Drafting the Second Navy Law of 1900 in the Context of Implementing the “Tirpitz Plan” in Germany

The article analyzes the significance of the Second Navy Law of 1900 as well as the importance of its adoption in the German government’s long-term planning system of the increasing naval armament before World War I. German admiral Alfred von Tirpitz alongside the German Imperial Naval Office laid the legal basis for implementation of the future battle fleet during the period of preparation and adoption of the First Fleet Act in 1897-1898. They were focused predominately on internal political problems concerning the act adoption e.g. funding, the issue of its legislative form, attempts to overcome differences in Reichstag, forming a sense of demand for fleet among the population, etc. Main goals for the construction of the fleet were defined in Tirpitz’s report to the Kaiser in Rominten during the period of political struggles over The Second Naval Law adoption in 1898-1900, where the organizational structure had been changed. The Tripitz-Plan had finally gone from a state of strategy and planning to its practical implementation. The new Naval Law had serious foreign policy implications unlike the previous act. The German government, given the scale of its plans, had to adjust its further steps in the international arena, primarily taking into account the possible worsening of relations with Great Britain — the world's largest maritime power.