German Imperial Naval Office
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The Imperial Naval Office () was a government agency of the
German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
. It was established in April 1889, when the
German Imperial Admiralty The German Imperial Admiralty () was an imperial naval authority in the German Empire. By order of Kaiser Wilhelm I the North German Federal Navy, Northern German Federal Navy Department of the North German Confederation (1866–71), which had ...
was abolished and its duties divided among three new entities: the Imperial Naval High Command (''Kaiserliches Oberkommando der Marine''), the Imperial Naval Cabinet (''Kaiserliches Marinekabinett'') and the Imperial Naval Office performing the functions of a ministry for the
Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the ''Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy) was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for ...
.


Structure and tasks

According to the 1871
Constitution of the German Empire The Constitution of the German Empire () was the basic law of the German Empire. It came into effect on 4 May 1871 and lasted formally until 14 August 1919. Some German historians refer to it as Bismarck's imperial constitution (German: , BRV). ...
, the federal states were responsible for the German land forces and the imperial government for the navy. So while there were
Prussian Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, the House of Hohenzoll ...
, Bavarian,
Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...
and
Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...
armies, there was a single Imperial Navy, the only formation under the direct authority of the
German Reich German ''Reich'' (, from ) was the constitutional name for the German nation state that existed from 1871 to 1945. The ''Reich'' became understood as deriving its authority and sovereignty entirely from a continuing unitary German ''Volk'' ("na ...
beside the colonial ''
Schutztruppe (, Protection Force) was the official name of the colonial troops in the African territories of the German colonial empire from the late 19th century to 1918. Similar to other colonial armies, the consisted of volunteer European commissioned a ...
'' forces. The head of the Naval Office was a Secretary of State who reported directly to the Imperial
Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...
(''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 Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia from 1888 until Abdication of Wilhelm II, his abdication in 1918, which marked the end of the German Empire as well as th ...
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.Gottschall, Terrell D. ''By order of the Kaiser: Otto von Diederichs and the rise of the Imperial German Navy, 1865-1902'' ( Institute Press, 2003) p.112. It also ran the Imperial shipyards in Danzig,
Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...
and
Wilhelmshaven Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmsha ...
, several educational institutions, and the ''Seewarte'' meteorological institute in
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
.


History

When in 1897 Konteradmiral
Alfred von Tirpitz Alfred Peter Friedrich von Tirpitz (; born Alfred Peter Friedrich Tirpitz; 19 March 1849 – 6 March 1930) was a German grand admiral and State Secretary of the German Imperial Naval Office, the powerful administrative branch of the German Imperi ...
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 The High Seas Fleet () was the battle fleet of the German Empire, German Imperial German Navy, Imperial Navy and saw action during the First World War. In February 1907, the Home Fleet () was renamed the High Seas Fleet. Admiral Alfred von Tirpi ...
to encounter Britain's
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
. According to the theories of US admiral
Alfred Thayer Mahan Alfred Thayer Mahan (; September 27, 1840 – December 1, 1914) was a United States Navy officer and historian whom John Keegan called "the most important American strategist of the nineteenth century." His 1890 book '' The Influence of Sea Pow ...
and his book ''
The Influence of Sea Power upon History ''The Influence of Sea Power upon History: 1660–1783'' is a history of naval warfare published in 1890 by the American naval officer and historian Alfred Thayer Mahan. It details the role of sea power during the seventeenth and eighteenth cen ...
'', the "Tirpitz Plan" was established jointly with Foreign State Secretary
Bernhard von Bülow Bernhard Heinrich Karl Martin, Prince of Bülow ( ; 3 May 1849 – 28 October 1929) was a German politician who served as the chancellor of the German Empire, imperial chancellor of the German Empire and minister-president of Prussia from 1900 to ...
and, in interaction with the British
Naval Defence Act 1889 The Naval Defence Act 1889 ( 52 & 53 Vict. c. 8) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It received royal assent on 31 May 1889 and formally adopted the "two-power standard" and increased the United Kingdom's naval strength. The s ...
, fuelled the
Anglo-German naval arms race The arms race between Great Britain and Germany that occurred from the last decade of the nineteenth century until the advent of World War I in 1914 was one of the intertwined causes of that conflict. While based in a bilateral relationship tha ...
. 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 World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. In 1898, the Naval Office also took over the administration of the Chinese Kiautschou Bay territory. During World War I, it gave out the casualty list of the Imperial Navy. State Secretary Tirpitz finally resigned in 1916, when Chancellor
Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg Theobald Theodor Friedrich Alfred von Bethmann Hollweg (29 November 1856 – 1 January 1921) was a German politician who was chancellor of the German Empire, imperial chancellor of the German Empire from 1909 to 1917. He oversaw the German entry ...
strove for a balance with the British and Tirpitz' requests for full powers as fleet commander modelled on a
First Sea Lord First Sea Lord, officially known as First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff (1SL/CNS), is the title of a statutory position in the British Armed Forces, held by an Admiral (Royal Navy), admiral or a General (United Kingdom), general of the ...
were denied. After the war, the Imperial Naval Office was disestablished on 15 July 1919, when by decree of Reich President
Friedrich Ebert Friedrich Ebert (; 4 February 187128 February 1925) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as the first President of Germany (1919–1945), president of Germany from 1919 until ...
its responsibilities were assigned to the Admiralty Staff, which was transformed into the ''Marineleitung'' agency of the German Reichswehr Ministry in 1920.


State Secretaries

* Karl Eduard Heusner 1 April 1889 - 23 April 1890 * Friedrich von Hollmann 23 April 1890 - 1897 *
Alfred von Tirpitz Alfred Peter Friedrich von Tirpitz (; born Alfred Peter Friedrich Tirpitz; 19 March 1849 – 6 March 1930) was a German grand admiral and State Secretary of the German Imperial Naval Office, the powerful administrative branch of the German Imperi ...
18 June 1897 - 15 March 1916 * Eduard von Capelle 15 March 1916 – September 1918 *
Paul Behncke Paul Behncke (13 August 1869 – 4 January 1937) was born in Lübeck and died in Berlin. He was a German admiral during the First World War, most notable for his command of the III Battle Squadron of the German High Seas Fleet during the Battle ...
September 1918 – 5 October 1918 * Ernst Ritter von Mann Edler von Tiechler 5 October 1918 – 13 February 1919 * Maximilian Rogge, acting head official since December 1918, 13 February 1919 – 15 July 1919


References

{{Authority control Imperial German Navy