SMS Brandenburg SMS " Brandenburg " was the lead ship of the pre - dreadnought battleship s , which included , , and built for the German Kaiserliche Marine ( Imperial Navy ) in the early 1890s . She was the first pre - dreadnought built for the German Navy ; earlier , the Navy had only built coastal defense ship s and armored frigates . The ship was laid down at the AG Vulcan dockyard in 1890 , launched on 21 September 1891 , and commissioned into the German Navy on 19 November 1893 . " Brandenburg " and her three sisters were unique for their time in that they carried six heavy guns instead of the standard four in other navies . She was named after the Province of Brandenburg . " Brandenburg " saw her first major deployment in 1900 , when she and her three sister ships were deployed to China to suppress the Boxer Rebellion . Upon returning to Germany , " Brandenburg " and her sisters , with the exception of " Wörth " , took part in extensive fleet maneuvers in 1902 . In the early 1900s , all four ships were heavily rebuilt . However , she was obsolete by the start of World War I , and only served in a limited capacity , initially as a coastal defense ship , but primarily as a barracks ship . Following the end of the war , " Brandenburg " was scrapped in Danzig in 1920 . Construction . " Brandenburg " was ordered as battleship " A " , the first ship of her class . She was laid down at Germaniawerft in Kiel in 1890 . Her hull was completed by September 1891 and launched on 21 September . Fitting out work followed and was finished by later 1893 ; the ship was commissioned into the fleet on 19 November 1893 , less than four weeks after her sister " Wörth " , the first vessel in the class to join the fleet . The ship was long , with a beam of and a draft of . " Brandenburg " displaced as designed , and up to at full combat load . She was equipped with two sets of 3 - cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines that produced and a top speed of on trials . Steam was provided by twelve transverse cylindrical boilers . She had a maximum range of at a cruising speed of . " Brandenburg " was armed with a main battery of six 28 cm ( 11 in ) guns of two types . The forward and rear turret guns were 40 calibers long , while the amidships guns were only 35 calibers ; this was necessary to allow them to train to either side of the ship . Her secondary armament initially consisted of seven 10 . 5 cm ( 4 . 1 in ) guns , though an additional gun was added during the modernization in 1901 . She also carried eight 8 . 8 cm ( 3 . 45 in ) guns and six torpedo tubes . Service history . On 16 February 1894 , several steam pipes exploded in the ship . The door between the two engine rooms was open , which allowed the steam to enter both of them . Thirty - nine men were killed in the blast and nine were severely injured . Of these , six later died from their injuries . In June 1895 , the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal was completed ; to celebrate , dozens of warships from 14 different countries gathered in Kiel for a celebration hosted by Kaiser Wilhelm II , including " Brandenburg " and her three sisters . Boxer Rebellion . During the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 , Chinese nationalists laid siege to the foreign embassies in Peking and murdered Baron Clemens von Ketteler , the German minister . The widespread violence against Westerners in China led to a creation of an alliance between Germany and seven other Great Powers : the United Kingdom , Italy , Russia , Austria - Hungary , the United States , France , and Japan . Those soldiers who were in China at the time were too few in number to defeat the Boxers ; in Peking there was a force of slightly more than 400 officers and infantry from the armies of the eight European powers . At the time , the primary German military force in China was the East Asia Squadron , which consisted of the protected cruiser s , , and , the small cruisers and , and the gunboats and . There was also a German 500 - man detachment in Taku ; combined with the other nations ' units the force numbered some 2 , 100 men . These 2 , 100 men , led by the British Admiral Edward Seymour , attempted to reach Peking but due to heavy resistance were forced to stop in Tientsin . As a result , the Kaiser determined an expeditionary force would be sent to China to reinforce the East Asia Squadron . " Hela " was part of the naval expedition , which included the four pre - dreadnought battleship s , sent to China to reinforce the German flotilla there . Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz opposed the plan , which he saw as unnecessary and costly . The force was sent in spite of von Tirpitz ' s objections ; it arrived in China in September 1900 . By that time , the siege of Peking had already been lifted . As a result , the task force suppressed local uprisings around Kiaochow . In the end , the operation cost the German government more than 100 million marks . The force returned to Germany the following year , in 1901 . Fleet training , 1902 . On 31 August 1902 , the annual fleet maneuvers began . The first portion of the exercise positioned Germany in a naval war against a powerful enemy that had superior forces in the North and Baltic Seas . A German squadron , consisting of the coastal defense ship s , , and and a division of torpedo boat s were trapped in the Kattegat by a superior enemy unit in the North Sea . The " German " squadron was tasked with returning to Kiel in the Baltic , where it would return to