d. 1200 · First master of the Teutonic Knights (1198–1200)
Heinrich Walpot
After the German hospital brotherhood at Acre became a military order in 1198, he was the first master of the Teutonic Knights.
BIOGRAPHICAL DOSSIER
Life and historical role
Life and political setting
Heinrich Walpot most likely belonged to a family from the Rhineland. During the Third Crusade he served in the hospital brotherhood founded for German pilgrims at the siege of Acre.
Role in the Crusades
In March 1198 the princes and clergy taking part in the German Crusade of 1197–1198 met at Acre and turned the German hospital brotherhood into a military order on the Templar model. Heinrich Walpot was elected the new order's first master and oversaw the process of obtaining papal approval.
Historical significance and source problems
Heinrich's tenure was short and little is known about him; the information relies largely on the order's foundation narrative written later (Narratio de primordiis ordinis Theutonici). The order later became a great power under Hermann von Salza.
Biographical information is linked to the sources shown on the page and to the connected event records. Disputed dates are given as approximate, gaps are not filled by conjecture, and later literary or visual depictions are not treated as contemporary portraits.