The assimilation of Prussia by the Teutonic Order in the 13th century evoked a variety of assessments by contemporaries and descendants: from the heroic epic to the history of the bloody massacre.
Drang Nach Osten: a natural process?
In the 13th century, the German Order of St. Mary finally found a new place for itself: Prussia became the springboard for its rise. At the request of the Polish prince Konrad Mazowiecki, the Teutonic knights rescued his lands from the raids of the Prussians. Further, the spiritual brothers began to conquer the territory of their enemy: by 1240, almost all Prussian tribal unions submitted to the German Order. The Polish elite in the north clearly did not expect such agility from the Teutons and, over time, greatly regretted their decision.
Knights of the Teutonic Order in the attack.
From legendary stories, one should move on to analyzing the situation as a whole. The period from XII to XIV century in European history can be safely called an era of wide expansion. The population was growing dynamically, the idea of creating a single Christian space began to be gradually implemented with the success of the first crusade expeditions, the role of cities in medieval society grew. And monastic brotherhoods were able to grow into independent economic units, which not only spread the "true faith", but also showed very good productivity in terms of agriculture. Eastern Europe was not a sideline of European civilization, but individual processes in social and economic life were uneven there. But nevertheless, the universality of the institutions of medieval society did not make colonies out of the conquered lands,in which the settlers did not interact in any way with the local population. On the contrary, with the passage of time in the Prussian lands it was difficult to distinguish a Pole from a German. The integration process went pretty quickly.
Prussia in the XIII century.
Historical clichés that we are used to finding in history textbooks, where there were passages about tireless fanatical Christians who did not want to accept anyone but their own kind, are gradually disappearing. Let us recall the crusaders in the Middle East: of course, the conquest did not exclude the atrocities and intemperance of the knights of Christ in relation to the local population, but later a rather impressive part of the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was made up of Turcopols - baptized representatives of the local population of Palestine.
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You should also pay attention to such an interesting feature: the first German settlers in Prussia came mainly from regions that were occupied relatively recently - Brandenburg, Silesia, Mecklenburg. Prussia in the XIV century was already flooded with the descendants of the first crusaders and burghers, who settled on the banks of the Vistula in the 1230s. After the brothers from the spiritual knightly order, the German population of Prussia was replenished by peasants, lords with estates and burghers.
Coins of the German Order.
Prussia: the land question
Let's start our review from the bottom. Peasants who moved to Prussia by the middle of the 13th century had the right to own a land plot of about 33 hectares. They paid taxes for this either directly to the German Order itself, or to the landowners - the bishop or a single baron. Local Prussian peasants measured their plots in "hackens" (in a word - hoes), which looked much more modest against the background of the settlements' possessions. But on the other hand, it was an illustration of a rather ancient method of dividing the land: the peasant had as much land as he could cultivate with a hoe. By the last quarter of the 13th century, the Prussian peasant had a land plot of 20 hectares. Immigrants from German lands could pass on their lands by inheritance to all their children. The locals are only the eldest in the family.
The attitude of the German Order to the Prussians was not unambiguous: those who did not resist were not harmed and allowed to do their usual things, and punitive actions were carried out against the rioters. There was also a redemption system: the farmers who sat on the "hackens" eventually paid a certain amount to the treasury of the order and actually acquired a new social status. Freedom was on sale.
Knights of the German Order.
People with larger holdings also paid taxes and joined the order's militia. These were already heavily armed mounted warriors, warriors, who, moreover, had the right to court in their own territories. By the 15th century, a stratum of the order aristocracy with German, Polish and Prussian roots appeared in Prussia. Although formally everything belonged to either the bishop or the order.
As a result, these uneasy relations between the Lenniks and the Order Chapter turned into a real conflict: in the 15th century, many landowners entered into an agreement with the King of Poland against the Order Chapter and the Prussian bishoprics.
Brother of the Order of the XV-XVI centuries.
But at the very beginning of the invasion of Prussia, the German Order did not skimp on the distribution of land: for example, a native of Lower Saxony, Dietrich von Depenov, received 300 guf in 1236 - he allotted it, almost 5000 hectares in size, and founded a castle there. The clans Stange and Heselicht had allotments in more than 1000 Guf. Stange even founded a whole city - Freistadt. Dietrich von Depenov was less fortunate: this noble warrior died in one of the campaigns against the Prussians, and his possessions quickly began to be fragmented.
Teutons and Prussians: Struggle or Integration?
Returning to the issues of identity and integration of the local population, one interesting fact can be cited. In 1454, the commander of the German order reported to the supreme master that when he read a message from the master himself to the subjects of the commissariat - landowners of various ranks, the small owners demanded a translation of the letter from the German language. The myth of the fierce, total destruction of the local population and forcible integration into the social system of the Teutonic Order, in this case, seems completely unviable.
Landmeistering map of Prussia.
The first German cities on Prussian soil - Thorn and Kulm already had their own statutes. These were the first evidence of the legal status of the city in the new lands - an example of Prussian law in general. "Kulm letter" - a document dated 1233, which regulated the rights and freedoms of urban residents. And the newly formed cities as a whole recognized the entire population of the district as their own. In other words: a burgher of Prussian origin did not remain outside the social life of the possessions of the powerful and formidable Teutonic Order.