page_title: Brandenburg-class battleship
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Brandenburg-class battleship / Background
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Zentralbild Leo Graf von Caprivi, deutscher General und Staatsmann, geb: 24.2.1831 Charlottenburg, gest: 6.2.1899 Skyren bei Crossen a.d. Oder; nach dem Sturz Bismarcks wurde Caprivi am 20.3.1890 zum Reichskanzler und preußischen Ministerpräsidenten ernannt.
context_page_description: The Brandenburg class consisted of four pre-dreadnought battleships built for the German Kaiserliche Marine, the first modern battleships of the fleet. The four ships of the class—Brandenburg, Wörth, Weissenburg, and Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm—were the first ocean-going capital ships built for the German fleet in nearly two decades, owing to reluctance in the Reichstag to fund large projects. They followed a series of small coastal defense ships, and though in retrospect they anticipated the buildup that created the High Seas Fleet, they were ordered as part of a construction program that reflected the strategic and tactical confusion that affected many navies in the 1880s. The design process that resulted in the Brandenburg class was very lengthy, with proposals that ranged from outdated casemate ships to versions with two twin-gun turrets placed side by side. The designers ultimately settled on ships that were armed with an unusual main battery of six 28 cm guns at a time when all foreign battleships were built with four or fewer heavy guns.
context_section_description: In March 1883, General Leo von Caprivi became the Chef der Admiralität (Chief of the Admiralty) following Albrecht von Stosch's resignation. Caprivi was required to submit a memorandum to the Reichstag on his plans by March 1884. A general of the Imperial German Army, he was inexperienced in naval matters and he convened a council with senior naval officers on 16 January 1884 to gather opinions on future naval construction programs. At the time, he was constrained by the fleet plan of 1873 that had been created under Stosch's direction and had been approved by the Reichstag. The plan governed the size and composition of the German fleet, calling for fourteen ocean-going ironclad warships, a total that was reached with the launching of the casemate ship Oldenburg in 1884. The nominal completion of the 1873 plan further restrained Caprivi, as in the view of many members of the Reichstag, naval budgets could be reduced, since no new ships would be needed until the oldest ironclads began to reach thirty years of age in the mid-1890s. At the January council meeting, Caprivi emphasized the need for careful consideration of new designs, noting that the navy could not afford "the luxury of failed experiments", owing to parliamentary refusal to authorize funding for new ships.
  Concerns with a two-front war against France and Russia dominated Caprivi's thinking, which resulted in his decision to opt for a strategy of coastal defense in the memorandum; he noted that without a powerful battle fleet, the sea-going ironclads would have little utility against the numerically superior French fleet. He also pointed out that at the time, shell designers and armor manufacturers were competing to defeat each other, which necessitated spiraling costs for navies that attempted to keep pace with the latest technological developments. He also saw that the torpedo could be used to easily sink large armored warships and would be an effective weapon for coastal defense. As a result of these considerations, Caprivi recommended building a large number of smaller coastal defense ships and torpedo boats to defend Germany's coastline in the event of war. Aware of parliamentary objections to increased naval spending, he avoided plans for the construction of expensive battleships. Coincidentally, the French Navy, then at the height of the dominance of the Jeune École (Young School), came to the same conclusions with respect to their competition with the British Royal Navy. Indeed, the 1870s and 1880s marked a period of tactical and strategic confusion in naval thinking in the world's major navies for the same reasons that Caprivi had highlighted in his memorandum.
  Despite the memorandum submitted to the Reichstag that eschewed capital ship construction, Caprivi secretly discussed new ironclads at length with senior naval officers. He instructed Konteradmiral (KAdm—Rear Admiral) Max von der Goltz, then the Director of the Admiralty's Naval Department, to prepare a list of thirteen questions concerning the characteristics of a new capital ship and then to circulate them among naval officers to gather views on the topic. The questions included requirements for speed, cruising radius, maximum draft, whether sailing rigs should be included, the number, type, and arrangement of main battery guns, and the armor type and layout. Goltz met with several other officers, including Hans von Koester, August von Thomsen, Hans Sack, Wilhelm Büchsel, Carl Barandon, Conrad von Bodenhausen, Gustav Schmidt, and Curt von Maltzahn on 20 October 1885 to discuss the questions. They settled on a ship armed with four 30.5 cm (12 in) guns arranged in the lozenge pattern favored by contemporary French capital ship designers, a thick armored belt and armored deck, and an ability to steam for 5,000 nautical miles (9,300 km; 5,800 mi). Other questions, including the speed and crew size, were left unanswered.
  At the same time, Caprivi requested design proposals from the Naval Construction Office, which submitted plans for ships that ranged in size from small 2,500 t (2,500-long-ton) co
caption: Leo von Caprivi, the Chef der Admiralität (Chief of the Admiralty) during the 1880s
exif: {"Image ExifOffset": "2134", "Image XPTitle": "[66, 0, 105, 0, 108, 0, 100, 0, 32, 0, 49, 0, 56, 0, 51, 0, 45, 0, 82, 0, 48, 0, 57, 0, 51, 0, 49, 0, 54, 0, 0, 0]", "Image XPComment": "[90, 0, 101, 0, 110, 0, 116, 0, 114, 0, 97, 0, 108, 0, 98, 0, 105, 0, 108, 0, ... ]", "Image XPAuthor": "o.Ang.", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}