SMS Brandenburg
Encyclopedia
SMS Brandenburg was the lead ship of the Brandenburg-class
pre-dreadnought
battleship
s, which included , , and built for the German Kaiserliche Marine
(Imperial Navy) in the early 1890s. She was the first pre-dreadnought built for the German Navy; earlier, the Navy had only built coastal defense ships and armored frigates. The ship was laid down at the AG Vulcan dockyard in 1890, launched on 21 September 1891, and commissioned into the German Navy on 19 November 1893. Brandenburg and her three sisters were unique for their time in that they carried six heavy guns instead of the standard four in other navies. She was named after the Province of Brandenburg
.
Brandenburg saw her first major deployment in 1900, when she and her three sister ship
s were deployed to China to suppress the Boxer Rebellion
. Upon returning to Germany, Brandenburg and her sisters, with the exception of Wörth, took part in extensive fleet maneuvers in 1902. In the early 1900s, all four ships were heavily rebuilt. However, she was obsolete by the start of World War I, and only served in a limited capacity, initially as a coastal defense ship, but primarily as a barracks ship. Following the end of the war, Brandenburg was scrapped in Danzig in 1920.
in 1890. Her hull was completed by September 1891 and launched on 21 September. Fitting out work followed and was finished by later 1893; the ship was commissioned into the fleet on 19 November 1893, less than four weeks after her sister Wörth, the first vessel in the class to join the fleet.
The ship was 115.7 metre long, with a beam
of 19.5 metre and a draft of 7.6 metre. Brandenburg displaced 10013 t (9,855 LT) as designed, and up to 10670 t (10,501 LT) at full combat load. She was equipped with two sets of 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines that produced 10000 ihp and a top speed of 16.9 knots on trials. Steam was provided by twelve transverse cylindrical boiler
s. She had a maximum range of 4300 nautical miles (7,963.6 km) at a cruising speed of 10 knots.
Brandenburg was armed with a main battery of six 28 cm (11 in) guns of two types. The forward and rear turret guns were 40 caliber
s long, while the amidships guns were only 35 calibers; this was necessary to allow them to train to either side of the ship. Her secondary armament initially consisted of seven 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns, though an additional gun was added during the modernization in 1901. She also carried eight 8.8 cm (3.45 in) guns and six 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes.
for a celebration hosted by Kaiser Wilhelm II, including Brandenburg and her three sisters.
in 1900, Chinese nationalists laid siege to the foreign embassies in Peking and murdered Baron Clemens von Ketteler, the German minister. The widespread violence against Westerners in China led to a creation of an alliance between Germany and seven other Great Powers: the United Kingdom, Italy, Russia, Austria-Hungary, the United States, France, and Japan. Those soldiers who were in China at the time were too few in number to defeat the Boxers; in Peking there was a force of slightly more than 400 officers and infantry from the armies of the eight European powers. At the time, the primary German military force in China was the East Asia Squadron
, which consisted of the protected cruiser
s , , and , the small cruisers and , and the gunboats and . There was also a German 500-man detachment in Taku; combined with the other nations' units the force numbered some 2,100 men.
These 2,100 men, led by the British Admiral Edward Seymour
, attempted to reach Peking but due to heavy resistance were forced to stop in Tientsin. As a result, the Kaiser determined an expeditionary force would be sent to China to reinforce the East Asia Squadron. Hela was part of the naval expedition, which included the four pre-dreadnought battleships, sent to China to reinforce the German flotilla there. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz
opposed the plan, which he saw as unnecessary and costly. The force was sent in spite of von Tirpitz's objections; it arrived in China in September 1900. By that time, the siege of Peking had already been lifted. As a result, the task force suppressed local uprisings around Kiaochow. In the end, the operation cost the German government more than 100 million marks. The force returned to Germany the following year, in 1901.
s were trapped in the Kattegat
by a superior enemy unit in the North Sea. The "German" squadron was tasked with returning to Kiel
in the Baltic, where it would return to Wilhelmshaven
via the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal
to rejoin the rest of the fleet. Brandenburg, along with Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm and Weißenburg and the cruisers , , and , was positioned in one of the three main channels from the Kattegat to Kiel to act as an opposing force
. Two other battle squadrons were positioned to block the advance of the isolated "German" squadron.
