WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.500 Welcome in, everyone. It's great to have you 00:00:02.500 --> 00:00:04.360 joining us today. Yeah, thanks for tuning in. 00:00:04.519 --> 00:00:07.400 Whether you are prepping for a strategic meeting, 00:00:07.700 --> 00:00:10.359 brushing up on your military history, or you're 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:12.740 simply looking for a deeper understanding of 00:00:12.740 --> 00:00:15.560 the geopolitical shifts that really define the 00:00:15.560 --> 00:00:18.359 20th century, you are in the exact right place. 00:00:18.379 --> 00:00:21.280 Absolutely. We have a really fascinating deep 00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:23.920 dive lined up for you. It's a huge topic. It 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:27.039 is. Our mission today is to explore the complete 00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:30.320 arc of the Imperial German Navy. We are pulling 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:33.520 from a really comprehensive Wikipedia article 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:36.740 detailing the Navy's entire history, from its 00:00:36.740 --> 00:00:39.939 inception in 1871 to its, well, its... pretty 00:00:39.939 --> 00:00:43.159 spectacular collapse in 1919. It is a truly remarkable 00:00:43.159 --> 00:00:45.719 historical trajectory. We are looking at how 00:00:45.719 --> 00:00:48.359 a relatively modest coastal defense force was 00:00:48.359 --> 00:00:51.659 transformed and deliberately transformed, systematically 00:00:51.659 --> 00:00:54.479 turned into a global maritime powerhouse. Which 00:00:54.479 --> 00:00:57.060 triggered a massive arms race. Exactly. One of 00:00:57.060 --> 00:00:59.560 the most intense naval arms races in modern history. 00:01:00.259 --> 00:01:03.020 It fundamentally altered European diplomacy and 00:01:03.020 --> 00:01:05.540 ultimately ended in a rather dramatic self -destruction. 00:01:05.719 --> 00:01:07.780 We are going to unpack the mechanics of that 00:01:07.780 --> 00:01:09.879 transformation today. We want to look at what 00:01:09.879 --> 00:01:13.019 this teaches us about the dangers of unchecked 00:01:13.019 --> 00:01:17.000 ambition, the shockwaves of rapid technological 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:19.459 disruption. Huge technological shifts in this 00:01:19.459 --> 00:01:22.920 story. Yeah, and the immense societal cost of 00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:25.950 sustaining that kind of military rivalry. OK, 00:01:25.950 --> 00:01:28.370 let's unpack this. Where do we start? Let's look 00:01:28.370 --> 00:01:32.290 at Germany in 1871, newly unified under Prussian 00:01:32.290 --> 00:01:35.049 leadership with Kaiser Wilhelm I at the helm. 00:01:35.670 --> 00:01:38.769 The Navy was, it was basically a footnote. Barely 00:01:38.769 --> 00:01:40.790 an afterthought. Right. It was commanded by army 00:01:40.790 --> 00:01:43.810 generals. Its main job, its strategic doctrine, 00:01:44.209 --> 00:01:46.590 was strictly limited to just protecting coastal 00:01:46.590 --> 00:01:49.930 towns from France and Russia. Exactly. The mindset 00:01:49.930 --> 00:01:53.150 was entirely defensive. The Supreme Command rested 00:01:53.150 --> 00:01:55.689 the Emperor, but the first appointed chief was 00:01:55.689 --> 00:01:58.209 literally a general of the infantry. Adopting 00:01:58.209 --> 00:02:00.370 army regulations for the water. Yeah, they were 00:02:00.370 --> 00:02:02.590 basically putting Prussian army rules on boats. 