ABSTRACT
In the twelfth century the most important orders of knighthood were the Templars and the Knights of St John, both centred on Jerusalem. In about 1120, at about the same time as the Templars were founded, a German hospital was also established in the city. 1 However, all this was lost when Jerusalem fell in 1187 – the event which precipitated the Third Crusade. Unprecedented numbers of Germans participated in this crusade, many drawn from areas not previously affected by crusading enthusiasm. The Low Germans and the Flemings went by sea, others overland. Between 1189 and 1191 many took part in the siege of Acre, but the besiegers were unaccustomed to the climate and epidemics raged amongst them. In response to this, in 1190 crusaders from Bremen and Lübeck built a hospital from the sails of their ships, and a hospital brotherhood was established just as it had been a century before with the Hospital of St John. Imbued with the desire to reconquer Jerusalem, its members adopted the name of the city for their new brotherhood. This is the origin of the Teutonic Order; it has no connection with the older German hospital in Jerusalem. 2
