The Sachsen class of armored corvettes was a class of four ships built by the Imperial German Navy in the late 1870s to early 1880s. The ships—, , , and —were designed to operate as part of an integrated coastal defense network. The ships were intended to sortie from fortified bases to break up an enemy blockade or landing attempt. Armed with six guns, they were also intended to fight hostile ironclads on relatively equal terms. Following their commissionings in 1878–1883, the four ships served with the fleet on numerous training exercises and cruises in the 1880s and 1890s. They also participated in several cruises escorting Kaiser Wilhelm II on state visits to Great Britain and to various cities in the Baltic Sea in the late 1880s and early 1890s. In the late 1890s, the four ships were extensively rebuilt; their secondary batteries were modernized and they received upgraded propulsion systems. They were removed from active duty between 1902 and 1910 and relegated to secondary duties. Sachsen and Bayern became target ships while Württemberg became a torpedo training ship. The three ships were broken up for scrap in 1919–1920. Baden was used as a boom defense hulk from 1910 to 1920, when she became a target ship. She survived until 1938, when she was sold for scrapping. Design Following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, General Albrecht von Stosch became the Chief of the Imperial Admiralty; he immediately set about drafting a new fleet plan, based on the previous program that had been approved in 1867. Stosch saw the role of the navy as primarily defensive; a fleet of ironclad warships would be kept in German waters to defend the coast against the type of blockade the Danish Navy had imposed during the Second Schleswig War and the French Navy had put into place during the Franco-Prussian conflict. Stosch's fleet plan, finalized in 1873, called for a total of eight ocean-going ironclads and six smaller, armored corvettes. The quota for sea-going vessels was met by the , while only one armored corvette had been laid down by that point: . Stosch had instructed the design staff to begin work on the next corvette already in 1872, and work on what became the Sachsen class continued into 1874. They were to be the first vessels built under the Imperial government. The ships were intended to operate in the Baltic Sea as a