Prussian Navy
The Prussian Navy (officially the Royal Prussian Navy ) was the naval force of the Prussian monarchy . By simple renaming was in 1701 from the Kurbrandenburg Navy as a result of the uprising of Elector Friedrich III. from Brandenburg to king in Prussia the "Royal Prussian". The Prussian Navy existed with a longer interruption until the founding of the North German Confederation in 1867, on the occasion of which the Prussian Navy was absorbed into the Navy of the North German Confederation .
The predecessor: the Kurbrandenburg Navy
As dukes of Prussia, the Electors of Brandenburg were obliged to provide ships to the Polish king, their liege lord. However, this was only achieved hesitantly for a very short time with a small number of rented ships. It was not until the mid-1670s that Elector Friedrich Wilhelm intensified the military side of his maritime endeavors when he was sovereign . The vehicles that were only rented for pirate operations did not officially become the property of the elector until October 1, 1684. The Great Elector described shipping and commerce as the most distinguished tasks of a state and energetically pursued the acquisition of colonies overseas. This was implemented at the expense of the small navy. First the funds, then the ships, were subordinated to the companies.
From the foundation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 to the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815
However, the descendants of Friedrich Wilhelm had little interest in overseas acquisitions and their own maritime power . His son, who became King Frederick I in Prussia, dissolved the navy in 1711, and his grandson Friedrich Wilhelm I was happy to be able to sell the colonial property cheaply to the Netherlands in 1717 . So there was virtually no Prussian Navy for the next hundred years.
Because Brandenburg-Prussia came into the possession of Stettin and the Oder estuary after the Northern War and thus had a much more important access to the Baltic Sea in its core area than only Kolberg until then , Prussian officials re-examined the question of military protection for maritime trade in 1733 and came up with it Concludes that it was sufficient for the state to continue to rely mainly on protection from foreign warships.
Instead, the soldier king Friedrich Wilhelm I concentrated the military efforts of Prussia on building the fourth largest army in Europe, the Prussian Army , which, given the continental location without natural borders, made more sense and earned the state the status of a European power. In addition, he cultivated friendly relations with the neighboring sea powers Denmark and the Netherlands.
Frederick II, too, was of the opinion that Prussia should never be tempted to build a navy. In any case, Prussia could never catch up with the great fleets of England, France , Spain , Denmark and Russia and would always have lagged behind the other nations with a few ships. He also believed that naval battles seldom resulted in a decision to go to war and, according to his own admission, preferred to maintain the best land army in Europe instead of the worst navy among the sea powers.
Nevertheless, he wanted to participate in international maritime trade and founded several maritime trading companies that conducted their business overseas with varying degrees of success. The Royal Prussian Asian Company, founded in 1751 in Emden to Canton and China, was dissolved again in 1765 following setbacks in the Seven Years' War . Another company, the Seehandlungsgesellschaft founded in 1772, still exists today in the legal form of a foundation under the name Stiftung Preußische Seehlassung .
Only during the Seven Years' War were small, improvised Prussian naval forces operating in the Stettin area , and a few privateers with Prussian letters of war were on the oceans. In 1758, to defend the city of Szczecin and to protect the Szczecin Lagoon at the mouth of the Oder, a provisional Szczecin flotilla was created, which consisted of a dozen ships. On September 10, 1759, the Szczecin Flotilla was attacked and defeated by a small Swedish naval unit. As early as 1760, a new flotilla was put into service to replace the ships lost in the previous year, which performed its duties until the end of the war.
In 1759 a Prussian privateer, the Prinz Ferdinand , began its mission in the Mediterranean and captured 14 merchant ships within a year, while another privateer sailed the Lissa , the North Sea and the English Channel and was able to capture three foreign ships.
A naval construction plan from 1796, part of a memorandum from Major General Ernst von Rüchel on the Prussian coastal defense, was not implemented.
During the war against France in 1806, similar to earlier in Stettin, small forces were set up near Danzig and in East Prussia , called the "Royal Flotilla " and dissolved again after the Peace of Tilsit in 1807. Even in the final phase of the Napoleonic Wars, individual warships under the Prussian flag were deployed between 1811 and 1813, including the fortress watch ship Colberg in 1812/1813 .
