[40] Bromme (called also Brommy) was a German seaman who served in the Greek navy and who was later placed in charge of the Naval Commission by the German National Assembly in 1848. He organized the first modern German fleet and as admiral drove off the three Danish ships blockading the Weser. This navy was considered merely a passing necessity, and in 1853 Bromme was retired, after the little fleet had been sold at auction. I swore to the colors when I came to the throne, after the mighty time of my grandfather, that, so far as in me lay, the bayonet and cannon would have to rest, but that bayonet and cannon, however, would have to be kept sharp and effective in order that jealousy and envy from without should not disturb us in the development of our garden and our beautiful house. I have made a vow, as a result of what I have learned from history, never to strive for an empty world-dominion. For what has become of the so-called world-empires? Alexander the Great, Napoleon I--all the great warriors--have swum in blood and have left subjugated peoples behind them who at the first opportunity have risen up again and brought the empire to ruin. The world-empire of which I have dreamed shall consist in this, that the newly created German Empire shall first of all enjoy on all sides the most absolute confidence as a quiet, honorable, and peaceful neighbor; and that, if in the future they shall read in history of a German world-empire or of a Hohenzollern world-ruler, it shall not be founded upon acquisitions won with the sword but upon the mutual trust of the nations who are striving for the same goals. To express it briefly, as a great poet has said: "Limited outwardly, but with no limits upon inward development." You have mentioned the ships which here hang memorially from the ceiling of this beautiful old hall. The time in which I grew up was, in spite of the great war, not a great and glorious one for the seafaring part of our nation. I, too, have here drawn the logical conclusions from what my ancestors have done. In a military way much had been done within, as was necessary; now the equipment of the navy had to be brought forward. I thank God that I do not have to make a desperate appeal here in this town hall as I once did in Hamburg.[41] The fleet is built and is on the seas; we have material for crews. The eagerness and the spirit are the same as those which filled the officers of the Prussian army at Hohenfriedberg, at Königgrätz, and at Sedan; and every German war-ship which leaves the slips is one more guarantee for peace on land. We are correspondingly more powerful as allies, and our opponents will be correspondingly less willing to offer us any aggression. [41] The appeal referred to is the speech delivered at Hamburg on October 18, 1899, with its famous "Bitterly do we need a powerful fleet."