Dönitz: The Last Führer by Peter Padfield Read Free Book Online

from building his magnificent fleet while Tirpitz—now ennobled—had his gaze fixed on a distant goal which even August Bebel had not fully discerned, and which was so fantastic as to cast serious doubt on his sanity. It was nothing less than a giant battlefleet of 60 ships, each with a lifespan of 20 years
fixed by law
, thus an unalterable building ‘tempo’ of three great ships a year, which the
Reichstag
would not be able to interfere with! His external goal was to neutralize the Royal Navy, his internal goal to emasculate the
Reichstag
! 37
    So the great naval race was destined to continue, the taxes to rise, the Socialists and the Junkers to become more entrenched in their opposition, until the crisis in the
Reich
became unmanageable by peaceful means—while on the other side of the North Sea the British became ever more certain that the great fleet could only be for use against the Royal Navy.
    This was the background to Dönitz’s training years, the looming struggle with the Royal Navy and the deepening crisis and polarization inside the Bismarckian
Kaiserreich
, to which he was bound both by the moral imperative and by sentiment. As the British naval attaché reported in the same year, 1910, ‘The whole Navy without exception are absolutely devoted to HM [the Kaiser], not only as their Emperor but also particularly in a personal sense.’ 38
    Two years earlier another British naval attaché had reported on the anti-English feeling that it had been necessary to create in Germany in order to obtain funds for the fleet; this feeling had now grown so out ofhand that he doubted whether the Kaiser ‘much as he might desire it, could restrain his own people from attempting to wrest the command of the sea from Britain if they saw a fairly good chance of doing so’. He concluded his report:
    I believe that at the bottom of every German’s heart today is rising a faint and wildly exhilarating hope that a glorious day is approaching when by a brave breaking through of the lines which he feels are encircling him, he might even wrest command of the seas from England and thus become a member of the greatest power by land and sea the world has ever seen. 39
    This was the vision that animated the Imperial Navy; it would be surprising indeed if the young Karl Dönitz remained unaffected by the approach to ‘
der Tag
’!
    Of the influences about which he did write, probably the most important was the navigating officer of the
Hertha
, von Loewenfeld; he was a strong, highly individual character with a wide range of interests who was not afraid of unorthodox methods if the circumstances seemed to him to demand them. Later, in the chaos to which Germany was reduced after the First World War, Loewenfeld was one of those who formed a
Freikorps
of loyalist officers and men to fight against the anarchic Communist bands, which he put down with complete ruthlessness. There is no doubt that Dönitz hero-worshipped him, while he thought highly of the eager and capable cadet; indeed it is probable Dönitz was his favourite.
    Halfway through this first year, while the cruiser lay off the turreted walls of Tangier, the cadets were examined in the professional knowledge they had gained. Dönitz came equal second. 40 He recorded in his memoirs that first place went to Helmut Patzig, but did not mention that Patzig later distinguished himself as a U-boat Commander in the war by gunning down surviving doctors and nurses from a hospital ship he had torpedoed. The three top cadets were included in an invitation to the officers from the German Embassy where they were provided with horses and taken on ‘an unforgettably beautiful’ ride along the coast to Cape Spartel.
    Three other shore excursions from the
Hertha
remained sharp and delightful in his memory when he came to write his memoirs. For the most part, though, it was unrelenting work, and they returned homeafter the ten-month voyage with hands made callous from much boat-pulling and