SMS (His Majesty's Ship Germany) was the first of five pre-dreadnought battleships built for the German (Imperial Navy). The ship was armed with a main battery of four guns in two twin turrets. She was built at the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel, where she was laid down in June 1903 and launched in November 1904. She was commissioned on 3 August 1906, a few months ahead of . The latter, armed with ten large-caliber guns, was the first of a revolutionary new standard of "all-big-gun" battleships that rendered and the rest of her class obsolete.
served as the flagship of the High Seas Fleet until 1913, when she was transferred to II Battle Squadron. With the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, she and her sister ships were tasked with defending the mouth of the Elbe and the German Bight from possible British incursions. and the other ships of II Battle Squadron participated in most of the large-scale fleet operations in the first two years of the war, culminating in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916. Late on the first day of the battle, and the other pre-dreadnoughts briefly engaged several British battlecruisers before retreating.
After the battle, in which pre-dreadnoughts proved too vulnerable against more modern battleships, and her three surviving sisters were assigned to coastal defense duties. By 1917, they had been withdrawn from combat service completely, disarmed, and tasked with auxiliary roles. was used as a barracks ship in Wilhelmshaven until the end of the war. She was struck from the naval register on 25 January 1920, sold to ship breakers that year, and broken up for scrap by 1922.
Design
The passage of the Second Naval Law in 1900 under the direction of (VAdm—Vice Admiral) Alfred von Tirpitz secured funding for the construction of twenty new battleships over the next seventeen years. The first group, the five s, were laid down in the early 1900s, and shortly thereafter design work began on a follow-on design, which became the . The -class ships were broadly similar to the s, featuring incremental improvements in armor protection. They also abandoned the gun turrets for the secondary battery guns, moving them back to traditional casemates to save weight. The British battleship —armed with ten 12-inch (30.5 cm) guns—was commissioned in December 1906. Dreadnoughts revolutionary design rendered every capital ship of the German navy obsolete, including the class.
was long overall, with a beam of , and a draft of . She displaced at normal loading, and up to at full loading. The ship was equipped with two heavy military masts. Her crew numbered 35 officers and 708 enlisted men. Powered by three triple expansion steam engines that each drove a screw propeller, was capable of a top speed of from . Twelve coal-fired Scotch marine boilers provided steam for the engines; three funnels vented smoke from burning coal in the boilers. had a fuel capacity of up to of coal. At a cruising speed of , she could steam for .
s primary armament consisted of four SK L/40 guns in two twin turrets. Her offensive armament was rounded out with a secondary battery of fourteen SK L/40 guns mounted individually in casemates. A battery of twenty SK L/35 guns in single mounts provided defense against torpedo boats. As was customary for capital ships of the period, she was also equipped with six torpedo tubes, which were in the submerged part of the hull. Krupp cemented armor protected the ship. Her armored belt was thick. Heavy armor in the citadel amidships protected her magazines and machinery spaces, while thinner plating covered the ends of the hull. Her main-deck armor was thick. The main battery turrets had of armor plating.
Service history Construction through 1908
was the second naval vessel to bear that name—after the 1874 armored frigate . The modern ship was intended to fight in the German battle line with other battleships of the Imperial German Navy. She was laid down on 20 July 1903 at the dockyard in Kiel, under the provisional name "N". The ship was launched on 19 November 1904. Her trials lasted from 3 August 1906 until the end of September. replaced the battleship as the flagship of the Active Battle Fleet on 26 September, when Admiral Prince Heinrich hoisted his flag aboard. Her first commander was (KzS—Captain at Sea) Wilhelm Becker, though he served aboard the ship for just a month and was replaced by KzS in September. She was tactically assigned to II Battle Squadron, displacing the older battleship , though as the fleet flagship she was not subordinate to the squadron commander. Prince Heinrich was new to the command, and he set about to train the fleet, with an emphasis on accurate gunfire and maneuvering as a unit.
She took part in training exercises in the North Sea, in December 1906, before returning to Kiel. On 16 February 1907, the fleet was renamed the High Seas Fleet. Fleet maneuvers in the North Sea followed, in early 1907, with a cruise to Skagen, Denmark, followed by mock attacks on the main naval base at Kiel. Further exercises followed in May–June. In June, a cruise to Norway followed the fleet training. After returning from Norway, went to Swinemünde in early August, where Czar Nicholas II of Russia met the German fleet in his yacht . Afterward, the fleet assembled for the annual autumn fleet maneuvers, held with the bulk of the fleet every August and September. This year, the maneuvers were delayed to allow for a large fleet review, including 112 warships, for Kaiser Wilhelm II in the Schillig roadstead. In the autumn maneuvers that followed, the fleet conducted exercises in the North Sea and then joint maneuvers with IX Army Corps around Apenrade. returned to Kiel on 14 September, after the conclusion of the maneuvers. In November, she took part in unit training in the Kattegat, before she was taken into dry-dock for an annual refit.
