Why did Hitler build a fleet of surface ships in the 1930s?

Question

In "Mein Kampf", he clearly outlines that Germany should build an empire on land, not sea. Moreover, he emphasizes that building a fleet would only antagonize the English, for who an empire at sea is vital, as happened in the lead-up to WW1. He even envisioned an alliance with England in the mid 1930s.
What happened?

I get the couple of subs due to their effectiveness in WW1 in case of a confrontation with England. But why build large surface vessels: Several battleships, even an aircraft carrier - given that steel was in short supply?

Answer 1

Stupidity.
The answer to all questions concerning Adolf Hitler have the sane answer.
Stupidity.
Hitler how no clear vision for the future. Mein Kampf was a collection of essays gleamed from Hitler's rambling monologues by ever faithful Rudolph Hess. 'Clearly Outlines - - - etc.' Huh? Hitler never clearly outlined anything. Hitler would get on a topic and ramble on and on and on and on and never ever give anything more than a dilettantes view and Hitler was the one to use that word to describe his own 'intellect.' Hitler rejected formal schooling and deemed himself a genius.
In consolidating power, though, it can be argued that Hitler was reasonably astute. Hitler needed someone to be on his side and for a variety of freakish reasons the German Navy was ripe for the courting. Despite his laughable testimony at Nuremberg, Karl Donitz was an early & ardent Nazi and Erich Raeder despite his claimed disdain of Hitler fawned over Der Fuhrer and aided Hitler's rise to power.
Thus it was that Hitler 'indulged' Raeder and the Naval Establisment allowing them the funding to pursue a 'stupid' building program that wasted resources on grandiose Battle Cruisers and worst follies. To their credit or discredit Raeder & cronies didn't truly know what they should be doing all that they knew was that a big battlewagon was mighty impressive and a fun toy to toot around the bathtub.
Hitler had other things on his mind. Since he was an IDIOT and had no clear idea what he was doing, a dilletantes perogative, Hitler 'let' the Navy build their toys half heartedly trusting that they knew what they were doing. Obviouslly not since the German Navy failed horribly (thankfully) during World War Two despite the horrible casualties inflicted by the U-Boats.
A tidbit you might find amusing. Several historians have pointed out that the time & resources & incidentals that went into building the ships the Graf Spree & the Scharnhorst let alone the Tirpitz & Bismark, that if instead the Germans had invested that time & those resources to the U-Boat fleet they would have had enough U-Boats to have actually dealt Britain a death blow by late 1940. One figure mentioned; two hundred U-Boats of the 1,500 ton Ocean going sort in operation by June 1940!!!!! Thankfully the Germans did not develope a U-Boat fleet that could actually win a war.

Peace........ o o o p p p o o o p p p o o o

Short answer - - - Hitler had no clear strategic vision.

Answer 2

The German Kriegsmarine of WWII never challenged the British fleet like the High Seas fleet did in WWI at Jutland. Hitler's surface fleet was more designed to intimidate the British and for commerce raiding and the occassional shore bombardment. They could slightly intimidate the British because of the "fleet in being" concept. In WWI the German Battlecruiser Goeben single-handedly terrorized the British in the Med. without ever even firing a shot. The German high command knew that just a few battleships and battlecruisers might throw a bit of a scare into the British. This was furthered by Bismarck's sinking of HMS Hood in May, 1941. The British were forced to mobilize a great deal of their surface fleet just to hunt down and sink Bismarck. But in the end, in terms of naval strategy, the Germans mostly relied on U-Boats, as they did in WWI.

Answer 3

He may have built his Kriegsmarine for the same reason the US built the B-1 Bomber. The plane had only one mission (dropping one or two gravity nuclear bombs) and it was never going to fulfill it. Carter tried to kill the project, and Reagan re-started it. It was a huge waste of resources, but it kept a couple of companies from going broke.

Hitler built his Navy to keep parts of the military-industrial complex working. If there were no orders for warships, those shipyards, and those workers would have to find new ways to make a living, and Germany could have forgotten how to make large ships like warships.

Also, large warships are able to "project power" that is, they are able to show a country's industrial might by sailing around the world and showing off their power. A battleship or aircraft carrier is a huge icon of military-industrial power!

Answer 4

The ships he built were in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles as regards displacement.
This is why he built small powerful battleships which he felt were necessary to challenge any attempt by the Soviet navy,French Navy or British navy to blockade supplies from reaching Germany from the USA which was a major trading partner of Germany in the 1930s.

Answer 5

It was not only a question of naval parity with Britain and challenging British naval supremacy. In building up Germany's military power, Hitler was well aware of the WWI experience when the British naval blockade had been an important factor in the final defeat of Germany, with disaffection and near social and economic collapse on the domestic front. He viewed a strong navy as essential if Germany's territorial ambitions were to be realised and the strategic errors of WWI were not to be repeated.

Answer 6

Britain is dominated by its navy ,but it still has a army.? right.Germany was no different.yes, he was building naval equipment ,but not at breakneck speed.there was full employment at the existing shipyards,but not enough for the "Admirals"ie. subs are pretty easy to manufacture and relatively cheap,Doenitz [subs] had been requesting for about 300 operational subs for years,at the outbreak of ww2 he had 30,imagine what he could have done with them!

Answer 7

He was building the Bismark and the Graf Spey in secret because they were much larger than the tonage allowed under the Treaty of Versailles... so he was probably building all the small ships to hide what he was really doing.

Answer 8

Hitler was probably not all there. He wanted to do a lot of things that he never did like become a priest and finish art school.

Answer 9

he wants to be powerful so he did that to overcome the advanced countries