The Kaiser Friedrich III class also standardized the use of three screws for battleships and introduced water-tube boilers and Krupp cemented armor.

The ships conducted routine training exercises and cruises in the early 1900s and Kaiser Friedrich III was badly damaged in a grounding accident while steaming in the Baltic Sea in 1901.

Thereafter they were reduced to reserve status beginning in 1908, since more powerful dreadnought battleships had begun to be commissioned; the rest of their peacetime careers consisted of periodic reactivations to participate in annual fleet training maneuvers.

At the start of World War I in July 1914, the ships were recommissioned and assigned to V Squadron; they were tasked with coastal defense in the North Sea but were quickly transferred to the Baltic to support German operations against the Russian Empire.

The increasing threat of modern weapons, particularly the British submarines that had begun to operate in the area, combined with shortages of crews for more valuable vessels, led the navy to decommission all five members of the class in March 1915.

In the early 1890s, the German Navy attempted to secure funding from the Reichstag to replace the elderly ironclad Preussen, but parliamentary resistance delayed the appropriation until the 1894/1895 budget year.

The limitations of the fleet's infrastructure, particularly the dry docks and other harbor facilities, along with the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal then under construction, constrained the size of the new ship.

To keep the new ship within the displacement limit, the center turret that had been used on the Brandenburgs would have to be sacrificed if a heavier secondary battery was to be incorporated.

[1] This view, which advocated the so-called "hail of fire" principle, was seemingly vindicated by the Japanese cruisers' victory over a more heavily-armed Chinese fleet at the Battle of Yalu later in 1894.

The smaller, faster-firing guns were intended to inflict serious damage on the superstructures of enemy battleships and demoralize the crew.

Koester convinced Wilhelm II to overrule the naval high command, who wished to retain the heavier guns.

This decision set a pattern of German naval construction for the next two decades that favored lighter, faster-firing guns instead of larger, more powerful ones.

The propulsion system was improved with the adoption of water-tube boilers and reorganized to incorporate a third propeller shaft, which became standard for German capital ships.

[3][4] After the first vessel was begun, the next member of the class was authorized for the 1896/1897 program; during the intervening two years, consideration was given to re-designing the second ship to match foreign developments, most significantly the adoption of 30.5 cm (12 in) guns like those on the British Majestic-class battleship.

[6] The Kaiser Friedrich III-class battleships were powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines that drove three screws.

This provided a maximum range of 3,420 nautical miles (6,330 km; 3,940 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

[6] The primary armament consisted of a battery of four 24 cm (9.4 in) SK L/40 guns in twin-gun turrets,[a] one fore and one aft of the central superstructure.

Krupp's new steel was much stronger, but the design staff did not take advantage of the reduced weight to provide more comprehensive protection, which would arrive with the subsequent Wittelsbach class.

[6][17] On entering service, Kaiser Friedrich III became the flagship of Prince Heinrich, the commander of I Squadron of the Home Fleet.

The two ships operated together into early 1901 until Kaiser Friedrich III was badly damaged in a grounding accident while cruising in the Baltic Sea in April.

Over the course of the next four years, the ships of the class operated together in I Squadron, conducting training cruises, fleet maneuvers every August and September, and visits to foreign ports.

The normal peacetime training routine continued for the next several years, interrupted by a reconstruction program in the mid to late-1900s.

Kaiser Barbarossa was the first to be rebuilt in 1905, a result of having been decommissioned for repairs to her rudder for damage incurred on a cruise to Spain in 1903.

For the rest of their peacetime careers, they spent much of the year out of service but were reactivated for the annual fleet maneuvers every August and September.

They served briefly in a coastal-defense role in the North Sea before being transferred to the Baltic in September for operations against the Russian Empire.

They were slated to carry an amphibious assault force to Windau in late September, but false rumors of British warships having entered the Baltic led to the operation being cancelled.

In addition, the navy was facing severe crew shortages and decided that older vessels of limited combat use like the Kaiser Friedrich III class could not be maintained in service.

Kaiser Wilhelm II was stationed in Wilhelmshaven as a headquarters ship for the commander of the High Seas Fleet, a role she continued to fill after the war.

[10] All five ships were broken up between 1920 and 1922 after the end of the war to ensure Germany complied with the naval disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles.