Prince Adalbert of Prussia ( 1811 – 1873 ) Prince Adalbert of Prussia ( " Heinrich Wilhelm Adalbert " ) ( 29 October 1811 in Berlin – 6 June 1873 in Karlsbad ) was a son of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and Landgravine Marie Anna of Hesse - Homburg . He was a naval theorist and admiral . He was instrumental during the Revolutions of 1848 in founding the first unified German fleet , the Reichsflotte . During the 1850s he helped to establish the Prussian Navy . Adalbert was the son of Prince William , the youngest brother of King Frederick William III . As a young man , Adalbert entered the Prussian army and served in the artillery . Several journeys led him between 1826 and 1842 to the Netherlands , Britain , Russia , Turkey , Greece and Brazil . He recognized during his many sea voyages the importance that sea power had for a modern commercial and industrial nation . He studied carefully the theory of naval warfare and in 1835 - 36 wrote a first plan for the construction of a Prussian fleet . Prussia at that time was a land power focused on Continental Europe , possessing practically no navy of its own ; rather , it relied on the allied powers of Britain , the Netherlands , and Denmark . During the First Schleswig War of 1848 - 51 , however , the failure of this strategy became apparent : Britain and the Netherlands remained neutral and Denmark became the enemy . Within a few days the Danish navy had destroyed German maritime commerce in the North Sea and the Baltic . During the Revolutions of 1848 , the German National Assembly which met at St . Paul ’ s Church in Frankfurt resolved with " a majority clearly bordering on unanimity " to establish a German Imperial fleet and named Prince Adalbert to lead the " Maritime Technical Commission " . He presented his recommendations in a " Memorandum on the Construction of a German Fleet " ( " Denkschrift über die Bildung einer deutschen Flotte " ) ( Potsdam , 1848 ) . In this memorandum , still regarded highly for its insights on naval strategy , Adalbert distinguished between three fleet models : Adalbert favored the middle solution , because it would not provoke the great sea powers ( such as Britain ) , but would provide the German navy with significant value as an ally . In 1849 his cousin , King Frederick William IV , ordered Adalbert to resign his office in the fledgling Imperial Navy . The reactionary king mistrusted the National Assembly because of its revolutionary nature , and had already turned down its offer to assume the German Imperial crown . Despite the setback , Adalbert continued to give active support to the construction of a fleet . In 1852 Adalbert argued that Prussia needed to build a naval base on the North Sea . He arranged the Jade Treaty of 20 July 1853 , in which Prussia and the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg jointly withdrew from a region on the west bank of the Jade bay , where from 1854 onward Prussia established the fortress , naval base and city of Wilhelmshaven . On 30 March 1854 , Adalbert was named Admiral of the Prussian Coast and Commander - in - Chief of the Navy . In the summer of 1856 , while on a training cruise of Prussian warships , he was shot at by pirates within sight of Morocco ’ s Rif coast and was wounded . During the Second Schleswig War of 1864 ( also known as the " Danish - Prussian War " ) he commanded the Baltic Squadron , without being able to take an active role in the war . After the Franco - Prussian War of 1870 - 1871 , which led to the creation of the German Empire , Adalbert laid down his title of " Prince - Admiral " and retired from the now - renamed Imperial Navy . He died two years later of liver disease in Karlsbad . Adalbert was married to the dancer Therese Elssler ( Frau von Barnim ) ; their only son , Adalbert v . Barnim ( born 1841 ) , died in 1860 during an expedition on the Nile .