Outside Looking In
Malbork was established as the capital (corporate headquarters) in 1309 for the Teutonic Knights and even though they had made sworn enemies of both the Poles and the Lithuanians and aroused the disciplinary vexation of the Vatican, the knights were viewed throughout Europe as a formidable mob. Northern Poland was theirs, and their control of the amber trade route as well as the Hanseatic cities reaped them untold riches