THE RISE OF THE GERMAN NAVY

At the time of the creation of the German Empire, Prussia possessed only a few ships of war, but these were for all practical purposes valueless. The only object of the Empire in its early days, as regards its fleet, under Von Stosch and Caprivi, when these statesmen were at the head of the German Admiralty, was to prevent raids on the German coasts. The navy was the subject neither of interest nor of activity. In 1873 certain plans were laid for its development, which should have been carried out in 1882; these plans were not achieved even in 1888.

On the accession of the Kaiser to the Imperial Throne in 1889, a change came over the scene. At once an alteration was made in the directing personalities of the Admiralty. Then, in 1890, the Empire acquired Heligoland, destined to become one of the most important naval stations of the German Empire. In 1894 the Kiel Canal was inaugurated. In 1896 the fleet was all ready, relatively speaking, powerfully constituted; In 1897 a Naval Bill was prepared, which, in the following year, became the great Naval Law of 1898.

Germany had discovered that without sea power she was impotent outside the narrow boundaries of her territory in Europe. The Kaiser could do nothing, because of his inadequate naval forces, to support President Kruger in his fight against Britain. When, the British fleet stopped the German steamship Bundesrath, which England suspected of carrying munitions of war to the Boers, the German people recognised their impotence on the sea, the Kaiser was able to seize on this opportunity to inaugurate his long-cherished policy of sea dominion.

It is a fact that for fourteen years before World War One, a race for naval supremacy took place between Germany and Britain; The German Government, however, repeatedly declared that their naval policy had not been influenced by British action, having reference only to Germany's actual needs. Future events proved that these declarations were insincere.

Germany owes her fleet not only to the Kaiser himself, but to her Navy League and such men as Grand Admiral von Tirpitz and Admiral von Koester. The great Naval Law of 1900 was entirely the creation of Von Koester and it was only by skilful efforts, as, for instance, making the most of the Bundesrath affair, that he was able to carry the Law of 1900 and the succeeding Laws, particularly that of 1907, by which Germany decided to accelerate her battleship construction, and in place of large cruisers to build Dreadnoughts.