When was the Imperial German Navy established?
Imperial German Navy
The Imperial German Navy (, "Imperial Navy") was the navy created at the time of the formation of the German Empire. It existed between 1871 and 1919, growing out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the "North German Federal Navy"), which primarily had the mission of coastal defence. Kaiser Wilhelm II greatly expanded the navy, and enlarged its mission. The key leader was Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, who greatly expanded the size and quality of the navy, while adopting the sea power theories of American strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan. The result was a naval arms race with Britain as the German navy grew to become one of the greatest maritime forces in the world, second only to the Royal Navy. The German surface navy proved ineffective during World War I; its only major engagement, the Battle of Jutland, was indecisive. However, the submarine fleet was greatly expanded and posed a major threat to the British supply system. The Imperial Navy's main ships were turned over to the Allies, but were sunk at Scapa Flow in 1919 by German crews.
Wilhelm II, German Emperor
In 1889 Wilhelm reorganised top level control of the navy by creating a Naval Cabinet ("Marine-Kabinett") equivalent to the German Imperial Military Cabinet which had previously functioned in the same capacity for both the army and navy. The Head of the Naval Cabinet was responsible for promotions, appointments, administration, and issuing orders to naval forces. Captain Gustav von Senden-Bibran was appointed as the first head and remained so until 1906. The existing Imperial admiralty was abolished, and its responsibilities divided between two organisations. A new position was created, equivalent to the supreme commander of the army: the Chief of the High Command of the Admiralty, or "Oberkommando der Marine", was responsible for ship deployments, strategy and tactics. Vice-Admiral Max von der Goltz was appointed in 1889 and remained in post until 1895. Construction and maintenance of ships and obtaining supplies was the responsibility of the State Secretary of the Imperial Navy Office (Reichsmarineamt), responsible to the Imperial Chancellor and advising the "Reichstag" on naval matters. The first appointee was Rear Admiral Karl Eduard Heusner, followed shortly by Rear Admiral Friedrich von Hollmann from 1890 to 1897. Each of these three heads of department reported separately to Wilhelm.
Prussian Navy
For 150 years Prussia — unlike all other European powers — declined to develop its own navy. Not until the 1848-1852 war against Denmark did Prussia recognize the necessity of having at least a minimal naval force to protect maritime interests. But after only 15 years, Prussia handed over its young naval forces to the rising centralized German state, an act which would have been unthinkable for the Prussian Army. The Navy was handed over first to the North German Confederation and in 1871, as the Imperial Navy, to the new German Empire.
Anglo-German naval arms race
The passage of the Second Naval Act in Germany increased worry among British policymakers. In 1902, First Lord of the Admiralty Selborne, Tirpitz's British counterpart, told his fellow Cabinet members that the German navy was being built with an eye for war with Britain. Admiral Jacky Fisher was appointed First Sea Lord (professional head of the Royal Navy) in 1904, and massively reorganized the Royal Navy by bringing most of Britain's navy force close to the home isles. He also set up a committee to design a new super battleship, which especially in the wake of the May 1905 Battle of Tsushima seemed to be the future of naval warfare. was launched in February 1906, just 14 months after being approved. "Jane's Fighting Ships" noted that HMS "Dreadnought" was equivalent to two or three normal battleships. 
In the beginning of 1905, the German naval attache in Britain reported to Tirpitz that the British were planning a new class of battleship. That summer, Tirpitz consulted with his advisers; by autumn, he had decided that Germany would match the British naval building plan. Scholars highlight that Imperial German decision-making was so incoherent that Tirpitz could make this decision without consulting the Chancellor, foreign ministry, treasury, the naval strategic planning offices, or the two other naval offices: the Naval High Command and Naval Cabinet. He presented his new supplementary naval bill to the Reichstag, envisioning a 35% increase in spending over the Second Naval Act to build two dreadnoughts and one armored cruiser per year. The bill encountered fierce opposition from across the political spectrum because of the growing government budget balance and resistance by the Reichstag to raising taxes. Fortunately for the bill, the Algeciras Conference that concluded in April 1906 after the First Moroccan Crisis inflamed German nationalist sentiment against Britain and France and the third naval law passed easily in May 1906.
Imperial German Navy
By the start of the First World War, the German Imperial Navy possessed 22 pre-Dreadnoughts, 14 dreadnought battleships and 4 battle-cruisers. A further three ships of the were completed between August and November 1914, and two s entered service in 1916. The battlecruisers , , and were completed in September 1914, March 1916, and May 1917, respectively.
RAF Coastal Area
Despite the fact that Britain had been caused severe difficulty by the U-boat campaign in the First World War, the Admiralty completely ignored the threat of the submarine until the late 1930s. The Royal Navy had founded its traditional defensive strength on the battleship, which was used to defend its waters and merchant fleets. This weapon had proved incapable of countering U-boats during the war. The Admiralty also ignored the damage caused by submarines and regarded them as ineffective defensive weapons. Given the disarmament of Germany there seemed little offensive threat. Even after the rise of Adolf Hitler and the birth of the "Third Reich", there seemed little inclination or will toward rearming Britain's ASW air forces. To the contrary, the Anglo-German Naval agreement signed in June 1935, allowed the Germans to build German U-boat strength to one-third the displacement tonnage of the entire Royal Navy. In fact, the Germans had been developing submarines as early as 1922, despite the Treaty of Versailles and the banning of German military submarines.
Pola Flotilla
The Pola flotilla ("U-Flottille Pola") was an Imperial German Navy (IGN) formation set up to prosecute the U-boat campaign against Allied shipping in the Mediterranean during the First World War in support of Germany’s ally, the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was formed in 1915 from the previously established "U-Halbflottille Pola" ("German U-Boat Half-Flotilla, Pola"). Despite its official name, it operated mainly from an advanced base at Cattaro in the Adriatic.
Imperial German Navy
The Imperial German Navy's rank and rating system combined that of Prussia's with the navies of other northern states.
List of German Federal Navy ships
The list of German Federal Navy ships includes all ships commissioned into service with the Bundesmarine, the German navy which served West Germany during the Cold War from its foundation in 1956 through the unification of Germany in 1990, after which it was renamed German Navy ("Deutsche Marine") in 1995. Dates listed are—with some exceptions—the years a given vessel was "in commission".
Organization of the Kriegsmarine
The following personnel served as Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy from the inception of the Kriegsmarine in 1935 until the downfall of Nazi Germany ten years later.Internal to the OKM were several additional offices, the most important of which was the "Seekriegsleitung" (SKL), which coordinated naval warfare and operational plans. Offices also existed for naval construction, weapons, as well as general office for naval affairs ("Allgemeines Marineamt"). A supply and logistics office, known as the "Marinekommandoamt", was in charge of all quartermaster needs.
