Editing Teutonic Order (section)

== Influence on German and Polish nationalism and Soviet patriotism ==
{{Image frame|width=280|content={{Image array
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| width = 140
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| image1 = German National People's Party Poster Teutonic Knights (1920).jpg | caption1 = {{note|Alpha|α}} A [[German National People's Party]] poster from 1920 showing a Teutonic knight being attacked by Poles and socialists. The caption reads "Rescue the East".
| image2 = Flag of the State of the Teutonic Order.svg | caption2 = The [[State of the Teutonic Order]] (whose flag is shown here) greatly influenced the history of Prussia, which became the dominant German state and the source for most of the new war ensign's visual elements.
| image3 = Panzer unter Fahnen (Tanks under flags).jpg | caption3 = {{note label|Beta|β}} A Nazi propaganda poster in the Belarussian language. It shows the image of a tank under the Nazi flag.
| image4 = War Ensign of Germany 1935-1938.svg | caption4 = 1935–1938 war ensign
}}}}

The German historian [[Heinrich von Treitschke]] used imagery of the Teutonic Knights, a [[Germanic Myth|Germanic myth]], to promote pro-German and [[Anti-Polish sentiment|anti-Polish rhetoric]]. Many middle-class German nationalists adopted this imagery and its symbols. During the [[Weimar Republic]], associations and organisations of this nature contributed to laying the groundwork for the formation of Nazi Germany.<ref name="Mowia">{{in lang|pl}} ''Mówią wieki''. "[http://www.historia.terramail.pl/prasa/mowia_wieki_-_biala_legenda_czarnego_krzyza.pdf Biała leganda czarnego krzyża] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227130154/http://www.historia.terramail.pl/prasa/mowia_wieki_-_biala_legenda_czarnego_krzyza.pdf |date=2008-02-27 }}". Accessed 6 June 2006.</ref> 

An organization predating the [[Nazi Party]] itself,{{ref|Alpha|α}} as well as [[Bund Deutscher Osten|Nazi-supported]] preceding<ref>{{cite web | url=https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/14067/polen-tschechoslovakei-bund-deutscher-osten | title=Polen, Tschecho-Slovakei. Bund Deutscher Osten... (1938?) | author=Digital Collections, Hoover Institution Library & Archives | accessdate=2024-06-15 | publisher=Hoover Institution Library & Archives}}</ref> and [[Nazi propaganda|Nazi]] preceding<ref>{{cite book
	| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=1ymC_kb-_WcC&q=finally%2C+at+marienberg&pg=RA1-PA1922
	| title = Education in Nazi Germany
	| last = Berg
	| first = Lisa
	| date = 2010
	| publisher = Oxford
	| isbn = 978-1-84788-764-1
	| access-date = 2024-06-15
	| quote = Finally, at Marienburg, the students were to learn about [...] the need for 'living space'. [...] A contemporary foreign reporter commented on this: 'The young men are told that they form a Nordic Crusading Order [...]'
}}</ref> and during{{ref label|Beta|β}} [[World War II]] propaganda made use of the Teutonic Knights' imagery, with the common goal of instilling the importance of {{lang|de|Lebensraum}} for the future of Germany and the German people.<ref>{{Cite web |year=1940 |editor-last=Fritz Bennecke |title=You and Your People (''Volk'') |url=http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/du.htm |website=Vom deutschen Volk und seinem Lebensraum, Handbuch für die Schulung in der HJ |publisher=Franz Eher, 1937 |language=de |location=Munich}}</ref> According to medieval historian [[Eric Christiansen|Erik Christiansen]], "[[Heinrich Himmler|Himmler]]'s plan to mould the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] as a reincarnation of [The Teutonic Order] proved [...] the irresistible strength of bad history."<ref>Christiansen, p. 5</ref> Though gradually taking hold ever since with one of [[Prince Adalbert of Prussia (1811–1873)|Prince Adalbert of Prussia]]'s 1849 proposals, after a lull during the Weimar Republic, whereupon it reverted to a simple tricolor overlayed with an [[Iron Cross]], (though itself also derivative,) a version of Germany's [[Reichskriegsflagge]] (war ensign){{ref label|Beta|β}} emerged with a more closely resembling The State of the Teutonic Order's cross's original shape with a circle-overlaid [[balkenkreuz]]. Hitler based his [[German Order (distinction)|German Order]] on the Teutonic Order, while especially the Hochmeister's ceremonial regalia, also the Marian Cross of the Teutonic Order, the [[Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross]] and of the cross of the Knight of Justice of the [[Order of St. John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg)]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Angolia | first = John | title = For Führer and Fatherland: Political & Civil Awards of the Third Reich | publisher = R. James Bender Publishing | year = 1989 | page = 224| isbn = 978-0912138169 }}</ref>

