He presented his recommendations in a "Memorandum on the Construction of a German Fleet" (Denkschrift über die Bildung einer deutschen Flotte) (Potsdam, 1848).

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.

In the summer of 1856, while on a training cruise of Prussian warships, he was shot at by local Riffians within sight of Morocco's Rif coast and was wounded.

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.