SM UB-16
By early 1916, the British blockade of Germany was beginning to have an effect on Germany and her imports. The Royal Navy had stopped and seized more cargo destined for Germany than the quantity of cargo sunk by German U-boats in the first submarine offensive. As a result, the German Imperial Navy began a second offensive against merchant shipping on 29 February. The final ground rules agreed upon by the German "Admiralstab" were that all enemy vessels in Germany's self-proclaimed war zone would be destroyed without warning, that enemy vessels outside the war zone would be destroyed only if armed, and—to avoid antagonizing the United States—that enemy passenger steamers were not to be attacked, regardless of whether in the war zone or not.
History of submarines
The Germans were slower to recognize the importance of this new weapon. A submersible was initially ordered by the Imperial Russian Navy from the Kiel shipyard in 1904, but cancelled after the Russo-Japanese War ended. One example was modified and improved, then commissioned into the Imperial German Navy in 1906 as its first U-boat, "U-1". It had a double hull, was powered by a Körting kerosene engine and was armed with a single torpedo tube. The fifty percent larger "SM U-2" had two torpedo tubes. A diesel engine was not installed in a German navy boat until the class of 1912–13. At the start of World War I, Germany had 20 submarines of 13 classes in service with more under construction.
List of cruisers of Germany
Starting in the 1880s, the German "Kaiserliche Marine" (Imperial Navy) began building a series of cruisers. The first designs—protected and unprotected—were ordered to replace aging sail and steam-powered frigates and corvettes that were of minimal combat value. After several iterations of each type, these cruisers were developed into armored and light cruisers, respectively, over the following decade. All of these ships were built to fill a variety of roles, including scouts for the main battle fleet and colonial cruisers for Germany's overseas empire. The armored cruisers in turn led to the first German battlecruiser, .
German Naval Intelligence Service
Within the High Command of the Navy (Oberkommando der Marine), the Naval Intelligence department was incorporated into the Department of Naval Warfare and Operations (3/Skl) (German:Seekriegsleitung) on 1 October 1937. At the same time, the Navy Intelligence message inspection emerged from the torpedo Inspectorate as an independent Department of the Baltic Sea naval station. The sections were now calledThe General Navy Office (B) founded the Department of Technical Communications at the same time. It was affiliated to the Admiralty main office when the war started as the official group NWa.
German Naval Laws
Germany's real threat to the Royal Navy began with the Second Naval Law. During the Second Boer War (1899–1902), the Germans greatly sympathized with the Boers, whom they considered a racially and culturally akin people. In January 1900, British cruisers on patrol detained three German mail steamers off the coast of Africa to search them, suspecting them of carrying materiel to the Boers. Although the British quickly apologized, the Germans were outraged, and Admiral von Tirpitz took advantage of the anger to introduce a new naval bill, which passed through the Reichstag with very little opposition on June 20 of that year. This law doubled the size of the fleet from 19 to 38 battleships; two flagships, four battle squadrons of eight battleships each, and four reserve battleships were to be constructed over seventeen years, from 1901 to 1917. This law made clear that not only was the German Navy to be a powerful battle fleet instead of a coastal defence force (in the process turning Germany into the second-strongest naval power in the world), but that the primary opponent of this enlarged fleet was to be the United Kingdom.
Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy () was the navy of the Russian Empire. It was formally established in 1696 and lasted until being dissolved during the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from a smaller force that had existed prior to Czar Peter the Great's founding the regular Russian Navy during the Second Azov campaign. It was expanded in the second half of the 18th century and by the early part of the 19th century, it reached its peak strength, behind only the British and French fleets in terms of size.
Marinestation der Nordsee
The Marinestation der Nordsee (North Sea Naval Station) of the German Imperial Navy Kaiserliche Marine at Wilhelmshaven, Germany came out of the efforts of the navy of the North German Confederation. The land was obtained for the Confederation from the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg  by Prince Adalbert of Prussia through the Jade Treaty of 1853. The naval station was established on 19 May 1870, and became the ‘Imperial’ station with the proclamation of the German Empire in 1871.
Imperial German plans for the invasion of the United States
Germany's first plan was to attack naval power on the US East Coast and thus gain a free hand to establish a German naval base in the Caribbean, and to negotiate for another in the Pacific. Naval Lieutenant Eberhard von Mantey (later Admiral and a naval historian) was assigned the task of drawing up the plans. Mantey, then 28 years old, began the work in late 1897, working through the winter into 1898. The secret plans were referred to as Mantey's "winter correspondence". With support from the Kaiser, Tirpitz formed a plan to create a navy worthy of Germany's imperial ambitions, called the Tirpitz Plan. The Kaiser directed a series of naval expansions, collectively called the German Naval Laws, to bring his goal closer to fruition. The Imperial German Navy had already started building powerful new battleships such as the which was to be completed by 1902.
Schutztruppe
Schutztruppe formations under the supreme command of the German Emperor were organizationally never a part of the Imperial German Army, though German military law and discipline applied to its units. Initially supervised by the Imperial Navy Office, they were under the authority of the Colonial Department in the German Foreign Office by the act of 7 and 18 July 1896. In 1907 the Colonial Department with the Schutztruppe command was set up as the independent Imperial Colonial Office ("Reichskolonialamt") agency directly answerable to the German chancellor.
List of battleships of Germany
The German navies—specifically the Kaiserliche Marine and Kriegsmarine of Imperial and Nazi Germany, respectively—built a series of battleships between the 1890s and 1940s. To defend its North and Baltic Sea coasts in wartime, Germany had previously built a series of smaller ironclad warships, including coastal defense ships, and armored frigates. With the accession to the throne of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1888, the Kaiserliche Marine began a program of naval expansion befitting a Great Power. The navy immediately pushed for the construction of the four s, after which soon followed five ships. The appointment of Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz to the post of State Secretary of the Navy in 1897 accelerated naval construction. Tirpitz's "risk theory" planned a fleet that would be sufficiently powerful so that Great Britain, then the world's preeminent naval power, would avoid risking war with Germany in order to preserve its superiority.
Imperial German Navy
All ships of the Imperial Navy were designated "SMS", for "Seiner Majestät Schiff" ("His Majesty's Ship").
Edwardian era
After 1805 the dominance of Britain's Royal Navy was unchallenged; in the 1890s Germany decided to match it. Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz (1849 – 1930) dominated German naval policy from 1897 until 1916. Before the Germany Empire formed in 1871, Prussia never had a real navy, nor did the other German states. Tirpitz turned the modest little fleet into a world-class force that could threaten the British Royal Navy. The British responded with new technology typified by the Dreadnought revolution. It made every battleship obsolete and, supplemented by the global network of coaling stations and telegraph cables, enabled Britain to stay well in the lead in naval affairs.
Torpedo-boats of the German Navy (1871-1919)
Torpedo boats had been operated by the Imperial German Navy (German: "Kaiserliche Marine") from the very beginning. The "Imperial Navy" existed between 1871 and 1919. In 1870 there had been 14 tugboats and harbour vessels and 7 rowing boats, which had been armed with spar torpedos to protect Elbe and Weser during the Franco-Prussian War.
