Adalbert was born in Berlin, the son of Prince William, the youngest brother of King
Frederick William III. As a young man, Adalbert entered the
Prussian army and by 1839, had become commander of the Guards Artillery brigade, a position he held until 1842. Several journeys led him between 1826 and 1842 to the Netherlands,
Britain,
Russia, the
Ottoman Empire, Greece, and Brazil. He recognized during his many sea voyages the importance that
sea power had for a modern commercial and industrial nation. He studied carefully the theory of
naval warfare and in 1836 wrote a plan for the construction of a Prussian fleet, which would be centered on three
paddle steamers. The cost of the ships meant that it had no chance of being enacted. Prussia at that time was a land power focused on Continental Europe, possessing practically no navy of its own; rather, it relied on the allied powers of Britain, the Netherlands, and Denmark. During the
First Schleswig War of 1848–1851, however, the failure of this strategy became apparent: Britain and the Netherlands remained neutral and Denmark became the enemy. Within a few days, the Danish navy had destroyed German maritime commerce in the
North Sea and the
Baltic. In 1843, upon returning from the cruise to Brazil, Adalbert was made the General Inspector of Artillery. He recruited then-Major
Albrecht von Stosch as his
adjutant in 1847; Stosch would go on to become the first chief of the
German Imperial Admiralty in 1871. During the
Revolutions of 1848, and contemporaneously during the First Schleswig War against Denmark, the
German National Assembly embarked on a project to establish a unified German fleet to combat the Danish
blockade of the northern German states. The assembly named Prince Adalbert to lead the (Naval Technical Commission), along with
Karl Rudolf Brommy,
Jan Schröder, among others; he was also placed in charge of Prussia's own initiative to build a fleet. He presented his recommendations in a "Memorandum on the Construction of a German Fleet" (
Denkschrift über die Bildung einer deutschen Flotte) (
Potsdam, 1848). In this memorandum, still regarded highly for its insights on naval strategy, Adalbert distinguished between three fleet models: • A naval force intended solely for defensive actions in relation to coastal defense; • An offensive naval force intended for national defense, and for the most necessary protection of commerce; or • An independent naval power. Adalbert favored the middle solution, because it would not provoke the great sea powers (such as Britain), but would provide the German navy with significant value as an ally. In 1849 his cousin, King
Frederick William IV, ordered Adalbert to resign his office in the fledgling Imperial Navy. The reactionary king mistrusted the National Assembly because of its revolutionary nature, and had already turned down its offer to assume the German Imperial crown. Despite the setback, Adalbert continued to give active support to the construction of a fleet. In 1852 Adalbert argued that Prussia needed to build a naval base on the North Sea. He arranged the
Jade Treaty of 20 July 1853, in which Prussia and the
Grand Duchy of Oldenburg jointly withdrew from a region on the west bank of the Jade bay, where from 1854 onward Prussia established the fortress, naval base and city of
Wilhelmshaven. On 30 March 1854, Adalbert was named Admiral of the Prussian Coast and Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. In the summer of 1856, while on a training cruise of Prussian warships, he led Prussian forces at the
Battle of Tres Forcas. He was shot by Riffians during the fighting. During the
Second Schleswig War of 1864 (also known as the "Danish-Prussian War") he commanded the Prussian Navy, though operational command of its main unit, the Baltic Squadron, fell to
Eduard von Jachmann. He spent time aboard the
aviso , and on 14 April he conducted a sweep into the
Bay of Pomerania that resulted in an encounter with the Danish
ship of the line and the
steam frigate . opened fire at long range, leading to an indecisive two-and-a-half-hour battle in which easily outran the more powerful Danish vessels and escaped back to
Swinemünde. After the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, which led to the creation of the German Empire, Adalbert laid down his title of "Prince-Admiral" and retired from the now-renamed
Imperial Navy. He died two years later of liver disease, aged 62, in
Karlsbad. Adalbert was married to the dancer
Therese Elssler (Frau von Barnim); their only son, Adalbert v. Barnim (born 22 April 1841), died in July 1860 during an expedition on the
Nile. ==Honours==