Eduard von Capelle Admiral Eduard von Capelle ( 10 October 1855 – 23 February 1931 ) was a German Imperial Navy officer from Celle . He served in the navy from 1872 until his retirement in October , 1918 . During his career , Capelle served in the " Reichsmarineamt " ( Imperial Navy Office ) , where he was primarily responsible for writing the Fleet Laws that funded the expansion of the High Seas Fleet . By the time he retired , Capelle had risen to the rank of admiral , and had served at the post of state secretary for the " Reichsmarineamt " . From this post , he oversaw the German naval war during the latter three years of World War I . Capelle retired to Wiesbaden , where he died on 23 February 1931 . Early career . Eduard Capelle was born on 10 October 1855 , in Celle , in what was then the Kingdom of Hanover . Capelle joined the Imperial German Navy in 1872 , as a naval cadet . He served in various capacities in the fleet , including in the " Torpedowesen " ( Torpedo Department ) with Alfred von Tirpitz . He was later assigned to the " Reichsmarineamt " ( RMA ) , the Imperial Navy Office , as the chief of the administrative department . In this capacity , he began to work closely with now - Admiral von Tirpitz , who had been promoted to become the State Secretary for the Navy . Capelle was responsible for drafting the legislation that became the " Flottengesetz " , the Fleet Laws , and the supplementary laws in 1906 , 1908 , and 1912 . During this period , he and other senior members of the naval command worked repeatedly to break monopolies in the shipbuilding industry , as a means to keep costs low and stable . The only firm that proved resistant to their efforts was Krupp , which held a near monopoly on armor plating and large - caliber guns , and proved to be too powerful for the RMA to effectively pressure . Capelle was promoted to " konteradmiral " ( rear admiral ) in 1906 , and to " vizeadmiral " ( vice admiral ) three years later . In 1912 , Capelle was elevated to the nobility , which allowed him to add " von " to his name . He rose to the rank of admiral in 1913 , and by 1914 , he was Tirpitz ' s deputy . During the July Crisis that instigated World War I , Capelle was temporarily the acting state secretary , as Tirpitz was away at his summer home . In this capacity , he endorsed the " blank check " Kaiser Wilhelm II had extended to Austria - Hungary in the aftermath of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbian terrorists the previous month . With regard to the deepening crisis , Capelle stated that while " many swords will be rattled and much poisonous ink spilled , Europe will not tear itself to pieces over Serbia . World War I . By late August 1915 , Capelle had fallen ill , and so requested retirement from the navy , though he agreed to remain in the post until 1 November . In March , 1916 , Capelle was recalled to service and replaced Tirpitz , whose views on the naval war had become unpopular , as the State Secretary for the Navy . Tirpitz had by this point pushed for unrestricted submarine warfare in order to break the deadlock on the Western Front ; Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann - Hollweg , fearing war with the United States , maneuvered to have Tirpitz relieved of command . He meanwhile secured the support of Capelle and brought him out of retirement . Capelle ' s position as state secretary was decidedly weaker than under Tirpitz ' s tenure ; this was in large part due to the course of the war and the discrediting of the surface fleet policy advocated by first by Tirpitz and then by Capelle . Admiral Paul Behncke , who would later serve as Capelle ' s deputy , stated that , " In the Navy , the position of the RMA has become purely administrative , it no longer plays a leading role . " Though Capelle was initially opposed to unrestricted submarine warfare , a group of senior officers led by the commander of the High Seas Fleet , Admiral Reinhard Scheer , convinced Capelle to change his mind , who in turn worked to convince Wilhelm II to permit a return to unrestricted submarine warfare . By January 1917 , Wilhelm II had consented , and Germany resumed the U - boat campaign against Britain on 1 February . Even though he agreed to resume the U - boat campaign , Capelle did not believe that submarines had replaced the battleship as the decisive naval weapon , arguing in February 1917 that new battleship construction — that of the L 20 α design — should not be stopped . In order to keep costs down , Capelle announced that the Navy would not build any ships over displacement or with a draft in excess of ; these were the maximum dimensions of the existing harbors and drydocks . Larger designs would require prohibitively expensive dredging on harbors and channels and new docks . Nevertheless , by February 1918 , design work on the new class of battleships had ground to a halt , and Capelle could do nothing about it ; by this far into the war , the U - boat arm had absorbed all of the limited production capabilities of the Navy . Capelle also advocated for shipbuilding contracts with the Ottoman Empire , Germany ' s wartime ally ; he secured contracts for twelve torpedo boat s and twelve U - boats for the Ottoman Navy . Capelle also used the naval construction program to keep skilled workers out of the Army , in order to preserve their expertise for the Navy ' s needs . In August 1917 , Capelle banned socialist literature from the fleet , in the aftermath of several disturbances . On 9 October 1917 , in a speech to the Reichstag , he accused the radical , independent branch of the " Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands " ( SPD – Social Democratic Party ) of knowingly supporting these revolutionary actions , which drove moderate SPD members closer to the radical independent faction . This led to the toppling of Georg Michaelis , who was replaced by Georg von Hertling . On 9 January 1918 , Capelle was awarded the Pour le Mérite , Germany ' s highest military award . By August 1918 , Scheer and a group of prominent commanders in the High Seas Fleet had convinced Wilhelm II that the senior officers in the naval high command needed to be replaced by more dynamic individuals . To this end , Wilhelm II requested the resignation of Capelle , Henning von Holtzendorff , the Admiralty Chief , and Karl Alexander von Müller , the head of the Naval Cabinet . Capelle resigned from the Navy in October 1918 , shortly before the end of the war . His deputy , Paul Behnke , briefly replaced him but was also forced out due to his opposition to Scheer , who had by this time been promoted to the " Seekriegsleitung " ( Chief of Naval Staff ) . In 1919 , Capelle testified before the Reichstag War Failures Committee about his tenure as State Secretary during the war , particularly relating to the U - boat campaign against Britain . Capelle died in Wiesbaden on 23 February 1931 .