After Jutland, "Deutschland" and her three surviving sisters returned to picket duty at the mouth of the Elbe. They were also occasionally transferred for guard duty in the Baltic. The experience at Jutland demonstrated that pre-dreadnoughts had no place in a naval battle with dreadnoughts, and they were thus left behind when the High Seas Fleet sortied again on 18 August. In July, "KzS" Rudolf Bartels replaced Meurer as the ship's captain; he held the position for just a month, before he was in turn replaced by "Deutschland"s final commander, "KzS" Reinhold Schmidt. In late 1916, the ships of II Squadron were removed from the High Seas Fleet. From 22 December 1916 to 16 January 1917, "Deutschland" lay idle in the Bay of Kiel. On 24 January, the ship was taken to Hamburg where she went into the dry-dock for maintenance; this work lasted until 4 April. During this period in the shipyard, "Deutschland" had her forwardmost pair of 8.8 cm guns in the aft superstructure removed and two 8.8 cm guns in anti-aircraft mountings were installed.