SS Bärenfels was a German steam cargo liner that was launched in 1921 for DDG Hansa.

In 1940, she took part in the German invasion of Norway and was sunk by Fleet Air Arm dive bombers.

Bärenfels was the fifth of a series of seven sister ships built for DDG Hansa that started with Altenfels (later renamed Stolzenfels) launched in 1915.

[3] The fourth was a heavy-lift motor ship that was built in 1976 and sold when DDG Hansa went into receivership in 1980.

[5] She worked DDG Hansa's cargo liner route between Germany, the Persian Gulf, India and Burma.

[7] In 1926, JC Tecklenborg introduced the Bauer-Wach system in which a low-pressure steam turbine could be fitted beside a piston engine, driven by exhaust steam from the piston engine's low-pressure cylinder, and drive the same propeller shaft via double-reduction gearing and a Föttinger fluid coupling.

On 14 April 1940, Blackburn Skua aircraft of 800 and 803 squadrons from RNAS Hatston in Orkney attacked German targets in Bergen.

[1][11] Norwegian salvage ships pumped out Bärenfels' engine room, she was raised and on 13 August, she was placed in a floating dock in Bergen.

[1] By April 1944, Bärenfels was defensively armed with four 20mm anti-aircraft guns: one each on her forecastle and poop deck, and two amidships (one each port and starboard).

[1] On 14 April 1944, the Royal Navy X-class submarine X-24 penetrated Bergen harbour to sink the floating dock.