SMS Wittelsbach

SMS Wittelsbach

SMS Wittelsbach ("His Majesty's Ship Wittelsbach") was the lead ship of the Wittelsbach class of pre-dreadnought battleships of the Kaiserliche Marine. Wittelsbach was built at Wilhelmshaven Navy Dockyard. She was laid down in 1899 and completed in October 1902, at the cost of 22,740,000 marks. Wittelsbach was the first capital ship built under the Navy Law of 1898, brought about by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz.

The ship served in the I Squadron of the German fleet for the majority of her career. Wittelsbach was rapidly superseded by new "all-big-gun" warships, and as a result served for less than eight years before being decommissioned on 20 September 1910. After the start of World War I in August 1914, Wittelsbach was brought back to active duty in the IV Battle Squadron. The ship saw limited duty in the Baltic Sea against Russian forces, though the threat from British submarines forced the ship to withdraw by 1916. The ship then saw service in a number of auxiliary roles, ultimately as a tender for minesweepers after 1919. In July 1921, however, the ship was sold and broken up for scrap metal.