Navy League (Germany)
The unification of Germany under Prussian leadership in 1871 was the defining point for the desire of German nationalists to have a great, world class navy. The newly created emperor, Wilhelm I, as king of Prussia, was head of state of the strongest state forming part of the new empire. His Prussian Navy had become the navy of the North German Confederation in 1867, and now became the Imperial German Navy.
List of flags of the German Navy (1935–1945)
The Reichskriegsflagge, which was introduced on 7 November 1935, was widely used in the Wehrmacht. Thus, it also served the Kriegsmarine as the naval ensign, which was hoisted on Flag days regardless of the location of the ship. These were the 1 January (New year), the 18 January (founding day of the Empire 1871), the 30 January ("day of national survey"), the 20 April (Hitler's birthday), the 1 May ("Labor Day") and 31 May (memory of the Battle of Jutland). In addition, ships in home waters, had to hoist the Reichskriegsflagge on these following days: on 1 March (reintegration of the Saarland), on 29 August (the day of the founding of the Prussian Navy in 1859), on the first Sunday after Michaelmas and on the day of the Harvest festival. Regardless of these days, all warships that received a head of state were obliged to show the Reichskriegsflagge.
German Naval Intelligence Service
The primary target of the News Service was the British Royal Navy, the largest and most powerful navy of the time. From its establishment in 1901, it sought to recruit a network of agents around the world to observe the movement of foreign warships, which in practice meant principally British ships. Political considerations led the service to also focus attention on the French Navy. The organisation recruited two types of agents: fleet observers, rapporteur () or (BE's) and confidential men () or (VM's). BE's were originally intended to gather intelligence on foreign naval movements while VMs were to help supply German warships in wartime. The commanders of individual German battleships were responsible for recruiting agents in each of their ports of call. To protect agent networks, all communications with BE's were routed exclusively through "main correspondents" () or HBE's who were responsible for providing them with codes, wireless telegraphs and other secret communications equipment during periods of international tension or war.
German Imperial Naval High Command
After the dissolution of the German Imperial Admiralty (Kaiserliche Admiralität) on 1 April 1889, the Imperial Naval High Command, the Office of the Inspector-General of the Navy, and the Imperial Naval Office (Reichsmarineamt) were established as successor institutions. The Imperial Naval High Command was headed by a commanding admiral, directly subordinate to the emperor, Wilhelm II of Germany. With the same obligations and rights as a commanding general of the army, this admiral fulfilled the duties of a Chief of the Naval Staff. Under instructions from the emperor, he commanded all naval units at sea and ashore.
Prussian Navy
The naval preference of the last Prussian king, German Emperor Wilhelm II, prepared the end of the Prussian monarchy. The German naval buildup of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was one of the causes of World War I; and it was the mutinying sailors of the High Seas Fleet who forced the abdication of the Emperor during the German Revolution of 1918–1919. The Navy continued as the Reichsmarine ("Reich Navy") and later the Kriegsmarine ("War Navy"), until at the end of World War II, it faced its own end.
Flag officers of the Kriegsmarine
Flag officers of the Kriegsmarine were the leadership of the German Navy (known then as the "Kriegsmarine") from 1935 to 1945. Most flag officers had also served as officers of the Reichsmarine, as well as the Imperial German Navy during World War I. German naval flag officers were divided into five Admiralty ranks while a senior captain rank, known as "Kommodore" also existed. The Kriegsmarine flag officers were responsible for holding the senior most naval positions within the organization of the Kriegsmarine.
History of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom
After 1805 the dominance of Britain's Royal Navy was unchallenged; in the 1890s Germany decided to match it. Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz (1849 – 1930) dominated German naval policy from 1897 until 1916. Before the German Empire formed in 1871, Prussia never had a real navy, nor did the other German states. Tirpitz turned the modest little fleet into a world-class force that could threaten the British Royal Navy. The British responded with new technology typified by the Dreadnought revolution. It made every battleship obsolete and, supplemented by the global network of coaling stations and telegraph cables, enabled Britain to stay well in the lead in naval affairs.
Naval Historical Team
The group considered itself an incubator of a future West German navy, an aspiration culminating in Ruge's appointment as the first inspector of the "Bundesmarine", with Wagner as his deputy, in 1957. The primary interest of the U.S. Navy was in the German war experiences fighting against the Soviet Navy, which the U.S. Navy wanted to leverage in a possible war at sea with the Soviet Union. The findings of the NHT significantly influenced the conception of the new "Bundesmarine" formed in 1956.
List of cruisers of Germany
Starting in the mid-1880s, the German Navy began to modernize its cruising force, which at that time relied on a mixed collection of sail and steam frigates and corvettes. General Leo von Caprivi, then the Chief of the "Kaiserliche Marine" (Imperial Navy), ordered several new warships, including two s laid down in 1886, the first protected cruisers to be built in Germany. Design work on their successor, , began the following year, though she was not laid down until 1890. Five more ships of the followed in the mid-1890s. These ships, the last protected cruisers built in Germany, provided the basis for the armored cruisers that were built starting at the end of the decade. All of these ships were intended to serve both as fleet scouts and overseas cruisers, since Germany's limited naval budget prevented development of ships optimized for each task.
Naval brigade
During the German Revolution of 1918–19 mutineering sailors of the Imperial German Navy formed the "Volksmarinedivision", the best trained and organised force available to the revolutionary socialists they defeated regular army troops and battled the rightwing freikorps over the direction of postwar Germany.
Imperial Brazilian Navy
The Imperial Brazilian Navy (Portuguese: "Armada Nacional", commonly known as "Armada Imperial") was the navy created at the time of the independence of the Empire of Brazil from the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. It existed between 1822 and 1889 during the vigency of the constitutional monarchy. The Navy was formed almost entirely by ships, staff, organizations and doctrines proceeding from the transference of the Portuguese Royal Family in 1808. Some of its members were native-born Brazilians, who under Portugal had been forbidden to serve. Other members were Portuguese who adhered to the cause of separation and German and Irish mercenaries. Some establishments created by King João VI were used and incorporated. Under the reign of Emperor Pedro II the Navy was greatly expanded to become the fifth most powerful navy in the world and the armed force more popular and loyal to the Brazilian monarchy. The republican coup d'état in 1889, led by army men, put an end to the Imperial Navy that fell into decay until the new century.
Imperial German Navy
On 18 June 1897 Rear-Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was appointed State Secretary of the Navy, where he remained for nineteen years. Tirpitz advocated the cause of an expanded navy necessary for Germany to defend her territories abroad. He had great success in persuading parliament to pass successive Navy bills authorising expansions of the fleet. German foreign policy as espoused by Otto von Bismarck had been to deflect the interest of great powers abroad while Germany consolidated her integration and military strength. Now Germany was to compete with the rest. Tirpitz started with a publicity campaign aimed at popularising the navy. He created popular magazines about the navy, arranged for Alfred Thayer Mahan's "The Influence of Sea Power upon History", which argued the importance of naval forces, to be translated into German and serialised in newspapers, arranged rallies in support and invited politicians and industrialists to naval reviews. Various pressure groups were formed to lobby politicians and spread publicity. One such organisation, the navy league or "Flottenverein", was organized by principals in the steel industry (Alfred Krupp), ship yards and banks, gaining more than one million members. Political parties were offered concessions, such as taxes on imported grain, in exchange for their support for naval bills.
