Grand admiral
highest historic rank in several European navies
Grand admiral is a historic naval rank. It is the highest rank in the several European navies that used it, and is best known for its use in Germany as Großadmiral. A comparable rank in modern navies is that of admiral of the fleet.
Grand admirals in individual navies
Austria-Hungary
The Austrian grand admirals were all members of the Imperial family, except for Anton Haus, the commander of the Austro-Hungarian Navy for part of World War I:
France
In Bourbon Restoration France, the rank was an honorific one equivalent to that of marshal in the French Army.
Germany
In the Imperial German Navy, and later in the Kriegsmarine, the rank Großadmiral was the equivalent of a British admiral of the fleet or a United States fleet admiral; as a five-star rank (OF-10). Its holders were authorised to carry a baton.
The rank was created in 1901 and discontinued in 1945, by which time a total of eight men had been promoted to it. The next most junior rank was Generaladmiral (admiral-general).
Imperial Germany
Before and during World War I, the following were made grand admirals of the Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine):
Nazi Germany
Großadmiral was the most senior rank of the Kriegsmarine, immediately senior to Generaladmiral. The rank was reintroduced in 1939 and held only by the Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine.
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This entry incorporates text from “Grand admiral” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.