ABSTRACT
From October 1899 until 1902 the Boer War was a serious embarrassment to Britain. In December 1899, about half a year after the new Admiralty Staff picked up the threads of naval operational planning, Bernhard von Bulow reported to his friend Philipp Eulenburg that “our foreign position is brilliant.” Alfred von Tirpitz stressed that “The fleet construction required, in order to succeed, peace,” and spoke of the “egg dance which German diplomacy has to perform before the naval armaments are completed.” Anglo-German relations deteriorated soon after the dissolution of the High Command. The operational planning of the Admiralty Staff against Britain continued to have its political justification. The diplomatic situation as perceived by German leaders from 1899 to 1905 justified naval planning against Great Britain, the United States, and Japan. The unreliability of Italy made naval operations against the French northern coast for the encouragement of better Italian cooperation futile.