The Prussian Navy in the 19th century
After the Congress of Vienna and the establishment of the German Confederation , Prussia began very slowly to build up a small coastal fleet. On November 28, 1816, King Friedrich Wilhelm III. its own war flag , which showed a black eagle on a white double stand and an iron cross in the upper corner .
From the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to the Revolution of 1848/49
In August 1815, Sweden made its naval officer Diedrich Johann Longé Prussia available, which at the time did not have a single warship. Longé handed over six Swedish gunboats lying in Stralsund and acquired by Prussia on October 23, 1815 and was taken over as an officer in the Prussian Navy on December 28, 1815. At Longé's suggestion, the fast armed schooner Stralsund was the first Prussian warship to be built. The former Swedish gunboats were sold again until 1819 because they were unsuitable for use, and the Stralsund was auctioned for demolition in 1829. The Prussian naval defense remained limited to a few coastal batteries. After plans of the Prussian General Staff from 1811 and 1814 for a Prussian Navy, both by the then Colonel Gustav von Rauch (interim Chief of Staff), and in 1820 by Longé had been rejected by the respective Prussian government for financial and political reasons, and the naval armed forces Commissions in 1825 (under Rauch, meanwhile lieutenant general) and in 1834 also came to no result, only the naval construction plan of 1837 promoted by the now Minister of War von Rauch was supported by the then Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm . In 1841, as king, he approved the construction of a seaworthy school corvette, which was launched under the name Amazone in 1843 and served the seafaring school in Danzig as the first German sailing training ship for the training of young seafarers. At that time, however, more emphasis was placed on building a merchant fleet than on the navy. The Prussian maritime trade played a special role. Their ships carried the Prussian war flag and, like most merchant ships of the time, were armed to protect against pirates. This auxiliary navy existed until around 1850.
One of the first to campaign for the establishment of a real navy was Prince Adalbert of Prussia . He had made a number of voyages and recognized the value of a fleet in promoting commercial interests and protecting one's own shipping . During the revolutionary period from 1848 to 1852 he was involved in building the imperial fleet , which the National Assembly in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt had decided in view of the war against Denmark. The German Confederation did not have its own navy, but relied on the allied powers Great Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark. During the Schleswig-Holstein War , this strategy failed because Great Britain and the Netherlands remained neutral and Denmark became an opponent of the war. Within a few days, the Danish Navy brought German maritime trade in the North and Baltic Seas to a standstill. The navy of the federal member Austria was in the Mediterranean and was only able to intervene in the war later.
Establishment of the navy from 1849
Already during the revolution, Adalbert had taken care of the expansion of the Prussian navy, the first naval commander of which was appointed Commodore Jan Schröder from the Netherlands in 1848 . Internal and external influences stood in the way of building a Prussian fleet. In Prussia, the influential Prussian army feared the loss of financial resources because it was expensive to equip a fleet. Britain was not interested in the emergence of a new sea power in the North Sea and overseas, just as Russia was not interested in another sea power emerging in the Baltic Sea. It was also very interested in preserving the peace order of the Congress of Vienna and the conservative monarchies in Europe. During the revolution of 1848, the all-German naval idea was considered comparatively revolutionary and democratic, and for that reason alone aroused Russian resistance.
After the suppression of the revolution, Adalbert was able to implement his plans and start building a Prussian navy. Prussia began to procure suitable ships, some of the larger ones being bought abroad and the smaller ones being built in their own shipyards.
The first overseas voyage of a Prussian warship was carried out in 1850/51 by the training ship SMS Mercur , which visited the Brazilian ports of Bahia and Rio de Janeiro from the end of January to March 1851 . A planned visit to Cape Town had to be canceled due to poor wind conditions. The Mercur had already made trips to Batavia and Rio in 1848 while she was still in service with the Prussian Sea Trade .
