 Prewar photo of Bremen in Germany
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| History | |
|---|---|
 German Empire | |
| Name | Bremen |
| Namesake | Bremen |
| Builder | AG Weser, Bremen |
| Laid down | 1 August 1902 |
| Launched | 9 July 1903 |
| Commissioned | 19 May 1904 |
| Fate | Sunk, 17 December 1915 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Bremen-class light cruiser |
| Displacement | |
| Length | Length overall: 111.1 meters (365 ft) |
| Beam | 13.3 m (43.6 ft) |
| Draft | 5.53 m (18 ft 2 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion |
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| Speed | 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) |
| Range | 4,270 nmi (7,910 km; 4,910 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Complement |
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| Armament |
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| Armor |
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SMS Bremen ("His Majesty's Ship Bremen")[a] was the lead ship of the seven-vessel Bremen class of light cruisers, built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the early 1900s. She and her sister ships were ordered under the 1898 Naval Law that required new cruisers be built to replace obsolete vessels in the fleet. The design for the Bremen class was derived from the preceding Gazelle class, utilizing a larger hull that allowed for additional boilers that increased speed. Bremen was armed with a main battery of ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns and had a top speed of 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph).
Upon commissioning in 1904, Bremen was deployed to the East-American Cruiser Division that patrolled the Atlantic coast of North and South America. She operated in the region for nearly ten years, and in that time, she visited numerous foreign ports across both continents to protect German interests abroad. These visits included two major stops in the United States for the Jamestown Exposition in 1907 and the Hudson–Fulton Celebration in 1909 and the hundredth anniversaries of the independence of Chile and Argentina, both in 1910. She also intervened in periods of domestic unrest in various Central and South American countries, assisted merchant ships that suffered accidents, and helped to evacuate more than a thousand European civilians during the Mexican Revolution in late 1913 and early 1914.
Recalled to Germany in 1914, Bremen was decommissioned in March and overhauled, which included replacing four of her 10.5 cm guns with a pair of 15 cm (5.9 in) guns. This work was still being done when World War I broke out that year, and upon completion of her modernization in May 1915, Bremen was assigned to the naval force in the Baltic Sea. She took part in several patrols in the eastern and northern Baltic to search for Russian warships, but she saw no action. She took part in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August, where she engaged a Russian gunboat and bombarded Russian positions ashore. While Bremen and a pair of torpedo boats were on patrol in December 1915, one of the torpedo boats entered a Russian minefield, striking a mine. When Bremen moved to assist the stricken vessel's crew, she, too, struck a pair of mines and sank, taking most of her crew with her.
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