 SMS Deutschland
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Operators |  Imperial German Navy |
| Preceded by | Preussen class |
| Succeeded by | Sachsen class |
| Built | 1871–1875 |
| In service | 1875–1904 |
| Completed | 2 |
| Retired | 2 |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Class and type | Central battery ship |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 89.34 m (293 ft 1 in) |
| Beam | 19.1 m (62 ft 8 in) |
| Draft | 7.39 m (24 ft 3 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
| Range | 2,470 nmi (4,570 km; 2,840 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement |
|
| Armament | |
| Armor | |
The Kaiser class of ironclad warships was a pair of vessels built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the early 1870s. The lead ship, Kaiser, was laid down in 1871 and launched in 1874. Deutschland was laid down in 1872 and launched in 1874; both ships were built by the Samuda Brothers shipyard in London. They were the last German capital ships built by a foreign shipyard. Built as armored frigates, the ships were armed with a main battery of eight 26 cm (10 in) guns in a central armored battery and were capable of a top speed of 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph).
Both ships served with the fleet following their commissioning in 1875, though they spent a significant part of their career in reserve, as Germany maintained only a small number of ships on active duty for training cruises in the period. The ships were substantially rebuilt in the 1890s into armored cruisers and stationed in Asia for three years. Kaiser was the flagship of Otto von Diederichs's East Asia Squadron during the Jiaozhou Bay Leased Territory seizure in November 1897. Following their return to Germany in 1899–1900, the ships were used in several secondary roles, including as harbor and barracks ships. The ships were stricken from the naval register in 1906; Deutschland was used as a target ship before being sold for scrap in 1908, though Kaiser served on as a floating barracks until she was sold in 1920.