There is indeed a different perception of the 1st battlle of tannenberg on the german and the Polish side. That it had nothing to dowith a clash of nations and races, shows the fact, that the german populated cities chose the king of poland as their sovereign. Nevertheless it were the cities and classes of Prussia, their wealth and will for emancipation, which led to the end of the order.
The battle was the battle between a medieval knight order and a even more modern Polish state in which the order lost and it became obvious, that the times of knights was gone. When they call the germans aggressors and speak of their "Drang nach Osten", they usually forget the Polish-Lithuanian "Drang nach Osten and Westen". They include the loss of Silesia, allthough it were Piasts, who called for german settlers and specialists and who gave their reign voluntarily to Bohemia and as part of that to the HRE and they don't take nto account, that not only germans tried to conquer the regions east between Elbe and oder river, but that the Polish kings tried the same as well. This perception does not take into account, that it was the duke of masovia who called the order, because he wasn't able to conquer the Prussians and needed help. It is based on the Polish perception of germans as permanently "ruthless land grabbers". So Edward's claim, that Germans saw it as bad defeat is simply not true and misinterpretated by a nationalistic myth, just 150 years old. and even for catholics it had not the meaning, which it became after 1850. For many protestants the defeat was the defeat of an medieval, out-dated catholic order from the times of the crusades.
The 15th century was as well the era of the beginning reformation. I have already mentioned them before.įor germans from 1410 till 1850 the defeat was a defeat of an order, who had lost the support of its people, the Prussian cities, the nobility. I said it a several times, it was a great defeat and the reparations were impressiv as well, but, that was even supported by Edward's sources, the real reasons for the decline were others. Click to expand.The Poles were surprisingly not able to conquer the "total defeated" order and the order was able to exist and to fight for decades.
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