At a diet in Worms in December 1195, Wolfger took the cross. He traveled with Duke Frederick I of Austria on the Crusade of 1197. He was part of the group of German princes who elevated the fraternity of the Hospital of Saint Mary of the Germans at Acre into an order of knighthood, the Teutonic Order. On his return, he successfully petitioned Pope Innocent III to grant the order a papal charter in 1199.