SMS Hertha - Service History

Service History

Hertha served as a colonial cruiser after she was completed, starting in 1899. After arriving on the East Asia station, she temporarily served as the flagship of Vice Admiral Felix von Bendemann, the commander of the East Asia Squadron, which included the cruisers Hansa, Gefion, Irene, and Kaiserin Augusta. After the new armored cruiser Fürst Bismarck reached the Asia station, she relieved Hertha as the Squadron flagship.

As part of the East Asia Squadron during the Boxer Rebellion, the ship made a noteworthy contribution in the Battle of the Taku Forts. In June 1900, Hertha, along with Hansa, Gefion, and Irene landed detachments of Seebataillone (marines) to seize the Taku Forts. The marines joined detachments sent from warships of several other countries. A total of around 450 German troops were contributed to the multi-national force, which totaled around 2,200 officers and men. During the attack on the forts, Hertha's commanding officer was shot and killed. In September, Hertha carried Alfred von Waldersee to Shanghai, arriving on the 21st, where he took command of the international forces suppressing the rebellion.

Hertha was detached from the East Asia Squadron and returned to Germany in 1905. In 1906, she went to dry dock at the Imperial Dockyard in Danzig for a refit, during which she was re-boilered. Hertha originally had three stacks, and during the modernization they were trunked into two funnels. The refit was finished by 1908, at which point Hertha became a cadet training ship; several prominent naval officers trained aboard the ship during this period. In September–October 1909, Hertha Victoria Louise, Dresden, and Bremen traveled to the United States to represent Germany during the Hudson-Fulton Celebration.

In 1910, Karl Dönitz, the future commander of the Kriegsmarine during the Second World War, served as a cadet on Hertha for a year. The ship cruised in the western Mediterranean in the autumn of 1912, along with her sister Vineta. The old cruiser Geier was also in the region. The future commander of the battleship Bismarck, Ernst Lindemann, served aboard the ship as a cadet in 1913. The ship conducted a training cruise in the Baltic and North Seas in late May to early July, stopping in a number of foreign ports, including Stockholm, Visby, and Bergen. The ship then embarked on a seven month training cruise into the Atlantic Ocean; during the voyage, Hertha called on numerous ports, including Vera Cruz, Mexico, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Kingston, Jamaica, and Halifax, Canada. The cruise lasted from mid-August 1913 to mid-March 1914.

Hertha had a short career during World War I. At the outbreak of hostilities, she was briefly mobilized into the 5th Scouting Group, which was tasked with training cadets in the Baltic Sea. By the end of 1914, however, the ships were again removed from service. She was then put into service as a coastal defense ship. After 1915, she was withdrawn from front-line duty again and employed as a barracks ship for the seaplane base in Flensburg. She was stricken from the naval register on 6 December 1919 and sold to ship-breakers in Audorf-Rendsburg. She was scrapped the following year.