!!!Deutscher Orden

Teutonic Order (Teutonic Knights), alongside the Order of the Knights 
of St. John of Jerusalem and the Knights Templar one of the three 
great organisations founded during the times of the Crusades, 
originally as charitable societies, and which later assumed the duty 
of defending and spreading the Christian faith (since 1198 religious 
order of knights). Duke Leopold VI called the Order (founded in 
1190 at Acre, in Palestine) to Vienna at the beginning of the 
13%%sup th/%  century; other branches (commanderies) were established 
at Wiener Neustadt, Linz, Graz, Friesach, Bozen (Bolzano) and Sterzing 
(Vipiteno). After its dissolution outside the Austrian Empire by 
Napoleon (1809), Franz I re-established the Teutonic Order as a 
Catholic institution of noblemen in 1834. Between 1780 and 1923 the 
post of "Hochmeister (Grand Master) and Deutschmeister" was always 
held by an Austrian archduke (the last was Archduke  Eugen). In 1929 
the Teutonic Order was made a purely religious order and its 
activities limited to charitable and religious duties. After being 
banned by the Nazis in 1938, it regained all its former rights during 
the Second Republic. Remnants of its formerly large possessions and 
great cultural influence are the churches of the Teutonic Order at 
Vienna, Wiener Neustadt und Friesach and the chapter house at Vienna. 
The Sisters of the Teutonic Order still maintain their charitable 
institutions at Friesach (motherhouse), Klagenfurt, Thurn, Spittal 
an der Drau (all Carinthia).

!Literature
M. Tumler and U. Arnold, Der Deutsche Orden. Von 
seinem Ursprung bis zur Gegenwart, %%sup 5/%1992; 800 Jahre 
Deutscher Orden, exhibition catalogue of the Germanische 
Nationalmuseum Nuernberg, 1990; P. Stenitzer, Die Deutschordensprovinz 
Oesterreich unter dem Deutschmeister J. J. P. Harrach, 
doctoral thesis, Vienna 1992; B. Demel and W. Krones, Das 
Deutschordens-Haus zu Wien, 1993.


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