Travel Guide "Remembrance Connects Region Oder-Warta"

43 A h i stor i ca l ly common cultura l area A h i stor i ca l ly common cultura l area independent „regional branch“ of the Knights of St John Order, with its centre in Sonnenburg, today‘s Słońsk. Early on, the Balley Brandenburg focused on managing large estates, thus gradually separating itself from the main Order, which, finally as the Order of Malta, waged war until the 18 th century. The St John‘s Jerusalem Hospital Order of Knights (Order of St John) has a centuries-long history, with its origins in a pilgrims‘ hospital dedicated to St John the Baptist in Jerusalem in 1048 . Since then, the Knights of St John have seen their two-fold mission to be reaching out to the sick and the poor as well as defending the Christian faith. At the latest with conversion of Balley Brandenburg to the Protestant faith from 1538 onwards, the separation from the otherwise overall Catholic order was complete, without Balley separating completely from it. They were responsible for the Knights of St John‘s Sonnenburg Castle along with other order castles, administrative seats and churches on both sides of the Oder River, for example, in Friedland, Łagów, Świebodzin or Sulęcin. The work of the Knights of St John had a decisive influence on the development of the Oder-Warthe region. Under the Dutch Master Johann Moritz von Nassau-Siegen, the Order reorganised and rebuilt itself after the Thirty Years‘ War. In the 18 th century, he was instru- mental in draining the Warthebruch marshland and he founded about 40 new villages and outworks on the resulting land area. At around 1790 , the Balley estate comprised a total of over 100 rural settlements. The Knights of St John created work and income and provided some health care for the population. After Prussia‘s defeat by Napoleon in 1806 , the Order‘s large estates were dissolved and transferred to the King- dom of Prussia. After a transitional period as a Prussian honorary order, in 1852 / 53 the Knights of St John returned to their original Jerusalem concept of focusing on caring for the sick, with a growing number of hospi- tal facilities. During the First World War, the Knights of St John distinguished themselves through their strong com- mitment to organised care for the sick and disabled. The Second World War led to persecution and death of nine Knights of St John in the resistance. Count Carl-Hans von Hardenberg, a knight of the Order who helped orga- nise the 1944 Hitler assassination attempt from Neuhardenberg Castle and was also arrested, narrowly survi- ved the war. The region had become divided with the end of the war, and former religious sites east of the Oder became difficult to reach. Moreover, almost all Protestant churches in the Polish People‘s Republic were expro- priated and converted into Catholic churches. Members of Protestant denominations had to reckon with repression right up until the 1970 s. As the legal successors to part of the Order of the Knights Templar, which was dissolved by papal decree in 1312 , the Knights of St John also expanded their possessions in what was then Mark Brandenburg with numerous estates, settlements and villages. This is where, until 1382 , the „Balley Brandenburg“ was developed as an Today, the Knights of St John are mainly focused on working for people – in health care, sanitation and chari- table services – which to a consider- able extent is based on non-profit work. They are sponsors of care facilities for the elderly and hospitals, as well as of the Knights of St John accident relief, sisterhood, and support community organisations (Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe, Johanniter-Schwesternschaft and Johanniter-Hilfsgemeinschaften). The Protestant Knights of St John schools are located in Wriezen. Their worldwide foreign aid reaches from South America to Southeast Asia. The Knights of St John Brandenburg Provincial Cooperative organisation (formerly the Balley Brandenburg) is an „association under old law“ with its headquarters in Potsdam. The history of the Knights of St John Order in the Oder-Warthe region is exciting and multifaceted and can be easily traced in many locations. From 2020 – 2022 , as part of a German- Polish funding project, the „Traces of the Knights of St John in the Oder- Warthe Region“ were divided into four sub-areas and connected via local and regional routes. The centre for this offering is the ruin of the Order‘s former Sonnenburg Castle n Słońsk. www.slady-joannitow.pl The Order of St John in the Oder-Warthe region Discover tranquil towns and villages, legendary castles and palaces, or historic churches while walking in the footsteps of this order of knights. 42