After the dissolution of the German Imperial Admiralty (Kaiserliche Admiralität) on 1 April 1889, the Imperial Naval High Command, the Office of the Inspector-General of the Navy, and the Imperial Naval Office (Reichsmarineamt) were established as successor institutions. The Imperial Naval High Command was headed by a commanding admiral, directly subordinate to the emperor, Wilhelm II of Germany. With the same obligations and rights as a commanding general of the army, this admiral fulfilled the duties of a Chief of the Naval Staff. Under instructions from the emperor, he commanded all naval units at sea and ashore.
When the German Emperor decided to take over the supreme command of the Navy himself on 14 March 1899, the Imperial Naval High Command was disbanded. This happened mainly at the instigation of Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, to increase the power of his Imperial Naval Office (Reichsmarineamt). Some of the powers of the Imperial Naval High Command were transferred to the previously existing Admiralty Staff.
The Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) was the High Command of the German Army during the Era of Nazi Germany. It was founded in 1935 as a part of Adolf Hitler's re-militarisation of Germany. From 1938 OKH was, together with OKL and OKM, formally subordinated to the OKW, with the exception of the Waffen-SS. During the war, OKH had the responsibility of strategic planning of Armies and Army Groups, while the General Staff of the OKH managed operational matters. Each German Army also had an Armeeoberkommando, Army Command, or AOK. Until the German defeat at Moscow in December 1941, OKH and its staff was de facto the most important unit within the German war planning. OKW then took over this function for theatres other than the German-Soviet front. OKH commander held the title Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres. Following the Battle of Moscow, after OKH commander Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch was excused, Hitler appointed himself as Commander-in-Chief of the Army.
The Oberkommando der Marine (OKM), translated as High Command of the Navy or Upper Command of the Navy, was the high command and the highest administrative and command authority of the Kriegsmarine. It was officially formed from the Marineleitung of the Reichswehr on 11 January 1936. In 1937 it was combined with the newly formed Seekriegsleitung (SKL). There were two major re-organisations, in November 1939 and May 1944.
Hans Ludwig Raimund von Koester was a German naval officer who served in the Prussian Navy and later in the Imperial German Navy. He retired as a Grand Admiral.
Admiral Eduard von Capelle was a German Imperial Navy officer from Celle. He served in the navy from 1872 until his retirement in October, 1918. During his career, Capelle served in the Reichsmarineamt, where he was primarily responsible for writing the Fleet Laws that funded the expansion of the High Seas Fleet. By the time he retired, Capelle had risen to the rank of admiral, and had served at the post of state secretary for the Reichsmarineamt. From this post, he oversaw the German naval war during the latter three years of World War I. Capelle retired to Wiesbaden, where he died on 23 February 1931.
Hermann Bauer was a German naval officer who served as commander of the U-boat forces of the Kaiserliche Marine during World War I. In addition to his World War I career, Bauer is well known as the author of the book Das Unterseeboot, a treatise on the design and operation of U-boats, which was later translated into English by Hyman G. Rickover. Rickover's translation became a basic text for the US submarine service.
The phrase high command may refer to:
The Federal Ministry of Defence, abbreviated BMVg, is a top-level federal agency, headed by the Federal Minister of Defence as a member of the Cabinet of Germany. The ministry is headquartered at the Hardthöhe district in Bonn and has a second office in the Bendlerblock building in Berlin.
German High Command may refer to:
Ehrhard Schmidt was an admiral of the Kaiserliche Marine during World War I.
The German Imperial Naval Cabinet, a government office of the German Imperial Navy, 1871-1918, was responsible for commanding naval officers, marine officers, engineers, naval stores, and munitions.
The German Imperial Admiralty was an imperial naval authority in the German Empire. By order of Kaiser Wilhelm I the Northern German Federal Navy Department of the North German Confederation (1866–71), which had been formed from the Prussian Navy Department (Marineministerium), became on 1 January 1872 the German Imperial Admiralty. The head of the Admiralty administered the Imperial Navy under the authority of the imperial chancellor and the supreme command of the Emperor. It lasted until 1889, undergoing several reorganizations, but proved an impractical arrangement given the constant growth and the expansion of the Imperial Navy. Finally it was abolished in April 1889 and its duties divided among three new entities: German Imperial Naval High Command, the Imperial Naval Office (Reichsmarineamt), and the Imperial Naval Cabinet. The Imperial Naval High Command was, on 14 March 1899, replaced by the German Imperial Admiralty Staff, which simply transferred over most of the personnel of the Admiral Staff detachment of the former Naval High Command.
The Imperial Naval Office was a government agency of the German Empire. It was established in April 1889, when the German Imperial Admiralty was abolished and its duties divided among three new entities: the Imperial Naval High Command, the Imperial Naval Cabinet and the Imperial Naval Office performing the functions of a ministry for the Imperial German Navy.
Friedrich von Hollmann was an Admiral of the German Imperial Navy and Secretary of the German Imperial Naval Office under Emperor Wilhelm II.
The Generalinspekteur der Marine was a position in the government of the German Empire. It was founded in 1871 as the command authority of the German Imperial Admiralty and lasted intermittently to 1919.
The German Imperial Admiralty Staff was one of four command agencies for the administration of the Imperial German Navy from 1899 to 1918. While the German Emperor Wilhelm II as commander-in-chief exercised supreme operational command and control of the naval forces, the military staff was split into the Admiralty, the Naval Office, the Naval Cabinet, and the Inspector-General. The command structure had a negative impact on German naval warfare in World War I, as a professional head of the Imperial Navy, similar to the First Sea Lord, was not established until August 1918. After the war and the German Revolution of 1918–19, the Admiralty Staff became subordinate to the Naval Office and was finally disestablished by order of the German President.
Otto Ferdinand Maximilian Leopold Freiherr von der Goltz was an Admiral of the Imperial German Navy.
The Ministry of the Reichswehr or Reich Ministry of Defence was the defence ministry of the Weimar Republic and the early Third Reich. The 1919 Weimar Constitution provided for a unified, national ministry of defence to coordinate the new Reichswehr, and that ministry was set up in October 1919, from the existing Prussian War Ministry and Reichsmarineamt. It was based in the Bendlerblock building. The Wehrgesetz of 21 May 1935 renamed it the Reich Ministry of War, which was then abolished in 1938 and replaced with the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht.
William Otto Ernst Michaelis was a German viceadmiral and head of the Naval Command within the Ministry of the Reichswehr in the Weimar Republic.
Hanns Benda (1877–1951) was a German Admiral during World War II.
The organization of the Kriegsmarine refers to the operational and administrative structure of the German Navy from 1935 to 1945. Many of the organizational tenets of the Kriegsmarine were inherited from its predecessor the Reichsmarine. As World War II unfolded, the Kriegsmarine expanded to cover additional regions and responsibilities, most significant of which was the occupation of France and the Battle of the Atlantic.
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