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Alfred von Tirpitz (March 19, 1849–March 6, 1930) was a German Admiral,
Secretary of State of the Imperial Naval Office, the powerful administrative branch
of the Kaiserliche Marine from 1897 until 1916.
Born in Küstrin in Brandenburg, the son of a senior civil servant, he grew up in
Frankfurt (Oder). He joined the Prussian Navy in 1865 and attended Kiel Naval
School, gaining his commission in 1869. Upon the creation of the German fleet in
1871 he was part of a torpedo squadron. In 1877 he rose to become the head of the
torpedo-arm which he re-organised into the torpedo inspectorate.
Kapitän zur See (Captain) Tirpitz became Chief of the Naval staff in 1892 and was
made a Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) in 1895. In 1896–97 he commanded the Asian
cruiser squadron and oversaw the gain of Kiaochow as a German naval base. In 1897
he was made Secretary of State of the Reichsmarineamt—the Imperial Naval Office. An
energetic campaigner for a greatly enlarged fleet, he attracted the attention and
support of the Kaiser. Tirpitz was ennobled to von Tirpitz in 1900. Tirpitz' design
to achieve world power status through naval power, while at the same time
addressing domestic issues are commonly referred to as the Tirpitz Plan.
Politically, the Tirpitz Plan was marked by the Fleet Acts of 1898, 1900, 1908 and
1912. By 1914, they had given Germany the second largest naval force in the world
(roughly 40% smaller than the Royal Navy). It included seven modern dreadnoughts,
five battlecruisers, twenty-five cruisers and twenty pre-dreadnought battleships as
well as over forty submarines. Although including fairly unrealistic targets, the
expansion program was sufficient to alarm the British, starting a costly naval arms
race, and pushing the British into closer ties with the French.
Tirpitz developed a "risk theory" (an analysis which today would be considered part
of game theory) whereby, if the German Navy reached a certain level of strength
relative to the British Navy, the British would try to avoid confrontation with
Germany (that is, maintain a fleet in being). If the two navies fought, the German
Navy would inflict enough damage on the British, that the latter ran a risk of
losing their naval dominance. Because the British relied on their navy to maintain
control over the British Empire, Tirpitz felt they would rather maintain naval
supremacy in order to safeguard their empire, and let Germany become a world power,
than lose the empire as the cost of keeping Germany less powerful. This theory
sparked a naval arms race between Germany and Great Britain in the first decade of
the 20th century.
However, this theory was based on the assumption that Great Britain would have to
send its fleet into the North Sea to blockade the German ports (blockading Germany
was the only way the Royal Navy could seriously harm Germany), where the German
Navy could force a battle. But due to Germany's geographic location, Great Britain
could blockade Germany by closing the entrance to the North Sea in the English
Channel and the area between Bergen and the Shetland Islands. Faced with this
option a German admiral commented, "If the British do that, the role of our navy
will be a sad one", correctly predicting the role the surface fleet would have
during World War I.
Tirpitz had been made a Großadmiral (Grand Admiral) in 1911. Despite the building
program he felt the war had come too soon for a successful surface challenge to the
Royal Navy as the fleet act of 1900 had included a seventeen year timetable. Unable
to influence naval operations from his purely administrative position, Tirpitz
became a vocal spokesman for a unrestricted U-boat warfare, which he felt could
break the British stranglehold on Germany's sea lines of communication.
Interestingly, his construction policy never bore out his political stance on
submarines, and by 1917 there was a severe shortage of newly built submarines. When
restrictions on the submarine war were not lifted he fell out with the emperor and
was compelled to resign on March 15, 1916. He was replaced as Secretary of State of
the Imperial Naval Office by Eduard von Capelle.
In 1917 Tirpitz became head of the short-lived Deutsche Vaterlandspartei
(Fatherland Party), which sought to rally popular support for an all-out effort to
win the First World War. After Germany's defeat he supported the right-wing
Deutschnationalen Volkspartei (DNVP, German National People Party) and sat for it
in the Reichstag from 1924 until 1928.
The German battleship Tirpitz was named after him in 1939.
Alfred von Tirpitz is also the great-grandfather of Agostino von Hassell, a noted
author on military and war history.
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Alfred Von
Tirpitz - Manifestor - Biography
