One of the most prominent persons in this movement was Dr. Wolfgang Kapp, who had once held office as president of East Prussia, and had been a founder of the Fatherland Party and an associate of the Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz.

Raeder came to fear that this debate was starting to sully the image of the Navy to such an extent that he would never convince anyone in power to fund the Navy again, and so took extraordinary steps in the late 1920s to end the debate by trying to silence all critics of Tirpitz.

A second opportunity to use the Mistels, in Scapa Flow in 1944, was abandoned after the sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz led to the departure of all the Royal Navy's major surface units from the target.

On 18 June 1897 Rear-Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was appointed State Secretary of the Navy, where he remained for nineteen years.

Tirpitz advocated the cause of an expanded navy necessary for Germany to defend her territories abroad.

Tirpitz, in 1899 was already exploring the possibilities for extending the battleship total to 45, a target which rose to 48 by 1909.

Tirpitz argued for six new capital ships, and got three, together with 15, 000 additional sailors in a new combined military budget passed in April 1912.

Tirpitz intended that with the rolling program of replacements, the existing coastal defence squadron of old ships would become a sixth fleet squadron, while the eight existing battlecruisers would be joined by eight more as replacements for the large cruisers presently in the overseas squadrons.

Finally in 1911, trials with aircraft began and in 1912 Tirpitz agreed to purchase the first dirigible for naval reconnaissance at a cost of 850, 000 GM.

In 1911 experiments took place with Albatros seaplanes and in 1912 Tirpitz authorized 200, 000 GM for seaplane trials.

For Raeder as for other naval officers, the defeat of 1918 was especially humiliating because under the charismatic leadership of Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the Naval State Secretary from 1897-1917, the Navy had been promoted as the service which would give Germany the " world power status " that her leaders craved, and to that end, vast sums of money had been spent in the Anglo-German naval race before 1914.

In the 1920s, a major debate occurred within the Reichsmarine as to what were the correct lessons of World War I for the future, which tended to pit followers of Tirpitz against the followers of the " Wegener thesis ".

As a close protégé of Tirpitz, Raeder followed his lead in arguing for a battleship-centric “ balanced fleet ” meant to win the Entscheidungsschlacht in the North Sea.

Tirpitz had sought to provide the answer in 1919 when he published his memoirs, where he blamed everybody but himself for the defeat.

Raeder was greatly dismayed by Hitler's criticism of Tirpitz and of the pre-1914 Anglo-German naval race, and of his statements that if he came to power, he would a reach an understanding with Britain, whereby Germany would " renounce " naval and colonial ambitions into exchange for British support of German ambitions in Eastern Europe.

Owing to the fact that the great fleet envisioned in Plan Z existed only in blue-prints or had just began to be built, Raeder like Tirpitz before him in 1914 was forced to abandon his pre-war plans for a great naval battle in the North Sea, and instead embrace the guerre de course strategy that he had previously been opposed to.

The left-wing German historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler has defined social imperialism as " the diversions outwards of internal tensions and forces of change in order to preserve the social and political status quo ", and as a " defensive ideology " to counter the " disruptive effects of industrialization on the social and economic structure of Germany " In Wehler's opinion, social imperialism was a device that allowed the German government to distract public attention from domestic problems and preserve the existing social and political order Wehler argued the dominant elites used social imperialism as the glue to hold together a fractured society and to maintain popular support for the social status quo Wehler argued German colonial policy in the 1880s was the first example of social imperialism in action, and was followed up by the " Tirpitz plan " for expanding the German Navy starting in 1897 In this point of view, groups such as the Colonial Society and the Navy League are seen as instruments for the government to mobilize public support.

In 1944, both Sheffield and Jamaica acted as escorts for the aircraft carriers taking part in a series of attacks on Tirpitz in Norway.

Tirpitz was instructed to find a suitable site for a new port, selecting four possible sites.

The Kaiser agreed the plan and Tirpitz retired to St Blazien in the Black Forest with a team of naval specialists to draft a naval bill for presentation to the Reichstag.

As a reward for the successful bill Tirpitz was ennobled to the hereditary ‘ von ’ Tirpitz in 1900.

He was fanatical about the navy, but would come up with wild ideas for improvements, which Tirpitz had to deflect to maintain his objectives.

Unable to influence naval operations from his purely administrative position, Tirpitz became a vocal spokesman for an unrestricted U-boat warfare, which he felt could break the British stranglehold on Germany's sea lines of communication.

Tirpitz ' experience with the Navy League and mass political agitation convinced him that the means for a coup was ready.

It suited Alfred von Tirpitz, because it removed the influence of the admiralty staff from naval planning, but left him the possibility, in wartime, to reorganise command around himself.

Raeder attained the highest possible naval rank — that of Großadmiral ( Grand Admiral ) — in 1939, becoming the first person to hold that rank since Alfred von Tirpitz.

Because of the extravagant promises made by Tirpitz before 1914 that sea power equalled world power, and because of the equally extravagant sums that were spent on the Navy during the Anglo-German naval race ( by 1913-14, the Anglo-German naval race was costing so much money as the Reich government continued to pour vast sums of money into the Navy that concerns started to be expressed about Germany's creditworthiness.

In foreign policy, he pursued a policy of détente with Britain, hoping to come to some agreement that would put a halt to the two countries ' ruinous naval arms race, but failed, largely due to the opposition of German Naval Minister Alfred von Tirpitz.

Tirpitz decided he liked the idea and with the consent of his parents became a naval cadet at the age of 16, on 24 April 1865.

Captain Tirpitz became chief of the naval staff in 1892 and was made a Rear Admiral in 1895.

Although he initially favoured the bay at Kiautschou / Tsingtao, others in the naval establishment advocated a different location and even Tirpitz wavered on his commitment in his final report.

Each Summer Tirpitz would go to St Blasien with his aids to work on naval plans.

Tirpitz ' design to achieve world power status through naval power, while at the same time addressing domestic issues, is referred to as the Tirpitz Plan.

Because the British relied on their navy to maintain control over the British Empire, Tirpitz felt they would rather maintain naval supremacy in order to safeguard their empire, and let Germany become a world power, than lose the empire as the cost of keeping Germany less powerful.

During World War II it was used to station naval troops, and the island in its centre was used as a bombing target for the subsequent attack on the Tirpitz in Norway, as it resembles a battleship.

Fighters from Bardufoss also had the task of providing aerial support for naval operations in the area, but failed to scramble in time to prevent the battleship Tirpitz from being sunk by Avro Lancaster bombers at Håkøya near Tromsø.

It was not until the naval aspirations of Germany under the guidance of the German Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz in the years following Bismarck's fall that Whitehall became especially alarmed.

He thought Hitler could not decide whether to follow Goebbels and Tirpitz in viewing Britain as " the ultimate enemy " or on the other hand adopting the Ribbentrop policy of appeasing Britain in order to engage in military expansion in the East.

When Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz presented his plan for a great battle fleet in June 1897, Koester objected on the grounds that there simply were not the personnel to cover such an expansion of the navy, and that the resources would be much better spent elsewhere.

Von Tirpitz ’ s shoulder boards had four pips revealing and he never received a Grand Admiral baton or the associated insignia.

The British X class midget submarines which planted explosive charges beneath the German battleship Tirpitz in September 1943 used two " saddle charges " containing four tons of amatol.

Rear Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz replaced Hoffmann in June 1896 with orders to find a site for a base and to evaluate four potential locales on the Chinese coast.