Unpicking the KAISERLICHE MARINE

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the KM lately and am getting less, not more, illuminated on the subject the more information I absorb. I want to unravel it to find out how it worked to locate any good PoDs.

The Kaiser was CinC, to him reported:
Naval Cabinet
Admiralty Staff
Inspector General of the Navy
The Baltic Naval Station
The North Sea Naval Station
The High Seas Fleet
The Overseas Squadrons

The Chancellor was responsible for:
Imperial Naval Administration

Once the war started:
Prince Heinrich was made CinC of the Baltic, as well as retaining the post of Inspector General of the Navy.
Marine Korps Flandern was created with equal status to the Baltic and North Sea Naval Sations.

So WTF does all this mean?
Why did the Chief of Admiraly Staff Pohl succeed Commander of HSF Ingenohl?
Did Prince Heinrich command the Baltic Fleet and the Baltic Naval Station as CinC of the Baltic?
Was there a CinC of the North Sea?
Did the Baltic and North Sea stations command destroyer/uboat/Torpedoboat flotillas like the Marine Korps Flandern did, or were they local defence forces only, with the Baltic and High Seas Fleets commanding the ships/uboats?
 
Have you come across a book called German Sea-Power, It's rise, progress, and economic basis, published in 1913? Among other things it has translations of the German Navy Laws.
 

NoMommsen

Donor
So WTF does all this mean?
A fucked organisation due to a enthusiastic naval fanboy, yearning for micromanaging (playing with his boats) but as incompetent on administration as he was enthusiastic.
Willy II
The Chancellor was responsible for:
Imperial Naval Administration
Nnnnot so easy. Tirpitz has the right of "immediate reporting to the Kaiser", what means he was NOT responsible to the Chancellor. ...BUT - just to make things messy - he WAS responsible to the Reichstag (at least in peace time).

However, all the single institutions of the navy you named were directly responsible ONLY to the Kaiser and in that respect ALL EQUAL.

No Chief of Admirality commanding any sqadron or ships or one of the other institutions. ... if there wasn't a direct order of the Kaiser or some understanding between the single persons in command.

That was kind a prob with Prince Heinrich :
Yes he was 'named CinC of the Baltic, but ... the commander of Baltic nNaval Station (don't just recall his name) was due to serving time SENIOR to Prince Heinrich. He had to ask almost for every single ship he wanted to deploy and use.
(Fortunatly for Prince Heinrich there was some good personal understanding)

The reason, why Pohl so ... easily changed to commanding HSF : because there he had MUCH more power to move things as well as the MUCH more prestigious post.

That's the way the Navy of the German Empire was (dis)organised for almost the whole war.
 
Nnnnot so easy. Tirpitz has the right of "immediate reporting to the Kaiser", what means he was NOT responsible to the Chancellor. ...BUT - just to make things messy - he WAS responsible to the Reichstag (at least in peace time).

I thought he had right of access or appeal to the Kaiser but worked for the Reichstag/Chancellor. In any case he didn't have command of any forces.

However, all the single institutions of the navy you named were directly responsible ONLY to the Kaiser and in that respect ALL EQUAL.

This is the problem, no senior officer could give an order to any other senior officer, the only accretion of power seems to have been GrossAdmiral Prince Heinrich as inspector General, CinC of the Baltic which appears to have given him command of the Baltic Fleet and Baltic Naval Station.

Commander, Baltic Naval Station
7.1914-Vice Admiral Gustav Bachmann
2.1915-Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl
9.1915-Admiral Georg Bachmann
10.1918-Admiral Wilhelm Souchon
11.1918-Admiral Konrad Henkel-Gebhardi

I think any sort of accretion of power would have helped the German navy, but looking at that list am at a loss to think who should take control of what.
 
Who decided where to deploy ships as they became available? All stations and fleets put in demands for resources but who was it that decided to station a tb flotilla at Flanders as opposed to the Baltic or North Sea? Or the half flotilla of destroyers to Flanders in feb 1916?
 
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NoMommsen

Donor
I thought he had right of access or appeal to the Kaiser but worked for the Reichstag/Chancellor. In any case he didn't have command of any forces.
also :
Nnnnot so easy. It depended a lot on personal use of positions.
By administrational organisation (if someone want's to call it so) Tirpitz should have had no right to command any forces. BUT on 1st to 2nd August he was the one asking for a written allowance to give the command to the fleet to commence actions.
That was the position he had gained by personal influence on the Kaiser as well as throughout the navy ... commanders on several positions (or at least just assumed this role).

The same is valid for Prince Heinrich. He - personally - was well respected by the higher naval officers and that respect let Gustav Bachmann ... well submitt to him ... not the right wording, more kind of 'having an understandment' with the CinC Baltic Sea.


I think any sort of accretion of power would have helped the German navy, but looking at that list am at a loss to think who should take control of what.
IMO the only person, would have had at least a chance at the beginning of the war of becomming kind of "Chief of the Whole Navy" was actually Tirpitz.
But later on ... when crossing positions with the Bethman-Hollweg faction on Sub-warfare ... he lost a lot of his standing towards the Kaiser.
Who decided where to deploy ships as they became available? All stations and fleets put in demands for resources but who was it that decided to station a tb flotilla at Flanders as opposed to the Baltic or North Sea? Or the half flotilla of destroyers to Flanders in feb 1916?
Actually this was also (mostly, when approved by the Kaiser) part of Tirpitz buisness, as he or the Marine ministry was the one administrating the material 'resources' of the navy (as I understood the jungle of organisation and responsibilities the german navy was at this time).
 
Actually this was also (mostly, when approved by the Kaiser) part of Tirpitz buisness, as he or the Marine ministry was the one administrating the material 'resources' of the navy (as I understood the jungle of organisation and responsibilities the german navy was at this time).

So it would be a good move to get the Commanders of the North Sea, Baltic Stations and MKF to be subordinate to him, that way he could allocate resources such as men, coastal guns and ships up to perhaps Destroyer/Uboat size to these stations? That would leave the Baltic and HS Fleets out of his control as central assets.
 

NoMommsen

Donor
@Riain
It would be a good move, but as you recognized : only a partial solution as you still have no (true) central command of operations.

That could/would only be achieved if - maybe - Tirpitz was made "representative/deputy" of the Kaiser with all of the latter rights towards the operational commanders.
 
That's what I was thinking of, giving one commander a span of control over others and the naval stations are a good one since having all of them means Tirpitz gets to send ships from one station to another and only has to compete with the HSF for resources.

The problem is that this needs to happen before the war so planning can occur to change Germany's naval geography with naval resources, and take advantage of this changed naval geography while the opportunities exist.
 
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