Teutonic Knights in popular culture
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This article is about depictions of the Teutonic Knights in popular culture.
- The Order and its relations with Poland, Masovia, and Lithuania are the main subject of Nobel Prize-winning Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz's historical novel The Teutonic Knights, which describes the era of the Battle of Grunwald from the Polish point of view. A Polish film based on the novel, Krzyżacy, was released in 1960. Other books referencing the conflict between the Order and Poland include James A. Michener's historical novel Poland and Leo Frankowski's Conrad Stargard science fiction series. Descendants of the Teutonic Knights play an important role in the novel The Ogre, written by the French Goncourt prize winner Michel Tournier.
- The Order plays an important part of the story in the opera I Lituani by Ponchielli (1874), based on Adam Mickiewicz's poem Konrad Wallenrod (1828).
- The historical drama film Alexander Nevsky (1938) depicts the defeat of the Teutonic Knights by the Russians in the Battle of the Ice (1242).
- German nationalism often invoked the imagery of the Teutonic Knights, especially in the context of territorial conquest from eastern neighbours of Germany and conflict with nations of Slavic origins, who were considered to be of lower development and lacking in culture. The German historian Heinrich von Treitschke used imagery of the Teutonic Knights to promote pro-German and anti-Polish rhetoric. Such imagery and symbols were adopted by many middle-class Germans who supported German nationalism. During the Weimar Republic, associations and organisations of this nature contributed to laying the groundwork for the formation of Nazi Germany.[1]
- Emperor William II of Germany posed for a photo in 1902 in the garb of a monk from the Teutonic Order, climbing up the stairs in the reconstructed Marienburg Castle as a symbol of the German Empire's policy.[1]
- During World War II, Nazi propaganda and ideology made frequent use of the Teutonic Knights' imagery, as the Nazis sought to depict the Knights' actions as a forerunner of the Nazi conquests for Lebensraum. Heinrich Himmler tried to idealize the SS as a 20th century incarnation of the medieval knights.[2]
- The black and white colours of the Order became the colours of the state of Prussia.
- The Teutonic Knights are featured in a variety of historically-themed computer games, including Medieval: Total War, Medieval II: Total War, in which the Order is equaled with the Templars and the Knights of Saint John in power. In the expansion Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms, a campaign is dedicated to the Order's campaigns. They are featured in Age of Empires II, in which "Teutonic Knights" and "Elite Teutonic Knights" are some of the most powerful armed units in the game. The Order is a playable country in the grand strategy games Europa Universalis II and Europa Universalis III. They are featured in Empire Earth II's German campaign as well.
- The Norwegian black metal band Dimmu Borgir used the story of the Teutonic Knights for the music video of their single "The Serpentine Offering".
