with (VAdm—Vice Admiral) Alexander von Monts and instructed him to include four battleships in the 1889–1890 naval budget. Monts, who favored a fleet of battleships over the coastal defense strategy emphasized by his predecessor, cancelled the last four coastal defense ships authorized under Caprivi and instead ordered four battleships. Though they were the first modern battleships built in Germany, presaging the Tirpitz-era High Seas Fleet, the authorization for the ships came as part of a construction program that reflected the strategic and tactical confusion of the 1880s caused by the (Young School). was long overall, had a beam of which was increased to with the addition of torpedo nets, and had a draft of forward and aft. She displaced as designed and up to at full combat load. She was equipped with two sets of 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines that each drove a screw propeller. Steam was provided by twelve transverse cylindrical Scotch marine boilers. The ship's propulsion system was rated at and a top speed of . She had a maximum range of at a cruising speed of . Her crew numbered 38 officers and 530 enlisted men. The ship was unusual for her time in that she possessed a broadside of six heavy guns in three twin gun turrets, rather than the four-gun main battery typical of contemporary battleships. The forward and aft turrets carried K L/40 guns, and the amidships turret mounted a pair of 28 cm guns with shorter L/35 barrels. Her secondary armament consisted of eight SK L/35 and eight SK L/30 quick-firing guns mounted in casemates. s armament suite was rounded out with six torpedo tubes, all in above-water swivel mounts. was protected with nickel-steel Krupp armor, a new type of stronger steel. Her main belt armor was thick in the central citadel that protected the ammunition magazines and machinery spaces. The deck was thick. The main battery barbettes were protected with thick armor. Service history In German service Construction to 1895 was the fourth and final ship of her class. She was ordered as battleship D, and was laid down at the (Imperial Shipyard) in Wilhelmshaven in 1890. She was the first ship of the class to be launched, on 30 June 1891. The ceremony was attended by Kaiser Wilhelm II and his wife, Augusta Victoria. She was commissioned into the German fleet on 29 April 1894, the same day as