Tirpitz, Alfred von (äl`frāt fən tĭr`pĭts), 1849–1930, German admiral. His influence on German naval policy began with his study of the recently invented torpedo and his consequent appointment (1871) as chief of the torpedo division of the navy ministry. Appointed secretary of state for naval affairs in 1897, he began to build a powerful battle fleet. The expansion of the German fleet contributed to Anglo-German enmity. Upon the outbreak of World War I, Tirpitz began the construction of submarines and advocated unrestricted submarine warfare to destroy Allied commerce. He retired in 1916 in protest against Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg's opposition to his submarine policy. Tirpitz returned to active political life as the member of a nationalist group in the Reichstag (1924–28).

Bibliography

See his memoirs (tr. 1919).

Tirpitz, Alfred von

(born March 19, 1849, Küstrin, Prussia—died March 6, 1930, Ebenhausen, near Munich, Ger.) German naval commander. The son of a Prussian civil servant, he enlisted in the Prussian Navy in 1865, attended the Kiel Naval School, and was commissioned in 1869. As commander of a torpedo-boat flotilla, he devised new tactical principles. Promoted to rear admiral, he commanded a cruiser squadron in East Asia (1896–97). In 1897 he became secretary of state of the imperial navy department and reorganized the German navy into a formidable high-seas fleet. Promoted to grand admiral (1911), he favoured unlimited submarine warfare in World War I, but opposition to his policy led to his resignation in 1916. In 1917 he cofounded the patriotic Fatherland Party.