Alfred von Tirpitz
The 1898 Naval Law authorized the construction of thirty new light cruisers by 1904, with two cruisers to be built per year; an amendment passed in 1900 increased that number to three per annum. By this time, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz had become the head of the (RMA—Imperial Naval Office), and he favored a strategy of concentrating the German fleet in home waters, rather than dispersing numerous vessels on foreign stations.