One faction led by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz were avid followers of the teachings of the American historian Alfred Thayer Mahan and believed in building a "balanced fleet" centred around the battleship that would, if war came, seek out and win a decisive battle of annihilation (Entscheidungsschlacht) against the Royal Navy.
Erich Raeder, then-Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine, was made a grand admiral on 1 April 1939
Erich von Stroheim | Erich Ludendorff | Erich Fromm | Erich Maria Remarque | Erich Leinsdorf | Erich von Däniken | Erich Kästner | Erich Mendelsohn | Erich Honecker | Erich Segal | Erich von Manstein | Erich von Falkenhayn | Erich Mielke | Rudolf Erich Raspe | German destroyer Z13 Erich Koellner | Erich von Drygalski | Erich Thomas | Erich Kunzel | Erich Fried | Erich Cohn | The Music of Erich Zann | Otto Erich Deutsch | Kevin Von Erich | Hans Erich Slany | German destroyer Z12 Erich Giese | Fritz Von Erich | Erich Zepler | Erich Raeder | Erich Priebke | Erich Pommer |
Among the accused were the Nationalist Socialist leaders Hermann Göring and Rudolf Hess, the diplomat Joachim von Ribbentrop, the munitions maker Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder and 18 other military leaders and civilian officials.