Home > Alfred von Tirpitz

Born in Kuestrin in Brandenburg, the son of a senior civil servant he grew up in Frankfurt an der Oder. He joined the Prussian navy in 1865 and attended Kiel Naval School, gaining his commission in 1869. At first he was part of a torpedo fleet but in 1871 he joined the torpedo department at the new German naval ministry and in 1877 he was made inspector-general of the torpedo fleet.

He joined the Naval staff in 1892 and was made a Rear Admiral in 1895. In 1896-97 he commanded the Asian cruiser squadron and oversaw the gain of Kiaochow as a German port. In 1897 he was made state Secretary for the Navy. An energetic campaigner for a greatly enlarged fleet and supported by the Kaiser he championed the "Fleet Acts" of 1898, 1900, 1908 and 1912 which by 1914 had given Germany the second largest naval force in the world (roughly 40% smaller than the Royal NavyThe Royal Navy is the navy of the United Kingdom. It operates a number of aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates, fifteen nuclear submarines, and various other ships, as well as aircraft and Britain's amphibious forces, the Royal Marines. The Royal Navy). It included seven modern dreadnoughts, five battlecruisers, twenty-five cruiserIn military terminology, a cruiser is a large warship capable of engaging multiple targets simultaneously. Historically they were generally considered the smallest ships capable of independent operations — destroyers usually requiring outside support suchs and twenty pre-dreadnought battleshipThis article is about a battleship as a type of warship. See also Battleship (game). Dreadnought redirects here. See also Workers' Dreadnought. In naval history, battleships were the most heavily armed and armored warships afloat. In the mid- 20th centurys as well as over forty submarineUSS Los Angeles (SSN-688)|USS Los Angeles A submarine is a specialized boat that travels under water, usually for military or scientific purposes. Most major navies of the world employ submarines. Submarines are also used for marine and freshwater sciences. 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.

He had been made a Grand AdmiralAlternate meaning: Grand Admiral (Star Wars). In the German Navy the rank of Grand Admiral Grossadmiral was considered the highest Naval rank. The position was the equivalent of an Admiral of the Navy or a United States Fleet Admiral. World War I Before a in 1911 and was appointed Commander of the Navy on the outbreak of war. 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. Instead Tirpitz pushed for a great increase in submarine construction and unrestricted use of these new boats. Over the war 345 new U-boatOctober 1939. U-47 returns to port after sinking HMS Royal Oak''. The battlecruiser Scharnhorst is seen in the background. A U-boat is any of the German submarines of World War I and World War II, as well as the Austro-Hungarian submarines of World War I.s were constructed and even at the ArmisticeAn armistice is the effective end of a war, when the warring parties agree to stop fighting. The most famous armistice, the one still meant when people say simply "The Armistice", is the one at the end of World War I, on November 11, 1918. Armistice Day i over 200 were under construction. When restrictions were not lifted he resigned on March 15, 1916. He was replaced as Navy minister by Eduard von Capelle .

After the war he became head of the conservative Deutschnationalen Volkspartei (DNVP, Fatherland Party) and was elected to the Reichstag from 1924 until 1928. The German battleship Tirpitz was named for him.