The Grand Masters, often members of the great German families (and, after 1761, members of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine), continued to preside over the Order's considerable holdings in Germany. Several commanderies were combined to form a bailiwick headed by a Landkomtur. Led by a brother called Theoderich or Dietrich, the Order defended the south-eastern borders of the Kingdom of Hungary against the neighbouring Cumans. [34] The Livonian territory was then partitioned by neighboring powers during the Livonian War; in 1561 the Livonian Master Gotthard Kettler secularized the southern Livonian possessions of the Order to create the Duchy of Courland, also a vassal of Poland. While the priests predominantly provide spiritual guidance, the nuns primarily care for the ill and the aged. In 1337, Emperor Louis IV allegedly granted the Order the imperial privilege to conquer all Lithuania and Russia. He secularized the Order's remaining Prussian territories and assumed from his uncle Sigismund I the Old, King of Poland, the hereditary rights to the Duchy of Prussia as a vassal of the Polish Crown, the Prussian Homage. Outside of German areas were the bailiwicks of. The authoritarian and reforming Grand Master Heinrich von Plauen was forced from power and replaced by Michael Küchmeister von Sternberg, but the new Grand Master was unable to revive the Order's fortunes. Bishops were reluctant to have Prussian religious practices integrated into the new faith,[19] while the ruling knights found it easier to govern the natives when they were semi-pagan and lawless. By 1220, The Teutonics Knights had built five castles, some of them made of stone. Hitler based his German Order on the Teutonic Order, especially the Hochmeister's ceremonial regalia itself even though they abolished the said order. 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. Since 1996, there has also been a museum dedicated to the Teutonic Knights at their former castle in Bad Mergentheim in Germany, which was the seat of the High Master from 1525 to 1809. The assimilation of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword (established in Livonia in 1202) increased the Teutonic Order's lands with the addition of the territories known today as Latvia and Estonia. [14] With the Golden Bull of Rimini, Emperor Frederick II bestowed on the Order a special imperial privilege for the conquest and possession of Prussia, including Chełmno Land, with nominal papal sovereignty. The Order was founded in Acre, and the Knights purchased Montfort (Starkenberg), northeast of Acre, in 1220. Duke Władysław I the Elbow-high of Poland also claimed the duchy, based on inheritance from Przemysław II, but he was opposed by some Pomeranians nobles. The settlers founded numerous towns and cities on former Prussian settlements. Formed in the year 1192 in Acre, in the Levant, the medieval order played an important role in Outremer (the general name for the Crusader states), controlling the port tolls of Acre. In 1230, following the Golden Bull of Rimini, Grand Master Hermann von Salza and Duke Konrad I of Masovia launched the Prussian Crusade, a joint invasion of Prussia intended to Christianize the Baltic Old Prussians. The current Abbot General of the Order, who also holds the title of High Master, is Father Frank Bayard. In 1515, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I made a marriage alliance with Sigismund I of Poland-Lithuania. Origins of the Teutonic Order . In the beginning, they were only substitutes of the Grandmaster but were able to create a power of their own so that, within their territory, the Grandmaster could not decide against their will. In the prologue of our Order's Book it reads: "Real knighthood does not only know the time-bound form of swordplay, which has passed; the actual composure of chivalrous men is rather expressed in their commitment for the Lord's kingdom, for protecting the defenceless, for helping the maltreated, those beset, the condemned and those in need." Noblemen served as Knight-brothers or Priest-brothers. Over time, the kings of Poland denounced the Order for expropriating their lands, specifically Chełmno Land and later the Polish lands of Pomerelia (also Pomorze Gdańskie or Pomerania), Kujawy, and Dobrzyń Land. The current seat of the 8th Clerical Grand Master is the Deutschordenskirche ("Church of the German Order") in Vienna. [year needed][10]. 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.