Brandenburg-class battleship

SMS Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm
Class overview
Operators	Imperial German Navy  Ottoman Navy  Turkish Navy
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Kaiser Friedrich III class
Built	1890–1894
In commission	1893–1933
Completed	4
Lost	1
Scrapped	3
General characteristics
Type	Pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement	Normal: 10,013 t (9,855 long tons) Full load: 10,670 t (10,500 long tons)
Length	115.7 m (379 ft 7 in) loa
Beam	19.5 m (64 ft)
Draft	7.6 to 7.9 m (24 ft 11 in to 25 ft 11 in)
Installed power	10,000 PS (9,900 ihp) 12 × Scotch marine boilers
Propulsion	2 × screw propellers 2 × triple-expansion steam engines
Speed	16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph)
Range	4,500 nmi (8,300 km; 5,200 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	38 officers 530 enlisted men
Armament	4 × 28 cm (11 in) MRK L/40 guns 2 × 28 cm MRK L/35 guns 6 × 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/35 QF guns 8 × 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/30 QF guns 6 × 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes
Armor	Belt: 300 to 400 mm (11.8 to 15.7 in) Barbettes: 300 mm (11.8 in) Deck: 60 mm (2.4 in) Conning tower: 300 mm

The Brandenburg class consisted of four pre-dreadnought battleships built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), the first modern battleships of the fleet. The four ships of the class—Brandenburg, Wörth, Weissenburg, and Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm—were the first ocean-going capital ships built for the German fleet in nearly two decades, owing to reluctance in the Reichstag (Imperial Diet) to fund large projects. They followed a series of small coastal defense ships, and though in retrospect they anticipated the buildup that created the High Seas Fleet, they were ordered as part of a construction program that reflected the strategic and tactical confusion that affected many navies in the 1880s. The design process that resulted in the Brandenburg class was very lengthy, with proposals that ranged from outdated casemate ships to versions with two twin-gun turrets placed side by side. The designers ultimately settled on ships that were armed with an unusual main battery of six 28 cm (11 in) guns at a time when all foreign battleships were built with four or fewer heavy guns.

All four ships served with I Squadron of the German fleet for the first several years of their careers, with Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm the squadron flagship. During this period, they conducted routine training exercises and visited foreign countries, frequently in company with Kaiser Wilhelm II aboard his yacht. In 1900, they were deployed to China to help combat the Boxer Uprising, but they arrived after the bulk of the fighting was over and thus saw little action there. After returning to Germany they were modernized beginning in 1902, thereafter resuming their peacetime activities. Brandenburg and Wörth remained in service with the German fleet until 1912, when they were laid up. In 1910, Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm and Weissenburg were sold to the Ottoman Navy and were renamed Barbaros Hayreddin and Turgut Reis. The now-Ottoman ships saw extensive service during the First Balkan War, providing fire support to Ottoman ground forces fighting in Thrace, as well as engaging the Greek fleet at the Battles of Elli and Lemnos in December 1912 and January 1913, respectively.

Following the outbreak of World War I, the German ships were reactivated for use as guard ships protecting the German North Sea coast. The Ottoman vessels meanwhile were used to support the fortresses guarding the Dardanelles during the Dardanelles campaign against British and French forces. Barbaros Hayreddin was torpedoed and sunk by the British submarine HMS E11 in April 1915, though the other members of the class survived the war. Brandenburg and Wörth were disarmed and reduced to secondary duties, eventually being broken up in 1919, while Turgut Reis lingered on as a training ship until 1933. She became a barracks ship until 1950 when she was sold for scrap, and was slowly dismantled over the following decade.