The law provided that the life expectancy of capital ships was to be reduced from 25 to 20 years, a measure designed to necessitate construction of newer battleships.

[5] The Kaiser-class ships were excellent sea boats, but were very stiff, suffering a slight loss of speed in heavy swells.

The turbines drove three-bladed screws that were 3.75 m (12.3 ft) in diameter, providing a design speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph).

The three-shaft ships carried 3,600 metric tons of coal, which enabled a maximum range of 7,900 nautical miles (14,600 km; 9,100 mi) at a cruising speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph).

The cruise was designed to demonstrate German power projection, as well as to test the reliability of the new turbine engines on long-range operations.

[5] The first major operation of the war in which the Kaiser-class ships participated was the raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 15–16 December 1914.

The Kaiser-class ships, along with the Nassau, Helgoland, and König classes steamed in distant support of Franz von Hipper's battlecruisers.

[18] The Kaiser-class ships took part in another raid on the English coast, again as support for the German battlecruiser force in I Scouting Group.

[19] The other battlecruisers bombarded the town of Lowestoft largely without incident, but during the approach to Yarmouth, they encountered the British cruisers of the Harwich Force.

At this point, Admiral Reinhard Scheer, who had been warned of the sortie of the Grand Fleet from its base in Scapa Flow, also withdrew to safer German waters.

Kaiser, Kaiserin, Prinzregent Luitpold, and Friedrich der Grosse, Scheer's flagship, made up VI Division of III Battle Squadron.

The opposing ships began an artillery duel that saw the destruction of Indefatigable, shortly after 17:00,[22] and Queen Mary, less than a half an hour later.

[23] 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.

[24] Shortly thereafter the order was given to commence firing; the Kaiser-class ships, with the exception of Prinzregent Luitpold, were not yet within range to engage the British battlecruisers.

However, by 19:15, Hipper's battlecruisers and the battleships of III Battle Squadron appeared on the scene, and began to hammer the British ships at a range of less than 8,000 yards.

Kaiser and three König-class battleships concentrated their fire on the two cruisers until one of Defence's magazines was detonated, which caused a massive explosion that destroyed the ship.

Warrior, badly damaged and afire, managed to limp northward towards the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships of the 5th Battle Squadron.

[26] While Warrior was retreating northward under the cover of her own smoke, the battleship Warspite came too close to her sister Valiant, and had to turn to starboard in order to avoid collision.

At that moment, a shell from Kaiser struck Warspite's steering gear and jammed them, temporarily leaving the ship only able to steam in a large circle.

[28] Because her steering gear could not be adequately repaired, Warspite was forced to withdraw from the battle;[29] her absence prompted the Germans to believe they had sunk her.

To this end, the Admiralstab (the Navy High Command) planned an operation in the Moonsund archipelago, particularly targeting the Russian gun batteries on the Sworbe peninsula of Ösel.

[34] 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, Moltke, along with III Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet.

Simultaneously, Moltke, Bayern, and the Königs began firing on the Russian shore batteries at Tagga Bay.

Stiff Russian resistance in the Kassar Wick, the entrance to Moon Sound, slowed the German advance.

On 14 October, Kaiser was detached from the bombardment force to deal with the Russian destroyers holding up the German minesweepers.

Russian counter-fire proved accurate, and so the German dreadnoughts were forced to continually alter course to avoid being hit.

[39] By 20 October, the naval operations were effectively over; the Russian ships had been destroyed or forced to withdraw, and the German army attained its objectives.

[40] Following the capitulation of Germany in November 1918, the High Seas Fleet, under the command of Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, was interned in the British naval base in 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 10:00 Reuter transmitted the order to his ships.