Budgetary constraints and the need to begin construction quickly to compete with Britain in the Anglo-German naval arms race prevented any more radical changes.

The year 1915 passed uneventfully, as a series of sweeps into the North Sea failed to bring contact with elements of the British Royal Navy.

[4] Another effect of the 1908 amendment was to reduce the service life of all large warships from twenty-five years to twenty; this was done in an effort to force the Reichstag to allocate more funds for additional ships, since vessels would then need to be replaced sooner than originally planned.

During a meeting on 15 January 1910, Tirpitz mandated that the new class must adhere to the price per ship he had budgeted, owing to the financial problems that had already disrupted his plans.

The Konstruktionsdepartement (Construction Department, referred to as "K") was as that time occupied with work on the new battlecruiser Seydlitz, delaying the initiation of formal planning for what became the König design.

Hans Bürkner, the civilian "K" chief, preferred a simple development of Prinzregent Luitpold as that would entail minimal cost increases in accordance with Tirpitz's wishes.

Owing to the pressing need to match British construction and keep costs within Tirpitz's budgetary constraints, the naval command decided to simply repeat the design for Prinzregent Luitpold with some of the improvements.

"K" considered the adoption of anti-roll tanks to help stabilize the ships, as the recently completed Nassau-class battleships initially suffered from severe rolling, though Tirpitz eventually decided against them.

Although initially intended to use diesel engines on their center shafts, delays in the completion of the prototype for Prinzregent Luitpold forced the Navy to return to the traditional all-turbine arrangement for the first member of the class.

The proposal was ultimately rejected in favor of building another vessel identical to the 1911 ships to create a homogeneous four-ship division to simplify tactical command.

The naval command again hoped that the diesel engine would be ready in time for this vessel, so her propulsion system was redesigned with larger, more powerful turbines than her sisters received.

But before work began, it became clear that the diesel would not be ready, so the center engine room—which had been left empty in Prinzregent Luitpold—was reconfigured to accept a third turbine.

Only one significant change was introduced for the new ship, which became Kronprinz, was a larger tubular foremast that was capable of supporting a heavier fire direction top.

The ships' superstructure was minimal, consisting of a set of forward and aft conning towers, though König was built as a squadron flagship and accordingly received a larger bridge to accommodate an admiral's staff.

[16] This was a result of the fact that the tests were run after the start of World War I and thus had to be conducted in the safer, but shallower, waters of the western Baltic Sea.

In service running under normal conditions, the Königs were faster than the Kaiser class, which averaged a top speed of 22.2 knots (41.1 km/h; 25.5 mph).

During the operation on the morning of 16 December, the High Seas Fleet, commanded by Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl, briefly clashed with the destroyer screen of the British 1st Battlecruiser Squadron and the 2nd Battle Squadron, which had been sent to intercept their German counterparts (as the British were able to decipher German codes thanks to a set of code books captured from the cruiser Magdeburg in August).

They took part in a series of sweeps into the North Sea that failed to locate British forces through 1915, by which time Ingenohl had been replaced by Admiral Hugo von Pohl.

[44] By this time, the German battlecruisers were steaming south in order to draw the British ships towards the main body of the High Seas Fleet.

Another melee with the British cruisers developed an hour later, again over the crippled Wiesbaden; during this period, König received a hit aft that caused significant damage.

[54] König, Grosser Kurfürst, and Markgraf underwent repairs through July and then conducted training in the Baltic in August before taking part in the sortie that led to the action of 19 August 1916; during the operation, Markgraf and Grosser Kurfürst were temporarily attached to I Scouting Group as several of its battlecruisers had been badly mauled at Jutland and were still under repair.

During an operation to recover a pair of U-boats that had grounded off the Danish coast, a British submarine torpedoed Grosser Kurfürst and Kronprinz, though both ships returned to port for repairs.

The next phase, the clearing of naval forces in the gulf, began four days later as König and Kronprinz led an attempt to break through Russian defenses.

In the ensuing Battle of Moon Sound, the German battleships badly damaged Slava and forced her to scuttle, but the rest of the Russian vessels withdrew.

[57] The High Seas Fleet saw little significant activity for the rest of 1917 and into mid-1918, apart from routine training exercises and guard duties in the German Bight.

[59] The ships, less Markgraf, which was dry-docked for maintenance, took part in an abortive attempt to intercept a British convoy to Norway in late April.

[61] Following the capitulation of Germany in November 1918, the majority of the High Seas Fleet, under the command of Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, was interned in the British naval base at 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.

[65] The vessels are popular diving sites,[66] and in 2017, marine archaeologists from the Orkney Research Center for Archaeology conducted extensive surveys of the wrecks.