I “Patrick Kelly has written the first ma- “Beyond its great interest for naval and Kelly Tirpitz and the Imperial German Navy $45 W W jor scholarly biography of Tirpitz in military historians regardless of special- , y r English, based on detailed knowledge ization, this work will be required read- a Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz t of vast archival material and an exten- ing for any . . . historian of the Second i l (1849–1930) was the principal force behind i sive historical literature. With great Reich and the interwar period . . . and Tirpitz M the rise of the German Imperial Navy prior & precision, Kelly’s narrative integrates for those fascinated by the eternal query, ar Tirpitz’s naval and political careers ‘Who or what caused the outbreak of and the to World War I, challenging Great Britain’s W command of the seas. As State Secretary of with broader developments within the First World War?’” —Eric C. Rust, the Imperial Naval Office from 1897 to 1916, the German Empire and the Weimar author of Naval Officers under Hitler: Imperial Tirpitz wielded great power and influence Republic. He also treats in detail the The Story of Crew 34 over the national agenda during that crucial international politics of Wilhelmine German period. By the time he had risen to high arms policy, the naval race with Britain, “A compelling portrait of Tirpitz that office, Tirpitz was well equipped to use his and the ensuing First World War. This balances the views of those scholars Navy Patrick J. Kelly is Professor of History at position as a platform from which to dominate book can be thoroughly recommended who have overestimated Tirpitz’s ratio- Adelphi University. German defense policy. Though he was cool to students of both German and naval nality in political, social, and military to the potential of the U-boat, he enthusiasti- history.” —Rolf Hobson, author of affairs with those who underestimated cally supported a torpedo boat branch of Imperialism at Sea: Naval Strategic his opportunism.” —Keith Bird, author the navy and began an ambitious building Thought, the Ideology of Sea Power, and of Erich Raeder: Admiral of the Third program for battleships and battle cruisers. the Tirpitz Plan, 1875–1914 Reich Based on exhaustive archival research, includ- IndIana T ir p i t z ing new material from family papers, Tirpitz and the Imperial German Navy is the first extended study in English of this germinal figure in the growth of the modern navy. and the Imperial German Navy Patrick J. Kelly challenges the prevailing narrative that Tirpitz’s navy was the central element in a far-reaching plan to stabilize the monarchy. Contrary to the orthodox view that Tirpitz intended to trivialize the role of the Imperial Reichstag, Kelly shows how Tirpitz cooperated with it and used it as a potent tool in a delicately choreographed game to enhance his power against the Emperor and other parts of the navy. The book also exam- ines how Tirpitz dealt with the vexing and politically complicated problem of how large INDIANA Jacket illustration: Top: Tirpitz in 1905. Courtesy of Agostino von institutions manage technological change, University Press Hassell. Bottom: SMS Nassau, from his creation of a German Torpedo Arm Bloomington & Indianapolis the first German Dreadnought. Patrick J. Kelly to his response to the revolutionary British iupress.indiana.edu Courtesy of the Naval History & 1-800-842-6796 Heritage Command. initiative of the Dreadnought battleship. TirpitzIGNmec.indd 1 2/18/11 3:25 PM Tirpitz and the Imperial German Navy Patrick J. Kelly Indiana University Press Bloomington & Indianapolis T irp i t z and the Imperial German Navy This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, Indiana 47404-3797 USA iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931 Orders by e-mail [email protected] © 2011 by Patrick J. Kelly All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. ∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kelly, Patrick J., [date]- Tirpitz and the Imperial German Navy / Patrick J. Kelly. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-253-35593-5 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Tirpitz, Alfred von, 1849–1930. 2. Admirals—Germany—Biography. 3. Germany. Kriegsmarine—History—19th century 4. Germany. Kriegsmarine—History—20th century. 5. Germany—History, Naval—19th century. 6. Germany—History, Naval—20th century. I. Title. DD231.T5K45 2011 359.0092—dc22 [B] 2010035369 1 2 3 4 5 16 15 14 13 12 11 This book is dedicated to my parents, Robert and the late Evelyn Kelly. Contents · Acknowledgments ix · Abbreviations xi 1 Introduction 1 2 Tirpitz’s Early Life 14 3 The Aspirant, 1865–1870 24 4 The Young Officer, 1870–1877: A Taste of War 33 5 The Creation of the German Torpedo Arm, 1877–1889 47 6 Interim, 1889–1891 69 7 Oberkommando der Marine, 1892–1895 81 8 On the Verge of Power, 1895–1897 103 9 Tirpitz Ascendant, 1897–1898 129 10 The Second Navy Law, 1899–1900 166 · Illustrations 203 11 The “Quiet” Years, 1900–1906 223 12 Sow the Wind, 1906–1908 263 13 The Whirlwind Rises, 1908–1911 293 14 Denouement, 1911–1914 323 15 Tirpitz at War, August 1914–March 1916 375 16 Uncommon Recessional, 1916–1930 410 17 Conclusion 444 · Appendix 467 · Notes 469 · Bibliography 535 · Index 555 Acknowledgments In the preparation and writing of this work I owe great thanks to many people and institutions. These include Dr. Dean C. Allard, Bernard Cav- alcante, and Harry Reilly of the former U.S. Naval History Office in Washington, D.C.; Robert Hanshew and Chuck Haberlein, photo archi- vists of its successor organization, the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command; Robert Wolfe of the U.S. National Archives; the archivists and staffs of the Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv (Freiburg), particularly the late Dr. Gerd Sandhofer; the Bundesarchiv (Koblenz); the Deutsches Zentralarchiv (Merseburg, now at Potsdam); the Bundesarchiv (Potsdam); the Auswärtiges Amt Archiv (Bonn); the Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv (Bückeburg); the Landesarchiv (Speyer); and the Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt (MGFA) (Freiburg, now at Potsdam), where I was the recipient of encouragement and wise advice from the late Prof. Dr. Wil- helm Deist. The late Professors John Zeender of Catholic University and Thomas Helde of Georgetown University helped greatly in the early stages of this project. I am very grateful to the late Ambassador Wolf Ulrich von Hassell for his personal account of his grandfather Tirpitz, and to his son, Au- gustino von Hassell, who gave me untrammeled access to important Tirpitz correspondence and illustrations that are in the possession of the von Hassell family. Dr. Terrell Gottschall kindly provided me with mate- rial from the papers of Admiral Otto von Diedrichs. Prof. Dr. Michael Epkenhans, now Research Head of the MGFA, generously shared ideas and documents with me while we both, as friendly competitors, wrestled with the mysteries of Tirpitz’s life. Dr. Raffael Scheck helped me unravel the twisted strands of Tirpitz’s life in the 1920s, and shared friendship and ix