page_title: SMS Kaiser Wilhelm II
section_title: Design
hierarchical_section_title: SMS Kaiser Wilhelm II / Design
caption_attribution_description: English: Diagrams depicting right elevation and plan of German battleship Kaiser Friedrich III class
context_page_description: SMS Kaiser Wilhelm II was the second ship of the Kaiser Friedrich III class of pre-dreadnought battleships. She was built at the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven and launched on 14 September 1897. The ship was commissioned into the fleet as its flagship on 13 February 1900. Kaiser Wilhelm II was armed with a main battery of four 24-centimeter guns in two twin turrets. She was powered by triple expansion engines that delivered a top speed of 17.5 knots.
  Kaiser Wilhelm II served as the flagship of the Active Battle Fleet until 1906, participating in numerous fleet training exercises and visits to foreign ports. She was replaced as flagship by the new battleship SMS Deutschland. After the new dreadnought battleships began entering service in 1908, Kaiser Wilhelm II was decommissioned and put into reserve. She was reactivated in 1910 for training ship duties in the Baltic, but was again taken out of service in 1912.
  With the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Kaiser Wilhelm II and her sisters were brought back into active duty as coastal defense ships in V Battle Squadron.
context_section_description: After the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) ordered the four Brandenburg-class battleships in 1889, a combination of budgetary constraints, opposition in the Reichstag (Imperial Diet), and a lack of a coherent fleet plan delayed the acquisition of further battleships. The former Secretary of the Reichsmarineamt (Imperial Navy Office), Leo von Caprivi became the Chancellor of Germany in 1890, and Vizeadmiral (Vice Admiral) Friedrich von Hollmann became the new Secretary of the Reichsmarineamt. Hollmann requested the first Kaiser Friedrich III-class battleship in 1892, but the Franco-Russian Alliance, signed the year before, put the government's attention on expanding the Army's budget. Parliamentary opposition forced Hollmann to delay until the following year, when Caprivi spoke in favor of the project, noting that Russia's recent naval expansion threatened Germany's Baltic Sea coastline. In late 1893, Hollmann presented the Navy's estimates for the 1894–1895 budget year, and now the Reichstag approved the new ship. A second member of the class, Kaiser Wilhelm II, was delayed until early 1896, when the Reichstag approved the ship for the 1896–1897 budget.
  Kaiser Wilhelm II was 125.3 m (411 ft 1.07 in) long overall and had a beam of 20.4 m (66 ft 11.15 in). Her draft was 7.89 m (25 ft 10.63 in) forward and 8.25 m (27 ft 0.80 in) aft. She displaced 11,097 t (10,922 long tons) as designed and up to 11,785 t (11,599 long tons) at full load. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines that drove three screw propellers. Steam was provided by four marine-type and eight cylindrical water-tube boilers, all of which burned coal. Kaiser Wilhelm II's powerplant was rated at 12,822 indicated horsepower (9,561 kW), which generated a top speed of 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph). She had a cruising radius of 3,420 nmi (6,330 km; 3,940 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). She had a normal crew of 39 officers and 612 enlisted men; while serving as the fleet flagship, she carried an additional admiral's staff of 12 officers and 51–63 enlisted men.
  The ship's armament consisted of a main battery of four 24 cm (9.45 in) SK L/40 guns in twin gun turrets, one fore and one aft of the central superstructure. Her secondary armament consisted of eighteen 15 cm (5.91 inch) SK L/40 guns and twelve 8.8 cm (3.46 in) SK L/30 quick-firing guns mounted in casemates. She also carried twelve 3.7 cm (1.5 in) machine cannon, but these were later removed. The armament suite was rounded out with six 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes, one of which was placed in an above-water swivel mount at the stern, with four submerged on the broadside and one submerged in the bow. The ship's belt armor was 300 mm (11.81 in) thick, and the main armor deck was 65 mm (2.56 in) thick. The conning tower and main battery turrets were protected with 250 mm (9.84 in) of armor plating, and the secondary casemates received 150 mm (5.91 in) of armor protection.
caption: Line-drawing of the Kaiser Friedrich III class
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