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Germany, 1870–1914: a military empire turns to the sea
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- By Michael Epkenhans, Michael Epkenhans is Director of Research of the Centre for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr, Germany
- Edited by Christian Buchet, N. A. M. Rodger
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- Book:
- The Sea in History - The Modern World
- Published by:
- Boydell & Brewer
- Published online:
- 26 May 2017
- Print publication:
- 17 February 2017, pp 16-26
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Summary
ABSTRACT.The navy of newly united Germany fulfilled a minor strategic role as a coast-defence force, and a political role as the Reich's only national armed service. Under Wilhelm II(1888–1918) the navy and merchant fleet grew to become symbols as well as instruments of Germany's status as a world power. Germany's naval threat to Britain – its obvious ally in the European power system – isolated it and provoked a ‘naval race’ which it could not win.
RÉSUMÉ.Dans l'Allemagne tout juste unifiée, la marine joua un rôle stratégique mineur en tant que force de défense des côtes mais un rôle politique important car elle constituait le seul service national armé du Reich. Sous le règne de Wilhelm II(1888–1918), la marine et la flotte marchande s'agrandirent jusqu'à devenir les symboles ainsi que les instruments de la puissance allemande. La menace navale que l'Allemagne exerçait sur la Grande-Bretagne – son alliée évidente dans le système de pouvoir européen – l'isola et provoqua #x00AB; une course à l'armement naval #x00BB; qu'elle ne pouvait gagner.
GERMANY AND THE SEA FROM THE MIDDLE AGES UNTIL THE 19TH CENTURY
Although Germany was an empire with a long history dating back into the 10th century, it had never aspired to become a sea power until the mid-19th century. Its rulers had concentrated all their efforts upon defending Germany's borders, or conquering new territories in Europe. Building a fleet like the kings of Britain, France, or Spain in order to found colonies overseas had never been a viable political option. The Hanseatic League founded in the 13th century was nothing but a commercial association. Powerful and rich in the 14th and 15th centuries, its influence started to decline in the 16th century due to economic crises, the rise of rival powers in the Baltic and the impact of globalization on trade after the discovery of the New World in 1492. The small fleet built up by Frederick William, the Great Elector of Brandenburg, at the end of the 17th century and the colony founded on the west coast of Africa were only a short interval. His successors were neither able to provide sufficient financial resources nor willing to turn Prussia into a maritime power. Their interests lay in Eastern Europe, not overseas.
1 - Wilhelm II and ‘his’ navy, 1888–1918
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- By Michael Epkenhans, Director of the Otto-von-Bismarck Stiftung Friedrichsruh;, Teaches history University of Hamburg
- Edited by Annika Mombauer, The Open University, Milton Keynes, Wilhelm Deist
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- Book:
- The Kaiser
- Published online:
- 24 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 17 November 2003, pp 12-36
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Summary
The uniform that the German Kaiser probably most loved was that of a British Admiral of the Fleet. Already as a child, when he had visited naval dockyards in Britain and Nelson's flagship Victory with his parents, he had been fascinated by the Royal Navy and both its great history and its achievements in making Britain the world's most powerful state and the supreme naval power in the nineteenth century. In order to emphasize his affection for the Royal Navy as well as the navy in general, one of his first acts after his appointment to the Royal Navy's highest rank was to have a picture painted showing him in this uniform and to present it to his grandmother, Queen Victoria. His pride and his vanity were so great that time and again he wore this uniform when he officially received the British ambassador to the court of Berlin. Pride and vanity were, however, only one aspect of Wilhelm's strange ‘love’ of the Royal Navy. More importantly, following his appointment, the German Kaiser now even felt entitled to interfere with British naval matters, and, as John Röhl has described in great detail in his biography of Wilhelm II, did in fact do so whenever possible, however trivial the matter was in the end.
Although German naval officers regarded this behaviour of their own ‘supreme warlord’ with deep contempt, generally speaking, the latter's passion for the navy, which he had obviously ‘inherited’ from his mother and which had steadily grown during his visits to England as a child, was indeed a blessing for the nation's ‘junior service’.