In February 1908, participated in fleet maneuvers in the Baltic Sea. With Wilhelm II aboard, she was present for the launch of the first German dreadnought battleship, , on 7 March, and afterward carried the Kaiser to visit the island of Helgoland in the German Bight, accompanied by the light cruiser . In May–June, fleet training was conducted off Helgoland; Crown Prince Wilhelm, the Kaiser's son, observed the exercises aboard . In July 1908, and the rest of the fleet sailed into the Atlantic Ocean to conduct a major training cruise. Prince Heinrich had pressed for such a cruise the previous year, arguing that it would prepare the fleet for overseas operations and would break up the monotony of training in German waters, though tensions with Britain over the developing Anglo-German naval arms race were high. The fleet departed Kiel on 17 July, passed through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal to the North Sea, and continued to the Atlantic. During the cruise, stopped at Funchal, Portugal and Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The fleet returned to Germany on 13 August. The autumn maneuvers followed from 27 August to 12 September. Later that year, the fleet toured coastal German cities as part of an effort to increase public support for naval expenditures.
1909–1914
The next year—1909—followed much the same pattern. KzS Ehler Behring replaced Krosigk in April. In June, won the Kaiser's (Shooting Prize) for excellent shooting in II Squadron. Another cruise into the Atlantic was conducted from 7 July to 1 August, during which stopped in Bilbao, Spain. While on the way back to Germany, the High Seas Fleet was received by the British Royal Navy in Spithead. After another round of exercises, went in for a periodic overhaul. During the refit, she was given additional pedestal-mounted searchlights and became the first ship in the German navy to be equipped with an X-ray machine. In late 1909, Prince Heinrich was replaced by Admiral Henning von Holtzendorff, who kept as his flagship. Holtzendorff's tenure as fleet commander was marked by strategic experimentation, owing to the increased threat the latest underwater weapons posed and the fact that the new s were too wide to pass through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal. Accordingly, the fleet was transferred from Kiel to Wilhelmshaven on 1 April 1910.
In May 1910, the fleet conducted training maneuvers in the Kattegat. These were in accordance with Holtzendorff's strategy, which envisioned drawing the Royal Navy into the narrow waters there. The annual summer cruise was to Norway, and was followed by fleet training, during which another fleet review was held in Danzig on 29 August. again won the that year. In November, , accompanied by the aviso and the dispatch boat , hosted Wilhelm II during the celebration of the opening of the Naval Academy Mürwik in Flensburg. had too deep a draft to enter Gelting Bay outside the Flensburg Firth, so Wilhelm II transferred to . A training cruise into the Baltic followed at the end of the year. In early March 1911, again carried Wilhelm II to Helgoland; this trip was followed by fleet exercises in the Skagerrak and Kattegat that month. and the rest of the fleet received British and American naval squadrons at Kiel in June and July. The year's autumn maneuvers were confined to the Baltic and the Kattegat, and won the a third time. Another fleet review was held during the exercises for a visiting Austro-Hungarian delegation that included Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Admiral Rudolf Montecuccoli. Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, the Chancellor of Germany, also attended the review, aboard . On 1 October, was relieved of her tactical assignment to II Squadron, as the (Imperial Diet) authorized the fleet to keep a 17th battleship in commission—I and II Squadrons comprising eight battleships each, so the fleet could now keep two full squadrons in addition to the flagship.
In mid-1912, due to the Agadir Crisis, the summer cruise was confined to the Baltic, to avoid exposing the fleet during the period of heightened tension with Britain and France. In September, following the autumn maneuvers, suffered a grounding while in the Baltic. The resulting damage necessitated dry-docking, and repairs were completed by November, allowing the ship to take part in the winter cruise in the Baltic. In October, during the repair period, KzS Hugo Meurer took command of the ship. On 30 January 1913, Holtzendorff was relieved as the fleet commander, owing in large part due to Wilhelm II's displeasure with his strategic vision. VAdm Friedrich von Ingenohl took Holtzendorff's place that day; but only one day later, on the 31st, he lowered his flag aboard to transfer to the new dreadnought , which replaced as flagship. The golden bow ornament that denoted the flagship was removed, and returned to the ranks of II Battle Squadron. The year's training proceeded in much the same pattern as in previous years. briefly resumed flagship duties in late 1913, as was in dry-dock for periodic maintenance.
World War I On 14 July 1914, the annual summer cruise to Norway began. The threat of war during the July Crisis caused Kaiser Wilhelm II to end the cruise early, after only two weeks; and by the end of July the fleet was back in port. reached Kiel on the 29th, and moved to Wilhelmshaven on 1 August. With the outbreak of war, and the rest of II Squadron was tasked with coastal defense at the mouth of the Elbe. This duty was interrupted from 2 to 23 October, when the ship returned to Wilhelmshaven, and from 27 October to 4 November, for an overhaul in Kiel. On 10 November, she took part in a sweep into the Baltic toward Bornholm, which concluded uneventfully two days later. By 17 November, the ship was again stationed off the coast near the Elbe. While her sisters covered the raid on the English coast on 15–16 December, remained on picket duty at the mouth of the Elbe.