page_title: Kriegsmarine
section_title: Destroyers
hierarchical_section_title: Kriegsmarine / Ships / Surface ships / Destroyers
context_page_description: The Kriegsmarine was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire and the inter-war Reichsmarine of the Weimar Republic. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches, along with the Heer and the Luftwaffe of the Wehrmacht, the German armed forces from 1933 to 1945.
  In violation of the Treaty of Versailles, the Kriegsmarine grew rapidly during German naval rearmament in the 1930s. The 1919 treaty had limited the size of the German navy and prohibited the building of submarines.
  Kriegsmarine ships were deployed to the waters around Spain during the Spanish Civil War under the guise of enforcing non-intervention, but in reality supported the Nationalists against the Spanish Republicans.
  In January 1939, Plan Z was ordered, calling for surface naval parity with the British Royal Navy by 1944. When World War II broke out in September 1939, Plan Z was shelved in favour of a crash building program for submarines instead of capital surface warships and land and air forces were given priority of strategic resources.
context_section_description: Although the German World War II destroyer (Zerstörer) fleet was modern and the ships were larger than conventional destroyers of other navies, they had problems. Early classes were unstable, wet in heavy weather, suffered from engine problems and had short range. Some problems were solved with the evolution of later designs, but further developments were curtailed by the war and, ultimately, by Germany's defeat. In the first year of World War II, they were used mainly to sow offensive minefields in shipping lanes close to the British coast.
caption: Destroyer Z1 Leberecht Maass
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