00:02:03.150 --> 00:02:05.390 And later on, the focus shifted heavily toward 00:02:05.390 --> 00:02:07.930 torpedoes. Because they were cheap. Highly cost 00:02:07.930 --> 00:02:11.430 -effective. They viewed torpedo boats as an asymmetric 00:02:11.430 --> 00:02:14.550 way for a smaller coastal force to defend against 00:02:14.550 --> 00:02:17.509 the larger blockading vessels of the French or 00:02:17.509 --> 00:02:19.849 the Russians. The German army was the prestigious 00:02:19.849 --> 00:02:22.330 institution. The Navy was just a shoreline guard. 00:02:22.629 --> 00:02:25.030 Strictly auxiliary. But there is a massive vibe 00:02:25.030 --> 00:02:28.150 shift, a huge tonal shift in 1888. When Wilhelm 00:02:28.150 --> 00:02:30.849 II took the throne. Right. Wilhelm II becomes 00:02:30.849 --> 00:02:33.909 emperor and he has a completely different strategic 00:02:33.909 --> 00:02:36.189 vision. He didn't just want a strong continental 00:02:36.189 --> 00:02:39.979 power. He wanted a maritime empire. To rival 00:02:39.979 --> 00:02:42.259 Britain and France. Exactly. He wanted a blue 00:02:42.259 --> 00:02:45.379 water fleet. Power projection on a global scale. 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:48.379 And the source points out that his personal obsession 00:02:48.379 --> 00:02:51.639 with naval prestige really drove this entire 00:02:51.639 --> 00:02:54.039 agenda. It was an all -consuming fixation for 00:02:54.039 --> 00:02:56.240 him. There's this one detail from the text that 00:02:56.240 --> 00:02:58.539 I just, it's wild, it perfectly encapsulates 00:02:58.539 --> 00:03:01.819 this obsession. Wilhelm II was so fixated on 00:03:01.819 --> 00:03:04.840 naval prestige that he actively collected honorific 00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:07.379 admiral titles from navies all across Europe. 00:03:07.580 --> 00:03:09.699 Right, he was an admiral and like... Half a dozen 00:03:09.699 --> 00:03:13.099 countries. Yes. And on one occasion, he actually 00:03:13.099 --> 00:03:16.000 wore the uniform of a British Admiral of the 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:19.379 Fleet just to receive a visiting British ambassador. 00:03:19.479 --> 00:03:22.120 Which is just incredible theater. It's pure theatrics. 00:03:22.360 --> 00:03:25.120 But how did the traditional Prussian military 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:27.039 leadership react to this? They were suddenly 00:03:27.039 --> 00:03:30.039 playing second fiddle to this new naval vanity 00:03:30.039 --> 00:03:32.639 project. They actively fought it. The traditional 00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:34.319 military establishment, the heads of the armed 00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:36.979 forces, they recognized the strategic danger 00:03:36.979 --> 00:03:40.219 here. From their perspective, a continental war 00:03:40.219 --> 00:03:43.560 against France and Russia was the real existential 00:03:43.560 --> 00:03:46.479 threat to Germany. So siphoning off money and 00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:49.639 steel for boats? Seemed like a grave error. But 00:03:49.639 --> 00:03:52.240 Wilhelm II pushed it through. For him, it was 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:55.080 a fundamental shift in Germany's identity. He 00:03:55.080 --> 00:03:57.900 was attempting to assert Germany as a truly global 00:03:57.900 --> 00:03:59.979 great power, despite what his generals said. 00:04:00.139 --> 00:04:02.259 And to execute a shift of that magnitude, he 00:04:02.259 --> 00:04:05.069 needed an architect. Which brings us to Rear 00:04:05.069 --> 00:04:08.469 Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. Appointed in 1897. 