NAVYPEDIA

Ships

Name	No	Yard No	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Comp	Fate
Bremen		135	Weser, Bremen	1902	9.7.1903	19.5.1904	sunk 17.2.1915
Hamburg		258	Vulcan, Stettin	1902	25.7.1903	8.3.1904	accommodation ship 1918-1920, stricken 3.1931
Berlin			KW Danzig	1902	22.9.1903	4.4.1905	hulk 1935
Lübeck		260	Vulcan, Stettin	1903	26.3.1904	26.4.1905	target ship 1917
München		138	Weser, Bremen	1903	30.4.1904	10.1.1905	accommodation ship 1918
Leipzig		143	Weser, Bremen	1904	21.3.1905	20.4.1906	sunk 8.12.1914
Danzig			KW Danzig	1904	23.9.1905	1.2.1907	stricken 11.1919

Technical data

Displacement normal, t	3278 Lübeck: 3265
Displacement full, t	3651 - 3816 Lübeck: 3661
Length, m	110.6 wl 111.1 oa
Breadth, m	13.3
Draught, m	5.38 - 5.60
No of shafts	2
Machinery	2 VTE, 10 Marine boilers Lübeck: 2 Parsons steam turbines, 10 Marine boilers
Power, h. p.	11750 Lübeck: 14400
Max speed, kts	23
Fuel, t	coal 860
Endurance, nm(kts)	Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin: 4270(12) Lübeck: 3800(12) München, Leipzig, Danzig: 4690(12)
Armour, mm	steel / Krupp steel - deck: 35 - 20, slopes: 80 - 50, glacises: 100, CT: 100, shields: 50
Armament	Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin: 10 x 1 - 105/37 SK L/40 C/97, 2 - 450 TT (5, beam) Lübeck, München, Leipzig, Danzig: 10 x 1 - 105/37 SK L/40 C/04, 2 - 450 TT (5, beam)
Complement	288

Standard scale images

Project history

Having hit on a very satisfactory light cruiser design with the Gazelles the German Navy merely enlarged it and gave it more power and speed to produce the Bremens, the first class to adopt the city names which were henceforward to be standard. The main appearance difference was that the new class had three instead of two funnels. They also had a thicker deck. As a very sensible experimental move, Lübeck, otherwise identical to her sisters, was given the first turbine plant used by the German Navy, thus enabling successful comparative trials to be run. In an attempt to convert the high speed of rotation of the turbines to power, the Lübeck was originally fitted with four separate propellers on each shaft, though this number was later cut down to two.

Ship protection

35mm protective deck with 80-50mm slopes protected machinery, outside machine spaces 20mm deck had turtleback form. Engines had 100mm glacises. CT had 100mm sides and 20mm roof, guns had 50mm shields.

Modernizations

1915, Bremen: - 4 x 1 - 105/37; + 2 x 1 - 149/42 SK L/45 C/09

1915, Berlin: + 80 mines

1916, Lübeck: - 4 x 1 - 105/37, 2 - 450 TT; + 2 x 1 - 149/42 SK L/45 C/09, 2 x 1 - 500 TT (4), 50 mines

1916, Berlin, Műnchen: were disarmed

1916, Hamburg: - 4 x 1 - 105/37

1920, Hamburg: was armed with 10 x 1 - 105/42 SK C/06, 2 x 1 - 500 TT

1922, Berlin: was armed with 8 x 1 - 105/42 SK C/06, 2 x 1 - 500 TT, stem was reconstructed (length was 110.6m wl and 113.8m oa)

Naval service

Leipzig was a part of Spee squadron, she was sunk 8.12.1914 off Falklands by artillery of British cruisers Cornwall and Glasgow. Bremen was sunk in Northern Baltic by British submarine E9 (on other data stricken by Russian mines). Remaining ships participated in operations a little as were considered poorly armed and insufficiently fast.