Why Germany chose ship numbers over a qualitative race

Imperial Germany stayed outside the leading prewar qualitative naval race by political choice rather than technical inability. Improving each battleship further would have raised unit costs and reduced the number Germany could build. Pursuing quality and quantity together would have required competing with the army for funding, an option treated here as politically unviable. Budgets and inter-service priorities therefore held the fleet to an affordable performance level even while better technology was available.