The ship was also present during Operation Albion in the Baltic Sea in September and October 1917, and at the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917.

The German 1909 construction program included the last two members of the Helgoland-class battleships, along with two additional dreadnoughts to be built to a new design.

The space savings of turbines permitted a more efficient superfiring arrangement of the main battery, along the same model as the Moltke-class battlecruisers.

[5] The hull was completed by 22 March 1911, when the ship was launched; this date was specifically chosen, as it was the birthday of Kaiser (Emperor) Wilhelm I.

His grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II, attended the launching ceremony,[6] where German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg gave a speech while Kaiserin (Empress) Augusta Victoria christened the ship.

The three ships sailed south around Cape Horn and then north to Valparaiso, Chile, arriving on 2 April and remaining for over a week.

On 16 May the ships left Rio de Janeiro for the Atlantic leg of the journey; they stopped in Cape Verde, Madeira, and Vigo, Spain while en route to Germany.

[9] Kaiser joined the High Seas Fleet for its annual summer cruise to Norway in July 1914,[9] about two weeks after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo.

As a result of rising international tensions, the cruise was cut short and the German fleet was back in Wilhelmshaven by 29 July.

[12] On the evening of 15 December, the German battle fleet of some twelve dreadnoughts—including Kaiser and her four sisters—and eight pre-dreadnoughts came to within 10 nmi (19 km; 12 mi) of an isolated squadron of six British battleships.

Under orders from Kaiser Wilhelm II to avoid risking the fleet unnecessarily, Ingenohl broke off the engagement and turned the battlefleet back toward Germany.

[13] Following the loss of SMS Blücher at the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915, the Kaiser removed Ingenohl from his post on 2 February.

The battlecruisers conducted another raid on the English coast on 24–25 April, during which Kaiser and the rest of the fleet provided distant support.

He had initially intended to launch the operation in mid-May, by which time the mine damage to Seydlitz was scheduled to be repaired—Scheer was unwilling to embark on a major raid without his battlecruiser forces at full strength.

[18] The plan called for Hipper's battlecruisers to steam north to the Skagerrak, with the intention of luring out a portion of the British fleet so it could be destroyed by Scheer's waiting battleships.

[19] Kaiser and the rest of III Battle Squadron were the leading unit of the High Seas Fleet; the four König-class battleships led the line.

The opposing ships began an artillery duel that saw the destruction of Indefatigable, shortly after 17:00,[21] and Queen Mary, less than half an hour later.

[22] 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.

[27] The British destroyers Nestor and Nomad, which had been disabled earlier in the engagement, lay directly in the path of the advancing High Seas Fleet.

In 1917, the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare was reinstated; the surface units of the German navy were therefore tasked with covering the departures and arrivals of the U-boats.

The Admiralstab (the Navy High Command) planned an operation to seize the Baltic island of Ösel, and specifically the Russian gun batteries on the Sworbe peninsula.

[49] On 18 September, the order was issued for a joint operation with the army to capture Ösel and Moon islands; the primary naval component was organized into a Special Unit, which comprised the flagship, Moltke, along with IV Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet.

[50] Opposing the Germans were the old Russian pre-dreadnoughts Slava and Tsesarevich, the armored cruisers Bayan, Admiral Makarov, and Diana, 26 destroyers, and several torpedo boats and gunboats.

Two days later, on the morning of 12 October, Kaiser, joined by her sisters Kaiserin and Prinzregent Luitpold, opened fire on the Russian shore batteries at Cape Hundsort.

[52] The two ships briefly engaged the battlecruiser Repulse, but neither side scored any hits[55] and the German commander failed to press the attack.

In order to retain a better bargaining position for Germany, Admirals Hipper and Scheer intended to inflict as much damage as possible on the British navy, whatever the cost to the fleet.

[59] Following the capitulation of Germany in November 1918, most of their fleet ships were interned in the British naval base in Scapa Flow under the command of Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter.

[59] Prior to the departure of the German fleet, Admiral Adolf von Trotha made clear to Reuter that he could not allow the Allies to seize the ships, under any conditions.

[60] A copy of The Times informed Reuter that the Armistice was to expire at noon on 21 June 1919, the deadline by which Germany was to have signed the peace treaty.

[e] On the morning of 21 June, the British fleet left Scapa Flow to conduct training maneuvers, and at 11:20 Reuter transmitted the order to his ships.