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Currently Playing: Grunwald 1410: How a Medieval Battle Became a Polish National Myth

If you like my videos and want to support me, then you can do that here: https://www.patreon.com/c/SirManateee Thank you :) Tips: https://ko-fi.com/sirmanatee In July 1410, the forces of the Teutonic Order and the combined armies of Poland and Lithuania clashed on a field near Grunwald, East Prussia. The battle ended in a complete military disaster for the Teutons, who then only barely managed to defend their headquarters, the Marienburg, against the attackers. Even though the Order got presented rather lenient peace terms in the following year, Grunwald marked the beginning of the end of Teutonic rule in Prussia and the Baltic Region. In this video, we will take a closer look at how this battle of Grunwald managed to become such a central Polish national myth. We’ll see how it got ‘rediscovered’ in the 19th century, why Prussian germanisation policies paved the way for the battle’s popularity and why the German generals in WW1 decided to name the famous Battle of Tannenberg the way they did. The story of Grunwald is fascinating mainly because it also reveals a lot about how national identities get formed and how they change over time. Literature: - Afflerbach, Holger: Auf Messers Schneide. Wie das Deutsche Reich den Ersten Weltkrieg verlor, München 2018. - Arnold, Udo: Deutscher Orden, in: Online-Lexikon zur Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa, 2013. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p32858 (accessed on 29.03.2026). - Bömelburg, Hans-Jürgen: Vergessen neben Erinnern. Die brüchige Erinnerung an die Schlacht bei Tannenberg/Grunwald in der deutschen und polnischen Öffentlichkeit, in: Uni Gießen 2012. URL: https://www.uni-giessen.de/de/fbz/fb04/institute/geschichte/osteuropa/karteikartenseiten/personen-neu/boemelburg-hans-juergen/publikationen-verlinkung Bomelburg_Tannenberg_Vergessen%20und%20Erinnern.pdf. - Borodziej, Włodzimierz: Geschichte Polens im 20. Jahrhundert, München 2010. - Davies, Norman: God’s Playground. Volume I, The Origins to 1795, Revised Edition, New York 2005. - Ekdahl, Sven: Tannenberg/Grunwald—ein politisches Symbol in Deutschland und Polen, in: Journal of Baltic Studies 22 (1991), Nr. 4, pp. 271-324. - Ekdahl, Sven: The Battle of Tannenberg-Grunwald-Žalgiris (1410) as Reflected in Twentieth-Century Monuments, in: Mallia-Milanes, Victor (Ed.): The Military Orders, Volume 3. History and Heritage, London & New York 2016, pp. 175-194. - Kożuchowski, Adam: The Devil Wears White. Teutonic Knights and the Problem of Evil in Polish Historiography, in: East Central Europe 46 (2019), pp. 135-155. - Mick, Christoph: «Den Vorvätern zum Ruhm – den Brüdern zur Ermutigung». Variationen zum Thema Grunwald/Tannenberg, in: zeitenblicke 3 (2004), Nr. 1, URL: https://dipp.archiv.hbz-nrw.de/journals/https://www.zeitenblicke.de/2004/01/mick/index.html (accessed on 03.04.2026). - Olivier, Mathieu: Schlacht bei Tannenberg. Erfolg und Scheitern von Siegesmythen, in: Hahn, Hans Henning & Traba, Robert (Ed.): Deutsch-Polnische Erinnerungsorte. Band 1: Geteilt/Gemeinsam, Paderborn 2015, pp. 283-300. - Sarnowsky, Jürgen: Der Deutsche Orden, 3rd edition, München 2022. Chapters: 0:00 The Battle of Grunwald 7:21 Subjugation of the Teutonic Order 10:22 Grunwald in Early Modern Historiography 14:05 The 'Rediscovery' of Grunwald 22:23 Demonisation of the Teutons 27:33 Hindenburg and the Battle of Tannenberg 31:01 WW2 34:52 Grunwald in the People's Republic 40:43 Nationalism and its Role 45:17 Outro