Admiral Raeder is an exceptional personality in the history of the German Navy, of which he had been the commander for 15 years. He decided to develop the battle fleet largely disregarding the conclusions from the experience of World War I. He was considered to be a conservative and an outsider in the III Reich Nazi system. Thanks to his endeavors the Kriegsmarine represented a very high standard of battle value at the outbreak of World War II.
The article presents the development of German States’ fleets in the 20thcentury. It shows their evolution overthe last one hundred years. The author focuses on the evolution of the place and role of the German Fleet from the Imperial Navy up to the contemporary Deutsche Marine, which concentrates on performing the tasks of joint forces within NATO. It also shows GDR and FRG fleets during the division of Germany. Contemporary German fleet and the FRG’s armed forces in general are rather modest compared to the economic capacities of today’s Germany. This situation coincides with an atmosphere of increasing pacifism that permeates the German society.
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