How much large civilian shipbuilding could Germany undertake in the 1920s while improving infrastructure for ocean liners and cargo vessels?
Short answerThe treaties did not directly limit civilian ships, but a conspicuous expansion could still provoke concern because the same infrastructure supported wider maritime power.
NotesLegal limits and strategic perceptions differed. Germany could theoretically build large civilian ocean liners and cargo vessels without a naval-treaty tonnage ceiling. A rapid expansion of the infrastructure behind those ships could still be read by the major naval powers as a continuation of the competition surrounding the treaties. Commercial shipbuilding therefore remained politically connected to naval power even when the individual vessels were not treaty warships.