Page "Imperial German Navy" Paragraph 40

German expenditure on ships was steadily rising.

In 1907, 290 million GM was spent on the fleet, rising to 347 million GM or 24 % of the national budget in 1908, with a predicted budget deficit of 500 million GM.

By the outbreak of World War I, one billion GM had been added to Germany's national debt because of naval expenditures.

While each German ship was more expensive than the last, the British managed to reduce the cost of the succeeding generations of Bellerophon and St. Vincent class battleships.

Successive British battlecruisers were more expensive, but less so than their German equivalents.

Overall, German ships were some 30 % more expensive than the British.

This all contributed to growing opposition in the Reichstag to any further expansion, particularly when it was clear that Britain intended to match and exceed any German expansion program.

In the fleet itself, complaints were beginning to be made in 1908 about underfunding and shortages of crews for the new ships.

The State Secretary of the Treasury, Hermann von Stengel, resigned because he could see no way to resolve the budget deficit.