German Imperial Naval Office
When in 1897 Konteradmiral Alfred von Tirpitz succeeded State Secretary Friedrich von Hollmann, who had resigned in a dispute on the naval budget, he made the Naval Office the power base in his campaign to build a great German High Seas Fleet to encounter Britain's Royal Navy. According to the theories of US admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan and his book "The Influence of Sea Power upon History", the "Tirpitz Plan" was established jointly with Foreign State Secretary Bernhard von Bülow and, in interaction with the British Naval Defence Act 1889, fuelled the Anglo-German naval arms race. Tirpitz had urged for the dissolution of the Imperial Naval High Command in 1899, which gave him even more power but proved as fatal in World War I.
Germany–United Kingdom relations
The German Navy, under Tirpitz, had ambitions to rival the great British Navy and dramatically expanded its fleet in the early 20th century to protect the colonies and to exert power worldwide. Tirpitz started a programme of warship construction in 1898. In 1890, to protect its new fleet. Germany traded the strategic island of Heligoland in the North Sea with Britain. In exchange Britain gained the Eastern African island of Zanzibar, where it proceeded to construct a naval base. The British, however, were always well ahead in the naval race and introduced the highly-advanced "Dreadnought" battleship in 1907.
Naval regions and districts of the Kriegsmarine
Germany had maintained a naval presence in the Baltic Sea since the 19th century, and in 1865 the earliest continuous command in the area, the Marinestation der Ostsee, was established in Kiel. By June 1935, the Reichsmarine had established a position known as "Der Chef der Marinestation der Ostsee". In November 1938, the Kriegsmarine created the post of "Der Kommandierende General der Marinestation der Ostsee", also headquartered at Kiel. The region was commanded by a full admiral (or general admiral) with a deputy known as the "2. Admiral der Ostseestation".
Imperial German Navy
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Imperial German Navy
In 1889 Wilhelm II reorganised top level control of the navy by creating a Navy Cabinet (Marine-Kabinett) equivalent to the German Imperial Military Cabinet which had previously functioned in the same capacity for both the army and navy. The Head of the navy cabinet was responsible for promotions, appointments, administration and issuing orders to naval forces. Captain Gustav von Senden-Bibran was appointed as its first head and remained so until 1906, when he was replaced by the long-serving Admiral Georg Alexander von Müller. The existing Imperial admiralty was abolished and its responsibilities divided between two organisations. A new position of Chief of the Imperial Naval High Command was created, being responsible for ship deployments, strategy and tactics, an equivalent to the supreme commander of the Army. Vice admiral Max von der Goltz was appointed in 1889 and remained in post until 1895. Construction and maintenance of ships and obtaining supplies was the responsibility of the State Secretary of the Imperial Navy Office (Reichsmarineamt), responsible to the chancellor and advising the Reichstag on naval matters. The first appointee was Rear Admiral Karl Eduard Heusner, followed shortly by Rear Admiral Friedrich von Hollmann from 1890 to 1897. Each of these three heads of department reported separately to Wilhelm II.
In 1895 funding was agreed for five battleships of the , completed by 1902. The ships were innovative for their time, introducing a complex system of watertight compartments and storing coal along the sides of the ship to help absorb explosions. However, the ships went against the trend for increasingly larger main guns, having smaller diameter guns than the "Brandenburg" design, but with a quick-loading design and more powerful secondary armaments. Costs rose to 21 million marks each, as had size to 11,500 tons.
Fliegerführer Atlantik
The Imperial German Navy () conducted successful aerial operations in the North Sea in World War I. The German Naval Air Corps () was successful in gaining air superiority and proved effective in anti-shipping operations. Despite battling bravely in the war the navy, unlike the German Army, lacked a major victory. The Army's success in contrast could be traced back to the Napoleonic Wars and there was a tradition in learning from past experiences. When the "Reichsmarine" was instituted by the Weimar Government (1919–1933), German naval officers were conscious of their wartime record and their status as the junior service. All of this contributed to the reluctance to undertake an examination of naval air operations. By 1921 the "Reichsmarine" had not made much progress in building a new air service. It possessed only 15 pilots.
List of admirals of Germany
The rank of admiral was the highest rank until the rank of Großadmiral was introduced in 1905. Prince Adalbert of Prussia was the first and only admiral of the Prussian Navy and later the Navy of the North German Confederation. The rank was not used in the Imperial German Navy until 1892. In the Reichsmarine Admiral was again the highest of three flag officer ranks. With the creation of the Kriegsmarine and the expansion of the fleet a new rank, Generaladmiral, was introduced in 1936, followed by the rank of Großadmiral in 1939. Thus the rank of admiral became the third-lowest, roughly equivalent of a general in the Heer or Luftwaffe. When the Bundeswehr was formed in 1955 Admiral became the highest rank again. The Volksmarine of the National People's Army of the German Democratic Republic used ranks similar to those in the Soviet Navy. While technically there was a rank of Flottenadmiral (Fleet Admiral), Admiral was the highest rank any naval officer achieved.
Navy League (Germany)
The German naval policy changed decisively upon the accession of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1888 and the resignation of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck two years later. As the Scramble for Africa intensified, Germany's ambitions shifted from a European context to a world scene Weltpolitik. Germany's leaders sought a place in the sun which they believed to be commensurate with its rising industrial strength, primarily by the creation of a colonial empire to rival those of other powers. A world class fleet was increasingly regarded as an instrument of power to enforce German interests, culminating in the establishment of the "Reichsmarineamt" in 1889. In 1897 Tirpitz, a follower of Alfred Thayer Mahan's theories about "The Influence of Sea Power Upon History", became its Secretary of State. He widely influenced the Empire's foreign and security policy according to his concept that a strong German navy would be indispensable to change the balance of power by building a "Risikoflotte" (risk fleet) that would make it impossible for the Royal Navy to defeat Germany without suffering irreplaceable losses in manpower and capital ships.
German Imperial Naval Cabinet
The Chief of the Naval Cabinet was always a high naval officer who also acted as an adjutant to the Emperor. The first Chief of the Naval Cabinet (1889 to 1906) was Admiral Baron Gustav von Senden-Bibran. Admiral Georg Alexander von Müller succeeded him and served until 1918.
Imperial German Navy
The Marines were referred to as Seebataillone (sea battalions). They served in the Prussian Navy, the North German Federal Navy, the Imperial German Navy and in the modern German Navy.
