Wittelsbach-class battleship
Lithograph of Zähringen in 1902
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| Class overview | |
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| Operators: |
 Kaiserliche Marine
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| Preceded by: | Kaiser Friedrich III class |
| Succeeded by: | Braunschweig class |
| Planned: | 5 |
| Completed: | 5 |
| Lost: | 1 |
| Scrapped: | 4 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | pre-dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement: | 12,798 t (12,596 long tons) |
| Length: | 126.8 m (416 ft 0 in) |
| Beam: | 22.8 m (74 ft 10 in) |
| Draft: | 7.95 m (26 ft 1 in) |
| Installed power: | 14,000 PS (13,808 ihp; 10,297 kW) |
| Propulsion: | 3 shafts, triple expansion steam engines |
| Speed: | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Range: | 5,000 nautical miles (9,300 km; 5,800 mi); 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement: |
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| Armament: |
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| Armor: |
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The Wittelsbach-class battleships were a group of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the Imperial German Navy. They were the first battleships produced under the Navy Law of 1898. The class was composed of the lead ship, Wettin, Zähringen, Schwaben, and Mecklenburg. All five ships were laid down between 1899 and 1900, and finished by 1904. The ships of the Wittelsbach class were similar in appearance to their predecessors of the Kaiser Friedrich III class, however, they had a flush main deck, as opposed to the lower quarterdeck of the Kaiser Friedrich class, and had a more extensive armor belt. Their armament was almost identical, though more efficiently arranged.
The ships were commissioned into the German fleet between 1902 and 1904, where they joined the I Squadron of the battle fleet. They were rapidly made obsolete by the launch of HMS Dreadnought in 1906. By the outbreak of World War I in 1914, they were no longer fit for front-line service, though they saw some limited duty in the Baltic Sea against the Russian Navy. In 1916 the five ships were disarmed and employed in secondary roles. Wittelsbach, Wettin, and Schwaben became training ships, Mecklenburg was used as a prison ship and later as a floating barracks, and Zähringen became a target ship. All of the ships save Zähringen were broken up in 1921–22. Zähringen was rebuilt as a radio-controlled target ship in the mid-1920s. During World War II, she was badly damaged in a bombing raid in 1944 and scuttled in the final days of the war. She was eventually broken up in situ in 1949–50.
The ships of the Wittelsbach class were the first battleships built under the first Naval Law of 1898, and they were designed by Prof. Dr. Dietrich, then the chief constructor. The ships represented an incremental improvement over the preceding Kaiser Friedrich III class. Although Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Emil Felix von Bendemann had argued for an increase in the main battery from the 24-centimeter (9.4 in) guns of the Kaiser Friedrich III class to more powerful 28 cm (11 in) guns, the Wittelsbach-class ships were equipped with the same armament of 24 cm guns, but were given an additional torpedo tube. They also had improved defensive capabilities, as they were protected by a more extensive armored belt. Additionally, they received more powerful engines and were slightly faster. They also differed from the preceding ships in their main deck, the entire length of which was flush; in the Kaiser Friedrich III-class ships, the quarterdeck was cut down.
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