The Teutonic Order is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals. Its members have commonly been known as the Teutonic Knights, having a small voluntary and mercenary military membership, serving as a crusading military order for the protection of Christians in the Holy Land and the Baltics during the Middle Ages. Purely religious since 1810, the Teutonic Order still confers limited honorary knighthoods. The Bailiwick of Utrecht of the Teutonic Order, a Protestant chivalric order, is descended from the same medieval military order and also continues to award knighthoods and perform charitable work. Name The name of the Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem is in and in Latin Ordo domus Sanctae Mariae Theutonicorum Hierosolymitanorum. Thus the term "Teutonic" echoes the German origins of the order (Theutonicorum) in its Latin name. German-speakers commonly refer to the Deutscher Orden (official short name, literally "German Order"), historically also as Deutscher Ritterorden ("German Order of Knights"), Deutschherrenorden ("Order of the German Lords"), Deutschritterorden ("Order of the German Knights"), Marienritter ("Knights of Mary"), Die Herren im weißen Mantel ("The lords in white capes"), etc.. The Teutonic Knights have been known as Zakon Krzyżacki in Polish ("Order of the Cross") and as Kryžiuočių Ordinas in Lithuanian, Vācu Ordenis in Latvian, Saksa Ordu or, simply, Ordu ("The Order") in Estonian, as well as various names in other languages. A manuscript by Karl Marx once characterised the forces of the Order as Reitershunde – meaning something like a "pack of knights". Russian readers of Marx translated the phrase over-literally as "dog-knights" (Псы-рыцари), which became a widespread, pejorative label for the Order in the Russian language – especially after the 1938 release of Sergei Eisenstein's film Aleksandr Nevskij, which fictionalised the Knights' defeat in the Battle on the Ice of 1242. History The fraternity which preceded the formation of the Order was formed in the year 1191 in Acre by the German merchants from Bremen and Lübeck. After the capture of Acre they took over a hospital in the city to take care of the sick and began to describe themselves as the Hospital of St. Mary of the German House in Jerusalem. Soon Pope Clement