Wilhelmshaven is a German coastal town on the North Sea. about midway between Hamburg and the Dutch border. Situated some 35 kilometres up the Jade river on the wide inlet of the Jade-Busen bay, it was created in the 19th century for the sole purpose of serving as a principal dockyard and base for the German Navy, and served in this capacity during two world wars. It was Prussian Prince Adalbert who selected Wilhelmshaven as a site for a naval base. lie had been appointed leader of the federal technical commission to identify the best way of countering naval threats from Denmark against the north German coasts. In 1848 he wrote a Denkschrift über die Bildung einer deutschen Flotte (Memorandum on the Formation of a German Fleet) in which he identified a three-stage approach to building a navy: he proposed firstly a coastal defence force which would prevent blockade and invasion; this would later develop an offensive capability to protect trade; and finally there would be a navy that could apply force at a distance in support of foreign policy. Following on from this, in 1849 he recommended the construction of two bases on the Baltic and North Sea coasts linked by a canal. The former would become Kiel (the site for it was acquired from Austria in 1865), the latter would become Wilhelmshaven.
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