TEUTONIC ORDER
1190 - Today
 

The Teutonic Order, or the Teutonic Knights, are a religious order. The order was established in 1190 in Jerusalem during the Third Crusade and they are still active but they have calmed down a bit since.

800-1400 German Settlements

The founding members of the order were German pilgrims and knights who fought at the time at Acre, which is today's Akko in Israel.

The German name of the order is Deutscher Ritter-Orden, or formally Haus der Ritter des Hospitals Sankt Marien der Deutschen zu Jerusalem, which means House of the Hospitalers of Saint Mary of the Teutons in Jerusalem. Catchy.

After their crusader battles, the Teutonic Knights went back home but deployed soon after to assist Poland in its fight against pagans from the Baltic regions.

And here is the map of the territory belonging to the Teutonic Order 1386-1560.

1386-1560 Baltic Regions
Click map to enlarge

With the Treaty of Luneville in 1801, and the Treaty of Pressburg in 1805, the Order lost their territories left of the Rhine. On April 24, 1809, Napoleon gave away most the Order's remaining provinces, declared the organization terminated, and that was that.

In 1834, the Order was restored in Vienna, and this time it was focused more on its religious ideas. You can visit their website here.