SMS Braunschweig

SMS Braunschweig

SMS Braunschweig was the first of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the Braunschweig class in the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy). She was laid down in 1901 and commissioned in October 1904, at a cost of 23,983,000 marks. She was named after the then Duchy of Brunswick (German: Braunschweig). Her sister ships were Elsass, Hessen, Preussen, and Lothringen.

The ship served in the II Squadron of the German fleet after commissioning, though by the outbreak of World War I she had been moved to the IV Squadron. Braunschweig saw action in the Baltic Sea against the Russian Navy. In August 1915, the ship participated in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga, during which she engaged the Russian battleship Slava. In 1916, the ship was placed in reserve owing to crew shortages. She spent the remainder of World War I as a training ship, and after 1917, as a barracks ship for U-boat crews.

Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, she was retained after the end of the war and modernized in 1921–22. Braunschweig served in the reformed Reichsmarine as a coastal defense ship until 1926, when she was again placed in reserve. She was stricken in 1931 and subsequently broken up for scrap.