With the passage of the Second Naval Law under the direction of "Vizeadmiral" ("VAdm"—Vice Admiral) Alfred von Tirpitz in 1900, funding was allocated for a new class of battleships to succeed the ships authorized under the 1898 Naval Law. The previous law had called for a total strength of nineteen battleships by 1 April 1904, which was reached with the "Wittelsbach" class, but the new law increased the projected battle fleet to a total of thirty-eight. The "Braunschweig" class was the first group of battleships built under this new plan, and they marked a significant advance in combat power over earlier German battleships.