The Naval Route to the Abyss

This publication is an essential volume for any serious student of naval policy in the pre-First World War era. The intense rivalry in battleship building that took place between Britain and Germany in the run up to the First World War is seen by many as the most totemic of all armaments races. It has been blamed by numerous commentators during the inter-war years as a major cause of the Great War.'The Great Naval Race' has never been examined from the viewpoint of both of its participants simultaneously and equally. This volume will fill this gap. It draws on documents both English-language and German, and will therefore make the German role in this conflict accessible to an English speaking audience for the very first time. The book addresses the build up of the German Navy and it's threat to Britain. All in all, crucial documents leave no doubt that the Imperial German Navy deliberately challenged the Royal Navy. Tirpitz certainly did not want a war before the navy was ready, which he hoped it would be in the 1920s.

Matthew S. Seligmann is Professor of Naval History at Brunel University London. An expert in Anglo-German relations before the First World War.

Dr Frank Nägler is a retired Commander in the German Navy. He has published several articles on the history of the German navy as well as of the Bundeswehr.

Dr. Michael Epkenhans is professor of modern history and chief historian at the Centre for Military History and Social Sciences of the German Armed Forces at Potsdam, Germany. He also teaches modern history at Potsdam University. In 2008 he published the biography Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz: Architect of the German Battle Fleet.