00:04:08.949 --> 00:04:11.090 Right. Tirpitz is fascinating because he realized 00:04:11.090 --> 00:04:14.150 very quickly that to build his dream fleet, he 00:04:14.150 --> 00:04:16.310 needed the public's money. It wasn't just an 00:04:16.310 --> 00:04:18.350 engineering problem. It was a domestic political 00:04:18.350 --> 00:04:21.290 hurdle. Exactly. So he launches this massive 00:04:21.290 --> 00:04:24.209 PR campaign. He essentially pioneered modern 00:04:24.209 --> 00:04:26.740 political lobbying. He created popular magazines 00:04:26.740 --> 00:04:29.500 entirely dedicated to naval affairs. He took 00:04:29.500 --> 00:04:32.920 Alfred Thayer Mahan's sea power theories and 00:04:32.920 --> 00:04:35.600 had them translated and serialized in domestic 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:38.660 newspapers. To intellectually justify the expansion 00:04:38.660 --> 00:04:41.279 to the middle class. And he helped form the Flottenvereen, 00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:43.800 the Navy League, which wasn't just a small fan 00:04:43.800 --> 00:04:46.319 club. No, it gained over a million members. Backed 00:04:46.319 --> 00:04:49.319 by heavy industries, steel magnates, shipyards. 00:04:49.980 --> 00:04:52.339 But the political maneuvering in the government 00:04:52.339 --> 00:04:55.279 is what really stands out. Politicians were literally 00:04:55.279 --> 00:04:58.779 bribed. They were. Tirpitz mastered parliamentary 00:04:58.779 --> 00:05:01.959 compromise. To secure the votes of the agrarian 00:05:01.959 --> 00:05:04.339 conservatives, the government offered concessions 00:05:04.339 --> 00:05:07.639 on imported grain taxes. Trading domestic agricultural 00:05:07.639 --> 00:05:10.639 tariffs for battleships. Exactly. And it worked. 00:05:10.759 --> 00:05:12.860 Here's where it gets really interesting. The 00:05:12.860 --> 00:05:16.120 Navy bills. Yes. The 1898 and 1900 Navy bills. 00:05:16.259 --> 00:05:18.079 The 1900 bill is the crazy one. It basically 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:20.680 doubled the planned size of the fleet. And crucially, 00:05:20.899 --> 00:05:23.680 it set absolutely no overall cost limit. None. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:26.939 A blank check. A blank check for naval expansion 00:05:26.939 --> 00:05:30.500 financed through huge national loans. And Tirpitz 00:05:30.500 --> 00:05:32.540 had this whole mathematical theory behind it, 00:05:32.579 --> 00:05:35.560 didn't he? Risk theory. He knew Germany couldn't 00:05:35.560 --> 00:05:38.620 match the Royal Navy ship for ship, but he calculated 00:05:38.620 --> 00:05:40.819 that if they built a fleet roughly two -thirds 00:05:40.819 --> 00:05:43.360 the size of Britain's, it would be too dangerous 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:45.660 for Britain to attack. Because even if Britain 00:05:45.660 --> 00:05:48.160 won, they'd be so damaged they'd lose global 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:50.560 supremacy to someone else. Like France or the 00:05:50.560 --> 00:05:53.480 U .S. So the mere existence of the German fleet 00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:56.300 would force diplomatic concessions. But it triggered 00:05:56.300 --> 00:05:59.779 a massive arms race instead. Britain sees this, 00:06:00.139 --> 00:06:03.180 they consolidate their forces, and then the source 00:06:03.180 --> 00:06:06.620 details this massive curve gill in 1906. HMS 00:06:06.620 --> 00:06:08.980 Dreadnought. Britain launches this ship that 00:06:08.980 --> 00:06:11.860 is so advanced, so revolutionary, it instantly 00:06:11.860 --> 00:06:14.360 renders all older ships completely obsolete. 00:06:14.639 --> 00:06:16.939 It combined high -speed steam turbines with an 00:06:16.939 --> 00:06:19.939 all -big -gun design. It could accurately bombard 00:06:19.939 --> 00:06:22.379 targets from way beyond the range of older ships. 