Preparing for Weltpolitik: German Sea Power Before the Tirpitz Era

Sea Power, Aug 1997

PREPARING FOR WELTPOLITIK: German Sea Power Before the Tirpitz Era, by Lawrence Sondhaus. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1997. 326 pp. $39.95. A comprehensive operational, institutional, and political history that discusses the emergence and evolution of German seapower in the nineteenth century.

Sondhaus, the author of several previous works on naval affairs, refutes the theory that German seapower and its link to Weltpolitik, Germany's drive for world power, originated with the great Admiral Alfred Tirpitz in the 1890s. Chronicling the fluctuating fortunes of Germany's navy from its origins in the midl9th century, Preparing for Weltpolitik is particularly valuable for its insights into the German Navy during the pre-WWI era. Well-written and particularly interesting reading for naval buffs. Includes 25 black and white photos and other illustrations, maps, notes, index, bibliographical references, epilogue, and an appended list of armored warships of the German Navy before the turn of the century.