Braunschweig-class battleship

Preussen in 1907
Class overview
Name	Braunschweig class
Builders	Germaniawerft, Schichau, AG Vulcan
Operators	Imperial German Navy  Reichsmarine  Kriegsmarine  Soviet Navy
Preceded by	Wittelsbach class
Succeeded by	Deutschland class
Built	1901–1906
In commission	1904–1960
Completed	5
Scrapped	5
General characteristics
Type	Pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement	Normal: 13,208 t (12,999 long tons) Full load: 14,394 t (14,167 long tons)
Length	127.7 m (419 ft) loa
Beam	22.2 m (72 ft 10 in)
Draft	8.1–8.16 m (26 ft 7 in – 26 ft 9 in)
Installed power	14 × boilers 16,000 PS (15,781 ihp; 11,768 kW)
Propulsion	3 × triple-expansion steam engines 3 × screw propellers
Speed	18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Range	5,200 nmi (9,600 km; 6,000 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	35 officers 708 enlisted men
Armament	2 × 2 – 28 cm (11 in) SK L/40 guns 14 × 17 cm (6.7 in) SK L/40 guns 14 × 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/35 guns 6 × 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes
Armor	Belt: 250 mm (9.8 in) Turrets: 250 mm Deck: 40 mm (1.6 in) Conning tower: 300 mm (11.8 in)

The Braunschweig-class battleships were a group of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) built in the early 1900s. They were the first class of battleships authorized under the Second Naval Law, a major naval expansion program. The class comprised five ships—Braunschweig, Elsass, Hessen, Preussen, and Lothringen—and they were an improvement over the preceding Wittelsbach class. The Braunschweigs mounted a more powerful armament of 28 cm (11 in) and 17 cm (6.7 in) guns (compared to 24 cm (9.4 in) and 15 cm (5.9 in) guns of the Wittelsbachs). Less than two years after the first members of the class entered service, the ships were rendered obsolescent by the British all-big-gun battleship Dreadnought, which curtailed their careers.

During their early careers, the five ships served in II Battle Squadron, with Preussen its flagship. The fleet was occupied primarily with routine peacetime training and foreign visits. In 1912, Braunschweig was placed in reserve and she was joined the following year by Elsass. Lothringen and Hessen were slated to be decommissioned in 1914, but the outbreak of World War I in July prevented this and they remained in service with the High Seas Fleet. They and Preussen took part in the fleet operations in the first two years of the war, while Braunschweig and Elsass went to the Baltic with IV Battle Squadron, where they eventually saw combat with the Russian battleship Slava during the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915. Hessen took part in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and saw limited combat with British battlecruisers late in the battle. All five of the ships were withdrawn from service starting in 1916, thereafter being used in subsidiary roles, including as barracks and training ships.

After the war, the five Braunschweigs were among the vessels that the new Reichsmarine was permitted to retain by the Treaty of Versailles. Lothringen and Preussen were converted into parent ships for minesweepers to clear the minefields in the North Sea that had been laid during the war, but the other three were modernized in the early 1920s and served with the fleet into the 1930s. Braunschweig and Elsass were eventually stricken from the register in 1931, and along with Lothringen and Preussen were thereafter broken up. Hessen remained in service until late 1934, when she was decommissioned and converted into a radio-controlled target ship, a role she filled through World War II. Ceded as a war prize to the Soviet Union, she was commissioned as Tsel and used as a target until 1960 when she was scrapped.