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.

The origin of the Sachsen class of ironclad corvettes traces back to the fleet plan of 1861 approved for the Prussian Navy.

The plan called for the construction of four small ironclads that had a shallow-enough draft to allow them to operate in the Baltic Sea, where larger armored frigates would be unable to maneuver.

These ships were never built, owing to a combination of budgetary limitations, technical inexperience in Prussian shipyards, and other factors.

After the Franco-Prussian war, General Albrecht von Stosch became the Chief of the Imperial Admiralty; he immediately set about drafting a new fleet plan, based on the most recent program that had been approved in 1867.

[1][2] Stosch saw the role of the navy as primarily defensive; a fleet of ironclad warships would be kept in German waters to defend the coast.

Stosch's fleet plan, finalized in 1873, called for a total of eight ocean-going ironclads and six smaller, armored corvettes.

The quota for sea-going vessels was met by the Kaiser class, while only one armored corvette had been laid down by that point: SMS Hansa.

[1] The new ships were intended to operate in the Baltic Sea as a primary component of an integrated coastal defense system proposed by Stosch.

[3] Stosch envisioned using the smaller Wespe class of armored gunboats to support them, though these proved to be disappointments in service.

The vessels were designed to operate in coastal areas, which required a shallow draft in order for them to be able to enter any port on the Baltic seaboard.

They also required a heavy armament and think armor plate, in order for them to be able to engage any hostile ironclad on equal terms.

Because Stosch envisioned only local deployments for the vessels, they did not need a high top speed or a long cruising radius.

The designers adopted the basic format of the British breastwork monitors, but rather than employing the heavy gun turrets used in those vessels, the Germans opted for lighter open barbette mountings.

Blame for the ships' design was unfairly attributed to Stosch, however, as he had recognized that he lacked the necessary technical expertise and deferred to advice from senior naval commanders.

There was considerable disagreement in the naval command structure, in part owing to the transition from wooden-hulled sailing ships to iron-hulled steamships.

[6] The German navy regarded the ships as poor sea boats, with severe rolling, and a tendency to take on water.

[8] The four Sachsen-class ships were the first large, armored warships built for the German navy that relied entirely on engines for propulsion.

[10] The Sachsen-class ships were armed with a main battery of six 26 cm (10.2 in) L/22 guns mounted in two armored barbettes, one forward and one amidships.

[9] The ships were more heavily rebuilt in the late 1890s; their engines were replaced and the boilers were ducted into a single large funnel.

[9] Bayern was actually the first ship to be laid down; work on her keel began in 1874 at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Dockyard) in Kiel, under construction number 3.

[15] One of the primary causes for the great disparity in build times was that after Sachsen experienced difficulties in her initial sea trials, work on the other three ships was halted while AG Vulcan implemented changes to correct the problems.

AG Vulcan was an established commercial shipbuilder, while the Imperial Dockyards were recently founded and still lacked experience in large warship construction.

[17] Among the problems associated with the Sachsen-class ships was a tendency to roll dangerously due to their flat bottoms, which greatly reduced the accuracy of their guns.

[20] The poor performance of the sortie corvettes, coupled with the rise of the Jeune École, led Leo von Caprivi to abandon capital ship construction in favor of torpedo boats.

[23] In the late 1890s, all four of the ships were extensively reconstructed; their secondary armament was modernized and their propulsion systems were rebuilt with new machinery, which increased their speed.