Erich Raeder (HM6)

Erich Johann Albert Raeder (* April 24th, 1876 in Wandsbek, ) has been Leader of the Oberkommando der Marine since 1928 and since 1935 supreme commander of the . On January 30th of 1937, he got the Golden Party Badge of the . In April 1939, he was promoted to Großadmiral (Grand Admiral), the first man to hold that rank since Alfred von Tirpitz.
Raeder has worked as an author several times already, and also translated works by the French Naval War expert René Daveluy. In the Weimar Republic, he was occupied with the topic of the cruiser war and worked out the Thesis that the Passivity of the German Fleet in the North Sea enabled the British Side to defeat the German cruisers in the sea battle at the Falklands decisively. This knowledge became an important foundation of his later decisions as the supreme commander of the Kriegsmarine. He also studied political economy, Law of administration, political science, and history of the economy. In April 1931, he fired the later Leader of the NS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt from the Reichsmarine, because of „ehrwidrige[s] Verhalten“ (acting dishonorably). Since then, they've been arch-enemies.
As late as in 1932, he had no Sympathies for . He e.g. called his political speeches „verbrecherisch“ ("criminal") and thought that he had maneuvered his Party into a bad situation.
== Under the Nazis ==
After the Nazis took over, Raeder did all to convince the "Führer" about the Necessity of a strong Navy. The latter had demanded in „Mein Kampf“ to forfeit naval armament, because it had been the cause of 's enmity in the First World War – but he had planned to make Britain an ally instead. By hinting at the French Navy during a talk in March 1933, it seems that Raeder was successful in getting Adolf Nazi's support for strengthening the Kriegsmarine. In the same year, he gave the order to introduce the Nazi salute in the Kriegsmarine.
He also prepared the initiation of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement since 1934 with mixed feelings, because he considered the finally agreed relation of 35:100 compared to the British Navy for too low. But since the Agreement finally allowed the long awaited construction of capital ships, Raeder for now contented with the circumstances and enforced the construction of the first battleships and the first aircraft carrier. By 1937, he was planning on building 100,000-ton battleships.
In 1936, he ordered a new class of support ships, the Dithmarschen-class ships which served as a combined oil tanker/supply ship/hospital ship/repair shop.
In the fall of 1938, the Kriegsmarine leadership had worked out (for the first time!) a concept for the build-up of a Navy which also considered a possible enmity of Great Britain. Raeder's involvement with the topic of a cruiser war was noticeable regarding this, as the core of the strategy was planned to be a world-wide anti-trade war on the oceans with cruiser-like units. The armament plan which came to be known as „“ turned against the idea of a comparatively easily built submarine fleet and instead planned building a big number of heavy units, of which the battleships (which would take the longest time) got the highest priority. The consequence of this was that the German navy was far from "finished" when the war started. In fact, he was shocked by the outbreak that was at least five years too early for the Kriegsmarine.
With his strategic focus on heavy ships, Raeder was opposed to the commander of the submarines even before the war started. Dönitz had created an alternative construction program, directed against Raeder's Z Plan, and repeatedly insisted on building more submarines at the expense of the bigger ships.
== During the World War ==
The announced „voller Einsatz“ (full deployment) of the few available units lead to meagre results in combination with high losses of men and material (pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee 1939, heavy cruiser Blücher 1940), which made the "Führer" doubt - more and more - the very right of existence of the bigger warships.
On June 16th in 1940, Raeder sent a memo to the "führer" calling for Nazi Germany to take over the entire French fleet and the French bases on the Atlantic coast and in Dakar.
During July, they agreed to continue building the battleships called for by Plan Z. Raeder also had bases built at Trondheim on the Norwegian Sea and at Saint-Nazaire and Lorient on the Bay of Biscay. At this time, he and other senior officers began submitting memos to invade (among others) Shetland, , the , , , , and the .
== Private Life ==
Since he has served before First World War as an Officer of the Yacht Hohenzollern of Ex-Kaiser , he's in connection with the latter, and still has him in high regard.
In 1919, he separated from his first wife Augusta Schultz, which he considers a Shame, hence he never talks about it. In 1920, he married Erika Hindermann. He has a daughter, Anita, and a son by his second wife.
He speaks Russian fluently.
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