SMS Deutschland ( 1904 ) SMS " Deutschland " was the first of five pre - dreadnought battleship s built for the Kaiserliche Marine between 1903 and 1906 . She was named after the German name for Germany , and built at the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel , where she was launched on 20 November 1904 . She was commissioned on 3 August 1906 , only a few months before was commissioned , the first of a revolutionary new standard of " all - big - gun " battleships which rendered " Deutschland " and the rest of her class obsolete . She served as the flagship of Prince Heinrich until 1913 . With the outbreak of World War I in mid - 1914 , " Deutschland " and her sisters were tasked with defending the mouth of the Elbe and the German Bight from possible British incursions while the rest of the fleet was being mobilized . " Deutschland " and the other four ships of her class were then attached to the High Seas Fleet as the II Battle Squadron ; the unit participated in most of the large - scale fleet actions in the first two years of war , culminating in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916 . Late on the first day of the battle , " Deutschland " and the other pre - dreadnoughts briefly engaged several British battlecruiser s before retreating . After the battle , " Deutschland " and her three surviving sisters were assigned to coastal defense duties . By 1917 , they had been withdrawn from combat service completely and tasked with auxiliary roles . " Deutschland " was used as a barracks ship in Wilhelmshaven until the end of the war . She was struck from the naval register on 25 January 1920 , sold to ship breakers that year , and broken up for scrap by 1922 . Her bow ornament is preserved at the Eckernförde underwater weapons school and her bell is on display at the Mausoleum of Prince Heinrich on the Hemmelmark estate . Construction . " Deutschland " was the second naval vessel to bear the name , after ( an armored frigate ) , and was intended to fight in the German battle line with the other battleships of the Imperial German Navy . She was laid down on 20 July 1903 at the Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel , and launched on 19 November 1904 . Her trials lasted from 3 August 1906 until September . The British battleship — armed with ten 12 inch ( 30 . 5 cm ) guns — was commissioned in December 1906 . " Dreadnought " s revolutionary design rendered every capital ship of the German navy obsolete , including " Deutschland " . " Deutschland " was long , had a beam of , and a draft of . She had a full - load displacement of and was equipped with coal - fired triple expansion engines that produced a rated and gave her a top speed of . At a cruising speed of , she could steam for . " Deutschland " s primary armament consisted of four SK L / 40 guns in two twin turrets . She was also equipped with fourteen guns mounted in casemates , twenty guns in pivot mounts , and six torpedo tube s were submerged in the hull . Service history . On 26 September 1906 the ship officially joined the fleet , when Admiral Prince Heinrich made her his flagship . She was tactically assigned to the II Battle Squadron , though as the fleet flagship she was not subordinate to the Squadron commander . She took part in training exercises in the North Sea in December 1906 before returning to Kiel . On 16 February 1907 , the fleet was renamed the High Seas Fleet . Fleet maneuvers in the North Sea followed in early 1907 and again in May – June . A cruise to Norway followed the fleet training in June . After returning from Norway , " Deutschland " went to Swinemünde . Another round of fleet training followed in September 1907 . In November , she was taken into drydock for an annual refit . " Deutschland " participated in fleet maneuvers in February 1908 in the Baltic Sea ; in May – June training was conducted off the island fortress of Helgoland in the North Sea . In July 1908 , " Deutschland " and the rest of the fleet sailed into the Atlantic Ocean to conduct training there . During the cruise , " Deutschland " stopped at Funchal and Santa Cruz de Tenerife . The fleet returned to Germany on 13 August . The following month another set of training maneuvers was conducted in the Baltic and North Seas , with a winter cruise into the Baltic afterward . The following year — 1909 — followed much the same pattern . Another cruise into the Atlantic was conducted from 7 July to 1 August , during which " Deutschland " stopped in Bilbao . After another round of exercises , " Deutschland " went in for another periodic overhaul . During the refit , she was given additional pedestal - mounted search lights , as well as becoming the first ship in the German navy to be equipped with an X - ray machine . In May 1910 , the fleet conducted training maneuvers in the Kattegat , between Norway and Denmark . The annual summer cruise went to Norway , and was followed by fleet training . In November , " Deutschland " hosted Kaiser Wilhelm II during the celebration of the opening of the Naval Academy at Mürwik . A training cruise into the Baltic followed at the end of the year . The next two years followed the same pattern of training exercises and cruises to Norway in the summer , with the exception of 1912 when , due to the Agadir Crisis , the cruise only went into the Baltic . In September , following maneuvers , " Deutschland " was partially grounded in the Baltic . The damage necessitated dry - docking , and repairs were completed by November . In January 1913 , the new dreadnought battleship replaced " Deutschland " as the flagship of the fleet . The golden bow ornament that denoted the flagship was removed , and " Deutschland " returned to the ranks of the II Battle Squadron . World War I . At the outbreak of war , the ship was deployed to the mouth of the Elbe