The Origins of German Naval Intelligence

Abstract

The rapid rise of the Imperial German Navy began in the late 1890s, buoyed by a combination of hazy foreign policy goals and domestic pressure. On the one hand, many Germans, especially amongst the middle classes, regarded a strong navy as a necessary precondition for the successful conduct of Weltpolitik. The popular contemporary equation of naval might with global power was strongly reinforced by the writings of Alfred T. Mahan, especially his The Influence of Sea-Power upon History, first published in 1890. Mahan, an American naval officer, argued that only the possession of a strong navy guaranteed great power status.¹ On the other hand, domestic pressure groups favoured an expansion of the German fleet for economic reasons. While the shipbuilding, iron, and steel industries lobbied for naval orders, Hanseatic merchants, shippers, and chambers of commerce were calling for increased naval protection for German commercial interests in Latin America, China, and elsewhere.² It was this combination of hard economic factors and a growing public fascination with naval might that resulted in one of the most ambitious shipbuilding programmes in modern history.