THE CAPRIVI ERA 37

and simple shooting practice, but the most important feature then was the firing of concentrated broadsides at a range of only 200 and 500 yards, a fact which speaks for itself.

In Caprivi we had a new chief at the head of the Admiralty in 1883, who adapted all his work to the idea of war, under the influence of international conditions, although he also followed his own bent. Ca-privi was the typical General Staff officer. This man, who was understood by very few people, lived and weaved his plans in the state of mind which he often expressed to me as follows: " Next year we shall have a war on two fronts." Every year he expected it the next spring. He was far less a politician than Stosch. When he was afterwards summoned by the Emperor William II, some time after Bismarck's departure, to take over the Chancellorship according to command, he said bitterly to Field-Marshal Loe on the way to the Castle, " I am now going to bury my military fame." In the words of Prince Friedrich Karl, he was " a good man spoiled " for the navy, and ought really to have been Chief of the General Staff.

Under his influence the navy acquired a politico-military character. Whether this was right or not may be left out of the question, but it was at least an idea. Under Stosch the navy had not known for what strategic end it was working. The bulk of it was absorbed in the formalities which may be called going through " evolutions "; it was practising what is known