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:24.319 Meaning everything Germany just went into debt 00:06:24.319 --> 00:06:26.399 to build was suddenly outdated. Resetting the 00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:28.850 arms race to zero. You'd think they'd back down. 00:06:29.370 --> 00:06:32.389 The country is taking on massive debt. But instead 00:06:32.389 --> 00:06:35.170 of backing down... They'd double down. They authorized 00:06:35.170 --> 00:06:37.709 their own dreadnoughts. And the cascading infrastructure 00:06:37.709 --> 00:06:40.370 costs were staggering. The source notes they 00:06:40.370 --> 00:06:43.930 had to allocate 60 million marks just to dredge 00:06:43.930 --> 00:06:46.290 the Kiel Canal. Because the new ships were too 00:06:46.290 --> 00:06:48.389 big to fit through it. They literally had to 00:06:48.389 --> 00:06:50.529 widen the canal connecting the North Sea to the 00:06:50.529 --> 00:06:54.029 Baltic. harbors had to be deepened. By 1908, 00:06:54.329 --> 00:06:57.910 the national budget deficit hit 500 million marks. 00:06:58.250 --> 00:07:00.129 The state secretary of the treasury actually 00:07:00.129 --> 00:07:03.350 resigned because he saw no way out of this financial 00:07:03.350 --> 00:07:06.970 crisis. So you have this rapidly expanding, incredibly 00:07:06.970 --> 00:07:10.519 expensive fleet. But internally, the bureaucracy 00:07:10.519 --> 00:07:13.600 was a nightmare. It was deeply fragmented, chaotic, 00:07:13.879 --> 00:07:16.160 really. Unlike the army, the Navy had no centralized 00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:18.899 command. Because of Article 53 of the Constitution, 00:07:19.439 --> 00:07:22.079 it vested supreme command directly and personally 00:07:22.079 --> 00:07:24.720 in the Kaiser. Meaning every significant order, 00:07:24.959 --> 00:07:28.019 every major decision needed Wilhelm II's personal 00:07:28.019 --> 00:07:31.060 approval. Fostering intense bureaucratic rivalries, 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:33.620 different agencies constantly fighting for the 00:07:33.620 --> 00:07:36.860 emperor's attention. And this rigid, top -down 00:07:36.860 --> 00:07:38.980 structure extended. right into the culture of 00:07:38.980 --> 00:07:42.139 the officer corps. The source uses a really specific 00:07:42.139 --> 00:07:45.879 example here, the crew of 1907. The naval cadet 00:07:45.879 --> 00:07:49.379 intake for that year. Right. Out of 197 applicants 00:07:49.379 --> 00:07:52.860 accepted, only 11 % were noble. The rest were 00:07:52.860 --> 00:07:55.779 mostly educated Prussian middle class. But the 00:07:55.779 --> 00:07:58.160 financial barriers were intentionally designed 00:07:58.160 --> 00:08:00.899 to keep it exclusive. It was incredibly expensive. 00:08:01.129 --> 00:08:05.370 Parents had to pay around 6 ,765 marks over the 00:08:05.370 --> 00:08:07.930 first eight to nine years of their son's service. 00:08:08.230 --> 00:08:11.129 That is a massive financial burden just to have 00:08:11.129 --> 00:08:13.730 your son be an officer. They guaranteed the leadership 00:08:13.730 --> 00:08:16.029 state upper middle class and aristocratic. And 00:08:16.029 --> 00:08:18.769 the rules at the Naval School in Keele were absurdly 00:08:18.769 --> 00:08:20.910 strict. They were forbidden from drinking, smoking, 00:08:21.170 --> 00:08:22.910 gambling. They couldn't even play music in their 00:08:22.910 --> 00:08:25.089 quarters. But the curriculum was this strange 00:08:25.089 --> 00:08:27.949 mix. They learned advanced hydraulics and mechanics. 