List of coastal defense ships of Germany

[8] Monts, a veteran naval officer, opposed Caprivi's policy on coastal defense, and instead proposed building four new 10,000-metric-ton (9,800-long-ton; 11,000-short-ton) Brandenburg-class battleships.

[10][11] Indeed, Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz characterized the period the Siegfried and Odin classes were built, up to the passage of the First Naval Law in 1898, as the "wasted decade".

[b] To that end, he called for the construction of new coastal defense ships that were larger than the unsuccessful Wespe-class gunboats but smaller than the Sachsen-class ironclads.

They were to be sufficiently seaworthy to permit use in the North Sea, with armament and armor strong enough to allow them to engage larger, foreign battleships.

[3][6] The Odin class, the seventh and eighth of Caprivi's proposed ten coastal defenders, was a modified version of the Siegfried design; the primary differences were a slightly improved armor layout, a second funnel, and two military masts.

[6] Both ships were rebuilt as merchantmen after the end of the war; Odin served in this capacity until she was scrapped in 1935, while Ägir's career was cut short when she ran aground off the Swedish island of Gotland in December 1929.