Bremen - class cruiser The " Bremen " class was a group of seven light cruiser s built for the Imperial German Navy in the early 1900s . The seven ships , , , , , , , and , were an improvement upon the previous . They were significantly larger than the earlier class , and were faster and better armored . Like the " Gazelles " , they were armed with a main battery of ten 10 . 5 cm SK L / 40 guns and a pair of torpedo tubes . The ships of the " Bremen " class served in a variety of roles , from overseas cruiser to fleet scout to training ship . " Bremen " and " Leipzig " were deployed to the American and Asian stations , respectively , while the other five ships remained in German waters with the High Seas Fleet . At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , " Leipzig " was in the Pacific Ocean in the East Asia Squadron ; she saw action at the Battle of Coronel in November and was sunk a month later at the Battle of the Falkland Islands . " Bremen " was sunk by a Russian mine in December 1915 , but the other five ships of the class survived the war . Three of the surviving ships , " Lübeck " , " München " , and " Danzig " , were seized by Britain as war prize s after the end of the war and sold for scrapping . The other two ships , " Hamburg " and " Berlin " , were used as training cruisers through the 1920s . They were converted into barracks ship s in the mid - 1930s , a role they filled for a decade ; in 1944 , " Berlin " was sunk by British bombers and later broken up for scrap , while " Hamburg " was scuttled in deep water after the end of World War II to dispose of a load of chemical weapons . Design . The 1898 Naval Law authorized the construction of 30 new light cruiser s by 1904 ; the filled the requirements for the first ten vessels . The design for the " Bremen " class was an improved version of the preceding " Gazelle " class , the improvements chiefly being in size and speed . To accommodate the more powerful propulsion system , a third funnel was added . The armored deck was also thickened significantly . The fourth ship of the class , " Lübeck " , was fitted with steam turbines , so the quality of turbine engines could be compared with otherwise identical vessels . The " Bremen " class was followed by the " Königsberg " class , which was very similar to the " Bremen " s , including the same armament . And like the " Bremen " s , one ship of the class , , was equipped with turbine engines while the rest had traditional triple - expansion engine . General characteristics . The " Bremen " - class ships were long at the waterline and long overall . They had a beam of and a draft of forward . They displaced as designed and between at full combat load . The ships ' hulls were constructed with transverse and longitudinal steel frames , and incorporated twelve watertight compartments . The hulls also had a double bottom that ran for 56 percent of the length of the hull . All seven ships were good sea boats , but they were crank and rolled up to twenty degrees . They were also very wet at high speeds and suffered from a slight weather helm . Nevertheless , the ships turned tightly and were very maneuverable . In a hard turn , their speed fell up to 35 percent . They had a transverse metacentric height of . The ships had a standard crew of fourteen officers and between 274 and 287 enlisted men , though later in their careers , these figures increased to 19 and 330 , respectively . The " Bremen " - class ships carried a number of smaller boats , including one picket boat , one pinnace , two cutters , two yawls , and one dinghy . Machinery . With the exception of " Lübeck " , the ships ' propulsion system consisted of two triple - expansion engines , designed to give for a top speed of . " Lübeck " was instead fitted with a pair of Parsons steam turbines , rated at and a top speed of , though all seven ships exceeded these speeds on trials . All seven ships had ten coal - fired Marine - type water - tube boilers , which were trunked into three funnels amidships . The ships carried up to of coal , which gave the first three ships a range of at ; " Lübeck " s less efficient turbine engines cut her cruising radius to , while the last three ships of the class had a longer range , at . " Bremen " and " Hamburg " had three generators that produced a total output of 111 kilowatts at 110 volts ; the rest of the ships had two generators rated at 90 kilowatts at the same voltage . Armament and armor . The ships of the class were armed with ten 10 . 5 cm SK L / 40 guns in single mounts . Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle , six were located amidships , three on either side , and two were placed side by side aft . The guns could engage targets out to . They were supplied with 1 , 500 rounds of ammunition , for 150 shells per gun . Later in their careers , " Bremen " and " Lübeck " had two 15 cm SK L / 45 guns installed in place of the two forward and two rear 10 . 5 cm guns . They retained the six broadside 10 . 5 cm guns . All seven ships were also equipped with two torpedo tube s with five torpedo es . These tubes were submerged in the hull on the broadside . " Lübeck " later had a pair of torpedo tubes installed in deck mounts , with four torpedoes . Armor protection for the members of the class consisted of two layers of steel with one layer of Krupp armor . The ships were protected by an armored deck that was up to thick . Sloped armor thick gave some measure of vertical protection , coupled with the coal bunkers . The conning tower had thick sides and a thick roof . The ships ' guns were protected by 50 mm thick shields . Construction . The seven ships of the " Bremen " class were built between 1902 and 1907 , at various German dockyards , including private firms and government shipyards . Service history . The ships of the " Bremen " class served in a variety of roles throughout their careers . " Bremen " and " Leipzig " served abroad from 1905 to 1914 ; the former returned to Germany shortly before the outbreak of World War I , and the latter remained with the East Asia Squadron . " Hamburg " , " Berlin " , " Lübeck " , and " Danzig " served in the reconnaissance forces of the High Seas Fleet after they entered service . " München " meanwhile was used as a torpedo test ship during her pre - war service . All seven of the ships saw action during the First World War , though only " Bremen " and " Leipzig " was lost during the conflict . " Danzig " was present during the Battle of Heligoland Bight in August 1914 , but did not directly engage the British ships . She did , however , rescue survivors from the sinking cruiser . " Hamburg " was present for the raid on Scarborough , Hartlepool and Whitby in December 1914 , where she briefly encountered — but did not engage — British light forces . Only one ship , " München " , saw action at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916 , where she was hit by five medium - caliber shells and moderately damaged . Three of the ships , " Bremen " , " Lübeck " , and " Danzig " , saw action against Imperial Russian forces in the Baltic Sea during the war , including during the assault on Libau and the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in 1915 and during Operation Albion in 1917 . " Bremen " struck Russian mines in December 1915 and sank with the majority of her crew going down with her . " Leipzig " , still overseas at the start of the war , saw action at the Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands in late 1914 . At the former , she engaged the British cruiser , and at the latter , was sunk by " Glasgow " and . " Berlin " was withdrawn from service in 1916 and disarmed . " München " was badly damaged by a British mine in October 1916 , and thereafter decommissioned for use as a barracks ship . " Hamburg " was also used as barracks ship later in the war , and " Leipzig " became a training ship in 1917 . " Danzig " was the last ship to leave active service , in late 1917 . Of the five surviving ships , " Berlin " and " Hamburg " were retained by the newly reorganized " Reichsmarine " as training ships . The remaining three , " Lübeck " , " München " , and " Danzig " , were surrendered as war prize s to the United Kingdom , which sold them for scrapping in the early 1920s . " Hamburg " and " Berlin " soldiered on as training cruisers into the late 1920s and early 1930s ; by the mid - 1930s , they had again been converted into floating barracks . " Hamburg " was sunk by British bombers in 1944 , and later raised and broken up for scrap in 1949 . " Berlin " survived World War II and was loaded with chemical weapons and scuttled in the Skaggerak after the war to dispose of the munitions .