00:08:28.089 --> 00:08:30.269 And ballroom dancing. Yeah, dancing and horseback 00:08:30.269 --> 00:08:32.610 riding. You have to calculate ballistic trajectories, 00:08:32.669 --> 00:08:35.090 but also know how to waltz at an Imperial ball. 00:08:35.970 --> 00:08:38.409 But what about the enlisted men? The guy's actually 00:08:38.409 --> 00:08:41.210 running these massive turbine engines. That's 00:08:41.210 --> 00:08:43.649 where it gets complicated. The ratings, the enlisted 00:08:43.649 --> 00:08:46.929 men, they were a mix. You had rural conscripts, 00:08:47.009 --> 00:08:50.389 but the Navy also desperately needed modern technical 00:08:50.389 --> 00:08:53.570 expertise. So they created a system of one -year 00:08:53.570 --> 00:08:56.629 volunteers. Right. If a recruit was a technical 00:08:56.629 --> 00:08:59.029 professional, like a steam engine engineer, from 00:08:59.029 --> 00:09:01.470 the civilian world, he could advance rapidly 00:09:01.470 --> 00:09:03.649 through the ranks. Because they needed guys who 00:09:03.649 --> 00:09:05.769 actually knew how to keep the dreadnoughts running. 00:09:06.070 --> 00:09:08.470 Exactly. Yeah. If we connect this to the bigger 00:09:08.470 --> 00:09:11.889 picture, the Navy's recruitment perfectly mirrored 00:09:11.889 --> 00:09:14.769 the broader societal tensions of Imperial Germany. 00:09:14.990 --> 00:09:17.610 A traditional aristocratic command trying to 00:09:17.610 --> 00:09:20.590 control a rapidly modernizing industrial workforce. 00:09:20.610 --> 00:09:23.740 It was a balancing act. And it was highly strained. 00:09:23.919 --> 00:09:26.480 And that strain finally breaks in 1914, when 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:28.779 World War I breaks out. And this brings us to 00:09:28.779 --> 00:09:31.159 the ultimate irony of the surface fleet. The 00:09:31.159 --> 00:09:33.019 irony being that they bankrupted the country 00:09:33.019 --> 00:09:35.159 to build it, and it was largely ineffective. 00:09:35.299 --> 00:09:37.700 Right. The British Royal Navy just instituted 00:09:37.700 --> 00:09:40.500 a distant blockade, bottled the German fleet 00:09:40.500 --> 00:09:43.399 up in the North Sea. The massive, decisive battle 00:09:43.399 --> 00:09:46.240 Tirpitz planned for didn't really happen. The 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:48.639 biggest clash was the Battle of Jetland. Which 00:09:48.639 --> 00:09:52.200 was basically a tactical draw. Germany sank more 00:09:52.200 --> 00:09:54.600 ships, but strategically, it kept the German 00:09:54.600 --> 00:09:56.779 surface fleet stuck in port for the rest of the 00:09:56.779 --> 00:09:58.919 war. They couldn't break the blockade. But while 00:09:58.919 --> 00:10:02.059 the battleship sat idle, a different technology 00:10:02.059 --> 00:10:04.700 completely changed the war. The U -boat surprise. 00:10:04.860 --> 00:10:07.019 Yeah, Germany initially ignored submarines. They 00:10:07.019 --> 00:10:09.259 didn't commission their first one until 1904. 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:12.159 The U won in 1906, and it was terrible. Yeah, 00:10:12.179 --> 00:10:14.259 well, it used a kerosene engine. It was incredibly 00:10:14.259 --> 00:10:16.960 noisy, produced this massive plume of white smoke. 00:10:17.570 --> 00:10:20.909 Very vulnerable. But they pivot to diesel, and 00:10:20.909 --> 00:10:23.009 by the end of the war, despite starting late, 00:10:23.370 --> 00:10:26.289 they had commissioned 375 U -boats. Completely 00:10:26.289 --> 00:10:28.490 threatening the British supply system. These 00:10:28.490 --> 00:10:30.929 cheap, stealthy vessels bypassed the blockade 00:10:30.929 --> 00:10:33.389 and disrupted the entire maritime supply chain. 