was first in Acre and then in Venice (1291), Marienburg (1309) and Könisberg (1457).
The Teutonic Order participated in the conquest of Prussia, where it constituted a state with its capital at Marienburg in the 14th century. During the 15th century, the Order was overthrown by the opposition of the nobility and sectors of a bourgeois character, together with the conflict it faced with Poland.
Its political power was reduced to East Prussia, under Polish sovereignty. After Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg converted to Protestantism in 1525, the Order lost its political-military character and was reduced to its primitive hospitable activity.
Dissolved by Napoleon in 1809, Francis I of Austria welcomed the Teutonic Order under his protection, guaranteeing its properties. Until 1918, an Austrian archbishop was appointed Grand Master. In 1929, the priestly branch of the Teutonic Order (recognized in the 19th century) was transformed by the Pope into an order exclusively spiritual, formerly named "Brothers of the Teutonic Order of St. Mary of Jerusalem" (with headquarters in Vienna).
The Order of Teutonic Knights, as a lay order, was re-formed in 1960, with its headquarters in Frankfurt.