As we reach the end of March, one should think of Eastern Europe and look back to March 1226.
Eight hundred years ago Frederick II Hohenstaufen, Holy Roman Emperor (1220-1250), signed Golden Bull of Rimini which recognized the presence of the Teutonic Order in the territory east of the Vistula, in the territory of Chełmno. The emperor allowed the Order to enact laws and mint coins.
This document established the presence of Germans, east of the present-day borders. Their symbol was the black cross on a white background. It is still used today by the German Armed forces and was the inspiration for the Iron Cross designed by Schinkel (1813).
Within a few years, the Order expanded east and north, conquering areas as distant as Estonia (the Prussian crusade). In 1242 the Teutonic knights fought a battle at Lake Peipus (today’s border between Estonia and Russia) against Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod. The battle was immortalized by Sergei Eisenstein in his Stalinist film ‘Aleksander Nevsky’ of 1938. This prince feared the western attacks to the extent that he offered his lands as a vassal state to the Mongols as a form of protection, an episode Putin recounted in his visit to Beijing as a model to Russia’s submission to China (4th November 2023, See Rhyme and Reason p. 9).
The state of the Teutonic Order lasted from 1226 to 1525, when the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Albrecht of Hohenzollern, decided to become a Lutheran, took possession of all the lands of the Order and passed them onto his descendants. The last descendent to rule that land was Kaiser Wilhem II until he abdicated in 1919.
Prussia lasted until 1947 when it was formally abolished by the victorious powers of World War II. This was the end of the German presence east of the current German - Polish border, a presence which was decreed by Frederick II Hohenstaufen in 1226.
This episode is crucial, since it explains the German outlook to the east. When Prussia requested to become a vassal to Poland in 1525, it joined a large community of states, known as the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. This included also much of Ukraine and especially Crimea. The Lutheran presence in eastern Europe in these territories was directly connected with the conversion of Prussia in 1525 and their integration into an area of modern-day Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine.
The connection between Crimea and Prussia was ancient and indeed the ancient Germanic language first spoken in Prussia (2nd 3rd century), Gothic, was inscribed on the walls of the cathedral of Mangup in Crimea in the 5th century. The gothic leader Theodoric, who later became king of Italy (493-526), was celebrated also at the court of Frederick II Hohenstaufen (e.g. Dietrichs Flucht). The two rulers combined a Germanic and Italian background. Theodoric the Great was a Germanic king who settled in Italy. Frederick II grew up in Italy until he became ruler in Germany in 1220.
He also promoted poetry and poets. One may single out his awarding land to Walther von der Vogelweide (1170-1230), one of the Mastersingers (Meistersingers), in the tradition of love poems (minnesang). One of his poems is entitled Unter der Linden (Under the lime tree)
Under der linden
an der heide,
dâ unser zweier bette was,
dâ muget ir vinden
schône beide
gebrochen bluomen unde gras.
vor dem walde in einem tal,
tandaradei,
schône sanc diu nahtegal.
Under the lime tree
On the heather,
Where we had shared a place of rest,
Still you may find there,
Lovely together,
Flowers crushed and grass down-pressed.
Beside the forest in the vale,
Tándaradéi,
Sweetly sang the nightingale. (tr. R. Oliver)
Walther von der Vogelweide is one of the singers who participates in the song contest of Wagner’s Tannhäuser (1845).
Eight hundred years ago a political decision increased the complexity of eastern Europe’s cultural richness. The long shadow of that decision shapes the instincts of many to this day.