The first machine-powered warship to be built at a Prussian shipyard was the Radkorvette Danzig in 1851 . It was followed by the Arcona-class corvettes. In 1865 Prussia acquired SMS Augusta and SMS Victoria, two very modern steam corvettes in France, which had been built for the Navy of the Confederate States of America but were not allowed to be delivered.
At the same time, a first base on the North Sea was acquired. In the Jade Treaty of 1853, Oldenburg ceded the so-called jade region to Prussia. In the following years a large naval port was built here , which was named Wilhelmshaven in 1869 .
With the arrival of the ships, a lively training and travel activity began. In 1852/53, Commodore Schröder led the first Prussian overseas expedition. The squadron consisted of the frigate Gefion , the training ship Amazone and the transport ship Mercur . The trip led via West Africa ( Liberia ) to Brazil , Uruguay , Venezuela , Colombia , Jamaica and Cuba in the United States , where Schröder from Norfolk visited the US President in Washington, DC .
From the mid-1850s, Prussian corvettes and frigates could be found on all the world's oceans. The second major overseas operation of the Navy led into East Asian waters from 1859. The so-called Eulenburg Expedition ( Prussian East Asia Expedition ) led by Friedrich Albrecht zu Eulenburg with the ships Arcona , Thetis , Frauenlob and Elbe was supported by the states of the customs union . It was successful in so far as it succeeded in imposing an ( unequal ) trade agreement on China on September 2, 1861 , which corresponded to that of the great powers Great Britain and France.
In order to strengthen the coastal defense, eight large gunboats of the Camaeleon class and 15 smaller gunboats of the Jäger class were procured from 1860 . While the latter were only suitable for coastal use, the boats of the Camaeleon class had a larger radius of action. They were temporarily used as station ships in the Mediterranean and SMS Meteor was in the Caribbean during the Franco-German War .
Participation in the war in 1864 and 1866
When the possibility of war with Denmark became apparent in the autumn of 1863, the ships intended for foreign voyages were either kept at home or recalled and further measures to mobilize the Prussian Navy were initiated. The main aim was to man the larger number of gunboats in reserve. For this purpose, officers, seamen and machine personnel from the merchant shipping were drafted.
In the spring of 1864 the navy had the following forces in the Baltic Sea:
- A squadron of steamships (chief: Captain Jachmann ):
- A flotilla of cannon boats (chief sea captain Kuhn ):
- Aviso Loreley (guide boat)
- 3 divisions with 6 screw cannon boats each (4 large and 14 small in total)
- 2 divisions with a total of 18 rowing cannon boats and 4 cannon dinghies
Outside the Baltic Sea on a trip abroad in the Black Sea were the large gunboats Blitz and Basilisk as well as the Radaviso Prussian Eagle . Older sailing ships were viewed as not fit for war and were not used. The Danish fleet was vastly superior in terms of the number, size and combat strength of its ships.
After the start of the war (February 1, 1864), the severe icing of the Baltic Sea initially prevented any naval operations. Denmark declared the blockade of the Prussian ports on March 15, 1864. After the ice had receded, a sea battle broke out at Jasmund on March 17 , when the Prussian forces tested the Danish blockade. Due to their number, they were unable to break through, but prevented a close-range blockade with the undecided battle.
On May 9, 1864 there was a naval battle near Helgoland in the North Sea , in which an Austrian naval association took part under the ship's captain Tegetthoff , who was supported by a small Prussian squadron under Corvette Captain Klatt . It consisted of the Radaviso Prussian eagle and gunboats Blitz and Basilisk, who had been called back home . This battle also ended in a draw with advantages for Denmark, but had no effect on the course of the war because of the armistice that came into force on May 12th.
In the German War of 1866, the Prussian Navy was hardly used. The Austrian navy would have been by far superior to the Prussian, but was bound by the war against Italy in the Adriatic.
After the war, the North German states united under Prussian leadership to form the North German Confederation. The Prussian Navy became the Navy of the North German Confederation in 1867 , which in turn became the Imperial Navy after the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 .
