 Kaiser was ordered by the Imperial Navy from the Samuda Brothers shipyard in London , UK ; her keel was laid in 1871 . Kaiser and her sister Deutschland were ordered shortly after the end of the Franco @-@ Prussian War , under the assumption that the French would quickly attempt a war of revenge . The ship was launched on 19 March 1874 and commissioned into the German fleet on 13 February 1875 . Kaiser cost the German government 8 @,@ 226 @,@ 000 gold marks . 