On the morning of 2 September, the operation commenced. At 06:00 that morning, the commander of the "German" squadron decided to take his ships through the channel to which Brandenburg was assigned. The "hostile" torpedo-boat screen sighted the German flotilla, but a dense fog precluded effective pursuit by the battleships. The fog was so thick that Brandenburg and her two sisters had to drop anchor to avoid any unnecessary risks. Later that evening, the three "opponent" forces rendezvoused to pursue the "German" ships. However, the cruiser and the torpedo boat screen was detached to engage the "German" torpedo-boat screen. The lighter ships quickly "destroyed" several of the "German" torpedo boats. This prompted the "German" squadron to retreat northward with the cruisers in pursuit. The German squadron was chased back through the Kattegat before the exercise was called off. On the night of 3 September, the entire fleet anchored off Læsø
island to give the crews a rest.
The following day, 4 September, the exercise resumed. The German squadron was reinforced by several battleships and the armored cruiser
. The German flotilla was ordered to sail into the North Sea and attempt to reach the safety of the island fortress of Helgoland. A short engagement between the hostile screen and Prinz Heinrich ensued, during which Prinz Heinrich damaged the protected cruiser
s and . A torpedo boat attack on the German squadron followed in the early hours of 5 September. The hostile force was unable to prevent the escape of the German squadron, however, which reached Helgoland by 12:00.
The fleet anchored off Helgoland on 8–11 September. During the day the ships conducted training with steam tactics. On 11 September the ships returned to Wilhelmshaven where on the following two days the ships replenished their coal supplies. On 14 September the final operation of the annual maneuvers began. The situation specified that the naval war had gone badly for Germany; only four battleships, including Brandenburg, , , and Württemberg, were still in service. This motley force was augmented by a pair of cruisers and a division of torpedo boats. The ships were to be stationed in the mouth of the Elbe river to protect the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal and access to Hamburg
. On 15 September, the "hostile" force blockaded the Elbe, along with other rivers and harbors on the North Sea. The hostile battleship squadron steamed to the mouth of the Elbe, where Hela, Freya, and the remaining torpedo boats were stationed as lookouts. Nothing happened during the day of 16 September, but that night several German torpedo boats managed to destroy one of the blockading cruisers and badly damage another. The weather began to storm so the operation was postponed until the following day. That morning, the hostile fleet forced its way into the Elbe, past the fortifications at the mouth of the river. The German flotilla made a desperate attack which resulted in the sinking of two of the hostile battleships. The hostile force, however, ultimately overwhelmed the outnumbered German ships and the exercise ended with their victory.
In the early 1900s, the four Brandenburgs were taken into the drydocks at the Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven for major reconstruction. Wörth was the first vessel of the class to enter drydock in 1901; Brandenburg didn't follow until 1903. During the modernization, a second conning tower was added in the aft superstructure, along with a gangway. Brandenburg and the other ships had their boilers replaced with newer models, and also had the hamper amidships reduced.
After emerging from the dry dock after modernization, Brandenburg and the other battleships of her class were assigned to the II Battle Squadron of the fleet and replaced the old s and the armored frigates and . The s, which began to enter service in 1906, replaced Brandenburg and her three sister-ships in the battle fleet. Brandenburg and Wörth were put into reserve, joining the Siegfried class ships. Brandenburgs other sisters, Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm and Weißenburg, were sold to the Ottoman Empire in 1910.
. Both Wörth and Brandenburg were struck from the naval register on 13 May 1919 and sold for scrapping. The two ships were purchased by Norddeutsche Tiefbauges, a shipbreaking firm headquartered in Berlin. Wörth was then broken up for scrap in Danzig.
