Description

No naval officer served as Chief of the Naval Staff (Admiralstab) of the Imperial German Navy as long as Wilhelm Büchsel!

This deserves special attention considering the special role of the German naval forces and their complex command-structure under the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Büchsel found it particularly difficult to confront the compiting Reichsmarineamt, with its overpowering State Secretary Alfred (von) Tirpitz. Both personalities, who began their training together as midshipmen in Crew 65, demonstrate how strongly character traits could influence political and military decisions in the German Empire, which is also evident in the fact that Büchsel, unlike Tirpitz, never received a patent of nobility.

While actively supporting his colleague’s naval construction programmes, the reserved and extremely loyal Chief of the Naval Staff, with his profound military expertise, later attempted to strengthen the authority entrusted to him so that it could function as an institution of operational command. Büchsel also sought to emancipate the Naval Staff with regard to the long-term naval strategic planning required for this purpose. This affected intelligence gathering, financial and personnel resources, and naval officer training. In contrast to Tirpitz, Büchsel’s operational plans were more defensively oriented, as evidenced by his prioritization of light cruisers and the avoidance of a decisive battle with the Grand Fleet in the North Sea. Ultimately, however, Büchsel, too, was defeated by his colleague’s claim to power …

With his work, the author once again traces historical foundations, this time those of Prussian-German naval history up to the end of World War I.

2025, 1024 pages, hardcover, cloth-bound, wrapper, 306 black-and-white illustrations, 31 maps, 10 diagrams, indices, 15 x 23 cm;
ISBN: 978-3-938533-73-4