Erich Raeder was a German admiral who served as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine from 1935 to 1943. He joined the Imperial German Navy in 1894 and served in the First World War, fighting in the Battle of Jutland. In the interwar period, he was the principal architect of the rebuilding of the German navy, supervising the development of new units and conceiving 'Plan Z,' an ambitious naval rearmament program. For his services, in 1939 he was promoted to Grand Admiral, the highest naval rank, becoming the first person to receive this honor since Alfred von Tirpitz. During the Second World War, he led naval operations in the early stages of the conflict, including the successful invasion of Norway. Awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, he resigned in 1943 due to strategic disagreements with Hitler. Tried at Nuremberg, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for planning a war of aggression and was released in 1955 for health reasons.