Brandenburg class battleship
The four Brandenburg-class pre-dreadnought battleships were Germany's first ocean-going battleships. They were also the first German warship, of any type, to be fitted with wireless communications. The class comprised , , , and . All were laid down in 1890 and completed by 1893, except for...
pre-dreadnought
Pre-dreadnought
Pre-dreadnought battleship is the general term for all of the types of sea-going battleships built between the mid-1890s and 1905. Pre-dreadnoughts replaced the ironclad warships of the 1870s and 1880s...
battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
s, which included , , and built for the German Kaiserliche Marine
Kaiserliche Marine
The Imperial German Navy was the German Navy created at the time of the formation of the German Empire. It existed between 1871 and 1919, growing out of the small Prussian Navy and Norddeutsche Bundesmarine, which primarily had the mission of coastal defense. Kaiser Wilhelm II greatly expanded...
(Imperial Navy) in the early 1890s. She was the first pre-dreadnought built for the German Navy; earlier, the Navy had only built coastal defense ships and armored frigates. The ship was laid down at the AG Vulcan dockyard in 1890, launched on 21 September 1891, and commissioned into the German Navy on 19 November 1893. Brandenburg and her three sisters were unique for their time in that they carried six heavy guns instead of the standard four in other navies. She was named after the Province of Brandenburg
Province of Brandenburg
The Province of Brandenburg was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946.-History:The first people who are known to have inhabited Brandenburg were the Suevi. They were succeeded by the Slavonians, whom Henry II conquered and converted to Christianity in...
.
Brandenburg saw her first major deployment in 1900, when she and her three sister ship
Sister ship
A sister ship is a ship of the same class as, or of virtually identical design to, another ship. Such vessels share a near-identical hull and superstructure layout, similar displacement, and roughly comparable features and equipment...
s were deployed to China to suppress the Boxer Rebellion
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...
. Upon returning to Germany, Brandenburg and her sisters, with the exception of Wörth, took part in extensive fleet maneuvers in 1902. In the early 1900s, all four ships were heavily rebuilt. However, she was obsolete by the start of World War I, and only served in a limited capacity, initially as a coastal defense ship, but primarily as a barracks ship. Following the end of the war, Brandenburg was scrapped in Danzig in 1920.
Construction
Brandenburg was ordered as battleship A, the first ship of her class. She was laid down at Germaniawerft in KielKiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
in 1890. Her hull was completed by September 1891 and launched on 21 September. Fitting out work followed and was finished by later 1893; the ship was commissioned into the fleet on 19 November 1893, less than four weeks after her sister Wörth, the first vessel in the class to join the fleet.
The ship was 115.7 metre long, with a beam
Beam (nautical)
The beam of a ship is its width at the widest point. Generally speaking, the wider the beam of a ship , the more initial stability it has, at expense of reserve stability in the event of a capsize, where more energy is required to right the vessel from its inverted position...
of 19.5 metre and a draft of 7.6 metre. Brandenburg displaced 10013 t (9,855 LT) as designed, and up to 10670 t (10,501 LT) at full combat load. She was equipped with two sets of 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines that produced 10000 ihp and a top speed of 16.9 knots on trials. Steam was provided by twelve transverse cylindrical boiler
Boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications.-Materials:...
s. She had a maximum range of 4300 nautical miles (7,963.6 km) at a cruising speed of 10 knots.
Brandenburg was armed with a main battery of six 28 cm (11 in) guns of two types. The forward and rear turret guns were 40 caliber
Caliber (artillery)
In artillery, caliber or calibredifference in British English and American English spelling is the internal diameter of a gun barrel, or by extension a relative measure of the length....
s long, while the amidships guns were only 35 calibers; this was necessary to allow them to train to either side of the ship. Her secondary armament initially consisted of seven 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns, though an additional gun was added during the modernization in 1901. She also carried eight 8.8 cm (3.45 in) guns and six 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes.
Service history
On 16 February 1894, several steam pipes exploded in the ship. The door between the two engine rooms was open, which allowed the steam to enter both of them. Thirty-nine men were killed in the blast and nine were severely injured. Of these, six later died from their injuries. In June 1895, the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal was completed; to celebrate, dozens of warships from 14 different countries gathered in KielKiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
for a celebration hosted by Kaiser Wilhelm II, including Brandenburg and her three sisters.
