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  • Deutsche Marinen im Wandel: Vom Symbol nationaler Einheit zum Instrument internationaler Sicherheit
  • Keith W. Bird
Deutsche Marinen im Wandel: Vom Symbol nationaler Einheit zum Instrument internationaler Sicherheit. Edited by Werner Rahn. Vol. 63, Beiträge zur Militärgeschichte (Militärgeschichtlichen Forschungsamt) Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2005. ISBN 3-486-57674-7. Pp. ix, 738. Euro 49.80.

The richness of current German naval historiography is fully evident in this collection of thirty essays published by the Military History Research Office (MGFA) in Potsdam, edited by the former head of the MGFA, Werner Rahn. Written primarily by German authors, only eight of the essays are new; the others were previously published, but updated in part for this publication. Beginning with a foreword by the Inspekteur der Marine, Vice Admiral Lutz Feldt, and a dedication to the retiring chief of the MGFA, Jörg Duppler, this book celebrates the role of the German navy from its beginning as a symbol of national unity (1848) to its role as an instrument of international security in the twenty-first century (its subtitle). The essays document the historical roots of the German navy beginning with the Middle Ages, the founding of the "first" German fleet in 1848 (celebrated as the official anniversary of the navy today), the era of the two World Wars, the Cold War, the unification of the two German states and the role of the renamed (1990) Deutsche Marine's role in the world 1991–2004. The concluding essay is Rahn's "Twelve Theses" on the development of the navy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which provides a framework of the major themes of each period of German naval history.

The fact that the majority of the authors are active or retired German naval officers reflects the importance of naval history in the education and training of the naval officer corps. The role of history as the "bearer of tradition" and as a vehicle for instilling "enthusiasm and responsibility for the soldierly profession" gives this volume a flavor of a more general (and selective) introduction to the history of the navy than the "unity of focus" that characterized the MGFA's 1972 study of the debate over the domestic and foreign policy implications of fleet-building (Marine und Marinepolitik im kaiserliche Deutschland 1871–1914). In spite of its scope, however, this collection does not ignore a critical confrontation with the navy's two attempts to become a maritime power in the Wilhelmian and Nazi eras as the inclusion of thirteen contributions to the period of the two World Wars demonstrates, especially those of Gerhard Schreiber (the continuity of naval leadership between 1897 and 1945), Michael Salewski (the ideology and reality of the maritime Third Reich) and Herbert Kraus (Admiral Karl Dönitz). Nevertheless, its subtitle suggests a more politically acceptable "continuity thesis" connecting the democratic ideals of the mid-nineteenth-century Bundesflotte to today's Deutsche Marine than the leaders of the Imperial Navy or Kriegsmarine would have acknowledged.

Given the extensive historiographical debate over the last 30 years concerning the aims of German navalism (see this author's review essay "The Tirpitz Legacy" in the July 2005 JMH), there also seem to be some notable [End Page 245] omissions. The two essays by Günter Moltmann and Bernard Kroener evaluating the 1848 fleet ambitions overlook the expansionist nature of the Frankfurt Parliament's naval aims and other "continuity" themes raised in earlier studies such as Günter Wollstein's 1977 Das "Grossdeutschland" der Paulskirche or Wolfgang Petter's 1982 "Programmierter Untergang" in the MGFA's 1982 Militärgeschichte. This reviewer would also have expected Holger Herwig to be included for his critical observations on the social and political views of the Kaiser's naval officers instead of his essay on the influence of Mahan.

The welcome inclusion of Rolf Hobson provides the latest scholarship into the origins of Tirpitz's sea power ideology but also raises new questions about whether domestic politics played a role in Tirpitz's fleet building as opposed to his "ideology of sea power" and the arguments over whether Germany's navalism was "unique." Within the limitations of this type of anthology, there is...

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