1920 Fleet Act

The '1920 Fleet Act' or 'Fleet Act of 1920' and officially '*Kaiserliche Marine-Flotte Act von 1920'*was a bill passed by the reinvigorated SPD-led Reichstag on the Third of March, 1920. This act formally set out the ambitions of the Hochseeflotte, after the Great War.

## Background

### The First Tirpitzprogramme

In 1897, as the new century began to dawn on Europe, The alliances which would clash together in the Great War had been drawn. Kaiser Wilhelm II knew, if he was ever to truly beat Britain, Germany would need a navy to match. Therefore, he invited Von Tirpitz into the government, to lead an effort to turn Germany into a naval superpower. Four naval bills, in 1898, 1900, 1908, and 1912 brought a small coastal defense force to an armada of seventeen dreadnoughts, five battlecruisers, twenty-five cruisers, and over forty submarines. The Hochseeflotte was only about 40% weaker than the Royal Navy, when the war began.

## The Hochseeflotte Under Ludendorff

When Paris fell in 1917, and the blockade was formally called off, there was no possibility in the minds of the Naval Staff of fighting the British in one, descisive battle. The blockade was broken, peace was days away. Then, the Treaty of Bern was signed, and the Dutch Navy was added to Germany's growing armada. *Sachsen* and *Wurrttemberg,*two Superdreadnoughts commissioned in 1914 but paused during the war, were also finished, in late 1918. These new ships were brought into the *Hochseeflotte*during the Dictatorship of Ludendorff, but this would be all Ludendorff did. As a general first and foremost, he saw the navy as a key to a well-supplied army, and nothing more.

### The London Naval Peace Conference.

When Britain and Germany began to repair the wounds of war, and make sure every soldier was accounted for and every child had food, Britian made an overture to stop the quickly escalating naval arms race. In London, Lloyd-George sent out to the Empire of Germany, United States, Japan, Italy, Ethiopia, Siam, and even rapidly collapsing France. On December 24th, 1918, in memory of the famous Christmas Truce, Britian invited these nations to negotiate a series of guidelines and restrictions to their navies, to prevent an expensive arms race. Ludendorff famously denounced this as a 'feeble attempt' by Britain to retain their pre-war supremacy, to the ire of many anti-war SPD members.

Clemencau, who's power in the French Government had been declining since the war was over, could make no commitments. Japan would be happy to join the conference; if Germany had done so, as Japan wanted to maintain their naval supremacy in the Pacific. Ethiopia and Siam also refusing after Germany refused, and with that, the naval conference pretty much collapsed. No treaties were signed, and Britian was forced to face the new cold war developing in Europe.

## The 1920 Fleet Act

When Ludendorff's regime was crushed in the March on Berlin, Kaiser Wilhelm II invited Von Tirpitz into the government, yet again, to bring the Kaiserliche Marine from the second greatest navy in the world to the first. Tirpitz's initial plan was to create a 'Risk Navy', a navy not quite as powerful as the Royal Navy, but powerful enough to dissuade the Royal Navy from attacking. Now, Tirpitz was ordered to turn the 'Risk Navy' into a Navy that turned the Royal Fleet into a 'Risk Navy'.