SMS Mecklenburg

SMS Mecklenburg

SMS Mecklenburg ("His Majesty's Ship Mecklenburg") was fifth ship of the Wittelsbach class of pre-dreadnought battleships of the German Imperial Navy. Laid down in 1899 at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin, she was finished in May 1903. Her sisters were Wittelsbach, Zähringen, Wettin, and Schwaben; they were the first capital ships built under the Navy Law of 1898, brought about by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz.

Mecklenburg spent the first period of her active duty career in the I Squadron of the German fleet. After the start of World War I in August 1914, the ship was mobilized with her sisters as the IV Battle Squadron. She saw limited duty in the Baltic Sea against Russian forces, though the threat from British submarines forced the ship to withdraw in 1916. For the remainder of her career, Mecklenburg served as a prison ship and as a barracks ship based in Kiel. The ship was stricken from the navy list in January 1920 and sold for scrapping in the following year