The small pool of German battleship commanders in 1939

Who was the best German battleship commander before the war began in 1939?

The tentative choice is Otto Ciliax, partly because he had earlier battleship experience, although the small pool makes the comparison difficult.

The Scharnhorst class had entered service only recently, leaving a small pool of German battleship commanders to compare before the war. German commissioning for trials is distinguished from the British practice described here of commissioning after testing. Otto Ciliax's later Channel Dash command is weighed alongside the limited capital-ship career opportunities available to German officers between the wars. The tentative preference for Ciliax rests partly on his earlier battleship experience in the Imperial German Navy.