Editing Teutonic Order (section)

=== Evolution and reconfiguration as a Catholic religious order ===
The [[Catholic]] order continued to exist in the various territories ruled by the [[Austrian Empire]], out of Napoleon's reach. From 1804 the Order was headed by members of the [[Habsburg]] dynasty.

The collapse of the Habsburg monarchy and the Empire it governed in Austria, the Italian Tyrol, Bohemia and the Balkans brought a shattering crisis to the Order. While in the new Austrian Republic, the Order seemed to have some hope of survival, in the other former parts of the Habsburg territories, the tendency was to regard the Order as an honorary chivalric Order of the [[House of Habsburg]]. The consequence of this risked being the confiscation of the Order's property as belongings of the House of Habsburg. So as to make the distinction clearer, in 1923 the then High Master, [[Archduke Eugen of Austria|Field Marshal Eugen of Austria-Teschen, Archduke of Austria]], a member of the House of Habsburg and an active army commander before and during the First World War, had one of the Order's priests, Norbert Klein, at the time Bishop of Brno (Brünn) elected his Coadjutor and then abdicated, leaving the Bishop as High Master of the Order.

As a result of this move, by 1928 the now-independent former Habsburg territories all recognized the Order as a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[religious order]]. The Order itself introduced a new Rule, approved by Pope Pius XI in 1929, according to which the government of the Order would in the future be in the hands of a priest of the Order, as would its constituent provinces, while the women religious of the Order would have women superiors. In 1936 the situation of the women religious was further clarified and the Congregation of the Sisters of the Order was given as their supreme moderator the High Master of the Order, the Sisters also having representation at the Order's general chapter.

This completed the transformation of what remained in the Catholic Church of the Teutonic knights into a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[religious order]] now renamed simply the ''Deutscher Orden'' ("German Order").<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cartwright |first=Mark |title=Teutonic Knight |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Teutonic_Knight/ |access-date=2023-06-10 |website=World History Encyclopedia |language=en}}</ref> However, further difficulties were in store.

The promising beginnings of this reorganization and spiritual transformation suffered a severe blow through the expansion of German might under the National Socialist regime. After [[Anschluss|Austria's annexation by Germany in 1938]], and similarly the [[Czech lands]] in 1939 the Teutonic Order was suppressed throughout the ''Großdeutsches Reich'' until Germany's defeat. This did not prevent the National Socialists from using imagery of the medieval Teutonic knights for propagandistic purposes.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.chivalricorders.org/vatican/teutonic.htm | title = The Teutonic Order of Holy Mary in Jerusalem | access-date = 2011-01-30 | last = Sainty | first = Guy Stair | work = Almanach de la Cour | publisher = www.chivalricorders.org | quote = [T]he Nazis...after the occupation of Austria suppressed [the Order] by an act of 6 September 1938 because they suspected it of being a bastion of pro-Habsburg legitimism. On Germany's occupying Czechoslovakia the following year, the Order was also suppressed in [[Moravia]] although the hospitals and houses in Yugoslavia and south Tyrol were able to continue a tenuous existence. The National Socialists, motivated by Himmler's fantasies of reviving a German military elite then attempted to establish their own "Teutonic Order" as the highest award of the Third Reich. The ten recipients of this included Reinhard Heydrich and several of the most notorious National Socialists. Needless to say, although its badge was modelled on that of the genuine Order, it had absolutely nothing in common with it.}}</ref>

The Fascist rule in Italy, which since the end of the First World War had absorbed the Southern Tyrol, was not a propitious setting, but following the end of hostilities, a now democratic Italy provided normalized conditions, In 1947 Austria legally abolished the measures taken against the Order and restored confiscated property. Despite being hampered by the Communist regimes in Yugoslavia and in Czechoslovakia, the Order was now broadly in a position to take up activities in accordance with elements of its tradition, including care for the sick, for the elderly, for children, including work in education, in parishes and in its own internal houses of study. In 1957 a residence was established in Rome for the Order's Procurator General to the Holy See, to serve also as a pilgrim hostel. Conditions in Czechoslovakia gradually improved and in the meanwhile, the forced exile of some members of the Order led to the Order's re-establishing itself with some modest, but historically significant, foundations in Germany. The Sisters, in particular, gained several footholds, including specialist schools and care of the poor and in 1953 the former house of Augustinian Canons, St. Nikola, in Passau became the Sisters' Motherhouse. Although the reconstruction represented by the reformed Rule of 1929 had set aside categories such as the knights, over time the spontaneous involvement of laypeople in the Order's apostolates has led to their revival in a modernized form, a development formalized by [[Pope Paul VI]] in 1965.