Importance of the Prussian Navy for the Prussian State
Even if Prussia has always seen itself as a continental land power, its rise and fall were closely linked to the fate of the Brandenburg-Prussian-German naval forces. It was the ambitious appearance of the Great Elector who prepared the raising of the Duchy of Prussia to the Kingdom of Prussia, which later "incorporated" the other states such as the Margraviate of Brandenburg and the County of Mark . Sea power and colonies were among the power attributes of that time, which were also taken for granted for smaller and medium-sized powers like Denmark and the Swedes .
Unlike all other European powers, Prussia renounced a navy for one hundred and fifty years before it recognized during the war against Denmark from 1848 to 1852 the need to have at least some military capacity to act at sea. The Eulenburg expedition allowed Prussia to present itself abroad for the first time as the representative of all German states except Austria and thus to prepare for its leadership role in the North German Confederation and in the German Empire.
See also
literature
- Otto Altenburg : The beginnings of the Prussian Navy in Stettin . Greifswald 1922 (2nd, increased edition Karlsruhe 1936)
- Werner Rahn : German Marines in Transition - From a Symbol of National Unity to an Instrument of International Security Policy . R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-486-57674-7
- Horst Auerbach: Prussia's way to the sea-Pomerania, the ways of the Royal Prussian Army . Brandenburgisches Verlagshaus, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-89488-091-0
- Günter Stavorinus and Peter PE Günther: Diary on board Sr. Majesty's steam corvette “Danzig” on the journey to London . (Constantinople-Athens-Syra 1853/54. Led by Second Class Lieutenant Eduard Arendt). Self-published, Berlin and Trappenkamp 1998
- Adolf Mensing: On board the Gazelle to Yokohama. A Prussian naval officer remembers . Edited and edited by Horst Auerbach. Rostock 2000, ISBN 3-356-00883-8
- Hartmut Nöldeke , Johann Schmidt: Medical service in the Royal Prussian Navy . Koehler, Herford 1993, ISBN 3-7822-0580-4 .
- Gerhard Wiechmann: The Royal Prussian Navy in Latin America 1851 to 1867. An attempt at German gunboat policy , in: Sandra Carreras, Günther Maihold (ed.): Prussia and Latin America. In the field of tension between commerce, power and culture . (Europa-Übersee Vol. 12). Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-6306-9 , pp. 105-144
- Henning Krüger: Between coastal defense and world politics. The political history of the Prussian Navy 1848–1867 . (Small series on military and naval history, vol. 15). Winkler, Bochum 2008, ISBN 978-3-89911-096-8
- Albert Röhr: Handbook of German naval history. Gerhard Stalling Publishing House. Oldenburg / Hamburg 1963.
- Victor Valois : From the experiences of an old naval officer . Potsdam undated (approx. 1900)
- E. Wendt & Co. (Ed.): Overview of the Prussian merchant navy . Stettin January 1848 ( online [accessed June 4, 2015]).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b John B. Hattendorf: Germany and the Sea: Historical Roots of German Naval Forces until 1815 . In: Werner Rahn (Ed.): German Marines in Transition - From Symbol of National Unity to Instrument of International Security Policy . Munich 2005, ISBN 3-486-57674-7
- ^ Albert Röhr: Handbook of German naval history. Gerhard Stalling Publishing House. Oldenburg / Hamburg 1963. page 31
- ^ Albert Röhr: Handbook of German naval history. Gerhard Stalling Publishing House. Oldenburg / Hamburg 1963. Pages 35-36
- ^ Albert Röhr: Handbook of German naval history. Gerhard Stalling Publishing House. Oldenburg / Hamburg 1963. Pages 202 and 203
- ↑ a b Victor Valois : From the experiences of an old naval officer . Potsdam undated
- ^ A b Cord Eberspächer: German gunboat policy in East Asia . In: Hartmut Klüver (Ed.): Foreign missions of German warships in peace . Bochum 2003, ISBN 3-89911-007-2
- ↑ Mirko Graetz: Prince Adalbert's forgotten fleet. The North German Federal Navy 1867–1871. Lulu Enterprises Inc. Morrisville, NC (USA) 2008, ISBN 978-1-4092-2509-6 , p. 72