German gun-caliber escalation and the naval budget race

Could Imperial Germany jump from 11-inch to roughly 13.8-inch capital-ship guns, and what would that do to the naval arms race?

Krupp could build larger weapons, possibly producing 13.8-inch Koenigs and battlecruisers, but Britain could respond more readily while Germany had to fight the army for every major funding increase.

The panel sketches 13.8-inch Koenig-class battleships and Derfflinger-type battlecruisers, perhaps followed by a 15-inch Hindenburg. Such ships would materially increase German throw weight at Jutland, but they would also provoke a British answer. The strategic constraint is budgetary: Britain could fund naval escalation without the same direct contest against a dominant army, while German increases intensified an internal resources struggle.