During the First War of Schleswig of 1848–1851, the failure of this strategy became clear because Great Britain and the Netherlands remained neutral and Denmark became the enemy. The German Confederation possessed practically no fleet of its own, but relied upon the allied powers of Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Denmark. During the Revolutionary era of 1848–1852, at the behest of the Frankfurt National Assembly, the prince was given the responsibility of reestablishing an Imperial fleet ( Reichsflotte) - a mission which the revolutionary parliament had undertaken in the face of the war with Denmark. He had made a number of journeys abroad and recognized the value of a fleet to support commercial interests and to protect one’s own navigation. One of the first to work for the development of a Prussian Navy was Prince Adalbert of Prussia. This protective fleet existed until around 1850. Its ships were armed to protect against pirates and flew the Prussian war ensign. In this connection, the Prussian Maritime Enterprise played a significant role. Again, more value was placed on the development of a merchant fleet than on a navy. One of these, founded in 1772 as the Societé de Commerce maritime, exists today as a foundation named the Preußische Seehandlung (roughly translated as " Prussian Maritime Enterprise").Īfter the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Prussia slowly began to build its own small fleet for coastal defense. Įven so, the Prussian monarch wanted to take part in international maritime commerce and therefore founded several trading firms (with varying success). However, the ships were replaced already in 1760, and the new flotilla served until the end of the war in 1763. The Prussians lost all ships and as a consequence the Swedes occupied Usedom and Wollin. This embryonic fleet lost the battle of Frisches Haff in September 1759 to a Swedish naval force. Prussia nevertheless built up a small naval force of 13 makeshift warships during the Seven Years' War. He believed that naval battles would only rarely decide a conflict and preferred having the best army in Europe rather than the worst fleet among the naval powers. The kingdom could never hope to equal the great fleets of Britain, France, the Dutch Republic, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, and Russia with their few ships, the Prussians would always remain behind those great maritime nations. Besides this, the kingdom was able to rely on its many friendly connections with the neighboring naval powers of Denmark and the Netherlands.įrederick II ("the Great") took the view that Prussia should never seek to develop its own war fleet. Due to the state’s continental position and the lack of easily defensible natural borders, Prussia had to concentrate its military preparations on the army. The Prussian kings of the 18th century had little interest in maintaining their own navy. At the time of Brandenburg’s elevation to the Kingdom of Prussia, the decline of the Brandenburg Navy had already begun her end finally arrived with the sale of the colonies. His son Frederick I, from 1701 the King in Prussia, was glad to sell colonial possessions to the Netherlands. Frederick William’s descendants had, however, little interest in such overseas adventures and on developing their own naval power. The Elector designated navigation and commerce as the noblest undertakings of a state, and strove energetically to develop colonies overseas. Beginning around the year 1657, under Elector Frederick William (the "Great Elector"), these developed into an offensive naval force. The Electorate of Brandenburg, the predecessor of the Kingdom of Prussia, possessed its own naval forces from the 16th century onwards. Yet historically there were always Prussian naval forces, beginning in the days when "Prussia" meant only the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Throughout the centuries, Prussia’s military consistently concentrated on its land power, and never sought a similar power at sea. The Prussian Navy existed, without any long interruption, until the founding of the North German Confederation in 1867, at which point the Prussian Navy was absorbed into the Norddeutsche Bundesmarine ( North German Federal Navy). At that time, Brandenburg and Prussia formed a double state ruled in personal union by the House of Hohenzollern. It was created from the former Brandenburg Navy, following the elevation of the Duke of Prussia to King in Prussia in 1701. The Prussian Navy (German: Preußische Marine), was the naval force of the Kingdom of Prussia.