Erich Raeder: Difference between revisions

=== Early years ===

for his marked authoritarian views, and who impressed upon his son the  

values of hard work, thrift, faith and obedience—all values that Raeder  

democracy, that would be a disaster as it meant government by men  

"playing politics"—doing what was only best for their petty sectarian  

=== Imperial German Navy ===

Raeder joined the ''Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy) in 1894 and rapidly rose in rank, becoming Chief of Staff for Franz von Hipper in 1912. From 1901 to 1903 Raeder served on the staff of Prince Heinrich of Prussia, and gained a powerful patron in the process.^[2] Raeder's rise up the ranks was due mostly to his intelligence and hard work.^[3] Owing to his cold and distant personality, Raeder was a man whom even his friends often admitted to knowing very little about.^[3] The dominating figure of the Navy was Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the autocratic State Secretary of the Navy. Tirpitz's preferred means of obtaining "world power status" was through his ''Risikotheorie'' (risk theory) where Germany would build a ''Risikoflotte''

<nowiki> </nowiki>with Germany, and thereby alter the international balance of power  

decisively in the ''Reich'''s favor. Tirpitz transformed the Navy from the small coastal defense force of 1897 into the mighty High Seas Fleet of 1914.

Raeder was married in 1903 and had three children by his first wife.^[4] In 1904, Raeder, who spoke fluent Russian, was sent to the Far East as an observer of the Russo-Japanese War.^[4]

Navy, where he first met Tirpitz and began his introduction to politics  

by briefing journalists to run articles promoting the ''Seemachtideologie'' and meeting politicians who held seats in the ''Reichstag'' in order to convert them to the ''Seemachtideologie''.^[5] Working closely with Tirpitz, Raeder was heavily involved in the lobbying the ''Reichstag'' to pass the Third Navy Law of 1906 which committed Germany to building "all big gun battleships" to compete with the new British ''Dreadnought'' class in the Anglo-German naval race that had begun early in the 20th century.^[6]

Raeder was the captain of Kaiser Wilhelm II's

was not a rewarding post, but often people in this post were quickly  

promoted afterwards.^[7]

<nowiki> </nowiki>argued that because of superior British shipbuilding capacity Germany  

could never hope to build a "balanced fleet" capable of winning the ''Entscheidungsschlacht'', and so the best use of German naval strength was to build a fleet of cruisers and submarines that would wage a ''guerre de course''.^[10]

Admiral Hipper decided to submit them to the Admiralty in Berlin, but  

changed his mind after reading a paper by Raeder attacking the "Wegener  

thesis" as flawed.^[11]

with Wegener claiming that his former friend Raeder was jealous of what  

Wegener insisted were his superior ideas.^[12]

On 14 October 1918, Raeder received a major promotion when he was appointed deputy to Admiral Paul Behncke, the Naval State Secretary.^[16]

war working to achieve the Scheer Programme of building 450 U-boats.

<nowiki> </nowiki>and in 1919 his first marriage, which had been under heavy strain due  

to war-related stress, ended in divorce.^[18]

and for the rest of his life he always denied his first marriage.^[18] The years 1918–1919 were some of the most troubled in his life.^[18]

<nowiki> </nowiki>the winter of 1918–19, Raeder was closely involved in the efforts of  

the naval officer corps, strongly backed by the Defense Minister Gustav Noske–a Majority Social Democrat with firm law and order views–to disband the sailors' councils established after the mutiny.^[19]

officer corps and Noske, and it was Raeder who suggested to Noske on 11  

January 1919 that Adolf von Trotha be appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Navy.^[20]

<nowiki> </nowiki>a split in the officer corps between the followers of "the Master" and  

the Kaiser, and Raeder wanted Trotha as the only officer acceptable to  

both fractions.^[20] Noske in turn asked the Navy for volunteers for the ''Freikorps'' to crush uprisings from the Communists.^[21] The Navy contributed two brigades to the ''Freikorps''.^[22] The price of the Navy supporting the ''Freikorps''

the end of attempts to democratise the military. Under the Weimar Republic, the military considered itself ''überparteiliche'' (above party), which did not mean political neutrality as implied.^[23] The military argued that there were two types of "politics": ''parteipolitisch'' (party politics) which was the responsibility of the politicians, and ''staatspolitisch'' (state politics) which was the responsibility of the military.^[23] ''Staatspolitisch''

winning world power, which was to be pursued regardless of what the  

politicians or the people wanted.^[23]

=== Kapp ''putsch'' ===

=== Inspector of Training ===

After the failure of the Kapp ''putsch''

Archives, where for two years he played a leading role in writing the  

official history of the Navy in World War I.^[24] After this, Raeder resumed his steady rise in the navy hierarchy, becoming ''Vizeadmiral'' (Vice Admiral) in 1925.

Main article: Interwar naval service of Erich Raeder

Main article: Erich Raeder during World War II

to use Norwegian naval bases or successfully mine Norwegian waters, they

<nowiki> </nowiki>could cut off the vital iron ore imports from Sweden and tighten the  

<nowiki> </nowiki>commander of the Kriegsmarine in the Baltic sea region, proposed the  

<nowiki> </nowiki>the idea in October, but planning did not begin until December 1939.  

The operation was in low-priority planning until the Altmark Incident, but found a new sense of urgency thereafter. The invasion

=== Nuremberg trial ===

veterans. Due to ill health, Raeder was released on 26 September 1955.

** Grand Cross Order of the Crown of King Zvonimir with swords and other decorations (Croatia, 26 September 1942)

** Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Kingdom of Hungary with war ribbon with swords (Hungary, 8 February 1943)