New Evidence for Identifying the Site of the Teutonic Compound in Acre
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the Site of the Teutonic Compound in Acre 69 Chapter 4 boas and melloni New Evidence for Identifying the Site of the Teutonic Compound in Acre Adrian J. Boas and Georg Philipp Melloni During the Siege of Acre in 1190–1191 citizens of the German towns of Bremen and Lübeck, remnants of the dismantled army of Frederick Barbarossa’s aborted contingent to the Third Crusade, built a field hospital outside the city walls, using the sails of their cogs to make tents. In October, 1190, Frederick, duke of Swabia, placed the hospital and its resources in the hands of his chap lain Conrad and his chamberlain, Burchard. Following the reoccupation of the city, this community of laymen developed into a brotherhood that came to be known as the Teutonic Order. Linking their new establishment to the xenodo chion of Sancta Maria Alemannorum of Jerusalem, they took on the name, the Teutonic Hospital of St. Mary in Jerusalem. The ‘House of the Germans’ (domus Alemannorum) in Jerusalem with its church, Sancta Maria Alemannorum, had been established early in the twelfth century by a German philanthropic couple with the aim of caring for pilgrims of German tongue. This earlier es tablishment was first mentioned in a document dating to 1148 but it already had been in existence for some time. Until the fall of Jerusalem to Salah adDin in October 1187, the German house was under the custody of the Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. The relationship between the Jerusalem establishment and the new in stitution that was founded at Acre has been a somewhat controversial issue. Whereas, in the past it was believed that there was a connection between the Jerusalem establishment and the brotherhood set up in Acre, today it is believed that this claim merely reflects the economic interests of the newly established order in Acre.1 By means of this connection the brothers hoped to * This paper is a summary of the results of archaeological work carried out a decade and a half ago. We are grateful to B.Z. Kedar and R. Khamisy for information provided. A full publication of the excavations will be published as a monograph. 1 Cf. especially the discussion in M.L. Favreau, Studien zur Frühgeschichte des Deutschen Ordens (= Kieler Historische Studien 21) (Stuttgart, 1974) (Diss., Kiel, 1972), 95ff; and ‘Alle origini dell’Ordine Teutonico: continuità o nuova fondazione dell’ospedale gerosolimitano degli Alemanni?,’ in E. Coli, M. De Marco, F. Tommasi (eds.), Militia Sacra. Gli oridini miltari tra Europa e Terrasanta (Perugia, 1994), 29–43. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004349599_006 70 Boas And Melloni lay their hands on the possessions of the older house, in particular its landed property in Germany. In the long run the Teutonic Order appears to have been successful in its efforts at identifying with the older Jerusalem establishment and it is regarded as connected to the House of the Germans in Jerusalem up to this day.2 The German brotherhood remained under the shadow of the two great knightly orders; the Hospitaller Order of the Knights of St. John and the Order of the Knights of the Temple.3 This situation was to be improved through the patronage of the royal house of Hohenstaufen. As a result the German hospital in Acre began to play an important role and the hospice brotherhood was turned into a clerical knightly order in the year 1198. The new Military Order was to follow the Rule of the Knights of St. John concerning the care of the poor and sick and the Rule of the Templars concerning its knightly duties. With the sudden death of Emperor Henry VI on September 28, 1197 the sup port of the Hohenstaufen seemed to have weakened.4 However, the crucial development came during the rule of the fourth master of the Teutonic Order, Hermann von Salza (1209–1239). He was able to maintain close relations with the emperor as well as with the pope and knew how to act as an agent between the two powers. He succeeded in gaining their support for the order in the Holy Land as well as in Europe.5 In a very short time the Teutonic Order became an international movement carrying considerable political weight. The core of its identity remained the Holy Land. Aided by Hermann von Salza, Frederick II with considerable acumen in his negotiations with the Egyptian ruler alMalik alKamil, managed to regain 2 This is reflected in its name: Ordo fratrum domus hospitalis Sanctae Maria Teutonicorum in Jerusalem (Order der Brüder vom Deutschen Haus Sankt Mariens in Jerusalem). The remains of the church of S. Maria Alemannorum and the adjacent administrative building and hospi tal/hospice was discovered in 1967 and subsequently excavated. Since then it has served the public as an archaeological park in the Jewish quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. See A. Ovadiah, ‘a Crusader Church in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem,’ in Ancient Churches Revealed, ed. Y.Tsafrir (Jerusalem 1993), 136–39. 3 This is apparent in the location of their establishment in a peripheral area close to the eastern wall of the city as can be seen on the medieval maps. See B. Dichter, The Maps of Acre (Akko, 1973), 10–30. 4 Peter von Dusburg reports a lack of weaponry, horses, clothing and even food. Hermann von Salza, at the beginning of his rule as master expressed the wish that he have ten armed knights at his disposal at any time (1211). See Peter von Dusburg, Chronica, I, 5 in Scriptores rerum Prussicarum: die Geschichtsquellen der Preussischen Vorzeit bis zum Untergange der Ordensherrschaft, vol 1, ed. T. Hirsch, M.Töppen, E.G.W. Strehlke (Leipzig, 1861), 31. 5 H. Kluger: Hochmeister Hermann von Salza und Kaiser Friedrich II.: ein Beitrag zur Frühgeschichte des Deutschen Ordens (Marburg, 1987)..