Grand admiral is a historic

naval A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

rank Rank is the relative position, value, worth, complexity, power, importance, authority, level, etc. of a person or object within a ranking, such as: Level or position in a hierarchical organization * Academic rank * Diplomatic rank * Hierarchy * ...

, the highest rank in the several European navies that used it. It is best known for its use in Germany as . A comparable rank in modern navies is that of admiral of the fleet.

Grand admirals in individual navies

France

In Bourbon Restoration France, the rank was an honorific one equivalent to that of

marshal Marshal is a term used in several official titles in various branches of society. As marshals became trusted members of the courts of Medieval Europe, the title grew in reputation. During the last few centuries, it has been used for elevated o ...

in the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed Force ...

Germany

In the

Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Kaise ...

, and later in the , the rank was the equivalent of a British admiral of the fleet or a United States fleet admiral; as a

five-star rank A five-star rank is the highest military rank in many countries.Oxford English Dictionary (OED), 2nd Edition, 1989. "five" ... "five-star adj., ... (b) U.S., applied to a general or admiral whose badge of rank includes five stars;" The rank is t ...

(OF-10). Like

field marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

s its holders were authorised to carry a baton. The rank was created in 1901 and discontinued in 1945, after eight men were promoted to it. The next most junior rank was (admiral-general).

Imperial Germany

Before and during World War I, the following were made grand admirals of the

(): *

King Edward VII of the United Kingdom Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

(26 June 1902) * (28 June 1905) * King Oscar II of Sweden (13 July 1905) * Prince Henry of Prussia (4 September 1909) * (27 January 1911) * (31 July 1918)

Nazi Germany

''Großadmiral'' was the most senior rank of the , immediately senior to '. There were no more grand admirals until 1939. The following men were made grand admirals during the

Nazi regime Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

: * , then-Commander-in-Chief of the , was made a grand admiral on 1 April 1939. * , commander of the U-Boat fleet, was made a grand admiral on 30 January 1943 upon succeeding Raeder as Commander-in-Chief.

Austria-Hungary

The Austrian grand admirals were all members of the Imperial family, except for , the commander of the Austro-Hungarian navy for part of World War I: * 1911: Archduke Charles Stephen of Austria (1860–1933) * 12 May 1916: (1851–1917) * 9 October 1916: Prince Henry of Prussia (1862–1929) * 1 November 1916: Kaiser Charles I of Austria (1887–1922) * 22 February 1917:

Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany , house = Hohenzollern , father = Frederick III, German Emperor , mother = Victoria, Princess Royal , religion = Lutheranism (Prussian United) , signature = Wilhelm II, German Emperor Signature-.svg Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor ...

(1859–1941)

Italy

The rank of grand admiral ( it, grand'ammiraglio) was created by in 1924. It was established primarily to honour , who had been head of the Italian during World War I — he was the only person to be awarded the rank. It was equivalent to

marshal of Italy Marshal of Italy ( it, Maresciallo d'Italia) was a rank in the Royal Italian Army (''Regio Esercito''). Originally created in 1924 by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini for the purpose of honoring Generals Luigi Cadorna and Armando Diaz, the ra ...

in the army and also marshal of the Air Force.

Peru

In 1967 the rank of Grand Admiral of Peru ( es, Gran Almirante del Perú) was awarded posthumously to

Miguel Grau Seminario Miguel María Grau Seminario (27 July 1834 – 8 October 1879) was the most renowned Peruvian naval officer and hero of the naval battle of Angamos during the War of the Pacific (1879–1884). He was known as ''el Caballero de los Mares'' (Spa ...

and is equivalent to the army rank of Grand Marshal of Peru.

In fiction

Among the several grand admirals appearing in fiction and

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

, one notable figure is

Grand Admiral Thrawn Grand Admiral Thrawn (full name: Mitth'raw'nuruodo) is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He is notable for appearing as the eponymous character in the ''Thrawn'' trilogy of novels (1991–1993) by Timothy Zahn. Thrawn is an ...

of the ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'' science fiction franchise.

References

{{reflist Naval ranks of Germany Military ranks of Austria Military ranks of Italy Military ranks of France Fictional military ranks