Starting in the 1880s, the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) began building a series of cruisers. The first designs—protected and unprotected—were ordered to replace aging sail and steam-powered frigates and corvettes that were of minimal combat value. After several iterations of each type, these cruisers were developed into armored and light cruisers, respectively, over the following decade. They were built to fill a variety of roles, including scouts for the main battle fleet and colonial cruisers for Germany's overseas empire. The armored cruisers in turn led to the first German battlecruiser, SMS Von der Tann.

The protected and unprotected cruisers had been withdrawn from active service by the 1910s, though some continued in secondary roles. Most of the armored and light cruisers saw action in World War I, in all of the major theaters of the conflict. Their service ranged from commerce raiding patrols on the open ocean to the fleet engagements in the North Sea such as the Battle of Jutland. Many were sunk in the course of the war, and the majority of the remainder were either seized as war prizes by the victorious Allies, scuttled by their crews in Scapa Flow in 1919, or broken up for scrap. The Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to surrender most of its remaining vessels. Only six old pre-dreadnought battleships and six old light cruisers could be kept on active duty. These ships could be replaced when they reached twenty years of age, and the cruisers were limited to a displacement of 6,000 metric tons (5,900 long tons; 6,600 short tons).^[1]

In the 1920s, Germany began a modest program to rebuild its fleet, now renamed the Reichsmarine. It began with the new light cruiser, Emden, in 1921, followed by five more light cruisers and three new heavy cruisers, the Deutschland class. A further five heavy cruisers—the Admiral Hipper class—were ordered in the mid-1930s, though only the first three were completed. At the same time, the German navy was renamed the Kriegsmarine. Plan Z, a more ambitious reconstruction program that called for twelve P-class cruisers, was approved in early 1939 but was cancelled before the end of the year following the outbreak of World War II. Of the six heavy cruisers and six light cruisers that were finished, only two survived the war. One, Prinz Eugen, was sunk following nuclear weapons tests during Operation Crossroads in 1946; the other, Nürnberg, saw service in the Soviet Navy until she was scrapped around 1960.^{[lower-alpha 1]}

Starting in the mid-1880s, the German Navy began to modernize its cruising force, which at that time relied on a mixed collection of sail and steam frigates and corvettes. General Leo von Caprivi, then the Chief of the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), ordered several new warships, including two Irene-class cruisers laid down in 1886, the first protected cruisers to be built in Germany.^[2] Design work on their successor, Kaiserin Augusta, began the following year, though she was not laid down until 1890. Five more ships of the Victoria Louise class followed in the mid-1890s. These ships, the last protected cruisers built in Germany, provided the basis for the armored cruisers that were built starting at the end of the decade.^[3] All of these ships were intended to serve both as fleet scouts and overseas cruisers, since Germany's limited naval budget prevented development of ships optimized for each task.^[4]

Most of the German protected cruisers served on overseas stations throughout their careers, primarily in the East Asia Squadron in the 1890s and 1900s. Prinzess Wilhelm participated in the seizure of the Jiaozhou Bay Leased Territory in November 1897, which was used as the primary base for the East Asia Squadron.^[5] Kaiserin Augusta, Hertha, and Hansa assisted in the suppression of the Boxer Uprising in China in 1900,^[6] and Vineta saw action during the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–03, where she bombarded several Venezuelan fortresses.^[7] Irene, Prinzess Wilhelm, and Kaiserin Augusta were relegated to secondary duties in the 1910s, while the Victoria Louise class was used to train naval cadets in the 1900s. All eight ships were broken up for scrap in the early 1920s.^[8]

At the same time that Caprivi began ordering new protected cruisers, he also authorized the construction of smaller unprotected cruisers for use in Germany's overseas colonies. The first of these, the Schwalbe class, were laid down in 1886 and 1887.^[2] A further six vessels of the Bussard class, which were improved versions that were larger and faster than their predecessors, followed over the next five years.^[15] A final, much larger vessel, Gefion, was laid down in 1892; her design was based on contemporary protected cruisers like Kaiserin Augusta. She represented another attempt to merge the colonial cruiser and fleet scout, which was unsuccessful.^[16] As a result, the German naval designers began work on the Gazelle class, which provided the basis for all future German light cruisers.^[17][18]

All nine cruisers served extensively in Germany's colonies, particularly in Africa and Asia. They participated in the suppression of numerous rebellions, including the Abushiri Revolt in German East Africa in 1889–1890,^[19] the Boxer Uprising in China in 1900–1901,^[19] and the Sokehs Rebellion in the Caroline Islands in 1911.^[20] Most of the ships had been recalled to Germany and decommissioned by the early 1910s, having been replaced by the newer light cruisers. Bussard and Falke were scrapped in 1912, but the rest continued on in secondary roles. Of the remaining seven ships, only Cormoran and Geier remained abroad at the start of World War I in August 1914. Cormoran was stationed in Qingdao, but her engines were worn out, so she was scuttled to prevent her capture.^[21] Geier briefly operated against British shipping in the Pacific before running low on coal. She put into Hawaii, where she was interned by the US Navy. After the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917, she was seized and commissioned into American service as USS Schurz, though she was accidentally sunk in a collision in June 1918.^[22] Seeadler, employed as a mine storage hulk in Wilhelmshaven during the war, was destroyed by an accidental explosion in 1917. Condor, Schwalbe, and Sperber were all broken up for scrap in the early 1920s, while Gefion was briefly used as a freighter, before she too was scrapped, in 1923.^[23]

