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SMS Nassau was the first dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial German Navy, in response to the launching of the British battleship HMS Dreadnought. Nassau was laid down in 1907 at the Imperial Shipyard in Wilhelmshaven and launched on 7 March 1908. Three more battleships followed in the same class: Posen, Rheinland, and Westfalen. Assigned to the First Battle Squadron of the German High Seas Fleet, Nassau saw service in the North Sea in the beginning of World War I. In August 1915 the ship engaged the Russian battleship Slava in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in the eastern Baltic Sea. Nassau took part in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916, suffering a total of 11 killed and 16 injured. After World War I, the bulk of the High Seas Fleet was interned in Scapa Flow, but the Nassau-class ships, the oldest German dreadnoughts, were initially permitted to remain in German ports. After the German fleet was scuttled, Nassau and her sister ships were surrendered to the victorious powers as replacements for the sunken ships. Nassau was ceded to Japan, then sold to a British wrecking firm for scrapping. (Full article...)