SMS Friedrich der Grosse [a] (or Große [b]) was an ironclad turret ship built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy).

The ship was removed from active service in 1896, after which she was used in secondary roles until 1919, then stricken from the naval register, sold to a scrapyard, and broken up for scrap the following year.

[2] Friedrich der Grosse was ordered by the Imperial Navy from the Königliche Werft (Royal Dockyard) in Kiel on 9 January 1870, but the beginning of construction was delayed by the Franco-Prussian War that broke out later that year.

[6] Her initial testing was carried out in the Baltic Sea, but trials were interrupted in early January 1878, when Friedrich der Grosse was transferred to Wilhelmshaven, where she was placed in reserve with a reduced crew under the command of Korvettenkapitän (Corvette Captain) Gustav Stempel.

The month before, Friedrich der Grosse was assigned to the Ironclad Training Squadron to participate in the annual summer fleet maneuvers, under the command of Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Carl Ferdinand Batsch.

At the time, Friedrich der Grosse suffered from mechanical problems, and on 22 May, while steaming in bad weather from Kiel to Wilhelmshaven, she ran aground off Nyborg.

The ship had to be towed free, and suffered serious damage to her hull, including a 60 m (200 ft) long gash in the outer skin of her double bottom.

The damage, coupled with her chronic engine problems, forced her to miss the fleet maneuvers, which were cancelled soon after following the accidental sinking of her sister Grosser Kurfürst in a collision with the ironclad König Wilhelm.

[5][8] In the spring of 1880, the squadron was again reestablished, and Friedrich der Grosse was recommissioned to join it on 3 May; Reibnitz served a third stint as the ship's captain.

Preussen and the rest of the squadron visited Danzig in September during a meeting between Kaiser Wilhelm I and the Russian Tsar Alexander III.

Friedrich der Grosse was thereafter transferred from Kiel to Wilhelmshaven, where she joined the North Sea Naval Station, being decommissioned there on 30 September.

[11][12] Friedrich der Grosse was kept in reserve during the annual summer maneuvers starting in 1883, as new ships, including the rest of the Sachsen-class ironclads entered service.

They met Alexander III and the Swedish King Oscar II, who inspected the German warships and conferred decorations on the senior officers.

The ship was assigned to II Division, along with her sister Preusse and the central battery ironclads Kaiser and Deutschland, under command of Konteradmiral Friedrich von Hollmann.

But the work was interrupted when she and the rest of II Division were recalled to become the training squadron for the fleet in 1889–1890, the first year the Kaiserliche Marine maintained a year-round ironclad force.

Friedrich der Grosse and Preussen left Wilhelmshaven on 26 September to join the squadron in Plymouth, Britain, arriving there three days later.

The squadron escorted Wilhelm II's imperial yacht to the Mediterranean; the voyage included state visits to Italy and the Ottoman Empire.

[16][17] Friedrich der Grosse returned to the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Wilhelmshaven for the overhaul that had been deferred from the previous year.

The unit conducted maneuvers from 9 June to the end of the month before escorting Wilhelm II on a state visit to Christiania, Norway.

Friedrich der Grosse remained out of service until 10 October 1891, when she was recommissioned and assigned to II Division of the Training Squadron.

[18][19] After returning to active service in 1893, Friedrich der Grosse embarked on a solo cruise in the Baltic before joining the rest of the fleet later that year.

The following year, Friedrich der Grosse, König Wilhelm, and Deutschland joined the new battleship Brandenburg in the II Division of what had been redesignated as the Maneuver Squadron, under the command of Konteradmiral Otto von Diederichs.

[23][21] The navy considered rebuilding the ship into an armored cruiser along similar lines to the Kaiser-class ironclads to relieve Kaiser in East Asian waters, but the plans came to nothing.