Many German cities were named with "burg," such as Hamburg, Wittenberg, Wartburg, Neuschwanstein Castle, and so on. This was because castles were an important feature of medieval cities. In addition, this vast region where Germany lay had long been thrown into chaos by feuding princes. Vikings pressed in from the north, the people of France from the west, and the Russian Empire and Ottoman Empire from the east. In such a fragmented situation, building high-walled castles for mutual self-preservation was a wise choice.
Hamburg was somewhat unique. It lay along the Alster River and was one of the members of the Hanseatic League. Although the Hanseatic League had vanished, the model of autonomous cities it left behind remained. It differed from the feudal system, having been established according to charters and Lübeck Law.
Feudalism required enfeoffment before development could take place. When a king needed to wage war abroad, even if that war had nothing to do with a feudal lord, the lord still had to send troops. Boundaries had to be drawn during enfeoffment, and prosperous commercial cities like Hamburg were considered desirable land. Feudal lords wanted them included within their own territories, while Hamburg did not wish to be squeezed dry by them. Thus, they joined the Hanseatic League.
The Teutonic Knights might not have been good at naval warfare, but in Germany at the time, few armies could contend with the Teutonic Order. When the Teutonic Knights became the State of the Teutonic Order, the North German cities that had joined the Hanseatic League gained a certain degree of autonomy. The Teutonic Knights' soldiers mainly came from Saxony and Hesse within the Holy Roman Empire.
The State of the Teutonic Order had not been granted by the Holy Roman Emperor. At first, they obeyed the pope's orders