German planners appear to have hoped that building the Deutschland class would help secure admission to the Washington and London naval-treaty system. France opposed that route, surrendering the chance to help set German limits and leaving Britain to consider a separate bilateral framework. Erich Raeder, who had served as Franz von Hipper's chief of staff, continued debating the purpose of the Panzerschiffe as Germany rearmed. The two D-class ships retained six 11-inch guns and represented an incremental development of the type. Hitler regarded that scale as inadequate for Nazi Germany's status and encouraged a move toward visibly larger warships. The sequence shows naval diplomacy, institutional inheritance, and dictatorship pulling the same programme in different directions.
Chapter · 45:18-48:09
From treaty-system exclusion to the D-class escalation
Germany hoped the Deutschlands might open a path into the Washington-London treaty system, but French opposition and Hitler's prestige demands pushed the D-class replacements toward larger ships.