The first armored cruiser, Fürst Bismarck, was ordered shortly after the Victoria Louise class of protected cruisers. Fürst Bismarck was an improved version of the earlier type, with heavier armament, more extensive armor protection, and a significantly greater size.^[29] A further seven units, divided between four different designs, followed over the next ten years; each design provided incremental improvements over earlier vessels.^[30] A ninth armored cruiser, Blücher, was a much larger vessel representing an intermediate step between armored cruisers and battlecruisers. Indeed, her design had been influenced by the misinformation Britain had released about its Invincible-class battlecruisers, which were then under construction. Once the characteristics of the new ships were revealed, Germany began building battlecruisers in response.^[31]

Germany's armored cruisers served in a variety of roles, including overseas as flagships of the East Asia Squadron,^[32][33] and in the fleet reconnaissance forces. All of them, save Fürst Bismarck, saw action during World War I in a variety of theaters. Blücher served with the battlecruisers in the I Scouting Group and was sunk at the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1915,^[34] and the two Scharnhorst-class cruisers formed the core of Maximilian von Spee's squadron that defeated the British at the Battle of Coronel in November 1914 before being annihilated at the Battle of the Falkland Islands.^[35] Yorck was accidentally sunk by a German mine in November 1914 outside Wilhelmshaven,^[36] and the two Prinz Adalbert-class cruisers were sunk in the Baltic Sea.^[37] Only Prinz Heinrich and Roon survived the war; both were scrapped in the early 1920s.^[38]

Starting in the late 1890s, the Kaiserliche Marine began developing modern light cruisers, based on experience with the unprotected cruisers and a series of avisos it had built over the preceding decade.^[48] The ten-ship Gazelle class set the basic pattern, which was gradually improved over successive classes.^[18] The Pillau class introduced more powerful, 15-centimeter (5.9 in) main guns, and the Magdeburg class added a waterline main belt to improve armor protection.^[49] Between 1897 and the end of World War I, the German Navy completed forty-seven light cruisers; all of these ships saw service during the war in a variety of theaters and roles. Some, such as Emden and Königsberg, served as commerce raiders,^[50][51] while others, such as the two Wiesbaden-class cruisers, served with the High Seas Fleet and saw action at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.^[52] Several fleet cruiser design studies were prepared in 1916, but no work was begun before the war ended in November 1918.^[53]

Following the war, the Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to cede all of its most modern light cruisers; only eight Gazelle and Bremen-class cruisers were permitted under the terms of the treaty.^[54] These ships could be replaced after twenty years from the time they were launched, and the first new vessel, Emden, was laid down in 1921. Five more ships of the Königsberg and Leipzig classes were built between 1926 and 1935.^[55] These six cruisers all saw combat during World War II; two, Königsberg and Karlsruhe, were sunk during the invasion of Norway in April 1940.^[56] Emden and Köln were destroyed by Allied bombers in the closing months of the war, and Leipzig was discarded after being badly damaged in a collision with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. This left Nürnberg as the only vessel of the type to survive the war. She was seized by the Soviet Union as a war prize and continued in Soviet service until she was scrapped in 1960.^[55]

In addition to restricting the number of light cruisers Germany could possess, the Treaty of Versailles also limited the capital ship strength of the new Reichsmarine to six old pre-dreadnought battleships and placed restrictions on the size of replacement ships, with the intent of prohibiting ships more powerful than coastal defense ships from being built.^[96] The Reichsmarine responded by designing the Deutschland class; these heavy cruisers armed with 28 cm (11 in) guns were intended to break the naval clauses of Versailles by significantly outgunning the new treaty cruisers being built by Britain and France under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, which were limited to 20.3 cm (8.0 in) guns. If Britain and France agreed to abrogate the naval clauses of the Versailles treaty, Germany would abandon the new cruisers. France rejected the proposal, and so the three Deutschlands were built,^[97] and a further two of the D-class were planned, though these were cancelled in favor of a larger derivative, the Scharnhorst class of fast battleships. When Germany signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement in 1935, the Reichsmarine was permitted to build five new heavy cruisers—the Admiral Hipper class. Plan Z, approved in early 1939, projected a dozen P-class cruisers based on the Deutschland design.^[98]

Owing to the outbreak of World War II, only three of the Admiral Hippers were completed and the P-class ships were cancelled.^[98] Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled following the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939, and Blücher was sunk during the invasion of Norway. Admiral Scheer and Admiral Hipper were destroyed by Allied bombers in the last month of the war. In 1942 the Kriegsmarine decided to convert the Admiral Hipper-class cruiser Seydlitz into an aircraft carrier, though the project was not completed.^[99] Deutschland, renamed Lützow, and Prinz Eugen both survived the war; the former was sunk in Soviet weapons tests in 1947 and the latter sank after enduring two nuclear detonations in Operation Crossroads in 1946.^[100][101] The two unfinished Admiral Hippers, Seydlitz and Lützow, were scrapped in the Soviet Union in the late 1950s; the former was a war prize but the latter had been sold to the Soviets before the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.^[101]

• List of battleships of Germany
• List of battlecruisers of Germany
• List of ironclad warships of Germany