Why buying scrap ships would not preserve German naval construction

Could Germany preserve its interwar shipbuilding capacity by outbidding scrappers for foreign warships and storing their armor and guns?

Not effectively; shipbreaking yields incomplete material and does little to sustain the design and construction practice that Germany actually preserved through smaller new builds.

Warships sold for breaking were commonly stripped of guns and possibly armour before reaching the buyer. The Royal Navy's stock of spare gun barrels at the start of World War II is offered as an example of equipment retained before disposal. Germany could still acquire some material, but dismantling hulls would do little to maintain construction skills. The Weimar Republic instead retained design teams capable of workable cruisers of about 5,000 tons and torpedo boats of about 1,500 tons, provided the designs were not overloaded. The Deutschland class is praised as an achievement after nearly twenty years without capital-ship construction. Keeping designers and new-building experience alive mattered more than accumulating old components.