The class consisted of four pre-dreadnought battleships built for the German (Imperial Navy), the first modern battleships of the fleet. The four ships of the class—, , , and —were the first ocean-going capital ships built for the German fleet in nearly two decades, owing to reluctance in the (Imperial Diet) to fund large projects. They followed a series of small coastal defense ships, and though in retrospect they anticipated the buildup that created the High Seas Fleet, they were ordered as part of a construction program that reflected the strategic and tactical confusion that affected many navies in the 1880s. The design process that resulted in the class was very lengthy, with proposals that ranged from outdated casemate ships to versions with two twin-gun turrets placed side by side. The designers ultimately settled on ships that were armed with an unusual main battery of six guns at a time when all foreign battleships were built with four or fewer heavy guns.
All four ships served with I Squadron of the German fleet for the first several years of their careers, with the squadron flagship. During this period, they conducted routine training exercises and visited foreign countries, frequently in company with Kaiser Wilhelm II aboard his yacht. In 1900, they were deployed to China to help combat the Boxer Uprising, but they arrived after the bulk of the fighting was over and thus saw little action there. After returning to Germany they were modernized beginning in 1902, thereafter resuming their peacetime activities. and remained in service with the German fleet until 1912, when they were laid up. In 1910, and were sold to the Ottoman Navy and were renamed and . The now-Ottoman ships saw extensive service during the First Balkan War, providing fire support to Ottoman ground forces fighting in Thrace, as well as engaging the Greek fleet at the Battles of Elli and Lemnos in December 1912 and January 1913, respectively.
Following the outbreak of World War I, the German ships were reactivated for use as guard ships protecting the German North Sea coast. The Ottoman vessels meanwhile were used to support the fortresses guarding the Dardanelles during the Dardanelles campaign against British and French forces. was torpedoed and sunk by the British submarine in April 1915, though the other members of the class survived the war. and were disarmed and reduced to secondary duties, eventually being broken up in 1919, while lingered on as a training ship until 1933. She became a barracks ship until 1950 when she was sold for scrap, and was slowly dismantled over the following decade.
Background
In March 1883, General Leo von Caprivi became the (Chief of the Admiralty) following Albrecht von Stosch's resignation. Caprivi was required to submit a memorandum to the on his plans by March 1884. A general of the Imperial German Army, he was inexperienced in naval matters and he convened a council with senior naval officers on 16 January 1884 to gather opinions on future naval construction programs. At the time, he was constrained by the fleet plan of 1873 that had been created under Stosch's direction and had been approved by the . The plan governed the size and composition of the German fleet, calling for fourteen ocean-going ironclad warships, a total that was reached with the launching of the casemate ship in 1884. The nominal completion of the 1873 plan further restrained Caprivi, as in the view of many members of the , naval budgets could be reduced, since no new ships would be needed until the oldest ironclads began to reach thirty years of age in the mid-1890s. At the January council meeting, Caprivi emphasized the need for careful consideration of new designs, noting that the navy could not afford "the luxury of failed experiments", owing to parliamentary refusal to authorize funding for new ships.
Concerns with a two-front war against France and Russia dominated Caprivi's thinking, which resulted in his decision to opt for a strategy of coastal defense in the memorandum; he noted that without a powerful battle fleet, the sea-going ironclads would have little utility against the numerically superior French fleet. He also pointed out that at the time, shell designers and armor manufacturers were competing to defeat each other, which necessitated spiraling costs for navies that attempted to keep pace with the latest technological developments. He also saw that the torpedo could be used to easily sink large armored warships and would be an effective weapon for coastal defense. As a result of these considerations, Caprivi recommended building a large number of smaller coastal defense ships and torpedo boats to defend Germany's coastline in the event of war. Aware of parliamentary objections to increased naval spending, he avoided plans for the construction of expensive battleships. Coincidentally, the French Navy, then at the height of the dominance of the (Young School), came to the same conclusions with respect to their competition with the British Royal Navy. Indeed, the 1870s and 1880s marked a period of tactical and strategic confusion in naval thinking in the world's major navies for the same reasons that Caprivi had highlighted in his memorandum.
Despite the memorandum submitted to the that eschewed capital ship construction, Caprivi secretly discussed new ironclads at length with senior naval officers. He instructed (KAdm—Rear Admiral) Max von der Goltz, then the Director of the Admiralty's Naval Department, to prepare a list of thirteen questions concerning the characteristics of a new capital ship and then to circulate them among naval officers to gather views on the topic. The questions included requirements for speed, cruising radius, maximum draft, whether sailing rigs should be included, the number, type, and arrangement of main battery guns, and the armor type and layout. Goltz met with several other officers, including Hans von Koester, August von Thomsen, Hans Sack, Wilhelm Büchsel, Carl Barandon, Conrad von Bodenhausen, Gustav Schmidt, and Curt von Maltzahn on 20 October 1885 to discuss the questions. They settled on a ship armed with four guns arranged in the lozenge pattern favored by contemporary French capital ship designers, a thick armored belt and armored deck, and an ability to steam for . Other questions, including the speed and crew size, were left unanswered.
