 The design for the ships was drawn up between 1910 and 1912 . Consideration was given to equipping the new ships with triple turrets mounting the 30 @.@ 5 cm ( 12 in ) guns of the preceding König @-@ class battleships , but after examining the gun turrets of the Austro @-@ Hungarian dreadnoughts of the Tegetthoff class , it was determined that the triple gun turrets still had too many problems . Among these deficiencies were increased weight , reduced ammunition supply and rate of fire , and loss of fighting capability if one of the turrets was disabled . It was therefore decided to arm the new vessels with eight 38 cm guns instead of twelve 30 @.@ 5 cm guns . 
