page_title: List of coastal defense ships of Germany
section_title: Odin class
hierarchical_section_title: List of coastal defense ships of Germany / Odin class
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: S.M. Küstenpanzerschiff Ägir English: S.M. Küstenpanzerschiff Ägir, lithograph by Hugo Graf
context_page_description: In the 1880s, Germany built a series of coastal defense ships to protect its coastline on the North and Baltic Seas. During the 1870s and early 1880s, the Imperial German Navy had built a number of ironclad warships of various designs. In the mid-1880s, however, dissatisfaction with the Sachsen-class ironclads and the rise of the Jeune École doctrine persuaded Leo von Caprivi, then the chief of the Imperial Navy to turn away from capital ship construction in favor of coastal defense ships and torpedo boats. As a result, the next class of large warships, the Siegfried class, was significantly smaller than the earlier ironclads, and armed with a main battery of only three large-caliber guns. These vessels were intended only for defense of German harbors. Six of them were built between 1888 and 1894. Another two ships of the Odin class were built to a modified design between 1892 and 1896.
  All eight of the ships were heavily modernized between 1898 and 1904; the reconstruction included lengthening the ships and equipping them with new boilers.
context_section_description: The Odin class, the seventh and eighth of Caprivi's proposed ten coastal defenders, was a modified version of the Siegfried design; the primary differences were a slightly improved armor layout, a second funnel, and two military masts. In 1888, before the two Odins were laid down, Caprivi's successor, Vice Admiral Alexander von Monts, ordered the construction of the four large battleships of the Brandenburg class, to replace what would have been two more Odin-class coastal defense ships; this marked the end of Germany's coastal battleship program.
  The two Odin-class ships were also rebuilt, in 1901–1904, and received the same modifications as the Siegfried-class vessels. Their service histories were largely identical to the Siegfrieds; they served with the fleet from their commissioning, and were mobilized at the outbreak of war in August 1914 before being relegated to secondary duties in August 1915. Both ships were rebuilt as merchantmen after the end of the war; Odin served in this capacity until she was scrapped in 1935, while Ägir's career was cut short when she ran aground off the Swedish island of Gotland in December 1929.
caption: Painting of SMS Ägir in 1902
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