With the official title of "Brethren of the German House of St Mary in Jerusalem", the Order today is unambiguously a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[religious order]], though sui generis. Various features of its life and activities recall those of monastic and mendicant orders. At its core are priests who make a solemn religious profession, along with lay brothers who make a perpetual simple profession. Also part of the Order are the Sisters, with internal self-government within their own structures but with representation in the Order's General Chapter. Their ultimate superior is the High Master of the Order. The approximately 100 [[Catholic priest]]s and 200 [[nun]]s of the Order are divided into five provinces, namely, Austria-Italy,<ref>{{Cite web |last=katholisch.at |title=Deutscher Orden fusionierte Provinzen für Österreich und Italien |url=https://www.katholisch.at/aktuelles/149272/deutscher-orden-fusionierte-provinzen-fuer-sterreich-und-italien |access-date=2025-05-11 |website=www.katholisch.at |language=de}}</ref> Slovenia, Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia. While the priests predominantly provide spiritual guidance, the nuns primarily care for the ill and the aged. Many of the priests care for German-speaking communities outside of Germany and Austria, especially in Italy and Slovenia; in this sense, the Teutonic Order has returned to its 12th-century roots: the spiritual and physical care of Germans in foreign lands.<ref>Urban, p. 277</ref>

There is an Institute of "Familiares", most of whom are laypeople, and who are attached by spiritual bonds to the Order but do not take vows. The "Familiares" are grouped especially into the bailiwicks of Germany, Austria, Southern Tyrol, Ad Tiberim (Rome), and the bailiwick of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as also in the independent commandry of Alden Biesen in Belgium, though others are dispersed throughout the world. Overall, there are in recent years some 700.

By the end of the 20th century, then, this religious Order had developed into a [[charitable organization]] and established numerous clinics, as well as sponsoring excavation and tourism projects in [[Israel]]. In 2000, the German chapter of the Teutonic Order declared bankruptcy, and its upper management was dismissed; an investigation by a special committee of the [[Landtag of Bavaria|Bavarian parliament]] in 2002 and 2003 to determine the cause was inconclusive.

The current [[Abbot]] General of the Order, who also holds the title of High Master, is Father [[Frank Bayard]]. The current seat of the High Master is the ''[[Church of the Teutonic Order, Vienna|Church of the German Order]]'' ("Deutschordenskirche") in [[Vienna]]. Near the [[Stephansdom|St Stephen's Cathedral]] ("Stephansdom") in the Austrian capital is the Treasury of the Teutonic Order, which is open to the public, and the Order's central archive. Since 1996, there has also been a museum dedicated to the Teutonic Knights at [[Mergentheim Palace|their former castle]] in [[Bad Mergentheim]] in Germany, which was the seat of the High Master from 1525 to 1809.

==== Honorary Knights ====
{{Infobox order
| name            = Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem
| title           = 
| image           = [[File:CoA Teutonic Order.svg|150px]]
| caption         = [[Coat of arms]] of the order
| image2          = [[Image:Teutonic Order BAR.svg|85px]]
| caption2        = [[Ribbon bar]]
| awarded_by      = [[Pope]] {{incumbent pope}}
| type            = [[Dynastic order|Dynasty]] [[order of chivalry]]
| country         = {{flag|Holy See}}
| house           = 
| religion        = [[Catholic Church]]
| classes         = <!-- Default:classes, or use: grades -->
| ribbon          = {{color box|black}} Black
| motto           = Helfen, Wehren, Heilen
| eligibility     = 
| for             = 
| status          = 
| first head      = 
| head_title      = [[Grand Master (order)|Grand Master]]
| head            = [[Frank Bayard]]
| head2_title     = 
| head2           = 
| grades          = {{plainlist}}Honorary Knight{{endplainlist}}
| post-nominals   = 
| former_grades   = 
| established     = 1190
| first_induction = 
| last_induction  = 
| total           = 11?
| higher          = [[Sovereign Military Order of Malta]]
| same            = 
| lower           = [[Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice]]
| related         = 
| individual      = 
}}

Honorary Knights of the Teutonic Order have included:
* [[Konrad Adenauer]]
* [[Udo Arnold]]
* [[Franz Josef II]]
* [[Rudolf Graber]]
* [[Otto von Habsburg]]
* [[Karl Habsburg-Lothringen]]
* [[Joachim Meisner]]
* [[Eduard Gaston Pöttickh von Pettenegg]]
* [[Eduard Schick]]
* [[Christoph Schönborn]]
* [[Carl Herzog von Württemberg]]