German entry into World War I
The British Royal Navy dominated the globe in the 19th century, but after 1890, Germany attempted to challenge Britain's supremacy. The resulting naval race heightened tensions between the two nations. In 1897 Admiral Tirpitz became German Naval Secretary of State and began the transformation of German Navy from small, coastal defence force to a fleet that was meant to challenge British naval power. As part of wider bid to alter the international balance of power decisively in Germany's favour, Tirpitz called for a "Risikoflotte" (Risk Fleet), so called because, although still smaller than the British fleet, it would be too large for Britain to risk taking on.
Imperial Japanese Navy
By 1920, the Imperial Japanese Navy was the world's third largest navy and a leader in naval development:Japan entered World War I on the side of the Entente, against Germany and Austria-Hungary, as a consequence of the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance. In the Siege of Tsingtao, the Imperial Japanese Navy helped seize the German colony of Tsingtao. During the siege, beginning on 5 September 1914, conducted the world's first successful sea-launched air strikes. On 6 September 1914, in the very first air-sea battle in history, a Farman aircraft launched by "Wakamiya" attacked the Austro-Hungarian cruiser and the German gunboat "Jaguar" off Tsingtao. from Jiaozhou Bay. Four Maurice Farman seaplanes bombarded German land targets like communication and command centers, and damaged a German minelayer in the Tsingtao peninsula from September to 6 November 1914 when the Germans surrendered.
Reichsmarine
The Reichsmarine (, "Navy of the Realm") was the name of the German Navy during the Weimar Republic and first two years of Nazi Germany. It was the naval branch of the "Reichswehr", existing from 1919 to 1935. In 1935, it became known as the "Kriegsmarine", a branch of the Wehrmacht; a change implemented by Adolf Hitler. Many of the administrative and organizational tenets of the Reichsmarine were then carried over into the organization of the Kriegsmarine.
German Naval Laws
The next 12 years saw the Reichstag pass three more Naval Laws, in 1906, 1908, and 1912; in each case, Tirpitz took advantage of a sense of crisis and alarm in Germany to ensure the success of the legislation. In June 1906, the Third Naval Law, mandating the construction of six large cruisers, became law following the German failure to break the Entente cordiale at the Algeciras Conference. The Fourth Naval Law of April 1908 pared down the age at which battleships were to be replaced from 25 to 20 years, and was sparked by a feeling that King Edward VII and Great Britain were trying to encircle Germany. The Fifth Naval Law, sparked by the German retreat in the Agadir Crisis of 1911, passed in June 1912 and added three more battleships to the building program.
German Imperial Naval High Command
When the German Emperor decided to take over the supreme command of the Navy himself on 14 March 1899, the Imperial Naval High Command was disbanded. This happened mainly at the instigation of Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, to increase the power of his Imperial Naval Office ("Reichsmarineamt"). Some of the powers of the Imperial Naval High Command were transferred to the previously existing Admiralty Staff.
German Imperial Naval Academy
The Naval Academy was founded in 1872 by the Chief of the Imperial Admiralty, Lieutenant General Albrecht von Stosch, as a graduate school to prepare naval officers selected for higher duties in the Imperial Navy. He took as a model the Prussian Military Academy, which trained general staff officers for the Prussian army. The curriculum consisted of navy subjects such as naval history and general education courses. In addition, course participants learned two modern foreign languages. Initially the training lasted for three years; beginning in 1883 it was shortened to two years.
Royal Navy
Upon entering the war, the Navy had immediately established a blockade of Germany. The Navy's Northern Patrol closed off access to the North Sea, while the Dover Patrol closed off access to the English Channel. The Navy also mined the North Sea. As well as closing off the Imperial German Navy's access to the Atlantic, the blockade largely blocked neutral merchant shipping heading to or from Germany. The blockade was maintained during the eight months after the armistice was agreed to force Germany to end the war and sign the Treaty of Versailles.
World War I
The result was the Anglo-German naval arms race. With the launch of in 1906, the Royal Navy increased its advantage over its German rival and continued to do so. By 1912, the German economy could no longer support both naval expansion and the largest permanent army in Europe, with Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg acknowledging defeat. In many ways, it was a strategic disaster for Germany, diverting huge resources to create a navy large enough to antagonise Britain but not defeat it.
German Naval Laws
Under Sir John Fisher, who served as First Sea Lord from 1904 to 1910, the Royal Navy underwent a period of revolutionary change. Since the autumn of 1902, Fisher had viewed Germany as Britain's principal naval enemy, and so he redistributed the Fleet such that the biggest and most powerful ships were situated for battle against the Germans. The Home Fleet was renamed the Channel Fleet and ordered to remain in the proximity of the English Channel, while the former Channel Fleet, based at Gibraltar, was redesignated the Atlantic Fleet. Four battleships transferred from the Mediterranean Fleet and five from China enlarged the Channel Fleet to 17 battleships, while the eight battleships of the Atlantic Fleet could move north toward the British Isles or east into the Mediterranean Sea.
Prussian Navy Department
In June, 1848 the Frankfurt National Assembly created the first Navy Department with businessman Arnold Duckwitz as Minister for Navy Affairs (Minister für Marineangelegenheiten). After the closure of the Frankfurt National Assembly in May 1849, Austrian Lieutenant Fieldmarshal August von Jochmus became Navy Minister of the revived German Confederation. With the end of the Provisional Central Power (Provisorische Zentralgewalt) of the Frankfurt National Assembly in December 1849, the first Naval Department dissolved and authority in naval matters again came under the sovereignty of individual members of the German Confederation. A Royal Naval Division (Königliche Marine-Abteilung ) was established in Berlin, as a department of the Prussian Minister of War, with Lieutenant Colonel von Wangenheim Bogun as head in the years 1848-1853. He administered the Prussian Navy under the Naval High Command ("Oberkommando der Marine"). Then, on 14 November 1853 by a Prussian royal cabinet order (König Kabinettsordre) the Naval Division was combined into an Admiralty Council (Admiralität), which would provide united command and administrative authority. From 1859 to 1860 Admiral Jan Schröder was chief of the Prussian Navy administration (Marineverwaltung).
Imperial German Navy
Following the Boxer rebellion in China and the Boer War, a second navy bill was passed on 14 June 1900. This approximately doubled the allocated number of ships to 38 battleships, 20 armoured cruisers, 38 light cruisers. Significantly, the bill set no overall cost limit for the building program. Expenditure for the navy was too great to be met from taxation: the Reichstag had limited powers to extend taxation without entering into negotiations with the constituent German states, and this was considered politically unviable. Instead, the bill was financed by massive loans. Tirpitz, in 1899 was already exploring the possibilities for extending the battleship total to 45, a target which rose to 48 by 1909.