00:10:33.669 --> 00:10:36.009 And it wasn't just beneath the sea. The source 00:10:36.009 --> 00:10:39.790 brings up this fascinating use of aviation. Zeppelins. 00:10:39.790 --> 00:10:42.549 Massive, rigid airships. They used them for naval 00:10:42.549 --> 00:10:45.169 reconnaissance, spotting British fleet movements, 00:10:45.470 --> 00:10:47.870 but they also used them for strategic bombing 00:10:47.870 --> 00:10:50.570 raids over Britain. Though the source notes the 00:10:50.570 --> 00:10:53.470 Kaiser specifically demanded no attacks on historic 00:10:53.470 --> 00:10:57.110 buildings or museums in London. Right. But the 00:10:57.110 --> 00:10:59.610 primitive navigation meant accuracy was impossible, 00:10:59.870 --> 00:11:02.590 so civilian casualties were widespread. Which 00:11:02.590 --> 00:11:05.470 leads us into the darker side of this technological 00:11:05.470 --> 00:11:08.799 warfare. We have to view these facts objectively, 00:11:09.080 --> 00:11:11.600 as detailed in the source. This technological 00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:14.460 leap fundamentally broke the established rules 00:11:14.460 --> 00:11:17.059 of engagement. The traditional prize rules. Where 00:11:17.059 --> 00:11:20.200 a ship had to surface, fire a warning shot, and 00:11:20.200 --> 00:11:22.679 let civilians evacuate into lifeboats before 00:11:22.679 --> 00:11:24.860 sinking a merchant vessel. But submarines couldn't 00:11:24.860 --> 00:11:28.000 do that. No. If a U -boat surfaced, it lost its 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:30.179 stealth and could be rammed. So they abandoned 00:11:30.179 --> 00:11:32.539 prize rules for unrestricted submarine warfare. 00:11:32.820 --> 00:11:35.710 Sinking ships without warning. The source impartially 00:11:35.710 --> 00:11:38.289 reports on these escalations, the bombardment 00:11:38.289 --> 00:11:40.529 of civilian ports like the raid on Scarborough. 00:11:40.830 --> 00:11:43.169 Unrestricted submarine warfare leading to the 00:11:43.169 --> 00:11:46.730 sinking of the RMS Lusitania in 1915, which outraged 00:11:46.730 --> 00:11:49.769 the U .S. The execution of a civilian captain, 00:11:50.090 --> 00:11:53.360 Charles Friott, who tried to ram a U -boat. and 00:11:53.360 --> 00:11:55.799 the documented sinking of hospital ships. The 00:11:55.799 --> 00:11:58.720 lethality of the new technology rapidly eroded 00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:01.179 the boundaries separating combatants from non 00:12:01.179 --> 00:12:04.220 -combatants. And ultimately, that unrestricted 00:12:04.220 --> 00:12:06.740 submarine warfare brought the United States into 00:12:06.740 --> 00:12:09.759 the war, which tipped the balance irreversibly. 00:12:10.100 --> 00:12:14.019 Bringing us to October 1918. The situation is 00:12:14.019 --> 00:12:16.019 collapsing. The high seas fleet has been sitting 00:12:16.019 --> 00:12:18.620 in port for years. And the command formulates 00:12:18.620 --> 00:12:22.149 this unauthorized plan. A last battle suicide 00:12:22.149 --> 00:12:24.309 mission in the English Channel. To save the honor 00:12:24.309 --> 00:12:26.730 of the officer corps. But the sailors, who have 00:12:26.730 --> 00:12:29.149 been enduring poor rations and harsh discipline, 00:12:29.509 --> 00:12:31.529 they refuse to sail. Triggering the keel mutiny. 00:12:31.730 --> 00:12:34.090 It sparks a general revolution that sweeps aside 00:12:34.090 --> 00:12:36.710 the German monarchy in a matter of days. The 00:12:36.710 --> 00:12:39.049 Kaiser is forced to abdicate. The machine collapses 00:12:39.049 --> 00:12:41.509 from the inside out. And that leads to the dramatic 00:12:41.509 --> 00:12:44.529 end at Scapa Flow. After the armistice, the modern 00:12:44.529 --> 00:12:47.210 ships are interned by the Allies in Scotland. 