File:Admiral Hans von Koester.jpg

Identifier: menaroundkaiserm00wilerich (find matches)
Title: Men around the Kaiser; the makers of modern Germany
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Wile, Frederic William, 1873-1941
Subjects: William II, German Emperor, 1859-1941 Germany -- Biography Germany -- Politics and government 1888-1918 Germany -- Intellectual life
Publisher: Philadelphia, Lippincott
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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the service to his credit, hebecame its president six years ago at a criticaljuncture. Fanatical methods of a predecessor inoffice had brought the organisation to the brink ofdisintegration. The Imperial Admiralty was faceto face with a calamity. The break-up of the NavyLeague threatened danger to the whole future ofGerman naval policy. Koester had just relinquishedthe commandership-in-chief of the High Seas Fleetwith the rank of grand-admiral, which correspondsto the highest rank in the Army, that of a fieldmarshal. Though the privileges and emolumentsof the retired list were his due, he much preferredto remain at work. No field of usefulness at themoment compared in importance with the task ofkeeping intact the machinery of the Navy League.He shouldered it. The executive gifts which haddistinguished his entire career speedily enabledhim to restore harmony in the Leagues warringranks. On the wave of enthusiasm which accom-panied the dawn of the Dreadnought era, the142 > V » >
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ADMIRAL VON KOESTER FloUen-Verein was launched on a new career ofprosperity and power. It was the Kaiser who proclaimed, at the birthof the new century, that Germanys future layupon the water ; that a mighty fleet was abitter necessity ; that the ocean was essentialto Germanys greatness ; that the trident mustbe in Michels hand ; that the more Germanswho went to sea, the better for the Fatherland,and the other epigrammatic ukases which firedTeuton imaginations with visions of admiralty.It was Von Tirpitz who piloted ever-recurringprogrammes through the tortuous waters of partypolitics. But it is the Navy League which has keptthe conscience of the country awake, which hasaroused the nations fears and fanned its passionsas occasion demanded. Record naval estimatesdisturb the equanimity of the average German nomore than budgets for the State railways. Theagitation for naval expansion waged in Germanyduring the past fifteen years is peerless amongcampaigns of education in our time.. To-da

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