THE GERMAN NAVY. Historical Outline.— The history of the German navy dates back to the 12th century, when the Ger man Emperor Henry VI made important be ginnings in the Mediterranean. In 1226 Lu beck was made a free city and developed an oversea trade and a fleet of fighting ships which became the .backbone of the powerful league of Hansa cities. In 1487, during the war with France, Emperor Maximilian estab lished an imperial admiralty. In 1570 efforts were made to build up a navy capable of com bating the power of the Danes and Swedes but without effective result. In 1675 the Elector Frederick William chartered three frigates and two smaller craft from the Dutch for operations against the Swedes, and the es tablishment was later increased, but after the death of the Great Elector it fell into decay, although victories had been scored against Spanish fleets.
Frederick the Great revived the maritime policy and engaged the Swedes in 1759 but without decisive results. For over half a cen tury Germany was not represented on the high seas by any force of consequence.
In 1848 a Danish fleet blockaded German ports and inflicted considerable damage. This led to the augmentation of the fleet and the establishment of the navy as an independent unit, previous to 1861 it having been a depart ment of the army administration. At the out break of the war against Denmark in 1864 the navy was of but small size, consisting of three corvettes mounting 27 guns, and one of 17, with four first class gunboats mounting three guns, 17 second class mounting two guns and a number of sailing ships with little or no fighting value, while Denmark had 31 steam war vessels and other craft and was aided by Austrian vessels from the Mediterranean. Several victories, however, were scored. Dur ing that war vessels were purchased from other countries and one was paid for by popu lar subscriptions, showing the keen interest of the public in the navy.
By 1870, after the formation of the North German Confederation, the fleet numbered 47 ships with 480 guns, with a personnel of four admirals, five full captains, 19 captains, 33 captain-lieutenants, 101 lieutenants and 3,655 men, besides marine infantry and naval artil lery totaling almost 1,000 men more.
During the war with France, 1870-71, the French forces were greatly superior, but for political reasons it did not attack, and only minor engagements took place, one off Havana in which the German gunboat Meteor de feated the French despatch boat Bouvet. The
inconspicuous naval results of the war as com pared with the work of the army caused the navy to be neglected by public opinion for many years.
Meanwhile Germany about 1884 had ac quired a mass of African and other colonies and had traded with England for Heligoland. In 1887 the old Emperor William I started the Kiel Canal, and in 1888 William II came to the throne. As the grandson of Queen Victoria he had had many opportunities to witness the great sea power of England, and he was sub sequently made admiral of the British navy, an honorary office of command never held by any other foreign sovereign.
During the first 10 years of his reign no particular results were achieved by his naval policy and the public remained indifferent, but meanwhile the German oversea commerce de veloped and the necessity of a to match Germany's growing maritime commerce and colonial development became evident. Ad miral von Holtman, Minister of Marine from 1890 to 1897, finally resigned in despair, and the emperor appointed a comparatively unknown naval officer to his post, Tirpitz, born in 1849, the son of a judge, who had entered the navy as a cadet and gradually came forward. Von Tirpitz proved the man of the hour.. He pro ceeded in a diplomatic manner to induce the Reichstag to authorize, in 1898, a plan 'which called for the following program: A highly important principle was adopted at the same time, that of making the program extend over a period of years, sothat no change would take place in the appropriations from year to year, at the will of the legislative branch, without a repeal of the entire naval law. This bound the Reichstag to the pro gram enabled German shipbuilders to lay their plans ahead for the building of ships and the investment of capital, which could not be risked had the Reichstag continued to change its mind about the size of the fleet from year to year as had previously been the case. A further important principle was intro duced, that of limiting the life of the ships to a definite number of years and providing for the building of a new ship of the same class at the end of that period as a replacement, while the old ship was relegated to minor serv ice. The program for replacements thus pro vided for a period of 25 years for the capital ships, 20 years for the cruisers and 15 years for the smaller vessels. This replacement period was later considerably reduced.