Wegener challenged the High Seas Fleet's North Sea focus

Wolfgang Wegener, senior staff officer to Wilhelm von Lans while Lans commanded the High Seas Fleet's First Squadron, criticized Germany's prewar naval armament and strategy. His paper argued that the Baltic should receive priority because it carried the Swedish iron ore supply route. Lans left his post in 1915 and went onto the reserve list. His influence as inspector of torpedoes from 1909 to 1912 had already affected the boats Germany bought. The criticism of his command style is that fleet leadership required strategic and political flexibility that his commitment to his own ideas did not provide.