It was determined that U-boats were more valuable to the war effort, and so work on new battleships was slowed and ultimately stopped altogether.

Bayern was assigned to the naval force that drove the Imperial Russian Navy from the Gulf of Riga during Operation Albion in October 1917, though the ship was severely damaged by a mine and had to be withdrawn to Kiel for repairs.

Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, the commander of the interned German fleet, ordered his ships be sunk on 21 June 1919; Bayern was successfully scuttled, though British guards managed to beach Baden to prevent her from sinking.

The Weapons Department advocated the 35 cm gun ship, pointing out that it would have a 25% greater chance of hitting its target.

Among these deficiencies were increased weight, reduced ammunition supply and rate of fire, and loss of fighting capability if one of the turrets was disabled.

The Construction Department proposed a 28,100 t (27,700 long tons) ship armed with eight 38 cm guns, which reduced the cost to 57.5 million marks per vessel.

The Fourth Naval Law secured funding for three new dreadnoughts, two light cruisers, and an increase of an additional 15,000 officers and men in the ranks of the Navy for 1912.

With a metacentric height of 2.53 m (8 ft 4 in),[10] larger than that of their British equivalents, the vessels were stable gun platforms for the confined waters of the North Sea.

The vessels carried several smaller craft, including one picket boat, three barges, two launches, two yawls, and two dinghies.

[16] The ships were also armed with a secondary battery of sixteen 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/45 quick-firing guns, each mounted in armored casemates in the side of the top deck.

[19][20] The Bayern-class ships were protected with Krupp cemented steel armor, as was the standard for German warships of the period.

[9] Sachsen's armor layout was modified slightly as a result of the planned diesel engine, which was significantly taller than a turbine.

Bayern was built by Howaldtswerke in Kiel under construction number 590; she was laid down in 1913, launched on 18 February 1915, and completed on 15 July 1916.

As Moltke and Von der Tann were the only two remaining German battlecruisers still in fighting condition after the Battle of Jutland, three dreadnoughts were assigned to the unit for the operation: Bayern, and the two König-class ships Markgraf and Grosser Kurfürst.

To this end, the Admiralstab (the Navy High Command) planned an operation to seize the Baltic islands of Ösel, particularly the Russian gun batteries on the Sworbe peninsula.

[30] On 18 September, the order was issued for a joint Army-Navy operation to capture Ösel and Moon islands; the primary naval component was to comprise the flagship, the battlecruiser Moltke, along with III Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet.

[31] Opposing the Germans were the old Russian pre-dreadnoughts Slava and Tsesarevich, the armored cruisers Bayan, Admiral Makarov, and Diana, 26 destroyers, and several torpedo boats and gunboats.

Simultaneously, the Kaisers engaged the batteries on the Sworbe peninsula; the objective was to secure the channel between Moon and Dagö islands, which would block the only escape route of the Russian ships in the gulf.

Both Grosser Kurfürst and Bayern struck mines while maneuvering into their bombardment positions; damage to the former was minimal, and the ship remained in action.

This prompted Admiral David Beatty, the Commander in Chief of the Grand Fleet, to detach several battleships and battlecruisers to protect the convoys in the North Sea.

[33] This presented to Admiral Scheer the opportunity for which he had been waiting the entire war: the chance to isolate and eliminate a portion of the Grand Fleet.

[34] At 05:00 on 23 April 1918, the entire High Seas Fleet, including Bayern and Baden, left harbor with the intention of intercepting one of the heavily escorted convoys.

Admiral Reinhard Scheer, the Chief of the Naval Staff, approved the plan on 27 October; the operation was set for the 30th.

In spite of this, Hipper decided to hold a last meeting aboard Baden—his flagship—to discuss the operation with the senior officers of the fleet.

[38] Following the armistice with Germany in November 1918, the majority of the High Seas Fleet was to be interned in the British naval base at Scapa Flow.

[40] On 21 November 1918, the ships to be interned, under the command of Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, sailed from their base in Germany for the last time.

The fleet rendezvoused with the light cruiser HMS Cardiff, before meeting a massive flotilla of some 370 British, American, and French warships for the voyage to Scapa Flow.

It became apparent to Reuter that the British intended to seize the German ships on 21 June, which was the deadline for Germany to have signed the peace treaty.

On the morning of 21 June, the British fleet left Scapa Flow to conduct training maneuvers; at 11:20 Reuter transmitted the order to his ships.

After being refloated and thoroughly examined, Baden was expended as a gunnery target, finally being sunk on 16 August 1921 to the southwest of Portsmouth.