Alfred von Tirpitz
Alfred Peter Friedrich von Tirpitz (German pronunciation: [ˈalfʁeːt fɔn ˈtɪʁpɪt͡s] ⓘ; 19 March 1849 – 6 March 1930) was a German grand admiral, State Secretary of the German Imperial Naval Office, the powerful administrative branch of the German Imperial Navy from 1897 until 1916.
"Admiral von Tirpitz" redirects here. For ships of this name, see List of ships named Tirpitz.
Alfred von Tirpitz
19 March 1849
Küstrin, Province of Brandenburg, Prussia
(today Kostrzyn nad Odrą, Poland)
6 March 1930 (aged 80)
Ebenhausen, Bavaria, Germany
Kingdom of Prussia (1869–1871)
German Empire (1871–1916)
1869–1916
Torpedo Inspectorate
SMS Preussen
SMS Württemberg
East Asia Squadron
Imperial Naval Office
Prussia never had a major navy, nor did the other German states before the German Empire was formed in 1871. Tirpitz took the modest Imperial Navy and, starting in the 1890s, turned it into a world-class force that could threaten Britain's Royal Navy. However, during World War I, his High Seas Fleet proved unable to end Britain's command of the sea and its chokehold on Germany's economy. The one great engagement at sea, the Battle of Jutland, ended in a narrow German tactical victory but a strategic failure. As the High Seas Fleet's limitations became increasingly apparent during the war, Tirpitz became an outspoken advocate for unrestricted submarine warfare, a policy which would ultimately bring Germany into conflict with the United States. By the beginning of 1916, he was dismissed from office and never regained power. Following his dismissal, he would become Chairman of the far-right German Fatherland Party, an ideological precursor to the Nazi Party.
Family and early life[edit]
Tirpitz was born in Küstrin (today Kostrzyn in Poland) in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, the son of lawyer and later judge Rudolf Tirpitz (1811–1905). His mother was the daughter of a doctor. Tirpitz grew up in Frankfurt (Oder). He recorded in his memoirs that as a child he was a mediocre pupil.
Tirpitz spoke English fluently and was sufficiently at home in Britain that he sent his two daughters Ilse and Margot to Cheltenham Ladies' College.
On 18 November 1884 he married Maria Augusta Lipke (born 11 October 1860 in Schwetz, West Prussia, died after 1941).
On 12 June 1900 he was elevated to the Prussian nobility, becoming von Tirpitz. He had four children: Max, Wolfgang, Ilse (born 1885) and Margot (born 1888).[1] His son, Oberleutnant zur See Wolfgang von Tirpitz, was taken prisoner of war after the sinking of SMS Mainz in the Battle of Heligoland Bight on 28 August 1914. His daughter Ilse von Hassell married diplomat Ulrich von Hassell who was executed in 1944 as an anti-Hitler activist.[2][3] Their daughter Fey von Hassell and her young sons were then taken as hostages. She wrote of the experience in A Mother's War.[4]
After 1918[edit]
After Germany's defeat Tirpitz supported the right-wing German National People's Party (Deutschnationale Volkspartei, or DNVP) and sat for it in the Reichstag from 1924 until 1928.
Tirpitz died in Ebenhausen, near Munich, on 6 March 1930. He is buried in the Waldfriedhof in Munich.
Commemoration[edit]
The Tirpitz Range on the island of New Hanover in Papua New Guinea takes its name from Alfred von Tirpitz.