Alfred von Tirpitz

Alfred Peter Friedrich von Tirpitz was a German Groadmiral , Secretary of State of the German Imperial Naval Office, the powerful administrative branch of the German Imperial Navy from 1897 until 1916. Prussia never had a major navy, nor did the other German states before the German Empire was formed in 1871. Tirpitz took the modest Imperial Navy and, starting in the 1890s, turned it into a worldclass force that could threaten the British Royal Navy. His navy, however, was not strong enough to confront the British successfully in the First World War the one great engagement at sea, the Battle of Jutland, ended in a draw with both sides claiming victory. Tirpitz turned to submarine warfare, which antagonised the United States. He was dismissed in 1916 and never regained power.

Tirpitz was born in Kstrin in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, the son of lawyer and later judge, Rudolf Tirpitz . His mother was the daughter of a doctor. Tirpitz grew up in Frankfurt . He recorded in his memoirs that he was a mediocre pupil as a child.

Source: Wikipedia