 The ships were commissioned into the German fleet between 1902 and 1904 , where they joined the I Squadron of the battle fleet . They were rapidly made obsolete by the launch of HMS Dreadnought in 1906 . By the outbreak of World War I in 1914 , they were no longer fit for front @-@ line service , though they saw some limited duty in the Baltic Sea against the Russian Navy . In 1916 the five ships were disarmed and employed in secondary roles . Wittelsbach , Wettin , and Schwaben became training ships , Mecklenburg was used as a prison ship and later as a floating barracks , and Zähringen became a target ship . All of the ships save Zähringen were broken up in 1921 – 22 . Zähringen was rebuilt as a radio @-@ controlled target ship in the mid @-@ 1920s . During World War II , she was badly damaged in a bombing raid in 1944 and scuttled in the final days of the war . She was eventually broken up in situ in 1949 – 50 . 
