The German navies—specifically the Kaiserliche Marine, Reichsmarine, and Kriegsmarine—built a series of light cruisers between the 1890s and 1940s. The authorization for a major construction program for light cruisers came in the 1898 Naval Law, which ordered the acquisition of thirty vessels of the type.[1] The first such class of light cruiser, the Gazelle class, was based on several intermediate designs of unprotected cruisers, such as the Bussard class, and avisos—dispatch boats—like SMS Hela.[2] The ten members of the Gazelle class set the basic parameters for all later light cruisers of the Kaiserliche Marine.[3] Over the following two decades, the Germans built a further thirty-seven light cruisers; these vessels slowly grew in size, speed, armament, and armor. The original 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/40 gun was replaced by the more advanced L/45 model in the Kolberg class, and it was in turn superseded by the more powerful 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/45 gun in the Pillau class. A waterline armored belt was introduced in the Magdeburg class, which significantly improved the ships' defensive qualities.
These forty-seven cruisers all saw action across the globe in World War I; the bulk served with the German fleets in the North and Baltic Seas, though several served on foreign stations, typically as commerce raiders. Sixteen cruisers were lost during the war to causes ranging from enemy submarines and naval mines to combat with hostile cruiser squadrons. Most of the survivors were either scuttled in Scapa Flow in June 1919 or seized by the various Allied governments as war prizes following Germany's defeat. Several of these were commissioned into their fleets: Italy received three cruisers and France took four. Germany was permitted to retain eight of the oldest cruisers; of these, five continued to serve in secondary roles into World War II.
The Treaty of Versailles allowed Germany to replace these old cruisers, and the first such new vessel, Emden, was built in the early 1920s to a design based on the last wartime classes. A new approach was taken in the five members of the succeeding Königsberg and Leipzig classes with triple gun turrets and hybrid diesel/turbine propulsion systems. A further six ships of the M class were planned in the late 1930s, but the outbreak of war forced their cancellation. The six cruisers of the Emden, Königsberg, and Leipzig classes all served in World War II, and only one—Nürnberg—survived the war intact. Two were sunk during the invasion of Norway and the remaining three vessels were destroyed by Allied bombers in the final months of the war. Nürnberg, the last cruiser completed by Germany, was seized by the Soviet Union and commissioned as Admiral Makarov, serving until the late 1950s.
| Armament | The number and type of the primary armament |
|---|---|
| Armor | The thickness of the deck armor |
| Displacement | Ship displacement at full combat load[a] |
| Propulsion | Number of shafts, type of propulsion system, and top speed generated |
| Service | The dates work began and finished on the ship and its ultimate fate |
| Laid down | The date the keel began to be assembled |
| Commissioned | The date the ship was commissioned |
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