Description

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The German war flag , was twice slightly changed during the Wilhelmine period was in use during the First World War. It continued to have the Prussian national colors black and white, the eagle of Prussia, the Nordic cross, with the German imperial black and white red tricolor in the upper canton with an iron cross. In 1919, the flags of Imperial Germany were replaced by those of the Weimar Republic: a black-red-gold tricolor.

The Kaiserliche Marine was the German Navy of the German Empire. It existed between 1871 and 1919, originating from the Preußian Navy and the Marine des Norddeutschen Bundes. Emperor Wilhelm II expanded the navy enormously, culminating in an arms race between the German Empire and the United Kingdom. Although not defeated, the navy was largely destroyed at Scapa Flow in 1919 by its own crew after the loss of the land war on the western front of the First World War. The names of the large ships of the Kaiserliche Marine were preceded by SMS from Seiner Majestät Schiff. The Kaiserliche Marine achieved a number of important merits. It caused the first defeat of the Royal Navy since 1812 in the Battle of Coronel. In the Battle of Jutland it destroyed more ships than it lost. It is a misunderstanding that the Hochseeflotte never came out of the harbor after Jutland. It took action several times, although the Germans never – before or after Jutland – planned to take on the entire Grand Fleet. It was the first navy to deploy large-scale submarines in a war – 375 U-boats were employed at the end – and also used zeppelins. It could never compete with the numbers of the Royal Navy, but it did have better grenades and explosive charges during most of the war. Because the German navy was younger, the ships were more modern and did not have the defects and ‘teething problems’ that their English counterparts were struggling with. As a result, they have not lost a single ship due to an explosion of a warehouse due to a surface attack (the old pre-dreadnought Pommern sank quickly at the Battle of Jutland after an underwater attack).

The Kaiserliche Marine was formed on 1 February 1872. The first commander was General of the Infantry Albrecht von Stosch. The emperor held the highest command. In the beginning, the new Kaiserliche Marine was responsible for coastal surveillance and protecting Germany’s trade routes, although foreign stations were established at an early stage. The Kaiserliche Marine took part in colonization in Africa, Asia and Oceania in the period 1880-1890. Kiel on the Baltic Sea and Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea were the most important naval ports. With the support of Wilhelm II, the new minister of navy, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, started in 1897 on the construction of a large modern navy consisting of battleships and submarines. He later became the commander of the navy. Through the so-called ‘fleet associations’ millions of marches from civilian initiative were collected for the expansion of the fleet. The main power of the navy would be the Hochseeflotte and the U-boat fleet

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_German_Navy