Kaiser Barbarossa served with the German navy from her commissioning in 1901, though her active career was limited by two lengthy stays in dry dock.

Following the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Kaiser Barbarossa and her sisters were mobilized as coastal defense ships in V Battle Squadron and assigned to the North and Baltic Seas.

Hollmann requested the first Kaiser Friedrich III-class pre-dreadnought battleship in 1892, but the Franco-Russian Alliance, signed the year before, put the government's attention on expanding the Army's budget.

Parliamentary opposition forced Hollmann to delay until the following year, when Caprivi spoke in favor of the project, noting that Russia's recent naval expansion threatened Germany's Baltic Sea coastline.

In June 1897, Hollmann was replaced by Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Alfred von Tirpitz, who quickly proposed and secured approval for the first Naval Law in early 1898.

Kaiser Barbarossa's powerplant was rated at 13,000 metric horsepower (12,820 ihp; 9,560 kW), which generated a top speed of 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph).

Her secondary armament consisted of eighteen 15 cm (5.9 inch) SK L/40 guns carried in a mix of turrets and casemates.

[2] Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Emperor of Germany, believed that a strong navy was necessary for the country to expand its influence outside continental Europe.

The then-Vizeadmiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the State Secretary of the Reichsmarineamt, gave the launching speech, and the new battleship was christened by Princess Luise Sofie of Prussia, Wilhelm II's sister-in-law.

While in the Danzig Bay, the fleet conducted a naval review for the visiting Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, whose wife Alexandra was Wilhelm's cousin.

The ships then took part in another training cruise to Norway in July and then the autumn maneuvers, which began in the Baltic and concluded in the North Sea with a fleet review in the Jade.

[7] During the exercise, which lasted from 17 August to 18 September, Kaiser Barbarossa and the rest of I Squadron were assigned to play the roles of both the German fleet and hostile forces.

The ship suffered some damage to her rudder, which necessitated temporary repairs at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Kiel from the end of July to 21 August.

[5] By that time, the new dreadnought battleships, which rendered Kaiser Barbarossa and her sister ships thoroughly obsolete, were beginning to come into service with the fleet.

She was reactivated to participate in the autumn maneuvers that year in the provisional III Squadron; after the conclusion of the exercises on 10 September, she was placed back in reserve.

[16] As a result of the outbreak of World War I, Kaiser Barbarossa and her sisters were brought out of reserve and mobilized as V Battle Squadron on 5 August 1914.

Instead, V Squadron was to carry the landing force, but this too was cancelled after Heinrich received false reports of British warships having entered the Baltic on 25 September.

[18] Kaiser Barbarossa and her sisters returned to Kiel the following day, disembarked the landing force, and then proceeded to the North Sea, where they resumed guard ship duties.

Shortages of trained crews in the High Seas Fleet, coupled with the risk of operating older ships in wartime, necessitated the deactivation of Kaiser Barbarossa and her sisters.

Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which formally ended the war and was signed on 28 June 1919, Germany was permitted to retain only six battleships of the "Deutschland or Lothringen types".