List of ironclad warships of Germany
Between the mid-1860s and the early 1880s, the Prussian and later Imperial German Navies purchased or built sixteen ironclad warships.
The British, sympathetic to the Danish cause, delayed delivery of both Arminius and Prinz Adalbert until after the combined Austro-Prussian victory.
[15] The last ironclad built by Germany, Oldenburg, was originally to have been a fifth member of the Sachsen class, but dissatisfaction with those ships led to a new design.
[16] The German Navy temporarily ceased construction of capital ships in the 1880s, due to the poor performance of the Sachsen class and the rise of the Jeune École; instead, concentration was focused on creating a large force of torpedo boats for coastal defense.
[24] After the war, it was discovered that the internal wood construction was badly rotted; she was therefore removed from service in October 1871.
[5] Friedrich Carl was built for the Prussian Navy in the mid-1860s in the French Societé Nouvelles des Forges et Chantiers shipyard in Toulon.
Built as an armored frigate, she mounted her main battery of sixteen 21 cm guns on the broadside.
[20] During the Franco-Prussian War, the ship formed part of the main German squadron commanded by Vice Admiral Jachmann.
Engine trouble, however, plagued the ship and two of the other three vessels in the squadron; as a result, they made only two sorties from the port of Wilhelmshaven to challenge the French blockade.
[25] Friedrich Carl was also deployed to Spain during an insurrection in 1873,[26] during which she assisted in the seizure of three rebel vessels in two engagements.
Engine troubles aboard the ship, along with the two other armored frigates in her squadron, prevented operations against the French blockade.
[28] SMS König Wilhelm (King William) was laid down in 1865 at the Thames Ironworks shipyard in London, originally under the name Fatikh for the Ottoman Empire.
[30] The ship was for a time the largest and most powerful warship in the German navy,[31] only surpassed in size by the Brandenburg-class pre-dreadnought battleships launched in 1891–1892.
[32] She served as the fleet's flagship during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870–1871,[29] though engine troubles prevented the ship from seeing action.
In May of that year, she was placed out of active service and used as a floating barracks and training ship, a role she held through World War I.
Designed for overseas service, Hansa was classed as an armored corvette and armed with eight 21 cm guns in a central battery.
She was moved to Mönkeberg in 1905, where she continued to train boiler room personnel, until 1906 when she was sold to ship-breakers and dismantled for scrap.
[39] This was primarily due to the fact that Preussen was built by a private firm experienced with building large ships, while Friedrich der Grosse and Grosser Kurfürst were constructed by newly established and thus inexperienced Imperial dockyards.
Over two hundred men were killed in the sinking, which resulted in tremendous political infighting in the Navy and the eventual forced retirement of Admiral Reinhold von Werner.
Deutschland was laid down in 1872 and launched in 1874; both ships were designed by Edward Reed and were built by the Samuda Brothers shipyard in London.
[43] Kaiser was the flagship of Otto von Diederichs's East Asia Squadron during the seizure of the Jiaozhou Bay Leased Territory in November 1897.
They also participated in several cruises escorting Kaiser Wilhelm II on state visits to Great Britain and to various cities in the Baltic Sea in the late 1880s and early 1890s.
[50] In the late 1890s, the four ships were extensively rebuilt; their secondary batteries were modernized and they received upgraded propulsion systems.
[49] SMS Oldenburg was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin in 1883, launched in December 1884 and commissioned into the Navy in April 1886.
