Kriegsmarine adalah nama resmi dari angkatan laut Jerman pada masa Nazi berkuasa. Nama ini mulai 1 Juni 1935 dipakai sebagai pengganti sebutan sebelumnya, Reichsmarine.



Ketika Perang Dunia Kedua, Jerman yang pada waktu itu di bawah kepemimpinan Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945), adalah pemimpin tertinggi seluruh angkatan perang, termasuk Kriegsmarine. Kekuasaannya berjalan melalui Oberkomando der Marine (OKM), Panglima Angkatan Laut (Oberbefehlshaber der Kriegsmarine), Kepala Staf Angkatan Laut (Chef der Stabes der Seekriegsleitung), dan seorang Kepala Departemen Operasi Agkatan Laut (Chef der Operationsabteilung) Berikut adalah komando dari Kriegsmarine berdasarkan regional, skuadron dan komando armada kecil.



Suatu regional/divisi dipimpin oleh seorang Generaladmiral atau Laksamana, yang mana subdivisi mereka dibagi-bagi lagi apabila diperlukan. Setiap regional adaMarineoberkomando untuk Armada Laut Baltik, Nord (Utara Jerman/Denmark dan sekitarnya), Nordsee (Laut Utara), Ost/Ostsee (Dahulu Baltik), Selatan (Laut Tengah) dan Barat (Samudera Atlantik). Kriegsmarine menggunakan sistem pengodean yang disebut Gradnetzmeldeverfahren untuk memetakan daerah komando.



Setiap tipe kapal perang Jerman, mempunyai sistem komando yang dipimpin oleh seorang perwira kepala kapal (seperti Fregattenkapitän maupun Korvettenkapitän). Mereka mengomandoi kapal perang (Battleship), Cruiser, Destroyer, kapal selam (Führer der U-Boote), kapal bertorpedo (MTB), kapal anti-ranjau, kapal pengangkut, kapal patroli dan senjata anti-kapal.



Suatu operasi besar dikomandoi oleh seorang Flottenchef (Kepala Armada Kecil) yang biasanya bersifat sementara.








Sesuai dengan Perjanjian Versailles, Jerman hanya boleh memiliki angkatan bersenjata yang kecil. Setelah Machtergreifung pada tahun 1933, Jerman mulai mempersenjatai diri kembali. Perjanjian angkatan laut antara Britania Raya dan Jerman (bahasa Inggris Anglo-German Naval Agreement; bahasa Jerman Deutsch-britisches Flottenabkommen)pada tanggal 18 Juni 1935 mengizinkan pembangunan armada atas permukaan 35 % dari tonnase kapal atas permukaan Inggris, 45 % dari tonnase kapal selam Inggris, dan kapal perang tidak tidak melebihi 35.000 Ton. Kriegsmarine sampai dengan tahun 1947 sesuai dengan apa yang disebut sebagai "Rencana-Z" (Z-Plan) harus memiliki sejumlah besar kapal baru di antaranya kapal induk. kapal perang, kapal penjelajah, kapal selam dan kekuatan laut ringan lainnya.
Pada tahun 1935 digunakan bendera baru, bendera swastika dengan palang besi (bahasa Jerman Eisernes Kreuz) di kiri atas.
Kriegsmarine pertama kali diturunkan dalam peperangan pada Perang Saudara Spanyol. Bersama-sama dengan angkatan laut Britania Raya, Italia dan Perancis dalam blokade laut internasional dalam rangka embargo senjata terhadap Spanyol. Penempatan Kriegsmarine ini dilakukan untuk mendukung upaya kudeta kaum Nasionalis Spanyol pimpinan Francisco Franco. Pada 29 Mei 1937, kapal Deutschland dibombardir dan mengalami kerusakan di dekat Ibiza.

The German Kriegsmarine, or navy, was formed in May of 1935. It was formed after the passing of the "Law for the Reconstruction of the National Defense Forces". This law brough back into existance a free standing German army, navy and airforce, something that had been essentially banned after the end of World War I.

With the end of World War I and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the Weimar Republic - the successor to Imperial Germany - was allowed only a small defensive military force known as the Reichswehr. The Reichswehr's size and composition was strictly controlled by the Allies in the hope that by restricting its constitution they could prevent future German military aggression. The Reichswehr consisted of 100,000 men divided between a small standing army, the Reichsheer, and a small defensive navy, the Reichsmarine.

In 1933 the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) came to power and the infamous Third Reich was born. Two years later in 1935 the Treaty of Versailles was renounced and the Reichswehr became the Wehrmacht. The newly formed Wehrmacht would still consist of an army and a navy - the renamed Heer and Kriegsmarine, but a new airforce was born as well - the Luftwaffe.

The Kriegsmarine can be said to have consisted of three main components between 1935 and 1945, individual naval vessels, naval formations consisting of specific types of ships and a wide variety of ground based units. From these three main components the Kriegsmarine fielded thousands of ships and hundreds of naval formations and ground units. Between 1939 and 1945 over 1.5 million served in the Kriegsmarine. Over 65,000 were killed, over 105,000 went missing and over 21,000 were wounded. Of the 7361 men awarded the initial grade of the highest German combat honor of WWII, the Knights Cross, 318 were from the Kriegsmarine making up 4% of the total awarded.

Of all the branches of the Wehrmacht, the Kriegsmarine was the most under-appreciated. It fought against superior numbers on almost every front with a force greatly limited by a lack of effective coordination and a harsh misunderstanding from within the German High Comand (OKW). Although Allied air and naval power largely destroyed the entire German High Seas Fleet and Uboot force, the smaller and auxiliary vessels of the Kriegsmarine continued to serve effectively until the last hours of WWII. These vessels saw service along thousands of miles of coast in every theater of war and provided an important link in the backbone of the Wehrmacht.

German naval ground units also provided a critical service during WWII, manning massive guns along the Atlantic Wall in the west and naval flak and artillery units all across Western and Eastern Europe. There were also countless naval infantry, engineer and communications units as well. In the last months of WWII most all of the naval ground units were involved directly in fighting of some form or another, some naval units even took part in the Battle for Berlin in 1945.

The Kriegsmarine was offically disbanded in August of 1946 by the Allied Control Commission, although many smaller Kriegsmarine ships survived on active service, now under Allied control, as a part of the German contingent to clear the oceans and seas of mines sown by Axis and Allies alike.