page_title: Deutschland-class cruiser
section_title: Deutschland
hierarchical_section_title: Deutschland-class cruiser / Ships in class / Deutschland
caption_attribution_description: English: The German heavy cruiser DEUTSCHLAND (later re-named “Lützow”). One of three heavy cruisers of the Deutschland Class (sister ships ADMIRAL SCHEER and ADMIRAL GRAF SPEE). Deutschland was built by the Deutsche Werke shipyard at Kiel, being laid down on 5 February 1929. She was launched on 19 May 1931 and commissioned on 1 April 1933. Following the scuttling of the ADMIRAL GRAF SPEE in the River Plate estuary on 17 December 1939, Hitler ordered the DEUTSCHLAND to be renamed LUTZOW, to avoid the possibility of the loss of a ship bearing the symbolic name of Germany. She was scuttled on 4 May 1945 at Swinemunde after suffering heavy damage from near misses from 'Tallboy' bombs dropped by the RAF. The ship was raised by the Soviets and sunk during weapon tests in 1947.
context_page_description: The Deutschland class was a series of three Panzerschiffe, a form of heavily armed cruiser, built by the Reichsmarine officially in accordance with restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. The ships of the class, Deutschland, Admiral Scheer and Admiral Graf Spee, were all stated to displace 10,000 long tons in accordance with the Treaty, though they actually displaced 10,600 to 12,340 long tons at standard displacement. Despite violating the weight limit, the design for the ships incorporated several radical innovations to save weight. They were the first major warships to use welding and all-diesel propulsion. Due to their heavy armament of six 28 cm guns and lighter weight, the British began referring to the vessels as "pocket battleships". The Deutschland-class ships were initially classified as Panzerschiffe but the Kriegsmarine reclassified them as heavy cruisers in February 1940.
  The three ships were built between 1929 and 1936 by the Deutsche Werke in Kiel and the Reichsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven, seeing much service with the German Navy. All three vessels served on non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War.
context_section_description: Deutschland saw significant action with the Kriegsmarine, including several non-intervention patrols, during which she was attacked by Republican bombers. At the outbreak of World War II, she was cruising the North Atlantic, prepared to attack Allied merchant traffic. Bad weather hampered her efforts, and she sank or captured only three vessels before returning to Germany, after which she was renamed Lützow. She then participated in Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway. Damaged at the Battle of Drøbak Sound, she was recalled to Germany for repairs. While en route, she was torpedoed by a British submarine and seriously damaged.
  Repairs were completed by March 1941, and in June Lützow steamed to Norway. While en route, she was torpedoed by a British bomber, necessitating significant repairs that lasted until May 1942. She returned to Norway to join the forces arrayed against Allied shipping to the Soviet Union. She ran aground during a planned attack on convoy PQ 17, which necessitated another return to Germany for repairs. She next saw action at the Battle of the Barents Sea with the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, which ended with a failure to destroy the convoy JW 51B. Engine problems forced a series of repairs culminating in a complete overhaul at the end of 1943, after which the ship remained in the Baltic. Sunk in the Kaiserfahrt in April 1945 by Royal Air Force (RAF) bombers, Lützow was used as a gun battery to support German troops fighting the Soviet Army until 4 May 1945, when she was disabled by her crew. Raised by the Soviet Navy in 1947, she was reportedly broken up for scrap over the next two years, according to Western works that did not have access to Soviet documents at the time. The historian Hans Georg Prager examined the former Soviet archives in the early 2000s, and discovered that Lützow actually had been sunk in weapons tests in July 1947.
caption: Deutschland in 1936
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