Tirpitz's ultimate goal was a fleet capable of rivaling the Royal Navy. As British public opinion was turned against Germany, Admiral Sir John Fisher twice – in 1904 and 1908 – proposed using Britain's current naval superiority to 'Copenhagen' the German fleet, that is, to launch pre-emptive strikes against the Kiel and Wilhelmshaven naval bases as the Royal Navy had done against the Danish navy in 1801 and 1807." Tirpitz argued that if the fleet could achieve two-thirds the number of capital ships possessed by Britain then it stood a chance of winning in a conflict. Britain had to maintain a fleet throughout the world and consider other naval powers, whereas the German fleet could be concentrated in German waters . Attempts were made to play down the perceived threat to Britain, but once the German fleet reached the position of equalling the other second-rank navies, it became impossible to avoid mention of the one great fleet it was intended to challenge. Tirpitz hoped that other second-rank powers might ally with Germany, attracted by its navy. The policy of commencing what amounted to a naval arms race did not properly consider how Britain might respond. British policy, stated in the Naval Defence Act of 1889, was to maintain a navy superior to Britain's two largest rivals combined. The British Admiralty estimated that the German navy would be the world's second largest by 1906.
SM UB-6
By early 1916, the British blockade of Germany was beginning to have an effect on Germany and her imports. The Royal Navy had stopped and seized more cargo destined for Germany than the quantity of cargo sunk by German U-boats in the first submarine offensive. As a result, the German Imperial Navy began a second offensive against merchant shipping on 29 February. The final ground rules agreed upon by the German Admiralstab were that all enemy vessels in Germany's self-proclaimed war zone would be destroyed without warning, that enemy vessels outside the war zone would be destroyed only if armed, and—to avoid antagonizing the United States—that enemy passenger steamers were not to be attacked, regardless of whether in the war zone or not.
Imperial German Navy
In 1899, the Imperial Naval High Command was replaced by the German Imperial Admiralty Staff ("Admiralstab") responsible for planning, the training of officers, and naval intelligence. In time of war it was to assume overall command, but in peace acted only advisory. Direct control of various elements of the fleet was subordinated to officers commanding those elements, accountable to the Kaiser.
Reichsflotte
The German Confederation, founded in 1815, was initially not in need of a navy, as it could rely on three members who commanded large fleets: The Grand Duke of Luxembourg (the King of the Netherlands) as commander of the Royal Dutch Navy, the Duke of Holstein as the commander of the Danish Navy, and last but not least, the King of Hanover as commander of the British Royal Navy. This had changed by the late 1830s, as the Kings of the Netherlands and Great Britain ceased to be members of the German Confederation, and in early 1848 Denmark also turned against Germany in the First Schleswig War. Soon, the Danish Navy stopped all German trade in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.
Prussian Navy Department
The Prussian Navy Department (Marineministerium) (1861 to 1871) grew out of that established by the Frankfurt National Assembly (1848-1849) for its ‘Imperial Fleet' Reichsflotte. From 1866 it served additionally as the Navy Department of the North German Confederation.
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: "" "Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire", or "Nippon Kaigun", "Japanese Navy") was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 until 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's defeat and surrender in World War II. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) was formed after the dissolution of the IJN.
Imperial Russian Navy
Peter the Great established a modern Russian navy. During the Second Azov campaign of 1696 against Turkey, the Russians for the first time used 2 warships, 4 fireships, 23 galleys and 1300 strugs, built on the Voronezh River. After the occupation of the Azov fortress, the Boyar Duma looked into Peter's report of this military campaign. It passed a decree on October 20, 1696 to commence construction of a navy. This date is considered the official founding of the Imperial Russian Navy.
German Empire (1848–49)
The Frankfurt Assembly saw itself as the German national legislature, as made explicit in the "Imperial Law concerning the declaration of the imperial laws and the decrees of the provisional Central Power", from September 27, 1848. It issued laws earlier, such as the law of June 14 that created the Imperial Fleet. Maybe the most notable law declared the highly acclaimed Basic Rights of the German People, December 27, 1848.
German Naval Intelligence Service
The German Naval Intelligence Service (German: Marinenachrichtendienst) (MND) was the naval intelligence department of the Germany Navy and had a long history, going back to the naval aspirations of German Emperor, Wilhelm II in 1899.
German colonial projects before 1871
The establishment of the Imperial fleet eventually created a naval power that would be able to enforce colonial aspirations. In 1848 both the Hamburg Naval Commission and Prince Adalbert of Prussia as head of the Technical Naval Commission in his "Memorandum on the formation of a German fleet" called for the establishment of German fleet bases around the world to protect German trade. With the dissolution of the empire the following year, these colonial ambitions could not be realised, but in 1867 Adalbert of Prussia became commander of the Navy of the North German Confederation and began setting up the overseas naval stations planned in 1848, thereby finally providing the required military infrastucture for the future acquisition of German colonies.
SM U-19 (Germany)
SM "U-19" was a German Type U 19 U-boat built for the Imperial German Navy. Her construction was ordered on 25 November 1910, and her keel was laid down on 20 October 1911, at the Kaiserliche Werft Danzig. She was launched on 10 October 1912, and commissioned into the Imperial German Navy on 6 July 1913.
German Imperial Naval Office
The head of the Naval Office was a Secretary of State who reported directly to the Imperial Chancellor ("Reichskanzler"). While the operational management of the Navy was the responsibility of the Imperial Naval High Command and under the direct command of Emperor Wilhelm II from 1899, the tasks of the Office were mainly administrative, such as planning naval construction and maintenance programs, directing the procurement of naval supplies, and advising the Reichstag parliament on naval matters. It also ran the Imperial shipyards in Danzig, Kiel and Wilhelmshaven, several educational institutions, and the "Seewarte" meteorological institute in Hamburg.
SM UB-33
SM "UB-33" was a German Type UB II submarine or U-boat in the German Imperial Navy () during World War I. The U-boat was ordered on 22 July 1915 and launched on 5 December 1915. She was commissioned into the German Imperial Navy on 22 April 1916 as SM "UB-33".
Prussian Navy
By this time, the Prussian Navy had already ceased to exist. After the Austro-Prussian War (the "German War") of 1866, the North German states had allied under Prussian leadership as the North German Confederation. Out of the Prussian Navy grew the North German Federal Navy, which after the Franco-Prussian War changed its name again to become the Imperial Navy of the new German Empire.
German Imperial Naval Cabinet
Captain Gustav Freiherr von Senden-Bibran, appointed as its first head, remained in office until 1906. The existing Imperial admiralty was abolished in 1889 and its responsibilities divided between two organizations. A new position was created, the chief of the Imperial Naval High Command, being responsible for ship deployments, strategy and tactics. The holder of the title was equivalent to the supreme commander of the Army.
SM UB-10
By early 1916, the British blockade of Germany was beginning to have an effect on Germany and her imports. The Royal Navy had stopped and seized more cargo destined for Germany than the quantity of cargo sunk by German U-boats in the first submarine offensive. As a result, the German Imperial Navy began a second offensive against merchant shipping on 29 February. The final ground rules agreed upon by the German "Admiralstab" were that all enemy vessels in Germany's self-proclaimed war zone would be destroyed without warning, that enemy vessels outside the war zone would be destroyed only if armed, and—to avoid antagonizing the United States—that enemy passenger steamers were not to be attacked, regardless of whether in the war zone or not.
