Besides the orders of the Hospitallers and Templars, which were international in character, a knightly order with a strongly ethnic character was set up - an order of German knights. In the beginning, it was associated with the Order of the Hospitallers. A German hospital, hostel, and church were probably founded during the reign of Baldwin I. Official recognition of the Teutonic Knights as a separate order only came when in February 1199, Pope Innocent III gave the order the approval and authority of the Church. John of Wurtzburg describes the building they constructed, known as "St. Mary of the German Knights": "When you go down this street, next to the gate which leads to the Temple, to the right there is a small passage lined with columns, and in this street there are a hostel and a church which were recently built in honor of St. Mary, and this is called "the German building," where anyone who speaks any other language can barely receive a blessing." |
    |
