Ep. 128: The Teutonic Knights (1190-1525) - Season Opener - A Chivalric Order
History of the Germans from the Middle Ages to Reunification
Dirk Hoffmann-Becking
4.9 • 551 Ratings
🗓️ 30 November 2023
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Hello and welcome to a new season of the History of the Germans, the Teutonic Knights or to give them their full title, the knights of the hospital of St. Mary of the House of the Germans in Jerusalem.
Even though the state they had created in Prussia has been wiped off the map with all its cultural markers, the Teutonic Knights are not forgotten. Less shrouded in nonsense than the Templars, less devoted to social causes than the Knights of St. John they still loom large not just in German history but even more so in Polish and Russian history. Both of these nations have placed victories over the Teutonic Knights at key junctions of their national narrative.
But were the Teutonic knights these near invincible, cruel faceless war machines that Sergei Eisenstein had charging over the ice to the sound of Prokofiev brilliant score? That is what we will try to find out over the next few episodes. Expect your fair share of heroic battles, chivalric entertainment all intermingled with twisted theology and astute commercial activity. I hope you will enjoy it.
Episode website with transcript is here
The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.
As always:
Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com
If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast
For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast
Facebook: @HOTGPod
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To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.
So far I have:
Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy
Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen
The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356
The Reformation before the Reformation
The Empire in the 15th century
The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs
Here is the link to the article by Cory Doctorow: https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/
Bibliography:
Steven Runciman: A history of the Crusades
Eric Christiansen: The Northern Crusades
William Urban: The Teutonic Knights - A mlitary History
Jurgen Sarnowsky: Der Deutsche orden
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to a new season of the history of the Germans, the Teutonic Knights, |
| 0:08.9 | or to give them their full title, |
| 0:10.9 | the Knights of the Hospital of St. Mary of the House of the Germans in Jerusalem. |
| 0:16.7 | Even though the state they had created in Prussia has been wiped off the map |
| 0:20.7 | with all its cultural markers, the Teutonic Knights are not forgotten. The Teutonic Knights are not forgotten. Now, even though the state they had created in Prussia has been wiped off the map, |
| 0:24.7 | with all its cultural markers, the Teutonic Knights are not forgotten. |
| 0:27.7 | Less shrouded in nonsense than the Templars, |
| 0:31.4 | less devoted to social causes than the Knights of St. John, |
| 0:35.0 | they still loom large, not just in German history, |
| 0:37.7 | but even more so in Polish and Russian history. |
| 0:44.4 | Both of these nations have placed victories over the Totonic Knights at key junctions of their national narrative. |
| 0:55.7 | But were the Totonic Knights these near invincible, cruel, faceless machines that Sergei Einstein had charging over the ice to the sound of Prokofiev's brilliant score. That is what we'll try to find out over the next few episodes. Expect your fair share |
| 1:03.0 | of heroic battles, chivalric entertainment, all intermingled with twisted theology, an astute |
| 1:09.6 | commercial activity. |
| 1:13.5 | I hope you will all enjoy this. |
| 1:19.6 | But before we start, let me tell you again that the history of the Germans and its offshoot podcasts are all advertising free. |
| 1:22.0 | And that has become more important than ever. |
| 1:25.5 | Even if I look at just the last 12 months, podcast advertising has become more and more |
| 1:31.2 | irritating. Publishers who spend excessive amounts on hosts and production are forced |
| 1:36.6 | to cram in more and more advertising to make back their investments. |
| 1:41.3 | Podcasting networks, by the way, take a cool 50% of all advertising revenues, |
| 1:46.4 | convince independent podcasters to have their shows interrupted mid-sentence to push some |
... |
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