Imperial German plans for the invasion of the United Kingdom
As a result of the increasing rivalry between the two countries, German planners began considering the invasion of the United Kingdom in 1895. A concept was submitted to Wilhelm in May 1897 by Admiral Eduard von Knorr, commander of the Imperial German Navy. It considered that the small German navy would be able to launch a preemptive strike against the Royal Navy on the fifth day of mobilisation, before the British fleet became battle ready, followed immediately by a landing on British shores.
German Imperial Naval Academy
The German Imperial Naval Academy ("Marineakademie") at Kiel, Germany, was from 1872 until the end of the First World War the higher education institution of the German Imperial Navy, "Kaiserliche Marine", where naval officers were prepared for problems in higher levels of command.
Karl Rudolf Brommy
Following the revolutionary events of 1848, the cry became louder in all German states for the creation of a purely German navy ("Deutsche Marine"), which was founded on 4 June 1848 as the "Reichsflotte". In a letter of July 23, 1848 to Heinrich von Gagern, President of the Frankfurt National Assembly, Brommy offered his help in building up a German fleet. In a reply of November 4, 1848, he was directed by Commerce Minister Duckwitz to come to Frankfurt am Main, where Brommy arrived at the end of the year.
Imperial German Navy
Admiral von Tirpitz became the commander of the Navy. The main fighting forces of the navy were to become the High Seas Fleet, and the U-boat fleet. Smaller fleets were deployed to the German overseas protectorates, the most prominent being assigned to the East Asia Station at Tsingtao.
List of admirals of Germany
Admirals of Germany have existed since the founding of German sea forces, first with the Reichsflotte and then most predominantly that of the Prussian Navy. German admirals led the German Navy through World War I, as leaders of the Imperial German Navy, as well as through the inter-war years of the Reichsmarine.
Imperial German Navy
Naval trials of balloons began in 1891, but the results were unsatisfactory and none were purchased by the navy. In 1895 Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin attempted to interest both the army and navy in his new rigid airships, but without success. The Zeppelin rigids were considered too slow and there were concerns with their reliability operating over water. In 1909 the navy rejected proposals for aircraft to be launched from ships, and again in 1910 declined Zeppelin's airships. Finally in 1911, trials with aircraft began and in 1912 Tirpitz agreed to purchase the first airship for naval reconnaissance at a cost of 850,000 marks.
List of coastal defense ships of Germany
In the 1880s, Germany built a series of coastal defense ships to protect its coastline on the North and Baltic Seas. During the 1870s and early 1880s, the Imperial German Navy had built a number of ironclad warships of various designs. In the mid-1880s, however, dissatisfaction with the s and the rise of the "Jeune École" doctrine persuaded Leo von Caprivi, then the chief of the Imperial Navy to turn away from capital ship construction in favor of coastal defense ships and torpedo boats. As a result, the next class of large warships, the , was significantly smaller than the earlier ironclads, and armed with a main battery of only three large-caliber guns. These vessels were intended only for defense of German harbors. Six of them were built between 1888 and 1894. Another two ships of the were built to a modified design between 1892 and 1896.
World War I
Victory in the 1871 Franco-Prussian War and the creation of the German Reich led to a massive increase in Germany's economic and industrial strength. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz and Wilhelm II, who became Emperor in 1890, sought to use that to create a "Kaiserliche Marine" or Imperial German Navy to compete with Britain's Royal Navy for world naval supremacy. Their rationale was based on the ideas of US naval strategist Alfred Mahan, who argued that whoever ruled the sea also ruled the world; Tirpitz had Mahan's books translated into German, while Wilhelm made them required reading for his officers. However, Wilhelm annoyed his ministers by publicly declaring one motive to be his childhood admiration of the Royal Navy, which he had visited "with kind aunts and friendly admirals."
German entry into World War I
The German Navy, under Tirpitz, had ambitions to rival the great Royal Navy and dramatically expanded its fleet in the early 20th century to protect the colonies, German commerce, the homeland, and to exert power worldwide. Tirpitz started a programme of warship construction in 1898. In 1890, to protect its new fleet Germany traded possessions. It obtained the strategic island of Heligoland off the German North Sea coast and gave up the island of Zanzibar in Africa. The British, however, were always well ahead in the race. The British "Dreadnought" battleship of 1907 was so advanced in terms of speed and firepower that all other warships were immediately made obsolete. Germany copied it but never surged ahead in quality or numbers.
Imperial German Navy
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Kommando Spezialkräfte Marine
Germany's postwar commando amphibious warfare force are called the Kampfschwimmer ("Combat Swimmers", abbreviated "KSM") or "Verwendungsgruppe 3402" (Deployment Group 3402). They are the only special-purpose force of the German Navy. The Kampfschwimmer were set up when Germany joined NATO in 1955.
German Imperial Admiralty Staff
In the course of the Anglo-German naval arms race, the "Reichstag" parliament in 1898 passed a new Naval Law, according to which the High Command was, on 14 March 1899, replaced by the Admiralty Staff responsible for planning, officer training, and naval intelligence. In time of war the Admiralty Staff was to assume overall command of the Imperial Navy, although in peacetime it acted only in an advisory capacity. Direct control of the various elements of the fleet was subordinated to officers commanding those elements, accountable to the "Kaiser".
Prussian Navy
The Prussian Navy (German: "Preußische Marine"), was the naval force of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was created from the former Brandenburg Navy, following the elevation of the Duke of Prussia to King in Prussia in 1701. At that time, Brandenburg and Prussia formed a double state ruled in personal union by the House of Hohenzollern. The Prussian Navy existed, without any long interruption, until the founding of the North German Confederation in 1867, at which point the Prussian Navy was absorbed into the North German Federal Navy.
List of ships of the Imperial German Navy
The list of ships of the Imperial German Navy includes all ships commissioned into service with the Imperial German Navy ("Kaiserliche Marine") of Germany, covering the period from 1871, the creation of the German Empire, through to the end of the Empire in 1918.
Pre-Dreadoughts
German Air Force
The German Air Force (as part of the Bundeswehr) was founded in 1956 during the era of the Cold War as the aerial warfare branch of the armed forces of then West Germany. After the reunification of West and East Germany in 1990, it integrated parts of the air force of the former German Democratic Republic, which itself had been founded in 1956 as part of the National People's Army. There is no organizational continuity between the current German Air Force and the former Luftwaffe of the Wehrmacht combined forces founded in 1935, which was completely disbanded in 1945/46 after World War II. The term "Luftwaffe" that is used for both the historic and the current German air force is the German-language generic designation of any air force.