At the same time, Caprivi requested design proposals from the Naval Construction Office, which submitted plans for ships that ranged in size from small coastal defense ships armed with a battery of two guns to heavily armed ocean-going battleships equipped with seven 30.5 cm guns. The still refused to authorize expensive new ships, especially in light of the cost of creating the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, though Caprivi was able to convince enough members that the entrances of the canal would be vulnerable to attack and that coastal defense ships would be necessary to guard them. The accordingly approved funds for ten such vessels, which ultimately became the six - and two s; the last two vessels were later cancelled in 1893. The first ship, , was authorized for the 1887–1888 budget year. In early 1887, (Captain at Sea) Friedrich von Hollmann, who was now Caprivi's chief of staff, presented plans for the 1889–1890 budget year that included the construction of one of the sea-going battleships requested by Goltz's committee, with a second vessel scheduled for the 1892–1893 year. Caprivi replied that funding would have to be approved by the , and that there was still testing necessary to determine what type of armor they should carry.
In 1888, Kaiser Wilhelm I died and his successor, the terminally ill Kaiser Friedrich III, remained on the throne for just 99 days before dying as well. The new Kaiser, Wilhelm II, was an ardent supporter of the navy, which was to have profound impacts on the future of the service. Shortly thereafter, Caprivi resigned and was replaced by (Vice Admiral) Alexander von Monts in July; in March 1889, Wilhelm II reorganized the naval command structure, creating the (RMA), which was now in control of naval construction. The navy initially requested a pair of battleships in line with Hollmann's projected budget, but Wilhelm II intervened to demand four new ships for the 1889–1890 budget. German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck secured funding for the ships through the larger army expansion bill, though the delayed funding for the latter three members of the class.
Design
The design for what was to become the class was prepared by Chief Constructor Alfred Dietrich; he originally used as a starting point. In his first memorandum on the project, he noted that the design would have to be enlarged to provide room for more powerful propulsion machinery and increased coal storage, and armor would have to be strengthened, among other changes. Displacement was originally fixed at . In a subsequent memorandum dated 8 August 1888, Dietrich raised the possibility of increasing the caliber of the main battery from to . Dietrich met with Monts on 15 August, who requested that the new ship be armed with four guns, since the 26 cm guns were perceived to be too small to effectively engage the latest Russian ships being built. This version was submitted two days later to Wilhelm II, who approved it.
Dietrich initially considered the latest Russian battleships being built—the and the es—which arranged their main battery to emphasize end-on fire. He briefly examined the possibility of mounting two gun turrets forward, similar to the design, but the beam necessary to accommodate guns of that size along with the hull armor would have made the ship too large to be docked in most German dry docks. Variants with four to six single-gun turrets were also prepared, as was a version with two twin turrets and two single-gun wing turrets. By this time, the displacement limit had been raised to , though the RMA agreed to allow an increase to , as that was the maximum displacement that could be accommodated by existing infrastructure.
As Dietrich continued to work on the plans, he examined other foreign contemporaries, including the French ironclad battleships that carried three main battery guns in individual barbette mounts, all on the centerline. He proposed an armament of six heavy guns in three two-gun turrets in the same arrangement. While this would reduce the end-on fire capability, the RMA determined that the heavier broadside outweighed the reduction in firing arcs ahead or astern. The ships were to have carried a uniform battery of six 28 cm MRK L/35 guns, but during construction a longer 40-caliber version, the MRK L/40 variant, became available. The fore and aft turrets received the longer guns, but the center turret did not have enough space to fit them owing to the closeness of the aft superstructure, so the shorter guns were retained.
The s were the first ocean-going capital ships to be built for the German fleet in almost twenty years. Their construction caused significant concern in Russia, which was a possible naval opponent in the Baltic Sea; the Russians decided to strengthen their Baltic Fleet with as many as ten new battleships, though funding proved to be insufficient and the program was significantly pared down. The class was significantly smaller and less powerful than the contemporary British , but roughly equal with the series of French battleships begun with and with the Russian (the French ships being faster but much less heavily armed and the Russian ship being slower but armed with heavier main guns). Though they were the first modern battleships built in Germany, presaging the Tirpitz-era High Seas Fleet, the authorization for the ships came as part of a construction program that reflected the strategic and tactical confusion of the 1880s caused by theories like the .
General characteristics