Why did Germany not have any aircraft carriers?

[ruddersrangers44]

Interesting thread as already stated all of Germany's conquests could be reached within range of its Fighters unlike the Pacific which covered a vast area of sea dotted by thousands of small islands without airstrips............

[lithgow]

Carriers were still extremely useful in the European theatre-Norway 1940 and 1944, the Med 1940-43-and that was with ships equipped mostly with aircraft of limited quality and numbers-the Italians had thought that their central location would allow them to dominate the Med sea but soon found that the flexibility of RN carriers trumped that conclusively-the Italians did try to build a carrier force but it was too little too late with one converted liner (Aquila) nearing completion at the Italian surrender in 1943 and another (Sparveiro) starting conversion-the Germans were serious about having a carrier force but with no experience building and operating such ships it was a slow process-the 'Z' plan foresaw a substantial force by 1944 if all construction had occurred but the cost in money and materials would probably resulted in a reduction of this with changes in priorities-the general reluctance to risk major ships and the poor inter service relations between the armed forces would have reduced the effect of the small force of vessels that the Germans may have had at any one time early in the war when it may have had an influence though.

[GeneralPutnam]

The most important ship in world navies prior was the large battleship. Nations that built and developed them prior to the war also did no realize that they would be the next great equalizer. Once the importance of the role of the carrier,attack,observation,defense ect carriers became the new capital ship which going forward. The Germans never and couldnt followed through on the completion ( like many things) of the graf zeppelin until it was way to late ( used to have a nice tinnie of it)