Boxer Rebellion
During the Boxer RebellionBoxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...
in 1900, Chinese nationalists laid siege to the foreign embassies in Peking and murdered Baron Clemens von Ketteler, the German minister. The widespread violence against Westerners in China led to a creation of an alliance between Germany and seven other Great Powers: the United Kingdom, Italy, Russia, Austria-Hungary, the United States, France, and Japan. Those soldiers who were in China at the time were too few in number to defeat the Boxers; in Peking there was a force of slightly more than 400 officers and infantry from the armies of the eight European powers. At the time, the primary German military force in China was the East Asia Squadron
German East Asia Squadron
The German East Asia Squadron was a German Navy cruiser squadron which operated mainly in the Pacific Ocean between the 1870s and 1914...
, which consisted of the protected cruiser
Protected cruiser
The protected cruiser is a type of naval cruiser of the late 19th century, so known because its armoured deck offered protection for vital machine spaces from shrapnel caused by exploding shells above...
s , , and , the small cruisers and , and the gunboats and . There was also a German 500-man detachment in Taku; combined with the other nations' units the force numbered some 2,100 men.
These 2,100 men, led by the British Admiral Edward Seymour
Edward Hobart Seymour
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Edward Hobart Seymour, GCB, OM, GCVO , was a Royal Navy officer who became Commander-in-Chief, China Station.- Early life :...
, attempted to reach Peking but due to heavy resistance were forced to stop in Tientsin. As a result, the Kaiser determined an expeditionary force would be sent to China to reinforce the East Asia Squadron. Hela was part of the naval expedition, which included the four pre-dreadnought battleships, sent to China to reinforce the German flotilla there. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz
Alfred von Tirpitz
Alfred von Tirpitz was a German Admiral, Secretary of State of the German Imperial Naval Office, the powerful administrative branch of the German Imperial Navy from 1897 until 1916. Prussia never had a major navy, nor did the other German states before the German Empire was formed in 1871...
opposed the plan, which he saw as unnecessary and costly. The force was sent in spite of von Tirpitz's objections; it arrived in China in September 1900. By that time, the siege of Peking had already been lifted. As a result, the task force suppressed local uprisings around Kiaochow. In the end, the operation cost the German government more than 100 million marks. The force returned to Germany the following year, in 1901.
Fleet training, 1902
On 31 August 1902, the annual fleet maneuvers began. The first portion of the exercise positioned Germany in a naval war against a powerful enemy that had superior forces in the North and Baltic Seas. A German squadron, consisting of the coastal defense ships , , and and a division of torpedo boatTorpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval vessel designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and...
s were trapped in the Kattegat
Kattegat
The Kattegat , or Kattegatt is a sea area bounded by the Jutland peninsula and the Straits islands of Denmark on the west and south, and the provinces of Västergötland, Scania, Halland and Bohuslän in Sweden on the east. The Baltic Sea drains into the Kattegat through the Øresund and the Danish...
by a superior enemy unit in the North Sea. The "German" squadron was tasked with returning to Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
in the Baltic, where it would return to Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea.-History:...
via the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal
Kiel Canal
The Kiel Canal , known as the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal until 1948, is a long canal in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.The canal links the North Sea at Brunsbüttel to the Baltic Sea at Kiel-Holtenau. An average of is saved by using the Kiel Canal instead of going around the Jutland Peninsula....
to rejoin the rest of the fleet. Brandenburg, along with Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm and Weißenburg and the cruisers , , and , was positioned in one of the three main channels from the Kattegat to Kiel to act as an opposing force
Opposing force
An opposing force or enemy force is a military unit tasked with representing an enemy, usually for training purposes in war game scenarios...
. Two other battle squadrons were positioned to block the advance of the isolated "German" squadron.