Irene-class cruiser
"Irene" was the first protected cruiser built by the German navy. She was ordered under the contract name ""Ersatz" " and was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin in 1886. She was launched on 23 July 1887, after which fitting-out work commenced. She was commissioned into the German navy on 25 May 1888. "Prinzess Wilhelm" was ordered under the contract name ""Ersatz" " and was laid down at the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel in 1886. She was launched on 22 September 1887, after which fitting-out work commenced. She was commissioned into the German navy on 13 November 1889.
Wilhelm von Freeden
In Hamburg, in 1867, he founded the private North German Naval Observatory ("Norddeutsche Seewarte"), which he directed until 1875 when it became the German Naval Observatory ("Deutsche Seewarte"), an agency of the German Empire. The purpose of the observatory was to promote and to facilitate maritime intercourse. It was composed of a department of maritime meteorology; a bureau of nautical, meteorological, and magnetic instruments; a department of coast meteorology and signal service; and a bureau for testing chronometers. In 1945, the tasks of the German Naval Observatory were turned over to the German Hydrographic Institute ("Deutsche Hydrographische Institut"), and in 1990 that agency in turn became part of the present day Federal Department of Shipping and Hydrography ("Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie").
Albrecht von Stosch
Albrecht von Stosch (20 April 1818 – 29 February 1896) was a German General of the Infantry and Admiral who served as first chief of the newly created Imperial German Navy from 1872 to 1883.
Arthur H. Graubart
After debriefing in regard of his activities with Tripartite Naval Commission, his command of "Prinz Eugen" and his estimate of Soviet intentions and German capabilities, Graubart was appointed Chief of U.S. Naval Intelligence in Berlin. In 1949, he and his assistant LCDR Edwin Riedel, USN began contacting former German Navy officers to ask for their co-operation in the so-called Naval Historical Team, a project of naval intelligence. Initially, the employees, all former German Navy personnel handpicked by Graubart, who, from his pre-war attaché times, knew too well who was a Nazi and who not, wrote historical studies. Soon, the team's mission was changed to planning for the formation of a new German Navy and to study contemporary military matters like Soviet Navy build-up and submarine warfare. In November 1950, a few months after the outbreak of the Korean war, the U.S. Navy, acting through COMNAVGER, formed three labor service units "to assist in manning the ships, craft and shore facilities of US Naval Forces Germany". Graubart and his team was tasked with identifying and recruiting the appropriate personnel. The three units were civilian in name only and were uniformed, housed, fed and trained like U.S. Navy personnel, thus forming the very nucleus of the future Navy of Western Germany (Bundesmarine).
History of espionage
In 1900, the Imperial German Navy established the Nachrichten-Abteilung, which was devoted to gathering intelligence on Britain. The navies of Italy, Russia and Austria-Hungary set up similar services as well.
German Imperial Naval Office
After the war, the Imperial Naval Office was disestablished on 15 July 1919, when by decree of Reich President Friedrich Ebert its responsibilities were assigned to the Admiralty Staff, which was transformed into the "Marineleitung" agency of the German Reichswehr Ministry in 1920.
List of coastal defense ships of Germany
In 1883, when General Leo von Caprivi became the chief of the Imperial Navy, he discarded the fleet policy of his predecessor, Albrecht von Stosch, in favor of creating a fleet that could defend Germany's coast. To that end, he called for the construction of new coastal defense ships that were larger than the unsuccessful s but smaller than the s. They were to be sufficiently seaworthy to permit use in the North Sea, with armament and armor strong enough to allow them to engage larger, foreign battleships. Caprivi requested ten such vessels, though only eight would be built, the first six to the "Siegfried" design.
Imperial German Navy
The concept of expanding naval power, inevitably at the cost of not expanding other forces, was opposed by the three successive heads of the German armed forces, Waldersee, Schlieffen and Moltke between 1888 and 1914. It would also have been more widely opposed, had the Kaiser's intentions been widely known. Instead, he proceeded with a plan to expand the navy slowly, justifying enlargement step by step.
German Army (German Empire)
The Imperial German Army () was the unified ground and air force of the German Empire (excluding the ' maritime aviation formations of the Imperial German Navy). The term ' is also used for the modern German Army, the land component of the ". The German Army was formed after the unification of Germany under Prussian leadership in 1871 and dissolved in 1919, after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I.
German Imperial Naval High Command
The German Imperial Naval High Command () was an office of the German Empire which existed from 1 April 1889 until 14 March 1899 to command the German Imperial Navy. A similarly named office existed in the Prussian Navy and the "Kriegsmarine" of Nazi Germany.
German ocean-going torpedo boats and destroyers of World War I
The first German Naval Law of 1898 legislated the construction of an ocean-going battle fleet by Imperial Germany. To accompany the squadrons of battleships and cruisers, the law called for the construction of flotillas of considerably larger, better armed and more seaworthy than the previous torpedo boats built by Germany. 
Although they were initially given numbers in the same series as the smaller torpedo-boats, they were separated in 1911, with the large torpedo boats numbered from SMS "V1", and the older vessels re-numbered with a 'T-'prefix. During the next 20 years a total of 336 such vessels were ordered for the German navy; these vessels are listed in this article.
Imperial German Navy
The Imperial Navy carried out land operations, e.g. operating the long-range Paris Gun which was based on a naval gun. The Siege of Tsingtao used naval troops as Tsingtao was a naval base, and also as the Imperial Navy was directly under the Imperial Government (the German Army was made up of regiments from the various states).
List of unprotected cruisers of Germany
The first unprotected cruisers of the German "Kaiserliche Marine" (Imperial Navy), the "Schwalbe"-class cruisers, were designed in 1886 to replace the motley collection of old sailing ships that Germany then possessed. They were intended to police Germany's recently acquired colonial empire. Leo von Caprivi, then the Chief of the "Kaiserliche Marine", requested cruisers that had the range to operate abroad, but which also possessed sufficient combat power to be useful in time of war; the old sailing ships so poorly armed that they were ineffective as combat ships. "Schwalbe" and "Sperber" were therefore armed with a main battery of eight guns.
Imperial German Navy
In March 1872 a German Imperial Naval Academy was created at Kiel for training officers, followed in May by the creation of a 'Machine Engineer Corps', and in February 1873 a 'Medical Corps'. In July 1879 a separate 'Torpedo Engineer Corps' was created dealing with torpedoes and mines.
Anglo-German naval arms race
The First Naval Act passed in March 1898 after an extensive lobbying and public relations campaign led by Wilhelm, Tirpitz, and Bülow. The act funded the building of eleven battleships in the next seven years. Britain had little concern about the First Naval Act as Germany's navy would not be larger than the existing two largest navies, so would not trigger any new measures under the "two-power standard." However, by November 1898 Tirpitz had begun work on a plan to double the fleet to include forty-five battleships and armored cruisers, which he presented to the Kaiser in September 1899. The timing was fortuitous as the eruption of the Second Boer War and British seizure of a German steamer off southern Africa enraged the German public against Britain; the Reichstag passed the Second Navy Law in June 1900.