to guard the area . " Deutschland " remained with the High Seas Fleet in the II Battle Squadron for the first two years of the war . While her sisters covered the raid on the English coast on 15 – 16 December , " Deutschland " remained on picket duty in the mouth of the Elbe . On 21 February 1915 , " Deutschland " went into dock in Kiel , where work lasted until 12 March . Afterward , " Deutschland " returned to the Elbe for guard duty . On 21 September the ship went to the Baltic for training , which was completed by 11 October , after which she went into the dockyard in Kiel again for maintenance . " Deutschland " went to the AG Vulcan drydock in Hamburg for additional work from 27 February to 1 April 1916 . After returning to the fleet , " Deutschland " was made the flagship of the II Battle Squadron under the command of Admiral Franz Mauve . On 24 – 25 April 1916 , " Deutschland " and her four sisters joined the dreadnoughts of the High Seas Fleet to support the battlecruisers of the I Scouting Group on a raid of the English coast . While en route to the target , the battlecruiser was damaged by a mine ; she was detached to return home while the operation proceeded . The battlecruisers conducted a short bombardment of the ports of Yarmouth and Lowestoft . Visibility was poor , and the operation was called off before the British fleet could intervene . On 4 May , " Deutschland " took part in a sortie against British ships off Horns Reef , without result . Battle of Jutland . Admiral Scheer immediately planned another foray into the North Sea , but the damage to " Seydlitz " delayed the operation until the end of May . " Deutschland " was the first ship in the III Division of the II Battle Squadron and the flagship of Rear Admiral Franz Mauve . The II Battle Squadron , with the weakest battleships involved in the battle , was positioned at the rear of the German line . During the " Run to the North , " Admiral Reinhard Scheer , the commander of the fleet , ordered the fleet to pursue the retreating battleships of the British V Battle Squadron at top speed . " Deutschland " and her sisters were significantly slower than the dreadnoughts , and quickly fell behind . By 19 : 30 , the Grand Fleet had arrived on the scene and confronted Admiral Scheer with significant numerical superiority . The German fleet was severely hampered by the presence of the slower " Deutschland " - class ships ; if Scheer ordered an immediate turn towards Germany , he would have to sacrifice the slower ships to make good his escape . Admiral Scheer reversed the course of the fleet via the " Gefechtskehrtwendung " ( ' battle turn ' ) , a maneuver that required every unit in the German line to turn 180° simultaneously . Having fallen behind , the ships of the II Battle Squadron could not conform to the new course following the turn . " Deutschland " and the other five ships of the squadron were therefore on the disengaged side of the German line . Admiral Mauve considered moving his ships to the rear of the line , astern of the III Battle Squadron dreadnoughts , but decided against it when he realized the movement would interfere with the maneuvering of Admiral Franz von Hipper ' s battlecruisers . Instead , he attempted to place his ships at the head of the line . Later on the first day of the battle , the hard - pressed battlecruisers of the I Scouting Group were being pursued by their British opponents . " Deutschland " and the other so - called " five - minute ships " came to their aid by steaming between the opposing battlecruiser squadrons . Poor visibility made the subsequent engagement brief . " Deutschland " fired only one round from her 28 cm guns during this period . Admiral Mauve decided it would be inadvisable to continue the fight against the much more powerful battlecruisers , and so ordered an 8 - point turn to starboard . Late on the 31st , the fleet organized for the night march back to Germany ; " Deutschland " , " Pommern " , and " Hannover " fell in behind and the other dreadnoughts of the III Battle Squadron towards the rear of the line . British destroyers conducted a series of attacks against the fleet , some of which targeted " Deutschland " . In the melee , " Deutschland " and " König " turned away from the attacking destroyers , but could not make out targets clearly enough to engage them effectively . Soon after , " Pommern " was struck by at least one torpedo and exploded . Fragments of the ship rained down around " Deutschland " . Regardless , the High Seas Fleet punched through the British destroyer forces and reached Horns Reef by 4 : 00 on 1 June . The German fleet reached Wilhelmshaven a few hours later , where the undamaged dreadnoughts of the and es took up defensive positions . Later career . After Jutland , " Deutschland " and her sisters returned to picket duty in the mouth of the Elbe . They were also occasionally transferred for guard duty in the Baltic . From 22 December 1916 to 16 January 1917 , " Deutschland " lay idle in the Bay of Kiel . On 24 January , the ship was taken to Hamburg where she went into the drydock for maintenance ; this work lasted until 4 April . " Deutschland " sailed out of the Altenbruch roads at the mouth of the Elbe and then to the Baltic for continued guard duty . On 15 August , the II Battle Squadron was disbanded ; two weeks later , on 31 August , " Deutschland " arrived in Kiel and was decommissioned on 10 September . " Deutschland " had her guns removed in Kiel before she was transferred to Wilhelmshaven to serve as a barracks ship . On 25 January 1920 the ship was struck from the naval register and sold for scrapping , which was complete by 1922 . The ship ' s bow ornament is on display at the Eckernförde underwater weapons school and her bell is located in the mausoleum of Prince Heinrich at the Hemmelmark estate .