After Hitler approved the ''[[Generalplan Ost]]'' (GPO), [[Germanisation|Germanization]] campaigns were extolled as the modern adaptation of what it portrayed as "[[civilizing mission]]s" of the Teutonic Order.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Longerich |first1=Peter |title=Heinrich Himmler: A Life |date=2012 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-959232-6 |page=527–530, 577–580|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GBQchepZ-7EC |language=en}}</ref>
Yet, despite these references to the Teutonic Order's history in Nazi propaganda, the Order itself was abolished in 1938 and its members were persecuted by the German authorities. This occurred mostly due to Hitler's and Himmler's belief that, throughout history, Catholic military-religious orders had been tools of the Holy See and as such constituted a threat to the Nazi regime.<ref>Desmond Seward, ''Mnisi Wojny'', Poznań 2005, p. 265.</ref>

The converse was true for Polish [[nationalism]], for example ''[[The Knights of the Cross]]'' by [[Henryk Sienkiewicz]], which used the Teutonic Knights as symbolic shorthand for Germans in general, conflating the two into an easily recognisable image of the hostile. After the [[Battle of Grunwald]], the Teutonic Order was portrayed as the medieval forerunners of Hitler's armies.<ref>{{cite book |last=Johnson |first=Lonnie |title=Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e_m13Hk3AFEC&pg=PA43 |page=43|publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-19-510071-6 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | first=Norman |last=Davies |author-link=Norman Davies |title=God's Playground. A History of Poland. The Origins to 1795 |volume=I |edition=Revised |page=99|publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-19-925339-5 }}</ref>

In the [[Soviet Union]], the image of [[Alexander Nevsky]] became a national symbol of the struggle against German occupation during World War II, and many Soviet historians portrayed him as a Russian bastion against both German and papal aggression.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fennell |first1=John |title=The Crisis of Medieval Russia 1200-1304 |date=13 October 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-87313-6 |page=106 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aWWuBAAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref> The government sought historical continuity by referring to the Soviet struggle as the [[Great Patriotic War]].<ref name="Haughton"/> The [[Order of Alexander Nevsky]] was re-established in 1942 by the Soviet government during the war, which would be awarded to servicemen in the Soviet army.<ref name="Haughton">{{cite book |last1=Haughton |first1=Tim |title=Aftermath: Legacies and Memories of War in Europe, 1918–1945–1989 |date=23 March 2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-18391-4 |page=175 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uNLOCwAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref> The 1938 film ''[[Alexander Nevsky (film)|Alexander Nevsky]]'' by [[Sergei Eisenstein]], which depicts the [[Battle on the Ice]], was re-released in 1941 following the German invasion.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Harty |first1=Kevin J. |title=The Reel Middle Ages: American, Western and Eastern European, Middle Eastern and Asian Films About Medieval Europe |date=13 August 2015 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-0843-3 |page=16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ow5eCgAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref> [[Joseph Stalin]] used the film to mobilize feelings of Russian patriotism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Donskis |first1=L. |title=Troubled Identity and the Modern World |date=25 May 2009 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-62173-2 |page=83 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kgHIAAAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref>