Prince Adalbert of Prussia (Heinrich Wilhelm Adalbert) (29 October 1811 in Berlin – 6 June 1873 in Karlsbad) was a son of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and Landgravine Marie Anna of Hesse-Homburg. He was a naval theorist and admiral. He was instrumental during the Revolutions of 1848 in founding the first unified German fleet, the Reichsflotte. During the 1850s he helped to establish the Prussian Navy.

Adalbert was the son of Prince William, the youngest brother of King Frederick William III.

As a young man, Adalbert entered the Prussian army and served in the artillery. Several journeys led him between 1826 and 1842 to the Netherlands, Britain, Russia, Turkey, 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 1835-36 wrote a first plan for the construction of a Prussian fleet. 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 1848-51, 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.

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