Serious Question, I don‘t mean to offend anyone!
Greetings!
So my question is: Why do some Polish People hate the Teutonic Order today?
My question may be controversial as I‘ve noticed some Polish are a bit radical about that, but I do not mean to provoke or insult anyone, or sound political or religious in any way. I am just an extremely curious historian who is confused about the causation.
I am very well aware of the shared history, and I know they were not pretty happy about each other 500years ago.
But why would people hate a catholic Order which helps a lot of people nowadays?
I know many think the Order is related to Prussia or Germany, and some nationalistic Germans think the Teutonic Order is their "ancestor", but both is horribly anachronistic and factually wrong.
Polish and Teutonic Knights even fought on the same side in several wars later in history, for example:
The Thirty Years War
The Deluge
Great Turkish War
War of the Polish Succession
So I really don‘t understand why there is so much hate in modern times, I know there was the Polish Nationalism which also confused Germans with the Order and then there was the Third Reich where they used Symbols of the Order and it‘s history to justify atrocities, even thou the Order was banned in Germany during that time.
Again I want to mention that I do not mean to provoke or insult anyone. This is a part of history I can not learn about in a book, so I think asking here might be my best source.
Thank you very much!
Posted Aug 27, 2026, 1:13 PM UTC