 Admiral Scheer was a Deutschland @-@ class heavy cruiser ( often termed a pocket battleship ) which served with the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during World War II . The vessel was named after Admiral Reinhard Scheer , German commander in the Battle of Jutland . She was laid down at the Reichsmarinewerft shipyard in Wilhelmshaven in June 1931 and completed by November 1934 . Originally classified as an armored ship ( Panzerschiff ) by the Reichsmarine , in February 1940 the Germans reclassified the remaining two ships of this class as heavy cruisers . 