00:12:47.450 --> 00:12:51.129 In June 1919. Right. And Rear Admiral Ludwig 00:12:51.129 --> 00:12:53.169 von Reuter realizes the ships are going to be 00:12:53.169 --> 00:12:56.049 divided up as spoils of war. So rather than hand 00:12:56.049 --> 00:12:58.950 them over... He orders a mass scuttling. They 00:12:58.950 --> 00:13:03.330 deliberately sank 74 of their own ships, sending 00:13:03.330 --> 00:13:05.529 the pride of the fleet to the bottom of the harbor. 00:13:06.450 --> 00:13:09.049 So what does this all mean? It's a massive question. 00:13:09.179 --> 00:13:11.419 When you look at this, it's a huge historical 00:13:11.419 --> 00:13:14.139 lesson on the sunk cost fallacy, the dangers 00:13:14.139 --> 00:13:17.519 of unchecked vanity projects. Tirpitz and the 00:13:17.519 --> 00:13:20.080 Kaiser spent billions, alienated their neighbors, 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:22.080 and built a fleet that couldn't break out of 00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:24.720 the North Sea. And it shows how quickly technological 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:27.940 innovation upends careful strategic planning. 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:31.320 The dreadnought, the U -boat. You can have the 00:13:31.320 --> 00:13:33.960 most heavily armored battleships on Earth, but 00:13:33.960 --> 00:13:36.039 if a cheaper submarine can sever your supply 00:13:36.039 --> 00:13:38.360 lines, the whole paradigm changes overnight. 00:13:38.509 --> 00:13:40.350 This raises an important question, though. What's 00:13:40.350 --> 00:13:42.590 that? We focus so much on the massive battleships 00:13:42.590 --> 00:13:45.049 in the North Sea, but we have to remember the 00:13:45.049 --> 00:13:48.750 incredibly vast global reach of this empire and 00:13:48.750 --> 00:13:51.389 the individual stories within it. The source 00:13:51.389 --> 00:13:54.470 briefly mentions a guy named Gunther Pusho. Oh, 00:13:54.570 --> 00:13:57.889 the aviator. Yes, a German naval aviator stationed 00:13:57.889 --> 00:14:01.120 in Qingdao, China. During the siege of Tsingtao's, 00:14:01.159 --> 00:14:03.860 he actually shot down a Japanese plane with his 00:14:03.860 --> 00:14:06.440 pistol. Which is wild. And later, he became the 00:14:06.440 --> 00:14:09.720 only German combatant in the entire war to successfully 00:14:09.720 --> 00:14:11.720 escape from a prisoner of war camp in Britain 00:14:11.720 --> 00:14:13.779 and make his way back to Germany. That is an 00:14:13.779 --> 00:14:16.639 incredible trajectory from aerial combat in China 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:19.820 to escaping a British prison camp. It is. I invite 00:14:19.820 --> 00:14:23.870 you to mull that over as we wrap up. Behind the 00:14:23.870 --> 00:14:26.029 massive defense budgets and the tonnage of cold 00:14:26.029 --> 00:14:28.870 steel, there were individual sailors and pilots 00:14:28.870 --> 00:14:31.610 deployed to the far corners of the earth. When 00:14:31.610 --> 00:14:34.110 this massive imperial machine collapsed under 00:14:34.110 --> 00:14:37.029 the way of its own ambition, it was those individuals 00:14:37.029 --> 00:14:39.269 who were forced to navigate the chaos on their 00:14:39.269 --> 00:14:41.750 own. That is a highly resonant thought to leave 00:14:41.750 --> 00:14:44.750 on the global human stories hidden inside this 00:14:44.750 --> 00:14:47.750 massive arms race. Thank you so much for joining 00:14:47.750 --> 00:14:49.830 us for this deep dive. We hope you're discovering 00:14:49.830 --> 00:14:51.809 some new insights into the complexities of naval 00:14:51.809 --> 00:14:53.990 history, and we will catch you on the next one.