Nassau-class battleship
SMS Rheinland in 1910
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Nassau |
| Operators: |
 Kaiserliche Marine
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| Preceded by: | Deutschland class |
| Succeeded by: | Helgoland class |
| In commission: | 1909–1919 |
| Planned: | 4 |
| Completed: | |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Battleship |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 146.1 m (479 ft 4 in) |
| Beam: | 26.9 m (88 ft 3 in) |
| Draught: | 8.76 m (28 ft 9 in) |
| Propulsion: | |
| Speed: |
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| Range: | At 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph): 8,300 nmi (15,400 km; 9,600 mi) |
| Boats & landing craft carried: |
10 |
| Complement: |
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| Armament: |
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| Armor: |
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| Notes: |
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The Nassau class were a group of four German dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Navy. They were the German response to the introduction of the "all big gun" British HMS Dreadnought. The class was composed of Nassau, Rheinland, Posen, and Westfalen. All four ships were laid down in mid-1907, and completed between May and September 1910. Compared to their British contemporaries, the Nassau-class ships were lighter and had a wider beam. They were two knots slower, because the German ships retained vertical triple-expansion engines as opposed to the high-power turbine engines adopted by the British. The ships also carried smaller main guns—11-inch (280 mm) guns rather than the 12-inch (305 mm) guns mounted on the British ships.
After their commissioning into the German fleet, all four ships served as a unit: the II Division of I Battle Squadron. Two of the ships, Nassau and Posen, took part in the inconclusive Battle of the Gulf of Riga in 1915, during which they engaged the Russian pre-dreadnought Slava. The Nassau-class ships took part in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916 as the II Battle Squadron; they suffered only a handful of secondary battery hits and limited casualties. At the end of the First World War, the four ships were seized as war prizes by the victorious Allied powers and sold for scrapping.
In 1906, the launch of the "all big gun" HMS Dreadnought made all other battleships then in existence obsolete. The First Naval Amendment to the 1900 German Naval Law was passed in 1906 prior to the launch of Dreadnought; Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz had originally requested six new battleships and six armored cruisers, along with a number of miscellaneous smaller craft. The launch of the revolutionary Dreadnought meant that any future battleships that could compete with her would be significantly more expensive than the older pre-dreadnought battleships. Opposition to budget increases in the Reichstag forced Tirpitz to reduce his request to six armored cruisers—one of which was to have been placed in reserve—and 48 torpedo boats, dropping his request for new battleships completely; the reduced proposal was voted through on 19 May 1906. A week after the amendment was passed, funds for two 18,000-ton battleships and a 15,000-ton armored cruiser were allocated to the Navy. Funds were also provided to widen the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal and enlarge dock facilities to accommodate the larger ships.
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