The Kriegsmarine as a new risk fleet

Was the interwar German surface navy mainly a deterrent deputy force or an incoherent prestige fleet?

It had a rational risk-fleet concept: become costly enough to fight that Britain would hesitate, while relying on other powers to stretch British naval commitments.

The answer rejects both a purely prestige-driven fleet and the idea that Germany expected simply to serve as Britain's northern deputy. Instead, it describes a less explicit revival of risk-fleet logic: Germany wanted a balanced force whose destruction would leave Britain exposed to Japan or Italy. This was a rational strategic concept within the German state, not evidence that the Kriegsmarine stood apart from the regime it served. The logic helps explain carrier ambitions and Plan Z even though German leaders understood that direct numerical competition would provoke a larger British response.