page_title: List of cruisers of Germany
section_title: Armored cruisers
hierarchical_section_title: List of cruisers of Germany / Armored cruisers
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: S.M. Grosser Kreuzer Fürst Bismarck.
context_page_description: Starting in the 1880s, the German Kaiserliche Marine began building a series of cruisers. The first designs—protected and unprotected—were ordered to replace aging sail and steam-powered frigates and corvettes that were of minimal combat value. After several iterations of each type, these cruisers were developed into armored and light cruisers, respectively, over the following decade. All of these ships were built to fill a variety of roles, including scouts for the main battle fleet and colonial cruisers for Germany's overseas empire. The armored cruisers in turn led to the first German battlecruiser, SMS Von der Tann.
  The protected and unprotected cruisers had been withdrawn from active service by the 1910s, though some continued on in secondary roles. Most of the armored and light cruisers saw action in World War I, in all of the major theaters of the conflict. Their service ranged from commerce raiding patrols on the open ocean to the fleet engagements in the North Sea such as the Battle of Jutland.
context_section_description: The first armored cruiser, Fürst Bismarck, was ordered shortly after the Victoria Louise class of protected cruisers. Fürst Bismarck was an improved version of the earlier type, with heavier armament, more extensive armor protection, and a significantly greater size. A further seven units, divided between four different designs, followed over the next ten years; each design provided incremental improvements over earlier vessels. A ninth armored cruiser, Blücher, was a much larger vessel representing an intermediate step between armored cruisers and battlecruisers. Indeed, her design had been influenced by the misinformation Britain had released about its Invincible-class battlecruisers, which were then under construction. Once the characteristics of the new ships were revealed, Germany began building battlecruisers in response.
  Germany's armored cruisers served in a variety of roles, including overseas as flagships of the East Asia Squadron, and in the fleet reconnaissance forces. All of them, save Fürst Bismarck, saw action during World War I in a variety of theaters. Blücher served with the battlecruisers in the I Scouting Group and was sunk at the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1915, and the two Scharnhorst-class cruisers formed the core of Maximilian von Spee's squadron that defeated the British at the Battle of Coronel in November 1914 before being annihilated at the Battle of the Falkland Islands. Yorck was accidentally sunk by a German mine in November 1914 outside Wilhelmshaven, and the two Prinz Adalbert-class cruisers were sunk in the Baltic Sea. Only Prinz Heinrich and Roon survived the war; both were scrapped in the early 1920s.
caption: A lithograph of Fürst Bismarck, Germany's first armored cruiser
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