Wilhelmshaven via the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal to rejoin the rest of the fleet . " Brandenburg " , along with " Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm " and " Weissenburg " and the cruisers , , and , was positioned in one of the three main channels from the Kattegat to Kiel to act as an opposing force . Two other battle squadrons were positioned to block the advance of the isolated " German " squadron . On the morning of 2 September , the operation commenced . At 06 : 00 that morning , the commander of the " German " squadron decided to take his ships through the channel to which " Brandenburg " was assigned . The " hostile " torpedo - boat screen sighted the German flotilla , but a dense fog precluded effective pursuit by the battleships . The fog was so thick that " Brandenburg " and her two sisters had to drop anchor to avoid any unnecessary risks . Later that evening , the three " opponent " forces rendezvoused to pursue the " German " ships . However , the cruiser and the torpedo boat screen was detached to engage the " German " torpedo - boat screen . The lighter ships quickly " destroyed " several of the " German " torpedo boats . This prompted the " German " squadron to retreat northward with the cruisers in pursuit . The German squadron was chased back through the Kattegat before the exercise was called off . On the night of 3 September , the entire fleet anchored off Læsø island to give the crews a rest . The following day , 4 September , the exercise resumed . The German squadron was reinforced by several battleships and the armored cruiser . The German flotilla was ordered to sail into the North Sea and attempt to reach the safety of the island fortress of Helgoland . A short engagement between the hostile screen and " Prinz Heinrich " ensued , during which " Prinz Heinrich " damaged the protected cruiser s and . A torpedo boat attack on the German squadron followed in the early hours of 5 September . The hostile force was unable to prevent the escape of the German squadron , however , which reached Helgoland by 12 : 00 . The fleet anchored off Helgoland on 8 – 11 September . During the day the ships conducted training with steam tactics . On 11 September the ships returned to Wilhelmshaven where on the following two days the ships replenished their coal supplies . On 14 September the final operation of the annual maneuvers began . The situation specified that the naval war had gone badly for Germany ; only four battleships , including " Brandenburg " , , , and " Württemberg " , were still in service . This motley force was augmented by a pair of cruisers and a division of torpedo boats . The ships were to be stationed in the mouth of the Elbe river to protect the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal and access to Hamburg . On 15 September , the " hostile " force blockaded the Elbe , along with other rivers and harbors on the North Sea . The hostile battleship squadron steamed to the mouth of the Elbe , where " Hela " , " Freya " , and the remaining torpedo boats were stationed as lookouts . Nothing happened during the day of 16 September , but that night several German torpedo boats managed to destroy one of the blockading cruisers and badly damage another . The weather began to storm so the operation was postponed until the following day . That morning , the hostile fleet forced its way into the Elbe , past the fortifications at the mouth of the river . The German flotilla made a desperate attack which resulted in the sinking of two of the hostile battleships . The hostile force , however , ultimately overwhelmed the outnumbered German ships and the exercise ended with their victory . Reconstruction and later service . In the early 1900s , the four " Brandenburg " s were taken into the drydocks at the Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven for major reconstruction . " Wörth " was the first vessel of the class to enter drydock in 1901 ; " Brandenburg " didn ' t follow until 1903 . During the modernization , a second conning tower was added in the aft superstructure , along with a gangway . " Brandenburg " and the other ships had their boilers replaced with newer models , and also had the hamper amidships reduced . After emerging from the dry dock after modernization , " Brandenburg " and the other battleships of her class were assigned to the II Battle Squadron of the fleet and replaced the old s and the armored frigates and . The s , which began to enter service in 1906 , replaced " Brandenburg " and her three sister - ships in the battle fleet . " Brandenburg " and " Wörth " were put into reserve , joining the " Siegfried " - class ships . " Brandenburg " s other sisters , " Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm " and " Weissenburg " , were sold to the Ottoman Empire in 1910 . World War I . At the outbreak of World War I , " Brandenburg " was brought out from the " moth ball cemetery " and recommissioned into the fleet . She served with her sister " Wörth " , but due to the age of the ships , this lasted only until 1915 . They were then withdrawn from active service . That year , both ships were put into service as barracks ships ; " Wörth " was stationed in Danzig while " Brandenburg " was placed in Libau . Both " Wörth " and " Brandenburg " were struck from the naval register on 13 May 1919 and sold for scrapping . The two ships were purchased by " Norddeutsche Tiefbauges " , a shipbreaking firm headquartered in Berlin . " Wörth " was then broken up for scrap in Danzig .