On the morning of 2 September, the operation commenced. At 06:00 that morning, the commander of the "German" squadron decided to take his ships through the channel to which Brandenburg was assigned. The "hostile" torpedo-boat screen sighted the German flotilla, but a dense fog precluded effective pursuit by the battleships. The fog was so thick that Brandenburg and her two sisters had to drop anchor to avoid any unnecessary risks. Later that evening, the three "opponent" forces rendezvoused to pursue the "German" ships. However, the cruiser and the torpedo boat screen was detached to engage the "German" torpedo-boat screen. The lighter ships quickly "destroyed" several of the "German" torpedo boats. This prompted the "German" squadron to retreat northward with the cruisers in pursuit. The German squadron was chased back through the Kattegat before the exercise was called off. On the night of 3 September, the entire fleet anchored off Læsø
Læsø
Læsø is the largest island in the North Sea bay of Kattegat, and is located off the northeast coast of the Jutland Peninsula, the Danish mainland. Læsø is also the name of the municipality on that island...
island to give the crews a rest.
The following day, 4 September, the exercise resumed. The German squadron was reinforced by several battleships and the armored cruiser
Armored cruiser
The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Like other types of cruiser, the armored cruiser was a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship, and fast enough to outrun any battleships it encountered.The first...
. The German flotilla was ordered to sail into the North Sea and attempt to reach the safety of the island fortress of Helgoland. A short engagement between the hostile screen and Prinz Heinrich ensued, during which Prinz Heinrich damaged the protected cruiser
Protected cruiser
The protected cruiser is a type of naval cruiser of the late 19th century, so known because its armoured deck offered protection for vital machine spaces from shrapnel caused by exploding shells above...
s and . A torpedo boat attack on the German squadron followed in the early hours of 5 September. The hostile force was unable to prevent the escape of the German squadron, however, which reached Helgoland by 12:00.
The fleet anchored off Helgoland on 8–11 September. During the day the ships conducted training with steam tactics. On 11 September the ships returned to Wilhelmshaven where on the following two days the ships replenished their coal supplies. On 14 September the final operation of the annual maneuvers began. The situation specified that the naval war had gone badly for Germany; only four battleships, including Brandenburg, , , and Württemberg, were still in service. This motley force was augmented by a pair of cruisers and a division of torpedo boats. The ships were to be stationed in the mouth of the Elbe river to protect the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal and access to Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
. On 15 September, the "hostile" force blockaded the Elbe, along with other rivers and harbors on the North Sea. The hostile battleship squadron steamed to the mouth of the Elbe, where Hela, Freya, and the remaining torpedo boats were stationed as lookouts. Nothing happened during the day of 16 September, but that night several German torpedo boats managed to destroy one of the blockading cruisers and badly damage another. The weather began to storm so the operation was postponed until the following day. That morning, the hostile fleet forced its way into the Elbe, past the fortifications at the mouth of the river. The German flotilla made a desperate attack which resulted in the sinking of two of the hostile battleships. The hostile force, however, ultimately overwhelmed the outnumbered German ships and the exercise ended with their victory.
Reconstruction and later service
After emerging from the dry dock after modernization, Brandenburg and the other battleships of her class were assigned to the II Battle Squadron of the fleet and replaced the old s and the armored frigates and . The s, which began to enter service in 1906, replaced Brandenburg and her three sister-ships in the battle fleet. Brandenburg and Wörth were put into reserve, joining the Siegfried class ships. Brandenburgs other sisters, Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm and Weißenburg, were sold to the Ottoman Empire in 1910.
World War I
At the outbreak of World War I, Brandenburg was brought out from the "moth ball cemetery" and recommissioned into the fleet. She served with her sister Wörth, but due to the age of the ships, this lasted only until 1915. They were then withdrawn from active service. That year, both ships were put into service as barracks ships; Wörth was stationed in Danzig while Brandenburg was placed in LibauLiepaja
Liepāja ; ), is a republican city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea directly at 21°E. It is the largest city in the Kurzeme Region of Latvia, the third largest city in Latvia after Riga and Daugavpils and an important ice-free port...
. Both Wörth and Brandenburg were struck from the naval register on 13 May 1919 and sold for scrapping. The two ships were purchased by Norddeutsche Tiefbauges, a shipbreaking firm headquartered in Berlin. Wörth was then broken up for scrap in Danzig.